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 While reading through Club
#25’s 1914 newsletter, The Spokesman, I learned a new word. Maxixe. It all started on Feb. 2, 1914, with the announcement of a new member, L. C. Coffin of Coffin’s Dancing Academy at the corner of Lake Ave. & 1st St.
In the next week’s issue Carl L. Voss, Program Committee, stated, "As a closing thought, I might suggest that as brother L. C. Coffin has not had an opportunity to acknowledge his plunge into our circle, he be called upon for a few choice and intimate observations on the Argentine Tango, Maxixe, Hesitation Waltz, Angleworm Wiggle and other gambols which are causing so much consternation among our first families."
As a dance enthusiast myself, I went to the Internet to find out more about the 1914 risqué dance the Maxixe. Pronounced maxeesh, and spelled the same as a town in Mozambique and Brazil, the dance is named after the prickly part of a cactus. It originated in Brazil in the 1870’s as an intimate two-step with a kick with couples holding their bodies in a bent over position. With elements of the Tango, the Maxixe is considered the forerunner of the Samba. The Maxixe came to America in 1910 was immediately pronounced as having way too much body contact for polite company.
Imagine my curiosity when I read further that the May 4, 1914, meeting of Club #25 to be held at the Elks Club at 6:00 PM as a joint meeting with the Superior club included out of town live entertainment furnishing the stunts. "They refuse to give out any advance information as to what is brewing," The Spokesman reported.
Sure enough, trouble was brewing. The next week’s newsletter began the column ECHOES OF THE LAST MEETING with this report: "The last meeting was exceptional in many ways. In the first place the attendance was the largest for the year, 74 members and 12 visitors. The members who were not present missed a mighty good time. To start with Frank La Brosse’s orchestra had the members chewing their excellent dinner in time to the one-step, Maxixe."
The Maxixe had come to Duluth, to Club #25. But where was L. C. Coffin, dance instructor? Probably chewing his dinner like the other Rotarians and staying off the dance floor. |
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