After the great 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire , the Barbary Coast , the red-light district of the city , was rebuilt and given new life as a tourist attraction , a place of dance halls , theaters , shops , and restaurants . Dance exhibitions and variety shows designed to attract tourists replaced prostitution as the chief business of the area . Many of the dance crazes that swept America during the 1900s and 1910s originated in this section of San Francisco . The Thalia , the largest and most popular dance hall on the Pacific coast , was the birthplace of the Texas Tommy . ( " Tommy " was a slang term for prostitute . ) Around 1910 , the Texas Tommy was a hit at a lowlife hot spot called Purcell 's , a Negro cabaret , but it became respectable when it was danced at the upscale Fairmont Hotel , the most popular venue for ballroom dancing in San Francisco . Who invented the Texas Tommy is obscure . Most likely the signature moves of the dance were being performed by patrons at Purcell 's , and some innovative visitor adapted them for the ballroom floor . Some historians say that Johnny Peters , an African American , developed the Texas Tommy some time before 1910 . In any event , after sheet music for " The Texas Tommy Swing " was published on 1 February 1911 , the Fairmont 's house band frequently played the song for its patrons . It was not long before the Texas Tommy was danced on Broadway , in '' Ziegfeld Follies of 1911 '' , performed by Vera Maxwell , Harry Watson Jr. , and the ensemble . It was also included as a number in '' Darktown Follies '' , an all-black musical produced Off-Broadway in 1913 . Peters and Ethel Williams , who were masters of the dance , executed it on stage , as they had done regularly at the Fairmont
1906 San Francisco earthquake
1906 San Francisco earthquake
Texas Tommy (dance)