Sordid, pathetic, senselessly exciting. . . has the immediacy and the significance of a nerve-shattering explosion."— The New Republic There is an elderly lady that shows up to watch the dance every day and calls over to them. She says they’re her favorite couple and she’s trying to get them a sponsor. Having a sponsor means that you wear a T-shirt advertising their product and they supply you with new clothes and shoes. Sarrazin meets Jane Fonda, and they became partners almost absentmindedly; he wasn't even planning on entering a marathon. There are other contestants, particularly Red Buttons and Bonnie Bedelia in splendid supporting performances, and they are whipped around the floor by the false enthusiasm of Gig Young, the master of ceremonies. "Yowzza!Yowzza!" he chants, and all the while he regards the contestants with the peculiarly disinterested curiosity of an exhausted god.

Turns out, Gloria was raised in the most dreadful way, by abusive, cruel people in West Texas. She eventually escaped, moving to Los Angeles, looking to make it in Hollywood movies. Can there ever be a staler, more pathetic aspiration, to see the pretend, artificial world of Hollywood as your salvation? From the start, Gloria tells Robert that she wishes she were dead, a point she repeats in most of their conversations. Her parents are dead. She ran away to Dallas from a farm in West Texas where her uncle always made passes at her. In Dallas, she tried to commit suicide, then ran away to Hollywood with dreams of being in movies, but is finding only rejection. Robert considers her plain-looking and unlikely to find work as an actress. She tells Robert frequently that she does not have the courage to kill herself.The novel also explores the nature of reality. The dance marathon is a surreal and nightmarish world, and it is often difficult to distinguish between reality and fantasy. The novel suggests that reality is often a matter of perception, and that what we believe to be true may not be the truth. Discussion Questions for They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? Lee J. Richmond argues: "With the exception of Nathaniel West's Miss Lonelyhearts and The Day of the Locust, McCoy's novel is indisputably the best example of absurdist existentialism in American fiction." [3] In 2011 Anita Sethi for The Guardian wrote: "The brutality of the story is offset by the poetic beauty and precision of McCoy's narrative as it hones in on the thoughts and aspirations of its outsider characters, their troubled voices lingering in the mind. In our world of fleeting reality TV stardom, this stark, urgent novel feels more timely than ever. [4] The novel has remained continuously in print since 1935. [ citation needed] Adaptations and influence [ edit ] Horace McCoy was hired as a bouncer at a dance marathon in Santa Monica, and this first hand experience informs a vivid description of that hellish world. It's a brutal and bleak parable about American life. The film premiered at the Fine Arts Theatre on December 10, 1969. [10] Reception [ edit ] Box office [ edit ] The idea of a deadly dance marathon has existed for centuries. From the 14 th century to the 17 th century, a phenomenon known as “Dance Mania” swept central Europe. Men, women, and children would orchestrate an impromptu, wild, and unstoppable dance, one that would only cease when the participants would cave in from exhaustion. To this day, the exact cause of this outbreak has not been determined but symptoms have been linked with an early form of mass hysteria, where people would join the throng out of fear, or out of a desire to copy. During the Great Depression, what had once been classified as a disturbing psychological occurrence was transformed into a human spectacle when dance marathons became a trend. Participants would shuffle around a dancefloor for hours, carried along by a glimmer of hope that their ordeal would end in a cash prize. Adding to the theatricality of the event, audiences would pay to see the dancers suffer breakdowns and crash to the floor in a heap.

Moreover, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? purposefully puts the spectator in an uncomfortable spot. Like the on-screen audience, we are bizarrely fascinated to see the trials and tribulations the contestants go through. For me, this applies particularly to the two female leads of the film, Gloria and Alice. Both women start out as brashly confident individuals, but as the marathon progresses their defences are let down and their vulnerabilities are drastically exposed. This novella was published in 1935, and the dance marathon seems to be a precursor to reality television. They Shoot Horses, Don't They DVD review". Digitally Obsessed. Archived from the original on September 25, 2015 . Retrieved September 20, 2020.

Was this the peak of McCoy’s writing? Did his writing career produced any more such dark and fascinating material? Replies below please. Ruby is another contestant, seven months pregnant but still desperate enough to be willing to risk miscarriage. She is often taunted by Gloria, who insists that she should have an abortion rather than bring a child into this world. James Published in 1935, They Shoot Horses, Don't They? is almost a perfect Depression-era novel, capturing the despair that so many Americans experienced during that period and demonstrating the lengths to which some people would go for even the tinniest chance at a somewhat better future. The story is set in the world of the dance marathons that were popular at the time. In an age before "reality" television, live audiences watched these competitions closely, rooting on their favorite couples.

