‘They Shoot Horses, Don’t They’ by Horace McCoy    (1935) – 122 pages

Dance marathons were an early form of ‘Reality’ show.  These dance shows began as a lark in the Twenties, but when the bottom fell out of the United States economy they turned into grim contests of survival. Contestants would dance for months to the point of total exhaustion only to find that the contest was rigged against them in the first place.

Horace McCoy at one point worked as a bouncer for one of these dance marathons in Santa Monica, California.  Later he put this experience to use writing a script called ‘Marathon Dancers’.  None of the Hollywood studios bought it, so he turned it into the short novel ‘They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?’

‘They Shoot Horses Don’t They?’ is the bleakest of all American novels, yet it captures all the color and sleaze and sexual undertones of these dance contests.  And there were sexual undertones as the churches and other moral leagues were always trying to shut these marathons down.

Our main couple in ‘They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?’, Robert and Gloria, are both Hollywood hangers on; both have had bit parts in movies.   Robert still has hopes of making it in the movie business, but Gloria is cynical.  She came to Hollywood after a failed suicide attempt, taking poison.  Robert sizes up her movie star potential.  “She was too blonde and too small and looked too old.”

They heard that a lot of Hollywood producers and directors go to these marathon dances looking for new talent, so they pair up and enter the contest. We meet some of the other competitors each with their own desperate story.  Gloria gets in trouble for urging an obviously pregnant contestant to get an abortion.  We also meet the sleazy guys who run the operation

The audience members come to watch the dancers, and each has their own favorites among the contestants.  If a pair of dancers is well-liked, a local business might sponsor them with shirts bearing their logo.  The marathon bosses try to get one of the couples to marry during the contest as a publicity stunt.

‘They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?’ is noir fiction with a vengeance.  I can’t imagine a darker story about humans’ plight here on earth than this one.

Fourteen years after Horace McCoy died, ‘They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?’ was finally turned into a movie starring Jane Fonda and Michael Sarrazin. I watched the movie as part of the preparation for writing this article.  The movie is quite faithful to the book with a few minor alterations and is a fine example of what Hollywood can do if it tries.