time-clocks and punch-cards that allow a patron to pay for the dancer's time by the hour. Some of these dance clubs operate in buildings where taxi dancing was done in the early 20th century. No longer called taxi-dance halls, these latter-day establishments are now called hostess clubs. Argentina The growth of tango tourism in Buenos Aires, Argentina, has led to an increase in formal and informal dance hostess services in the milongas, or dance halls. While some operators attempt to sell holiday romance, reputable tango agencies offer genuine host services to tourists who find it hard to cope with the cabeceo—the eye contact and nodding-method of finding a dance partner. In popular culture Since the 1920s when taxi dancing boomed in popularity, various films, songs and novels have been released reflecting the pastime, often using the taxi-dance hall as a setting or chronicling the lives of taxi dancers. Movies Dance Hall (1929), pre-Code musical based on a Viña Delmar short story The Nickel-Hopper (1926), silent short Ten Cents a Dance (1931), starring Barbara Stanwyck; inspired by the popular song of the same name Let's Dance (1933), short featuring George Burns as a sailor and Gracie Allen as a dance hostess at Roseland Dance Hall The Taxi Dancer (1927), starring Joan Crawford and Owen Moore Asleep in the Feet (1933), Hal Roach comedy short starring Thelma Todd and ZaSu Pitts Dime-A-Dance (1937), featuring Al Christie and Imogene Coca Sweet Charity (1969), musical-comedy starring Shirley MacLaine; directed and choreographed by Bob Fosse Child of Manhattan (1937), based on a play by Preston Sturges Killer's Kiss (1955), a film by Stanley Kubrick, various scenes take place in a taxi-dance hall The Rat Race (1960), starring Debbie Reynolds as a struggling taxi dancer, based on a play by Garson Kanin A League of Their Own (1992), the character played by Madonna, "All the Way" Mae Mordabito, mentions that if the league folds she won't go back to taxi dancing and have guys sweat gin on her for ten cents a dance The White Countess (2005), directed by James Ivory, tells the story of a Russian countess (Natasha Richardson) who works as a taxi dancer in Shanghai in 1930s to support her family of White émigrés Deadline at Dawn (1946), about a New York dime-a-dance girl helping to clear a sailor framed for murder Lured (1947), a noir film starring Lucille Ball as a New