The Thrills of 1924: Dorothy Day Encounters the “Underworld Denizens” of New Orleans

Advance Notice:

The Thrills of 1924:

Dorothy Day Encounters the “Underworld Denizens” of New Orleans

Epiphany Press, Ltd.                                                   Available on March 1^st, 2019

ISBN 978-0-692-13458-0                                           $19.99 + s/h

Specific ordering information coming.

“I wished to expand upon the context of Day’s time in New Orleans. Although Day had mentioned New Orleans in her writings on several occasions, the events surrounding her three months in the Crescent City seemed like a mere footnote.”

Going Undercover in New Orleans

Toward the end of her life, Dorothy Day recalled an ugly incident, which had occurred in a New Orleans tavern in 1924. She had been assaulted by a group of taxi-dancers, who must have recognized the young reporter as the girl who had exposed their industry in the pages of The New Orleans Item. Day had received a black eye in the fracas, from a heavy cup that had been thrown at her face by one of the girls.^[1] She further recalled that author John Dos Passos had been present during the incident of violence, which was but one of the many inherent dangers faced by the flappers of the Crescent City.

Day had been asked by the editors of The New Orleans Item to go undercover, using an assumed name, and report upon the rampant vice found in the taxi-dancing industry. The newspaper had also tried to protect her, by publishing her articles a month after they had been written. In further describing the assignment to Chicago editor Llewellyn Jones, Day had explained that “These dens of vice cater only to men, and many girls are hired to dance with them. They pay ten cents a dance, and the girl gets four of it.”^[2]

In light of the act of violence committed against Day, several pertinent questions arise. Exactly who, if anyone, was present with Day during her week of dancing at the Arcadia, Danceland, and Roseland dance halls? What were the vices, or dangers that Day and other women faced as taxi-dancers? Finally, what impact did Day’s articles have upon the dance hall industry in New Orleans?

The Thrills of 1924 contains forty-four articles (twenty were signed by Day) from The New Orleans Item. “All Around New Orleans” contains an analysis of Day’s unsigned articles, with ten separate indications that prove her authorship. “Visiting Celebrities” includes Day’s articles relating to Italian tragedienne, Eleonora Duse, and interviews with the family of future Louisiana Governor Henry L. Fuqua. Going Undercover in New Orleans includes the fascinating, and oftentimes lurid, accounts of Day’s exposé of vice found in three different dance halls. The section also includes an interview with heavyweight boxing champion, Jack Dempsey, and coverage of his exhibition matches held in the Crescent City. The Thrills of 1924 section contains Day’s reporting upon the rampant rise of gambling undertaken by women.

*          *          *

Robert P. Russo has a Master’s Degree in Systematic Theology. Over the past ten years, he has lectured, written, and conducted extensive research concerning Servant of God Dorothy Day, and the Catholic Worker movement.  His article entitled, “The Saintly Chain of Causality in the Conversion of Dorothy Day,” was published in Dorothy Day and the Church: Past, Present and Future, edited by Lance Richey and Adam DeVille (Valparaiso, IN: Solidarity Hall Press, 2016).

---

[1] Dorothy Day, “On Pilgrimage,” The Catholic Worker, June 1979: 2, 6. Dos Passos was in New Orleans in mid-February 1924, where he worked on his novel, Manhattan Transfer. See John Dos Passos, The Fourteenth Chronicle: Letters and Diaries of John Dos Passos, edited by Townsend Ludington (Boston, MA: Gambit Incorporated, 1973), 337, 356.

[2] Day, “To Llewellyn Jones (January 2, 1924),” in All the Way to Heaven, 6.