Our Studio Story

The very beginning:  Arthur Murray, the man…

Arthur Murray Dance Studios as a company has a long, storied history.   This Arthur Murray Studios history began in 1912 with a man named Moses Teichman who, after anglicizing his name to Arthur Murray, would become an American symbol of systematic teaching, social dancing and entrepreneurial success.  Mr. Murray originally learned to dance, and trained as a teacher, in the renowned ballroom dance school “Castle House” in New York City, operated by famous dance couple of the era Vernon and Irene Castle.  His experience learning to dance was life changing for him and he wanted to share it with others.  Castle House worked with a very elite, but limited, clientele and he wanted to bring the joy and benefits of dancing to the ‘average man’.  An engineering background helped Mr. Murray to develop a component-based, step-by-step teaching system he felt could teach anyone to dance.  He was also among the first to use advertising techniques, considered cutting edge at the time, to promote his new programs to the general public.

Mr. Murray’s creative use of print advertising attracted national American attention as did his business acumen.  On March 27, 1920, using students from Georgia Tech, Mr. Murray arranged to have music transmitted to a group of his dance students a few miles away. This was the world’s first radio broadcast of live dance music for dancing. Prior to World War II, Arthur Murray Studio teachers were a regular part of every first-class steamship cruise and during the 1930’s the studios introduced such dances to the public as the “Lambeth Walk” and “The Big Apple.” In fact, it was “The Big Apple” that launched Mr. Murray’s one studio in New York into the largest chain of dance studios in the world today. In 1938 the first official opening of a franchised dance school occurred in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA and among the first franchises were those owned by women, also a cutting-edge concept for the time (see Doris Eaton Travis on Wikipedia).

In 1942 singer Betty Hutton with the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra recorded the big hit song “Arthur Murray Taught Me Dancing In A Hurry” for the movie “The Fleet’s In” and by 1946 there were 72 Arthur Murray Dance Studios across North America.

Arthur Murray was the first to realize the growing popularity of the Latin dances in America during the 1950’s. Conventions were held in Cuba during that time to give Arthur Murray dance trainers first-hand knowledge of the hot new Latin styles (such as Rumba, Beguine and Bolero) and moves that were in fashion or becoming popular. In July of 1950, Mr. Murray purchased five fifteen-minute television spots on CBS and persuaded his wife Kathryn to do the teaching.

Before the third show, Arthur bought a half-hour summer series on ABC. The show was called the “Arthur Murray Dance Party.” By May 1952, the Murrays had televised almost 100 programs. Their TV ratings climbed and in the summer of 1952 they signed with their first sponsor, General Foods. Millions of viewers all over the United States fell in love with the show and flocked to the Arthur Murray Studios throughout the country and beyond.

This highly popular show ran for twelve years on US national television.  It featured many up-and-coming acts of the time and, as an interesting side note, contains the only performance video footage of Buddy Holly ever recorded.   The show run ended in 1960.  Many years later Mr. Murray’s daughter, Jane Murray-Heimlich, would write a book called “Out of Step” describing her perspective of those years growing up in the Murray household.  She describes her father as intensely passionate about his teaching method and its impact on the students his studios touched.  She felt he was less a dance teacher or businessman than he was a “dancing evangelist” – he literally lived and breathed his studio career as his life’s mission.  Her father was struck by the power of the benefits his students would inevitably attain through their dance lessons.  He worked tirelessly to create syllabus manuals for new evolving dances and training for teams of teachers to pass that knowledge on to students of his studios. (Check out the PBS documentary on the Legacy of Arthur Murray as a video link below.)

When Arthur and Kathryn Murray retired in 1964, a group of franchisees purchased the company, continuing the great legacy and passion that Arthur and Kathryn had set, and brought a fresh new spirit and leadership to it. Under its new leadership the Arthur Murray Franchised Dance Studios has kept pace with the rapidly changing culture and continues today to flourish as the world’s largest dance instruction organization.