Hard to believe, but dancing in a bar in NYC might have got you arrested. Until October 31st, when the city scraps a prohibition-era law.
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One might associate New York city with ideas like “the city that never sleeps” or “nightlife capital of the world”, but in fact the city is about to allow dancing in bars for the first time since 1926.
“absurd, antiquated, racist and extremely embarrassing for our city…” NYC Could Lose it’s #cabaretlaws https://t.co/D8I6AZAsyP
— Eleanor Cooney (@ERCooney) 23 septembre 2017
The “cabaret” law as it is known has stood for almost a century, outlawing social dancing by three people or more in a public hostelry. The law was blasted by Billie Holliday, railed
at by Ray Charles, and satirised by Sinatra to no avail, and could be cited at a whim of city authorities or the police.
DON’T DANCE! No dancing by order of the State of New York Department of Consumer Affairs #CabaretLaws #NewYork pic.twitter.com/E9No4Yuuo3
— Pet De Kat Krewe (@petdekat) 30 juin 2014
Yet New York still supplied joints like the Cotton Club or Studio 54 and disco erupted from here, so the law was unfairly cracking down on smaller establishments . Now the main threat to clubs is gentrification and impossible
Manhattan rents, but no longer will bartenders have to flash the lights or cut the sound on carousers.
#NYC bids good riddance to law that stifled #RayCharles and infuriated #FrankSinatra #CabaretLaw https://t.co/kcK2T8LAj3
— Gary DelPonte (@GaryDelPonte) 31 octobre 2017