In the past I’ve researched music as far back as
I could find it on the Internet.
And I’ve always held that a good song is a good song
no matter if it is current or hundreds of years old.
In those explorations I became enamored with 30s music, mostly because of the lyrics, often romantic.
Some of those songs I researched the history on, like the dance hall girl song, 10 Cents A Dance.
And, unknown to me, I learned many women earned their living dancing for money with men in dance halls in the 20s and 30s.
And they called these women taxi-dancers who worked in Taxi Dance Halls where men bought tickets to
twirl around dance halls with these charming and adept at dancing young women.
I also learned some objected to these dance halls and considered dancing for money akin to a lesser form of prostitution
and tried to offer the taxi-dancers what they felt were more respectable jobs.
But the problem was these jobs were mostly unappealing and paid far less money.
Here are the lyrics to Ten Cents A Dance with the song linked in the title:
Ten Cents a Dance
Ruth Etting
I work at the Palace Ballroom, but,
gee that Palace is cheap;
When I get back to my chilly hall room
I’m much too tired to sleep.
I’m one of those lady teachers,
a beautiful hostess, you know,
the kind the Palace features
for only a dime a throw.
Ten cents a dance
that’s what they pay me,
gosh, how they weigh me down!
Ten cents a dance
pansies and rough guys,
tough guys who tear my gown!
Seven to midnight I hear drums.
Loudly the saxophone blows.
Trumpets are tearing my eardrums.
Customers crush my toes.
Sometime I think
I’ve found my hero,
but it’s a queer romance.
All that you need is a ticket,
Come on, big boy, ten cents a dance.
Fighters and sailors and bowlegged tailors
can pay for their ticket and rent me!
Butchers and barbers and rats from the harbors
are sweethearts my good luck has sent me.
Though I’ve a chorus of elderly beaux,
stockings are porous with holes at the toes.
I’m here till closing time,
Dance and be merry, it’s only a dime.
Sometime I think
I’ve found my hero,
But it’s a queer romance.
All that you need is a ticket.
Come on, big boy, ten cents a dance.
Written by: Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart
Album: Presenting Ruth Etting
Released: 1926
Lyrics provided by Musixmatch