I don’t mean to denigrate the power of McCoy’s novel. The entire concept and the hapless characters of Gloria and Robert are his inventions. The climactic scene where Gloria pulls out the pistol, hands it to Robert, and asks him to do her a favor is one of the most moving passages. Robert observes that in her death she is finally at peace and smiling with what’s left of her face. The story really isn't about dancing. It is about hopelessness and bitterness and ennui. This book was a hit in France long before it became popular in America. Gloria constantly talks about wishing she could end it all because it is all pointless. The story foreshadows the disaffection and alienation of later generations, but maybe it gives an honest portrayal of what it felt like in the depression with no money, no family, no future. How certain actors end up with certain roles depends on the crazy complicated game known as Hollywood casting, but sometimes even a miscast performer will bring an unexpected something to the table and triumph. Such was the case with Bette Davis in ALL ABOUT EVE (written with Claudette Colbert or Gertrude Lawrence in mind) and such is the case with Jane Fonda in a role that would have been better suited to someone like Stella Stevens. Fonda overcomes the odds as Gloria, the morbidly cynical and impoverished young woman whose brief life has been a series of abuses, disappointments and defeats. Even though the actress looks and speaks like a patrician, her defiant, angry, controlled desperation burns through the superficialities. Her performance culminates in an emotional meltdown which she handles with skill. It was her great breakthrough as a screen actress.

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They Shoot Horses, Don't They? was released on DVD by Anchor Bay Entertainment in 1999. [24] It was later reissued on DVD by MGM Home Entertainment on October 19, 2004. Kino Lorber released the film for the first time on Blu-ray on September 5, 2017. [25] Legacy [ edit ]

The basis for this story is concerning the promotion of a dance marathon during the Great Depression. The winner is promised cash and free food. And, unlike the many reality shows we see today, there is a realness and desperation to this contest that is quite grotesque, disturbing and bizarre. Simels, Steve (June 21, 1996). "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on January 28, 2018 . Retrieved November 30, 2021. They Shoot Horses, Don't They?". Golden Globes. Archived from the original on September 25, 2020 . Retrieved September 20, 2020. Ironically, the musical arrangements by John Green, a brilliant and very active composer of early 30's popular songs (including "Body and Soul"), sound more like Lawrence Welk than a real third-rate dance band of the early Depression era. As musical supervisor of this film I wonder if it was Green who anachronistically included songs that hadn't even been written when the story takes place, including "I Cover the Waterfront" (1933) and "Easy Come, Easy Go" (1934), both of which Green composed himself. Two young people, Gloria and Robert, meet on the street in Hollywood. Both have ambitions of getting into the movies, she as an actress and he as a director, and both have been deeply disappointed. Neither has any money nor any real prospect of success, and so Gloria persuades Robert to participate in a dance marathon that is being held on the Santa Monica pier. The principal attraction of doing so is that you have a place to sleep and free food for as long as you last in the contest. And if you should somehow survive the ordeal long enough to win, the prize is a thousand dollars. As an added incentive, the promoter promises that important Hollywood people will be in the audience and perhaps some of the contestants will be "discovered" and offered a job in the movies.

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They Shoot Horses, Don’t They is very existential; it has a deeper layer of meaning beyond its basis and simple plot. Desperate times call for desperate measures, even if it is in the form of a dance marathon. The Seasonal Read...: Winter Challenge 2012-2013: Completed Tasks - DO NOT DELETE ANY POSTS IN THIS TOPIC The Seasonal Read...: Winter Challenge 2011: Completed Tasks -DO NOT DELETE ANY POSTS IN THIS TOPIC What did you make of the accessories to the content? Thinking specifically of the bar, the sponsors, the judges, the medical support staff, the visiting Hollywood celebrities. How were their sins made manifest? After a couple of weeks most couples have about enough energy to slow dance or simply amble around the stage. They must stay on their feet. If they fall to exhaustion their knees have to be a foot above the ground or they’ll be disqualified. These periods are punctuated by sprints around the dance floor and regular derbies, which are designed to weed out the weakest contestants. The rationale behind these contests is the same as the reality TV shows of recent decades such as ‘Survivor’ and ‘Fear Factor’. These may be only less brutal than the dance marathons in that they are shorter in duration.