New York City Cabaret (No Dancing) Law

The New York City Cabaret Law was a dancing ban originally enacted in 1926, during Prohibition, and repealed in 2017. It referred to the prohibition of dancing in all New York City spaces open to the public selling food and/or drink unless they had obtained a cabaret license. It prohibited "musical entertainment, singing, dancing or other form of amusement" without a license.

Critics argued that the license was expensive and difficult to obtain and that enforcement was arbitrary and weaponized against marginalized groups, but proponents insisted that the law minimized noise complaints.

According to the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs,

"A Cabaret License is required for any business that sells food and / or beverages to the public and allows patron dancing in a room, place, or space."

The New York City Cabaret Law was passed in 1926, during the Harlem Renaissance. An attorney and professor challenging the cabaret law wrote that the law originally targeted jazz clubs in Harlem and the social mixing of races, but a historian of the period rejects the view and said there is "little evidence" for that to be the case.

In proposing the law, the Committee on Local Laws argued that "there has been altogether too much running 'wild' in some of these night clubs and, in the judgement of your Committee, the 'wild' stranger and the foolish native should have the check-rein applied a little bit." In referring to "running wild," the 1926 Committee may have been alluding to the popular 1923 Broadway review by that name, which popularized the Charleston dance, and the song Runnin' Wild, which spawned the Charleston Craze of 1925. The Charleston was danced by many flappers.

From 1940 to 1967, the New York Police Department issued regulations requiring musicians and other employees in cabarets to obtain a New York City Cabaret Card, and musicians such as Chet Baker, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, and Billie Holiday had their right to perform suspended.

...
Wikipedia