….. it’s murder on the dance floor

Moral: there's nothing so humiliating, dehumanizing or degrading that some people won't do it out of sheer desperation, and other people won't pay to watch.

It's mind blowing how common the essence of "Hunger Games" is in our daily life.

The fact that they slapped around the women to wake them up and just splash water on the men is just sooo blood boiling

There were “Hoover flags” in addition to Hoover towns. It was when people wore their pants pockets inside out to show they didn’t have money. I always find it interesting how people showed their dissatisfaction at a time before mass communication as we know it today

🎶Pissing on the dance floor! You better not ruin my shoes!🎶

here’s an idea for Freaky Friday! i’d love her to cover the story of Dawn Branchau, a woman who was killed in sea world by an orca. i’d love to hear her go into depth about it, because this specific whale was involved with the deaths of 3 other people. It’s heartbreaking how the whales are kidnapped, forced to perform and kept in the equivalent of a bathtub. No wonder these whales are driven crazy!

“Homer Moorehouse danced himself to death in a dancing competition” is maybe the most 20’s sentence I’ve ever heard.

This is literally the hunger games without the obvious… like even the sponsors

This takes “Murder on the Dancefloor” TO A WHOLE NEW LEVEL

The Oscar-winning 1969 film "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" is all about a brutal Depression-era dance marathon, and depicts most of the points you make here. A young Jane Fonda plays the main character, one of the desperate dancers.

$500 was a down payment on a house that could be ordered from catalog back then. My great grandmother and her brother bought their mother her first house by working in an ice cream shop in Vermont.

Ellie, I found you two years ago, right before the war in Ukraine started. I'm Ukrainian and you videos helped me stay sane, I fell asleep watching them, they blocked out the voices in my head that were saying that my family will die in the most awful ways my imagination was able to come up with. I hope you stay the same beautiful cheerful gal, and keep producing content so it will hopefully help more people like me. Love ya

An Eleanor Neale video is EXACTLY what I needed today to keep sane... home sick in bed recovering from surgery and this post just made my day! Much love El, I ❤ your channel!!!

My grandmother’s name was Alma. Her name was Alma Judkins. She told me she would dance for hours upon hours after school. She never entered these competitions but she could have won if she had entered. She was later diagnosed in her 70s having hyperactive ADHD. lol. She literally could never sit or stand still.

The picture of Alma looked so much like us today. Happy international women’s day. Let’s celebrate all of the women that have come before us should’ve done so many great things.

Somehow, this is actually one of your very most disturbing videos in my opinion. Made me sick to my stomach. I can see this happening again in the not too distant future. Suicide rates due to abject poverty are already on the rise. Thank you Eleanor for bringing this piece of history to light.

I remember watching that episode of Gilmore Girls where they had the 24-hour Danceathon in Stars Hollow for the first time and thinking “that’s insane, that would surely never happen” but watching this, I can’t believe how much worse it was in reality! It’s truly a dystopian nightmare 👀

The 1969 film “THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON’T THEY?” was based on a 1935 book of the same name and centred on these depression era dance competitions (this particular contest boasted a $1500 cash prize) where hapless people endured staggering exhaustion, humiliation and dehumanisation in an effort to feed themselves and their families- PHENOMENAL FILM. ADDENDUM: It starred Jane Fonda and Michael Sarrazin.

Theres something so wholesome about clicking on your videos the moment that notification pops up and knowing Im watching it real time along side thousands of people all over the world

I like to party for about two hours at a time, then I need to rest for a few years. This story is a mix of Squid Games and The Long Walk by Stephen King.

