in music, Purcell's was not a tame club, and slummers often came there to see fights and risque dancing. LeProtti recalled in an Alan Lomax interview how violence occasionally occurred. On one night a customer pulled out a pistol and started shooting, only to have the bartender hit him over the head with a whiskey bottle which ultimately caused his death. The Thalia The Thalia opened in 1911, and with a team of six bartenders and over 100 female employees became the largest of the dance halls on Pacific Street. From its start the Thalia received much support from the police department and was allowed stay open until 3 AM, which was way past the 1am curfew that the other dance halls had to abide by. The Thalia was located in a large barn-sized building which had double-tiered slummers' balconies for its many spectators. It had a large rectangular dance floor, an 18-piece orchestra, and also had a smaller band which played on the sidewalk to lure in customers. Dances such as the Texas Tommy and Turkey Trot which became popular across the country, most likely originated in the Thalia or possibly Purcell's. The Thalia was often described as the place where the new dances came from. Differing from Purcell's by its large size and having slummers' balconies, the Thalia was possibly the place where middle-class San Franciscans got their first look at the new ragtime dance steps, like the Texas Tommy and Turkey Trot. Texas Tommy was described as the most prominent dance of the time, and it later spread across the country. As police harassment escalated on Pacific Street during the late 1910s, the Thalia was the most stubborn club for them to shut. In 1915 when a liquor ban eventually was enforced in all dance halls, the Thalia preserved their business as a dance hall by declaring that they had become a dance academy that enabled customers to pay by the dance. With that business model, the Thalia then became one of the earliest dance halls to offer taxi dancing without alcohol being served on the premises. During the Prohibition days of the 1920s, and especially in Chicago, the term 'dance academy' became a code word for a taxi dance hall. By 1921 even the alcohol-free taxi dance halls like Thalia finally were outlawed when it became illegal in San Francisco for any female employee to dance