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"Arthur Murray", a name synonymous with ballroom dancing, was one of five children born on April 4th, 1895 as "Moses Teichman" in Galicia, Austria-Hungary and grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York. In 1912 at the age of 17, he began In 1919, Arthur hit upon the idea for the now famous "Footprints". In 1925, Arthur opened a studio in New York and by request of the general manager of the Statler Hotels, sent dance instructors to each of the hotels in the chain. Arthur set up a system where he took a percentage of the earnings from the instructors and allowed them to keep the rest. This was the beginning of the "Franchise" system. The first official Arthur Murray franchise was opened in Minneapolis, MN in 1938.
"put a little fun in your life, try dancing"  ... and the world is still dancing - 100 years later and ... counting ...   1904 - Doris Eaton Travis - 2010  Return to Austria
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Instead of selling moving pictures to teach dance, he sold printed lessons with footprints depicting the movement of the feet when dancing. This idea proved very successful and he gave up teaching personal dance lessons and concentrated on his mail-order business.
Many more soon followed. In 1950, Arthur Murray bought fifteen minutes of air-time on CBS television to present a dance program and in 1952, the show signed its first sponsor, General Foods. The logo of "Arthur Murray International Dance Schools" is the stylized silhouette of a man and a woman dancing. Drawn with broad and sweeping lines, it suggests movement, elegance, and romance, the very qualities that have been associated with the name of Arthur Murray for over eight decades. Arthur Murray retired in 1964 and passed away in Honolulu, Hawaii on March 3rd, 1991.