At the university I went to, we have a huge dance marathon every year to benefit pediatric cancer research and families of pediatric cancer patients! It is SO much more than a basic dance marathon, but the fundraising period culminates in a 46 hour no sitting or sleeping dance marathon called THON! It’s so amazing to be part of. This year, Penn State raised over 16 million dollars!! My freshman year, I never thought it could be possible to do 46 hours standing the entire time and not sleeping…but somehow it’s possible AND the best time of your life!! ♥️ It’s sad to see the history of dance marathons and hear the struggles of so many 😣

i love ellie bringing attention to things like this that aren’t really talked about much. they’re so interesting simply because it’s hardly discussed.

Freaky Friday ideas: cases of people claiming to be possessed, alien abduction stories, the phenomena of people going missing from national forests, superstitions from different countries/cultures, deep dives into occult groups, stories surrounding haunted places, cryptids from various cultures

something else about hoover was the fact he signed the “smoot-hawley tariff” in 1930 which essentially made the great depression even worse

I have a hard time wrapping my head around this. How does someone do this for 6 months? It seems physically impossible.

I love ballroom dancing (getting ready for a lesson right now), and an hour and a half of dancing with brief breaks is hard enough. So 27 hours? Yeah, fuck that.

I once went to see “they shoot horses, don’t they?” in my local theater, as a play. It was the best play I’ve ever seen, with live music too. It was very disturbing, as even tho the actors were dressed so nicely and the music was so funky, it was so damn depressing. Unforgettable experience.

According to one calculation, $500 in 1935 is $11,446 today. The average US yearly salary in 1935 was$1,160. The $500 prize was worth over five months salary for the average American.

I first heard of dance marathons when, at about age 16, I discovered Sydney Pollack's 1969 film called 'They Shoot Horses, Don't They?'. It stars Jane Fonda, Michael Sarrazin, Susannah York, Gig Young, Bonnie Bedelia, and Red Buttons (and probably others; they're honestly not an era of actors I know much about, so my apologies to any I've inadvertently forgotten, because the quality of the acting was outstanding. It's a slow-paced and incredibly thought-provoking film, and it really made me realise how utterly brutal living through the Great Depression must have been. Don't judge me - I was 16! I'm from the UK, and although Great Britain struggled with low growth and recession during most of the second half of the 1920s, we didn't slip into severe financial depression. What happened in the US wasn't covered in history at school, so this film was my first 'encounter' with the subject. It's not a happy film. There's no good outcome to make you feel better, no happy ending to counter the sheer awfulness of what you just watched, but despite all this, it's one of my all-time favourites. It also sent me down the rabbit hole of researching dance marathons - I had to know if they were real, then I had to know if the film exaggerated them - you know how it goes! As a result I learned a great deal about the Depression years and found a very dark piece of US history (the dance marathons) that I would never have otherwise known about. So, as a long-time viewer and fan of this channel, as soon as I saw this episode's title I grabbed popcorn and a drink, and settled down to watch. I wasn't disappointed! Thanks, Eleanor (and your team). As usual, you did a great job of covering a difficult subject with sensitivity and empathy. Awesome video, and very much appreciated.

I thought it couldn’t get more hunger games-y and then she started talking about sponsorships 😭

Imagine being the definition of "sweet summer child" growing up in the 20's with the world at your feet and right as you go out with big plans to start your life the depression hits

I did not know anything about this. I am American. There was so many terrible things that happened here during the Great Depression that you could probably make several videos on it. Thank you your for all your hardwork. It is very much appreciated!!❤

The real problem is that people have more money than sense. These bored, wealthy, heirs/heiress' have money to pay the winners of a potentially (eventually) dangerous physical exertion, but can't see fit to pit their money into helping their struggling neighbors? Or hiring said neighbors to help them make an honest living during a time of economic crisis so severe that people thought dying was better than trying to survive their country's struggle. That is so effed up, on so many levels. Speechless. Wtf?

