How 1930s Dance Marathons Made Sleep Deprivation a Sport — and Reality TV

(via VanWinkle’s)  Thousands of participants pushed the limits of body and mind in dance marathons, a curious attraction born in the 1920s that was twisted into a cruel spectacle by the 1930s. While innocent at first, the events evolved to a point where exhaustion was a spectator sport complete with scripted scams, big money and lots of dangerously tired dancers.  Van Winkle’s has much more on this this curious history and examines how modern reality tv sprang from these competitions.