``Sordid, pathetic, senselessly exciting.
But the underside of that craze was filled with a competition and violence unknown to most ballrooms..
The marathon dance craze, which flourished at that time, seemed a simple way for people to earn extra money dancing the hours away for cash, for weeks at a time. has the immediacy and the significance of a nerve-shattering explosion.``-- The New Republic The depression of the 1930s led people to desperate measures to survive. . . ``Sordid, pathetic, senselessly exciting