JAZZ MARATHON

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 617, 20 March 1929, Page 1

JAZZ MARATHON

Bert Nicholl Wants to Beat Record

DANCING 210 MILES

Moving his feet ceaselessly to the sound of music, Bert Nicholl. who claims the world’s non-stop dancing championship, is trying to beat his own record at Scots Hall, Symonds Street. His previous record was 101 hours, but this time he aims at 105 hours. At the speed of two miles an hour he will cover something like 210 miles by 11 o’clock on Saturday evening. He began his long dance at 2 o’clock yesterday afternoon. Mr. Nicholl, who was formerly a professional dancer, maintains he has won the non-stop dancing championship on eight previous occasions in Australia and New Zealand. He will beat all his previous records if he can stand the strain until 11 o’clock on Saturday evening. The public is admitted at any hour of the day or night. A committee watches him carefully, to see that he does not rest, and all his food and drink is taken “on the hop,’’ so to speak, to the stirring strains of “Get Out and Get Under the Moon” or “Fifty-Seven Ginger-Headed Sailors.” An assortment of pretty dancing partners, who relieve each other every two hours day and night, help to make the record-breaking attempt an easier job. In the evening Mr. Nicholls has a roped-off space at one end of the hall, to give him freedom from contact with other dancers. Interviewed by a Sun man who double-shuffled round Scots Hall with him last evening, Mr. Nicholls said: “I have no doubt I can do it. The only thing that can stop me is to drop from absolute exhaustion.” He explained that he did not necessarily have to dance in the ordinal*/ sense of the word. Just as long hs he kept his feet shuffling to the music he was fulfilling the conditions. Twenty-two years old, Mr. Nicholls looked the picture of health as he footed it round the room. His Bst 121 b of flesh, bone, and muscle seemed in the pink of condition. So, while good Aucklanders were sound asleep in their beds last night, Mr. Nicholl danced on and on. Today, Thursday, Fridaj r , and Saturday will see him still dancing, without sleep or rest until he breaks his strange record —or drops from exhaustion.