Over the last 100 years, dance icon Arthur Murray revolutionized ballroom and Latin dance lessons. Here’s some fun pop trivia citing references to our founding father of smooth moves! (P.S. The picture on the right is from an ad celebrating 50 years of Arthur Murray — 50 years ago! We thought it was cool!)
- The Murray name and franchise were featured in the 1942 hit song “Arthur Murray Taught Me Dancing in a Hurry”, written by Johnny Mercer and Victor Schertzinger.
- In the film The Sky’s the Limit (1943), when Fred Astaire and his partner finish a dance number, she asks him “Where did you learn to dance like that?” and Astaire answers “Arthur Murray”.
- In the I Love Lucy episode “Little Ricky Gets a Dog”, (1957) Lucy tells Ricky that she is receiving Mexican hat dancing lessons from Arthur Murray.
- In the 1954 film, Phffft! starring Jack Lemmon, Judy Holliday and Kim Novack, Lemmon’s character (Robert Tracey) is seen walking into an Arthur Murray Dance Studio in New York to work on his Rumba with teacher Merry Anders.
- In 1957, Buddy Holly & the Crickets performed a live show at the Arthur Murray Dance Party — this is the only known live footage of Buddy Holly in his short lifetime.
- In the 1960 film The Apartment (Oscar winning film) starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley Maclaine, Lemmon’s character (C.C.”Bud” Baxter) makes two references to Arthur Murray.
- In a dream sequence, “Arthur Murrayrock” seeks help learning Fred’s “Frantic” dance in the Flintstones episode “Shinrock-a-Go-Go.” In the 1987 film Dirty Dancing, Johnny tells Baby that he received his training at the Arthur Murray studios.
- In the 1995 film The American President, when Sydney Ellen Wade (Annette Bening) remarks to the President (Michael Douglas) while dancing, “I don’t know how you do it.” Misunderstanding her question, the President simply replies, “It’s Arthur Murray. Six lessons.”
- Arthur Murray is mentioned a The West Wing episode in a conversation between a congressman and Toby Ziegler. The Congressman says, “Personally, I don’t know what to say to people who argue that the NEA is there to support art that nobody wants to pay for in the first place… Arthur Murray didn’t need the NEA to write Death of a Salesman.” Toby corrects him by saying, “Arthur Murray taught ballroom dance, Arthur Miller wrote Death of a Salesman.”