It’s sad to say we’re working our way into another depression

And just think; the people entering these dance-a-thons were probably already malnourished and exhausted, not having money to buy food or care for themselves, so what makes it better? Dancing nonstop, and expending energy they didn’t have, for hours and hours and hours, of course! 🤦🏼‍♀️

I went to a speakeasy out in Hollywood with my friends and we had just left the club so I was kind of drunk and not paying attention to where we were going I'm just following along, kinda on my phone ,drunk talking to my friends and I look up and we are in a tiny little library pushing a bookshelf open that led to a spiral staircase with a huge bar with tons of people below us… My drunk self was in AWE!! It was really cool

The book called «They shoot horses, don't they?» is based on these marathons

I love a freaky friday! You always come up with such interesting cases. My favorite thing on fridays is making my comfort food, get cozy and wait for the next episode. Amelie (my cat) is also very invested in this videos, she always crawls up to me and stares at the laptop. hehe

You should talk about that one black neighborhood in the spot where central park is now, which was destroyed so they could build central park.

Idea for Freaky Friday - Magdalene Laundries in Ireland. It’s a really interesting, real and upsetting topic to us Irish people. However, I feel not many people would know of the tragic events of child trafficking in Ireland :( I’d super appreciate it being covered!

I knew nothing about these but the whole time i was picturing that one episode from gilmore girls! Each new detail lined up and it was so surprising. Loving these freaky fridays!

My homecoming dance led to my feet being so sore and it was only 3 hours long, and I wasn’t even dancing the whole time. I cant imagine the pain those competitors would be in, especially the ones dancing for 6 momths

Died for someone to cover this for as long as I can remember. Thank god the wait has ended my mema gigi ( great grandmother ) I'm 31, she's ANCIENT. but she said in a way it was a chance to thin out the crowd , less mouths to feed and like many other things at the time it was all about the lack In food and financial assets and eliminating any additional mouths to feed if possible

My late grandfather was a young'n when the great depression hit and talking about being slapped, his step dad slapped him away from the dinner tavel for asking for more food as they inky had very little - he was 7 years old... It's utterly heartbreaking what they went though. 😢

AHHH IVE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU TO POST ALL WEEK 🙏🙏🙏

Would you consider covering the brutal murder of my previous teachers at malmölatinskola (Victoria Edström and Sara Böök) and also the outrageous claims of the defence lawyer (Anders Elison) trying to explain away the planned attack with autism which was obviously incredibly enraging.. It's a Swedish case it isn't really talked about.. not even in Sweden anymore. It's actually coming up to 2 years now since it happened and the anxiety is building back up and still it's not talked about much. These women were so lovely and lit up the room, they deserve to be known world wide..and so do their stories.. Might sound selfish but also for some sort of closure..? This case has really affected me, I think also because my friend was literally right next to where it happened, it could have been her, it could have been anyone..at times I even wish it had been me.... Either way it's been really hard and I think it could bring quite a bit of peace knowing people are talking about them.. And I'd be more than glad to help out if you needed inside stories or translation help. Hope you at least could consider. Much love x (And for those wondering, yes, I have made a video case request.)

My great grandparents lived thru the depression. They were teenagers. They always saved everything and reused a lot of items. My gramps car had so many coats of paint it was probably rust proof 😂We laugh about it now but I understand why he wouldn’t just buy another car. We’re such a throw away society and could learn a lot from that generation. Things can go south quickly so take care of what you’re blessed to have

This is almost like the squid games. Or the Roman colosseum where people would watch the pain and suffering of others.

Every single time you say stay alive, I can't get Hunger Games out of my head. Where the sponsors would send items the "contestants" need.

i love that this channel always looks at cases and topics that nobody else really talks about, its nice and different x

Penn State, in Philadelphia, has a 46-hour dance marathon that raises money for children and families affected by childhood cancer. This yr, 2024, $16.9 millon was raised.

