October 11, 1918 – A city commission passes a resolution
that all public dancing must be stopped in order to check the
influenza-pneumonia epidemic. Dr. C. St.
Clair Drake, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, says, “The
order will take effect at once.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, October 12,
1913] The commission also adopts a
resolution that “attendance at all funerals, contagious disease or otherwise,
shall be restricted to the immediate relatives, close friends and necessary
attendants.” In the 24 hours before the
commission adopts its resolutions 124 people in the city have died of influenza
and 89 from pneumonia. The commission
orders the cancelling of all dances as a necessary step “because of the close
contact of the dancers, the exercise of the dance and the frequent chilling of
the body that is apt to follow.” The
1918 pandemic, believed to have begun in a French hospital processing soldiers
wounded in the war, led to the deaths of between 50 and 100 million
worldwide. According to the digital
encyclopedia at http://www.influenzaarchive.org
“Between the start of Chicago’s epidemic on September 21 and the removal of
restrictions on November 16, the Windy City experienced a staggering 38,000
cases of influenza and 13,000 cases of pneumonia . . . Yet, despite these
staggering numbers, Chicago actually did fairly well for a city of its
size. In fact, with a population of 2.7
million, Chicago’s epidemic death rate for the period was only 373 out of
100,000, not much worse than much touted (and its long-time rival) St. Louis.”
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