Date of Award
5-2025
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.
Degree Program
History
Department
History
Major Professor
Dr. Mary N. Mitchell
Second Advisor
Dr. Kathryn R. Dungy
Third Advisor
Dr. Andrea C. Mosterman
Abstract
In 1924, the taxi-dancing women of the Danceland dance hall in New Orleans, appeared at City Hall to protest its recent closure, to fight for their jobs and the lucrative wages that came with them. In the eyes of moral reformers, civic elites, and the press, the women who danced there and the work they did, were "immoral and nuisance." This thesis demonstrates how these working women belied the stereotypes of helpless victim, wayward woman and gold-digging vamp so common in popular culture. Instead, they earned above average wages for working-class women, supported parents and children, and built a network of solidarity that gave them a collective voice when their livelihoods were under threat. Using newspapers, census data, maps, and the records of reformers and scholars of the time, the thesis introduces the under-explored area of research of dancing women’s labor and lifestyle, into the narrative of New Orleans’ "jazz" age.
Recommended Citation
Scott, Anna, "“The Devil’s Dance Dens” of the Crescent City: Female Lives and Labor in the Taxi Dancing Halls of 1920s New Orleans." (2025). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 3252.
https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/3252
Rights
The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.