I can't believe people were literally dancing for such a long time for money putting themselves through hell I understand that it was the great depression but idk I couldn't imagine just dancing for weeks or months on ends idk it's so crazy to me

people act like the Hunger Games are unrealistic when this and big brother and plenty of other exploiting entertainment pieces exist in the real world

As someone who loves dancing ❤ I used to be a raver 😊 12 hours of dancing 💃 even sometimes without dr,,,,s!. I was shocked and saddened by this story. I had no idea of this freaky history. Thank you for educating me ❤

Late 1800s and early 1900s American history is..very interesting. It's a weird blurring point between what we see as past and near present.

Your voice make me so happy!

A Freaky Friday episode you might be interested in running is the Cocoanut Grove Fire in Boston 1942. It led to A LOT of the medical and safety measures that we still have in place today, and very few know about it! :)

Background info on Hoover: he was the president at the beginning of the Great Depression, so people expected him to help them out, but he was very hands-off. At first, he just told charities/ churches to try their hardest, but that didn’t work. He helped very little, so when FDR promised to be more hands-on, everyone was eager to have him as their new president, so he won by a landslide and really helped them get better.

This is what im calling GCSE history revision

Luv u girl!❤What so great about you compared to other KZfaqrs in the same genre is that you treat it like the career that it is. Your invested and expanding and ask us to engage to help with the algorithm. Which shows you really care about your channel which makes us care. I've seen so many get close to a million and then just get bored and its so obvious. It's a job so of course it's going to be boring sometimes. But part of it is faking not being bored. You have millions of subscribers and still seem to appreciate and take this just as seriously as you did 4 or 5 yrs ago. It's awesome and when you upload a new video I get seriously excited every single time without fail.❤

I'm American and I've never heard of this! I was fascinated the whole time. And horrified!

Back in 2010ish my brother won $10,000 in an endurance dance competition that was put on by a radio station here in Aus. Pretty sure it was capped at 36 hours though

My grandmother was someone who was in these dance competitions and in a journal she had she said it was the worst thing to have ever happened to her, she had been raped by one of the hosts and she wasn't being fed well so she was so thin to the point every bone in her back was poking out. She died, so I only know this through that journal she had

There was a Gilmore Girl episode called They Shoot Gilmores Don’t They about dance marathons, but it’s more fun

thinking about the old classic song "rock around the clock" the lyric and rhythm basically is made for this type of endurance dancing. I also remembered an old folksong in Sweden. lyric describes a "logdans" (its kind of like a dance that takes place in barns and folkparks. suppose for American it bee like their old school country barn fests) the song tells a tale of how a fiddler man is so enchanting with his playing that everyone dancing gets enthralled and keeps dancing, even though their shoes, their feet's theirs sanity breaks. no matter how much they want to stop they can not stop as long as the man is playing. their feet's are bleeding, they dropping down like flies out of exhaustion. no longer breathing. last line in the song tells you the fiddlers has hooved goats feet. its a chilling song.

The cost of homes had been extremely cheap back then. My grandfather bought his home in South Central California for about 6,500 in 1948-49. Had he decided to remain in Ohio it would’ve been about 3K. So you can imagine in the 1920’s during the Great Depression how far 8k would’ve gone…. Definitely life changing.

Oh yay!! Lunch time video!!!!

That’s so cruddy though for the ones who were napping on their partners..as if they weren’t already struggling to keep themselves upright as it was

I've heard of these dance competitions before. It's so sad. You should also look into the dancing plague that took place in France in the 1500's its crazy

I’ve been binge watching/ rewatching all your videos waiting for your next upload. Never been so happy to see a new video up

How sad about the suicide spike - how different would the world look now had they all eventually had children, who had children…..

It's been a horrible day and I really needed your video today. Everytime I listen about this story, it fascinates and saddens me... kisses from Greece xx

I mean watching people suffer for entertainment goes back to the beginning of people.

I love this new series! I could listen to you talk and tell stories for ages. I find you entertaining, compassionate and respectful in the way you tell us things. I'm very interested in true crime but sometimes I'm too sensitive to listen as I deal with an anxiety disorder and I like this new series which is sometimes a little lighter. You also cover some fascinating topics!

