Arthur Murray

Arthur Murray (born April 4, 1895, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died March 3, 1991, Honolulu, Hawaii) was an American ballroom-dancing instructor and entrepreneur who established a successful mail-order dance-instruction business and, by 1965, more than 350 franchised dance studios, including nearly 50 in foreign countries.

The son of an Austrian-born immigrant baker in Manhattan’s East Harlem, Murray learned ballroom dancing from a girlfriend and from instruction given by the Educational Alliance. He quit his job in an architect’s office, took further lessons at Castle Hall, the dancing school of Vernon and Irene Castle, and soon became a member of the faculty, teaching such new crazes as the bunny hug, grizzly bear, and one-step. He then taught dancing at a resort hotel in Asheville, N.C., studied at the Georgia School of Technology in Atlanta (1918–21), and then established in Atlanta the Arthur Murray Correspondence School of Dancing. It became hugely successful, and headquarters were moved to New York City in 1925, the same year that he married his famous partner, Kathryn Murray (née Kohnfelder).

Murray’s first dance studios were set up in Midtown Manhattan. For all his activities he used intensive advertising and promoted his studios in the best-selling How to Become a Good Dancer (1938). Later he received great publicity from the television show The Arthur Murray Party (1950–60), hosted by Kathryn Murray and featuring dance instruction, dance contests, singing, and comedy sketches. In the 1960s Arthur Murray’s high-pressure sales tactics and contest promotions came under the scrutiny of the Federal Trade Commission. In 1964 Murray resigned as president, having already sold all his stock in Arthur Murray, Inc. He remained associated with the company, however, as a consultant.

Murray was the subject of a popular song, “Arthur Murray Taught Me Dancing in a Hurry,” introduced by Betty Hutton in the film The Fleet’s In (1942).