Rowdy couples dance Charleston

Aug. 4, 1925: The Police Commission was considering revoking the license of a dance hall on South Hope Street after hearing testimony about rowdy behavior there.

Three residents of an apartment house sharing an alley with the dance hall said “they had seen girls and men drunk in the alley and passing in and out of the hall.” One apartment dweller “refused to repeat before the commission some language she stated she heard a couple use when she reproached them for their remarks under their window,” The Times reported.

“Patrolman Edward Caslin testified that he had seen the ‘shimmy’ performed in the dance hall,” the newspaper said.

When Caslin was questioned about whether he might have seen people dancing the Charleston instead, one of the police commissioners replied: “What difference does it make if it were the shimmy or the Charleston, provided it was indecent?”