World's Greatest Ballroom Hosts 2007 Empire State Dancesport Championships
Photos by Tong Eng
The story of the Roseland Ballroom is the story of ballroom dancing and entertaining of our time. For more than eight decades, the world's most famous ballroom has echoed with the sounds of some of the greatest orchestras and concerts, while some 90,000 dancing feet have glided over its unsurpassed dance floor.
Competitors of the Empire State Dancesport Championships added their clicking heels to the Roseland's infamous history August 9-12, 2007. Located in New York City's famed theater district at West 52nd Street and Broadway, all who attended can now formally declare that they danced 'on Broadway.'
Famed in song and story--on film and on stage, on radio and TV-Roseland first opened its door to the eager dancing public on New Year's Eve 1919. But the actual Roseland idea came much before that.
Louis Brecker, a Wharton Business College graduate, enjoyed dancing. After seeing the Castles dance at New York's Grand Central Palace, Brecker dreamed of owning his own facility. He partnered with Frank Yueling, a Philadelphia brewer, who invested $20,000, to open the first Roseland Ballroom at 12th and Chestnut in Philadelphia in 1918. The venue proved to be a success, returning investment within six months.
While organizing the ballroom, a business friend told Brecker to give the facility a name from nature, providing a chance to work it into the decorations as a theme. Roseland derived from this, giving the opportunity to incorporate roses into the pervading motif on walls, napkins, railings, anything one could think of.
Philadelphia's inhibiting "blue laws" prompted Brecker and Yueling to move to New York. There, they selected the second floor of a dirty five story building on 51st and Broadway.
Hundreds of people were waiting in line for the 8 p.m. Grand Opening on December 31, 1919. The appearance of Billie Burke, Flo Ziegfeld and Will Rogers, 200 pretty hostesses and the promise of good music and dancing were a magnet for the event. Receipts for the night totaled $18,000, quite a sum for the time.
In the 1920s and 30s, 150 to 200 hostesses were available most nights to any sober and orderly male partner willing to pay the charges ($.11 per three-minute dance in 1942). Among the more famous hostesses was Ruby Keeler, who reportedly met her husband-to-be, Al Jolson, at Roseland.
Roseland's management maintained an ultra-respectable place of "refined dancing." Hostesses were encouraged to wear evening dresses that were cut no lower than the top of the sternum in front, and the uppermost lumbar vertebrae in back. They were forbidden to chew gum, drink alcoholic beverages, or to leave the premises with patrons.
The hostesses disappeared by the early 50s as their place was taken by a plentiful supply of unattached women. To go along with the women, there was a plethora of some very well-known dancers of the time, including Rudolph Valentino, James Cagney, George Raft, Mrs. Arthur Murray, Joan Crawford, Betty Grable, Ray Bolger, Anne Miller, June Havoc, Bill Robinson and Adele and Fred Astaire.
In addition to ballroom dancing, Roseland had been the scene of many promotional events-dance contests and marathons, concerts, movie and Broadway openings, as well as female prize fights and weddings.
After 38 years of dancing history gracing the corner of 51st Street and Broadway, in 1956 Roseland Ballroom moved to its current location, the renovated Gay Blades Ice Skating Rink on 52nd Street, just west of Broadway.
After the death of Louis Brecker, Roseland stayed in the family, operated by his daughter, Nancy Brecker Leeds. Except for the addition of disco in the late 1970s, she operated the Roseland in the manner of her father. In August 1981, Mrs. Leeds sold Roseland Ballroom to Albert Ginsberg, who planned to continue it as long as profitable.
By 1987, over 60 million persons were estimated to have visited Roseland since its founding. Strategic promotion in the media and appearance in a number of movies have made Roseland known as the "World's Greatest Ballroom."
Today, Roseland holds more than 50 concerts a year, and accommodates a broad range of private parties and special events.
But no matter what the events, Roseland has been about people coming together to have a great time. Since its original opening in 1918, that tradition continues for all who grace its ballroom floor.
Portions of the above information was excerpted from the book, "Ballroom Echoes," by Lon A. Gautt, which mentions and discusses over 300 past and present ballrooms in America.