Arthur Murray (4 April 1895- 3 March 1991) was a dancer and a business man well known for his style and grace at his dance studios.

Mr Murray was Born in Galicia in Austria under the name of Moses Teichman. He immigrated with his mother Sarah to America in 1897 through Ellis Island. He lived on Ludlow street in the east part of Manhattan with his father, Abraham Teichman. In 1912, at the age of 17, he began to teach in the evenings while working as an industrial designer during the days. He learned to dance with the popular group of the time, Irene and Vernon Castle, and worked for them.

He quickly began to teach older people in Boston, Massachusetts, before moving to Ashville in North Carolina. When the first world war began and anti-german impressions grew in the United States, he decided to change his name to Murray to have a name that sounded less German.

In 1919, he began his studies in business administration at Georgia Tech where he began to teach dance at the Georgian Terrace Hotel in Atlanta. It 1920, Arthur Murray organized his first "Radio dance" created by the orchestra of Georgia Tech where the played 'Ramblin' Wreck" and other music while 150 dancers danced on the roof of a club in town.

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The beginning of the Arthur Murray Dance Schools

Arthur Murray began to sell dance lessons by the mail using a Kinetoscope. Unfortunately, his idea had little success and his business failed. His second business was to create and sell the "footprints" to guide future dancers in their studies of dance. The dancers simply placed these papers on the floor and followed the images. The postage made this business cost prohibitive. His third business was opened in 1925, it included the selling of his techniques of dance in the form of a franchise. The Arthur Murray enterprise today, is the second oldest to offer franchises after A&W. He began to train instructors at a chain hotel called Statler where he taught dance. Murray Kept a program that all instructors followed to keep his form of teaching consistent.

His business expanded in 1938 when the Arthur Murray Franchised Dance Studio opened in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Many others opened soon after

After the second world war, the interest in the Latin dances grew so he took regular lessons in Cuba during the 50's. It became apparent to him that Latin dances would remain popular. Murray had his own television show in 1964 all while remaining active in the social dance community. He himself had an appearance on the show ' Dance Fever Disco" at the end of the 70's.

The Arthur Murray name is attached to many Dance studios around the world. With strict standards, there are now more than 220 Arthur Murray dance studios in operation. They are in the United States, Canada,Australia, Japan, Israel, Jordan, South Africa, Latvia and China. The Arthur Murray dance studios have been seen in several well known films like: Dance With Me (1998), Beautician and the Beast (1997), Flashdance (1983), An American President (1995), True Lies(1994), Saturday Night Fever(1977), Scent of a Woman(1992), and the TV show Dancing with the Stars.

Today, all the Arthur Murray dance studios are operated by individuals who began as dance instructors within the system and have demonstrated their aptitude for teaching and in running a dance studio.

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