Arthur Murray (the man)
excerpted from wikipedia.org (also some material by Tom Antonellis)
Gotta love Wikipedia. Check out some facts about our illustrious founder courtesy of the open website. [BRACKETED is Tom Antonellis, Sherman Oaks Arthur Murray’s counselor chiming in]:
Arthur Murray (April 4, 1895 – March 3, 1991) was a dance instructor and businessman, whose name is most often associated with the dance studio chain that bears his name. His pupils included Eleanor Roosevelt, the Duke of Windsor, and John D. Rockefeller Jr.
Arthur Murray was born in Galicia, Austria-Hungary in 1895 as Moses Teichmann. In August 1897, he was brought to America by his mother Sarah on the S.S. Friesland, and landed at Ellis Island. [FROM TOM: My Italian ancestors were born very close to this time but landed at Ellis Island in 1920.] The Teichmanns settled in Ludlow Street, in Manhattan with his father, Abraham Teichmann. He started his business of teaching the world to dance in 1912 at the age of 17; he taught at night while working as a draftsman by day. [FROM TOM: This probably established why we all still work til 10 pm!!]
Murray was shy as a child and self-conscious about his tall, lanky appearance. [I guess the shy folks (like myself) are in good company, gravitating toward teaching dance. I can relate (except for the tall, lanky part.)] He wanted very much to be a part of the social activities that most of his friends enjoyed, particularly the dances, but was afraid to socialize with girls. At the age of 14, a friend of his whom he admired because of his popularity with girls, taught him his first dance steps. To get practice on the dance floor, Murray attended weddings in his neighborhood, where he found willing dance partners of every size and age. [That’s how one becomes a great leader!]
Murray won his first dance contest at the Grand Central Palace, a public dance hall. The 1st prize had been a silver cup, but Murray went home without anything to show for his win. His partner of the evening took it. [Imagine what that would be worth today!!] This loss made an impression on Murray, and in later years every winner in his dance contests took home a prize.
He soon began teaching ballroom dancing to the residents of Boston, Massachusetts at the Devereaux Mansion in Marblehead, Massachusetts [HA! Got started in Massachusetts, was a shy youth – Remind you of anyone?!] before moving to Asheville, North Carolina.
At the outbreak of WWI, under pressure of the anti-German feelings prevalent in the US, Teichmann changed to a less German-sounding name. [‘Antonellis’ used to be ‘Antonelli’ – not really close.]
Murray was inspired by a casual remark made by an associate one evening at a hotel: "... You know, I have a fine idea on how you can collect your money. Just teach 'em what to do with the left foot and don't tell 'em what to do with the right foot until they pay up!" Murray thought about the man's remark, and devised the idea of teaching dance steps with [can you imagine!] footprint diagrams. Within a couple of years, over 500,000 dance courses were sold.
On April 24, 1925, Murray married his famous dance partner, Kathryn Kohnfelder whom he had met at a radio station in New Jersey. She was in the audience while he was broadcasting a dance lesson.
After their marriage, the Murrays opened a dance school offering personal instruction. Their business prospered, especially in 1938 and 1939 when Arthur picked 2 little-known dances, the "Lambeth Walk" and "The Big Apple", and turned them into dance crazes. They were taught at hotel chains throughout the country, and the name "Arthur Murray" became a household word.
There are now hundreds of Arthur Murray studios globally, with specially trained instructors, making Arthur Murray the most successful dance instructor in history. His slogan was: "If you can walk, we teach you how to dance", and the company guaranteed that the pupils learn to dance. [I usually say, "If you've got two working legs and one working ear, you can do it!" Though, believe it or not, I've worked with less. I've had blind students, deaf students, students with prosthetic limbs, physical ailments and/or disabilities of all kinds, learning disorders, dyslexia, and the list goes on and on and on. They all learned to dance with Arthur Murray's system.]
After WWII, Murray's business grew with the rise of interest in Latin Dance. Murray went on television with a dance program hosted by his wife, Kathryn Murray, The Arthur Murray Party, which ran from 1950 to 1960, on CBS, NBC, DuMont, ABC, and then on CBS again. [All the channels and networks - can you believe that?!]
The Murrays retired in 1964; but they continued to be active for some time, appearing as guests on the Dance Fever disco show in the late 1970s.
Here’s some fun trivia:
- The Murray name and franchise were featured in the 1942 hit song "Arthur Murray Taught Me Dancing in a Hurry", written by Johnny Mercer and Victor Schertzinger.
- In the film The Sky's the Limit (1943), when Fred Astaire and his partner finish a dance number, she asks him "Where did you learn to dance like that?" and Astaire answers "Arthur Murray".
- In the I Love Lucy episode "Little Ricky Gets a Dog", (1957) Lucy tells Ricky that she is receiving Mexican hat dancing lessons from Arthur Murray.
- In the 1954 film, Phffft! starring Jack Lemmond, Judy Holliday and Kim Novack, Lemmon's character (Robert Tracey) is seen walking into an Arthur Murray Dance Studio in New York to work on his Rumba with teacher Merry Anders.
- In 1957, Buddy Holly & the Crickets performed a live show at the Arthur Murray Dance Party -- this is the only known live footage of Buddy Holly in his short lifetime.
- In the 1960 film The Apartment (Oscar winning film) starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley Maclaine, Lemmon's character (C.C."Bud" Baxter) makes two references to Arthur Murray.
- In a dream sequence, "Arthur Murrayrock" seeks help learning Fred's "Frantic" dance in the Flintstones episode "Shinrock-a-Go-Go."
- In the 1987 film Dirty Dancing, Johnny tells Baby that he received his training at the Arthur Murray studios.
- In the 1995 film The American President, when Sydney Ellen Wade (Annette Bening) remarks to the President (Michael Doublas) while dancing, "I don't know how you do it." Misunderstanding her question, the President simply replies, "It's Arthur Murray. Six lessons."
- Arthur Murray is mentioned a The West Wing episode in a conversation between a congressman and Toby Ziegler. The Congressman says, "Personally, I don’t know what to say to people who argue that the NEA is there to support art that nobody wants to pay for in the first place... Arthur Murray didn’t need the NEA to write Death of a Salesman." Toby corrects him by saying, "Arthur Murray taught ballroom dance, Arthur Miller wrote Death of a Salesman."
[Many times in my career, I’ve had to gently correct people on the Arthur Murray/Arthur Miller mistake. I’ve got one for ya with my mentor, the late Mario Vitucci. In the beginning of the film ‘Alien Nation’ starring James Caan (as well as the spin-off TV series’ opening credit sequence), the Sherman Oaks Arthur Murray Dance studio is featured prominently with humans and aliens inside taking lessons from – you guessed it – Mario Vitucci!!!]
- Tom Antonellis
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