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The first famous dance marathon in the United States was held in December 1909 in Butte, Montana. It was attended by more than 170 pairs. Dance marathon was stopped by a local sheriff after 15 hours marathon. He said that this dance is dangerous for their health. Same mass insanity began in 1923, when one 32-year old American danced 27 hours without a break, changed six partners and beat the previous British record. This achievement attracted the attention of the public and inspired others, especially women.
Each marathon had its own set of rules that defined the life of the competitors, the rules affected dancing, sleeping, washing and bathing, toileting. Rules often required that the partners were recorded at the marathon together, if one of the partners stopped the marathon, then another member of the pair also dropped out of the marathon. The rules regulated rest periods of 15 minutes each hour, when they could sleep, change shoes, a massage (for which the members paid themselves). These portions of the rest allowed marathon last days, weeks or even months.
Marathon winner received very little reward, thus the longest marathon was in Chicago, from August 29, 1930 to April 1, 1931 — 5152 hours or 214 days, a couple of the winners received a $ 2,000 (or each of them a thousand). Reported that such marathons, directly or indirectly caused the death of many of the participants. In some states, marathons were banned (in 1923) because of the participants death, the dance lasted 87 hours without a break.
