What is jitney dancing?
This was the practice of paying for each dance, in advance. It was customary for most dance halls like the Stork Club, in the 20s & 30s to charge admission to the dance hall (15 cents). Once inside the building, couples were escorted to a roped off area (promenade), where they purchased tickets for 5 cents per dance. There were a prescribed number of dances: 16 per hour. Between numbers, rope boys cleared the dance floor & collected the money for the next number.
