{"id":1912,"date":"2013-04-03T10:01:00","date_gmt":"2013-04-03T10:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/?p=1912"},"modified":"2015-01-08T17:42:18","modified_gmt":"2015-01-08T22:42:18","slug":"boogie-down-with-a-dance-marathon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2013\/04\/03\/boogie-down-with-a-dance-marathon\/","title":{"rendered":"Boogie down with a dance marathon"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Jean <\/a>
Jean Haas and Gino Colombara warm up in 1978. (Photo by Donald J. Stetzer, Pittsburgh Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Rick <\/a>
Rick Munsick, Rick Couch and Anita Tamburo get down during a 1973 marathon. (Photo by Michael Chikiris, Pittsburgh Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Dancers <\/a>
Dancers Carol Miles, Rick Stryker and Joan Morrow take a 15-minute break. (Photo by Joyce Mendelsohn, Post-Gazette) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

March 18, 1983:\u00a0<\/strong>Dance marathons take a physical toll on participants, as shown in the classic 1969 movie, \u201cThey Shoot Horses, Don\u2019t They?\u201d<\/p>\n

When we looked at old pictures of local dance marathons, we realized that contestants\u2019 clothing transported us back to specific decades.<\/p>\n

Remember New Balance T-shirts and running pants with racing stripes? That was so 1983 but it\u2019s what Castle Shannon residents Tammy Farrar and Mark Roper wore that year to a 30-hour Muscular Dystrophy dance-a-thon held at Robert Morris University in Moon.<\/p>\n

Running shorts trimmed in white piping evoke the 1970s. That\u2019s what Jean Haase of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and Gino Colombara, of New York City, wore in November of 1978 to a 52-hour dance marathon held at Duquesne University to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association.<\/p>\n

Our favorite is an even older image. Taken by Pittsburgh Press photographer Michael Chikiris, the May 1973 image shows Rick Munsick, left, age 20; Rick Couch, 20; and Anita Tambura, 19, who participated in a dance marathon to raise money for the Kidney Foundation of Western Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

Mr. Couch\u2019s outfit consisted of ball cap, T-shirt, denim cutoffs, tube socks and tennis shoes, a tour de force that made him the king of casual.<\/p>\n

Many dance marathons held in Pittsburgh were staged during a weekend and participants got three hours a night for sleep and a half-hour break for a meal.<\/p>\n

During the Depression, 137 people competed in a dance marathon held in 1933 at Motor Square Garden in East Liberty. Contestants got two meals a day and two, five-minute breaks for a drink.<\/p>\n

The grand prize was $1,000, which was a lot of money in an era when you could buy a Pontiac Straight Eight for $585 or 5 pounds of coffee for 59 cents. After more than 838 hours of continuous dancing, Flo Franchina and Eddie Bonach won the couples category while Rae McGregor won the soloist category.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dance marathons take a physical toll on participants, as shown in the classic 1969 movie, \u201cThey Shoot Horses, Don\u2019t They?\u201d<\/p>\n

Look at the picturesBoogie down with a dance marathon<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[946],"tags":[964,1252,1167,1013,1044],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/tumblr_mkndsikTfi1rr5swxo4_1280.jpg?fit=1280%2C835&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7218,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2017\/02\/10\/dance-slippers-pumpkins-and-lost-cufflinks-a-history-of-the-cinderella-ball\/","url_meta":{"origin":1912,"position":0},"title":"Dance slippers, pumpkins and lost cufflinks: A history of the Cinderella Ball","date":"February 10, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Pittsburgh's debutante ball has the second-longest run of any such event in the country","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/20170210_DigsCinderella002.jpg?fit=1200%2C898&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1626,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2013\/07\/05\/barbara-feldon-and-the-64000-question\/","url_meta":{"origin":1912,"position":1},"title":"Barbara Feldon and ‘The $64,000 Question’","date":"July 5, 2013","format":"gallery","excerpt":"Actress Barbara Anne Hall Feldon and Gene Kelly, who could sing, dance and act, both grew up in Pittsburgh and achieved fame.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/tumblr_mpbsutiLTv1rr5swxo1_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C923&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":703,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2014\/05\/02\/first-pittsburgh-marathon\/","url_meta":{"origin":1912,"position":2},"title":"The first Pittsburgh Marathon","date":"May 2, 2014","format":"gallery","excerpt":"It was a profitable day for Lisa and Ken Martin, the first husband and wife to be marathon winners.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/tumblr_n4whnu9ZJH1rr5swxo1_1280.jpg?fit=1080%2C1067&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8959,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2018\/07\/03\/the-brief-and-troublesome-life-of-club-51\/","url_meta":{"origin":1912,"position":3},"title":"The brief and troublesome life of Club 51","date":"July 3, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Here\u2019s a combination that\u2019s guaranteed to sow chaos: teens, nightclubs and suburban Pennsylvania. 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