would be performed at a local theater, many concerned citizens and the police went to see the dance for the first time. But they came away surprised, and declared that there was nothing obscene or distasteful about the strenuous dance. The dance then became very popular with the youth of middle and upper classes. However, members of older generations who had not even seen the dance began to condemn it, and parents feared that the dance would harm the moral fiber of their children. And at the same time, businesses which surrounded the district further inflamed the controversy, while trying rid themselves of the competing dance halls upon Terrific Street. By 1912, the expanding war in the press against the Texas Tommy caused the public to fear and oppose all other ragtime dances as well. William Randolf Hearst, owner of the Examiner and whose name frequently is attached to the term 'yellow journalism', was instrumental in causing the demise of Terrific Street. Just before election time in September 1913, Hearst's Examiner launched a major crusade against Terrific Street "with all the fanfare of furious excitement which has always characterized Hearst's journalistic wars", when the Examiner published a full page editorial condemning the district. In response, just 10 days after the Examiner'''s full-page editorial, the police commission adopted resolutions that no dancing was allowed in any establishment of the district which served alcohol, that no women – employees or patrons – were permitted in any saloon of the district, and that even electric signs were forbidden. Due to San Francisco's small municipal government, the police department was given an overwhelming amount of responsibility for the Pacific Street scene. As a result, some drinking establishments fired their female employees and became straight saloons, and others closed their businesses. Some musicians moved to LA, while others performed at Oakland's Seventh Street jazz scene. Some of the larger dance halls moved to other districts and managed to survive for several more years by masquerading as dance academies or closed dance halls, but they never regained their previous popularity. After the 1913 liquor ban, the Thalia stopped serving liquor, declared itself a dance academy, and hired nearly 100 women to dance with customers on a dance-by-dance basis. 'Dance academy' is a code word for a taxi dance hall, and the term was used for another two decades as taxi dancing migrated to Chicago and then