CALVIN COOLIDGE & THE BUNNY HUG (1922)
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Vice-President Calvin Coolidge came to the Eastern section of Stuyvesant Heights one night late in 1922 to stump for the local Republican senator ahead of the mid-term elections.
And in so doing, he would wind up in a nite club known for its bawdy dancing and raids on its illegal booze sales. It was the country’s first “working girl’s model dance hall,” The Arcadia.
Dedicated specifically, at the time it was built in 1912, to “proper” dances for working girls, the hall – located at the corner of Halsey Street and Saratoga Avenue, across the street from Saratoga Park – had been supported by proponents who had lobbied successfully for anti-tango legislation, designed to outlaw “the turkey trot and other sensational dances.”
For several years, the hall was a chaste facility which forbid “bunny-hugging” and tangoing, and kept a number of dance monitors on the dance floor to enforce these rules. You broke them once and you were kicked out for good – never allowed to return to the popular dance spot.
Ten years later, though, it was the era of Prohibition, and the hall’s reputation had sunken somewhat in the estimation of its neighbors. Being the largest dance hall in the area, though, Vice President Calvin Coolidge would use it to make his only speech in New York that year.
In addition to Coolidge’s remarks bally-hoo-ing the Harding administration’s first two years, he was stumping for the Republican Senator representing the region, William N. Calder (who ended up losing his seat in the mid-term election to Royal S. Copeland, who would become known for his successful efforts to bring air conditioning to the Senate.).
“His speech was the most masterful yet delivered here in behalf of the Republican party,” the Brooklyn Daily Eagle noted wryly, “not because it included flag-waving—it did not; not because it was filled with flowery-language—it was not, and not because Coolidge is a spellbinder—he is not; but because the speech was simple, dignified and intelligently delivered.”
Delivered at a Republican rally held in Arcadia Hall, which was located on the site of what had most recently been the New York City Housing Authority’s Saratoga Houses – public housing for senior citizens – the vice-president was effusive in his praise for the Republican Party’s deeds to date since the election of President Harding.
“It was a rare treat to hear Coolidge, the second gentleman of the land, tell what had been done at Washington since his party assumed power. He spoke as though he were reading from the pages of a smoothly written history book. His tone of voice is not unlike a minister’s and he raises and lowers it only slightly in emphasizing a point. He lifts his hands, sometimes, in the manner of a clergyman asking ardently that his words be accepted as truth. Coolidge never forgets that he is the Vice President and in a sense, the representative, of Mr. Harding.
“The crowd just naturally listened to everything that Coolidge said,” the Brooklyn Eagle continued. “The men rested back in their chairs and smoked, and the women appeared especially interested and pleased with the manner of the speaker. It was just as though Mr. Coolidge were addressing a small group of people gathered in the drawing room of his home.
“Arcadia Hall is a big place. One might think, that it is necessary to shout in order to be heard. But Coolidge spoke with an even, moderate voice, and there was none who found difficulty in catching anything he said.”
Arcadia Hall ended up becoming primarily a meeting hall, and then a basketball arena towards the end of the 1920’s in its attempts to maintain its relevance during Prohibition.
By then, most of the “working girls” were gone.
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