It’s literally like a dancing hunger game. Insane

Love this video. Your thorough research is appreciated.

Fun fact: The Hoover Dam is also named after Herbert Hoover.

Its amazing the cruelty that humans are capable of.

Been waiting for your upload and this one is perfect! I'm loving this series!

Eleanor I love the different stories you are covering. Thankyou 😊

What a great way to kick off my weekend I just got off work and I am so ready for this video and I love that I'm finally early for one of Eleanor's videos!!!

I love how you bring light to these things that people don't talk about. I would love to see you cover the case of the monsters of ecatepec. It's a chilling case that happened in ecatepec, mexico regarding a couple that killed and ate their victims. It's a case that shocked me when I heard about it but no-one outside mexico ever covers it.

i get so excited when you post 😭😭

Been waiting for this. Love what you do Eleanor,looking gorgeous as always.

i actually got my husband to listen to a bit of this with me (he HATES true crime so i always have to pause when he comes into my office while I'm working) and he and i just sat here with our jaws dropped. neither of us knew anything like this had ever happened in our country, and we're honestly astonished nobody's every written a film around the subject, either. the depths of human depravity have no bottom

@Eleanor I've worked in eldercare since the early 90's. 1 of my favorite residents used to dance in these. Was actually right proud of himself because he was such a tall strapping lad that these adults in charge didn't know he was only 12. He said the point of making them run laps etc had 3 purposes. The 1st was the host themselves were tired of circling the floor & wanted a break. 2nd, They timed the races for when they noticed the contestants were all nodding off & shuffling their feet. This had 2 purposes that organizers thought were genius. It helped wake contestants up while simultaneously tiring them out more. Like when you find yourself nodding on the verge of nodding off while driving so you get up & move around to wake up. And the oddest game he ever had to play during one of these breaks was at a dance hall in Ocean City, N.J.... They had to play a game kinda like hopscotch. Having toss their pebble & hope it landed on a low number. On 1 leg they had to jump to the pebble, dip down bending at the knee on 1 tired leg, pick up their beach pebble then hop back to start. He said this would eliminate a lot of dancers because the thigh of that leg would spasm & cramp up when they started dancing again. As for Herbert Hoover? He was the absolute worst president in US history. His name has recently come back up because Trump made the statement that he wants to see the stock market crash between now & the election. Trump wants to see people lose everything & old people lose their retirement savings. He wants it to happen during Biden's pregnancy & this is a direct quote "I just don't want to be Herbert Hoover. Out of all the Presidents, I just don't want to be Hoover". So now Biden frequently reminds him he is WORSE than Hoover.

Love Eleanor's videos! It's like chatting to a friend!

love thaat tubbo popped up. ABSOLOUTLEY love ellie's true crime cases. im so happy that one of my friends showed me ur channel and ive been addicted since. love you ellie

I hope you’re enjoying Amsterdam! thank you for still posting ♥️

right when i needed something to watch, thanks luv!!

This is insane i don't even understand how this is possible

I’ve been waiting 2 weeks for this video… worth the wait 🙂

Been waiting for this all day!!

I looooove these older stories! So fascinating 👏

Yesssssss on this beautiful drizzly day in central Australia, an amazing reprieve and a treat to snuggle up watching!

This was such a good topic to cover! I’m loving these freaky Fridays!!

Hey girly!!! Just wanted to say that you so much for your amazing videos, they help me to study and is the best background videos for my daily life! Hope you’re keeping happy this new yearrrrr!!

I had heard of these dance marathons before but all the stuff behind it and all the pain, struggle, & humiliation was something I didn’t know. So sad.

That was really interesting. Never heard of them before. Really enjoying freaky Friday, and i love history so please keep going. Something to look at keeping with dancing is a disease in medieval times when a town. I think in Germany, had a dancing disease where everyone danced and people died.