Murray, Kathryn (1906–1999)

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Murray, Kathryn (1906–1999)

American entrepreneur who, with husband Arthur, created and ran a successful dance-instruction business. Born Kathryn Kohnfelder in Jersey City, New Jersey, on September 15, 1906; died in Honolulu, Hawaii, on August 6, 1999; daughter of Abraham Kohnfelder (a newspaper advertising executive); married Arthur Murray (a ballroom dancer and businessman), around 1924; children: twin daughters, Jane and Phyllis Murray.

Credited with bringing ballroom dancing into the lives of millions of middle-class Americans, Kathryn and Arthur Murray turned a "dancing in a hurry" scheme into a dance-studio empire that made them millionaires and national celebrities. Kathryn Murray worked hand-in-hand with her husband and had a commanding role in the business, serving as executive vice president of the enterprise, and writing the training manual for its numerous franchises.

Murray, the daughter of a newspaper advertising executive, was born Kathryn Kohnfelder in 1906, and grew up in Jersey City, New Jersey. She trained to be a teacher, but met and fell in love with Arthur at the age of 18, when she and a friend visited a radio station where he was teaching dance steps over the air. The couple married three months later and together established a chain of dance studios utilizing Arthur's "magic step" teaching technique, a series of dotted lines, arrows, and outlines of shoes, diagramming a particular dance. The business flourished, expanding to 500 studios, which the couple managed until 1964. The Murrays were frequently overzealous in selling their dance courses, and in 1960 signed a consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission promising to eliminate high-pressure tactics in dealing with customers.

Intermittently from 1950 to 1960, the Murrays hosted the television show "The Arthur Murray Party," which promoted their business as much as it entertained. (Robert J. Thompson, the founding director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University, called the show an early infomercial, "one big advertisement for people to go to the studios.") The show's format included comedy skits, songs, and contests featuring prominent celebrity guests interacting with the Murrays. At the end of each program, Kathryn would tell the audience, "Put a little fun into your life. Try dancing," then turn to her husband and waltz off in his arms.

The show propelled the Murrays to new heights of popularity, and they enjoyed all the trappings of celebrity, including frequent newspaper coverage. They resided for many years in a series of hotels in California and New York, then purchased an apartment on exclusive Park Avenue. Most evenings they dined out with luminaries from radio, theater and publishing, although once a week they dropped into Broadway dance halls to keep abreast of the newest dance crazes, which they then simplified for middle America. Kathryn also wrote two books, My Husband, Arthur Murray (1960), with Betty Hannah Hoffman , and Family Laugh Lines (1966), a collection of anecdotes about her celebrity friends. In 1968, the Murrays moved to Honolulu, where Arthur died in 1991, just short of the couple's 66th wedding anniversary. Kathryn died eight years later, at the age of 92.