(tranquil orchestral music) - [Voiceover] The following program is a production of Pioneer Public Television.
This program on Pioneer Public Television is funded by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4th, 2008.
Additional support provided by Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen in honor of Shalom Hill Farm, a nonprofit, rural education retreat center in a beautiful prairie setting near Windom in Southwestern Minnesota.
shalomhillfarm.org The Arrowwood Resort & Conference Center, your ideal choice for Minnesota resorts, offering luxury townhomes, 18 holes of golf, Darling Reflections Spa, Big Splash Waterpark, and much more.
Alexandria, Minnesota, a relaxing vacation or great location for an event.
ExploreAlex.com Easy to get to, hard to leave.
(whimsical classical music) - Welcome to Postcards.
I'm Dana Johnson.
Ballrooms have a fabulous musical history.
Today, we travel to Glenwood, Minnesota and join a dance at the Lakeside Ballroom.
But first, let's hear stories of those who attended the Fiesta Ballroom and learn about the famous night when Buddy Holly came to the small town of Montevideo.
- [Voiceover] Oh, the Fiesta Ballroom was something everybody looked forward to at the weekends.
- [Voiceover] The Fiesta Ballroom was probably the hottest spot around in those years.
And they had teen dances, and they had very good performers coming.
And so, it was the place where everybody wanted to go.
And it was a fun place.
You could dance.
They had good music.
It was just very fun entertainment.
- About all we did was go to the Fiesta Ballroom to the dances, and we had lots of friends that went there and some that would come home for the weekends.
Some of our friends that weren't married, yet they'd come home, and we'd go with them.
- When I went to the teen dances at the Fiesta Ballroom, I was like on my sophomore, junior, and senior year in high school.
And it was one of the things that the local manager of the Fiesta Ballroom, on Tuesday nights, he would have what they called teen dances.
And it was a teen dance, strictly teenagers.
And they'd come from all around Montevideo and come to these dances.
- There probably, yeah teen dances were, well maybe to us it seemed like an awful lot, but I'm sure there were at least hundred to 200 or more at these teen dances.
Seemed like the place was full almost every time because they weren't held more once a month or so.
- When we were at the teen dances, we would visit a lot with friends.
We would dance.
Girls would dance together.
One of the guys would ask you to dance.
It wasn't a time where you stood still.
You were always busy doing something, either having a Coke or a box of popcorn or just talking to your friends, dancing, and listening to the music.
There was always something going on.
And the time always went so fast.
I kind of remember never wanting the nights to end.
And all of a sudden, boom, and they'd be over with.
- We all stood in a bunch, so you didn't really even sit in the booths very much.
- It was all Spanish decor.
And when you came in, there was a big entrance area where they sold the tickets.
And it was carpeted.
And then right as you came in, you looked ahead, and that was where the dance floor was.
It was a very large dance floor.
- [Voiceover] It was a big floor, and I remember it was Mexican decor.
The sombreros on the wall.
And I thought it was neat the way the booths were because they were high enough each level, so you could see the entertainment if you weren't dancing.
- And way at the north end were the booths, and everybody would have a booth.
You'd get your booth, and you'd find your friends, and it had a lot of the Mexican type decor, which I remember the big hats and the color, very colorful.
- [Voiceover] It was a very Spanish looking to go with the theme that Montevideo, the fastest city.
They had large sombreros on the wall that were maybe six feet across, and they were kind of scattered throughout, hanging on the walls.
And everything had the look of maybe Mexico, and it was very pretty.
- The stage was elevated some off the floor, I would say maybe three, four steps higher than the floor.
It was easy to see.
It was a wooden floor, a hardwood floor that was shiny.
I'm sure they polished it before and after dances.
They would put a dance powder on it to make it a little bit more slippery, so unless you were very light-footed, you didn't wanna get into that powder right away or you'd go sliding on the wrong end.
- [Voiceover] Well the teen dances, of course, were mostly rock 'n' roll.
- [Voiceover] I would go to teen dances just about every opportunity I had, and they usually had one a month.
And it there was all kinds of entertainers that came, but my biggest memory was Buddy Holly.
And I think he'll always be a memory of mine.
It's been such fun talkin' about him and reminiscing over those times.
- [Voiceover] It was a really exciting night because with so many well-known performers being there, Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens.
Their music was very popular at that time, so we were really excited to go.
And it was probably one of the big events that we had, that particular night to go to that.
- It was a feeling of excitement throughout the school during the day.
Different ones asking, "Are you going to see "Buddy Holly tonight?
"Are you going to see Buddy Holly tonight?"
Everybody was excited in school to get to go to see Buddy Holly.
When we got to the Fiesta Ballroom, we were all excited to get in to see this guy by the name of Buddy Holly that was becoming so popular at the time.
And I remember when he came out on stage, everybody just cheered and hollered and screamed and yelled.
And it was unique to the time.
♪ Peggy Sue ♪ ♪ Well, I ♪ - I had a small Brownie camera, and I had that with the night of the Buddy Holly.
And I stood up by the stage, and I took pictures during the different performances.
(camera shutter clicks) ♪ All of my love ♪ ♪ All of my kissin' ♪ ♪ You don't know what you've been missing ♪ (camera shutter clicks) ♪ Chantilly lace ♪ ♪ And a pretty face ♪ ♪ And a pony tail hanging ♪ (camera shutter clicks) (singing La Bamba in Spanish) (singing La Bamba in Spanish) (camera shutter clicks) ♪ Oh what a playground ♪ ♪ Oh yeah, what a ♪ (camera shutter clicks) ♪ I wonder why ♪ ♪ I love you like I ♪ ♪ Do ♪ ♪ Dum da dum dum da dow ♪ - [Jane] After the show, we went down to the Highway Cafe.
And here, lo and behold, the entertainers walked in, and it was just a fun time down at that cafe, talking to these guys, and I don't even hardly remember what we talked about other than, "Where are you going next?"
And "How long are you going to be out on the road?
"What are you traveling in?"
- I recall sitting kind of in the center of the cafe when they walked in, and we were really surprised.
I think we were kind of in a way scared to say something to them, but they started visiting and talking to people right away, so then we felt comfortable to talk to them and get autographs.
I am a autograph collector.
When I saw the opportunity, and I knew that it's probably once in a lifetime that we would be able to do that.
I just decided to go get that autograph from as many of those performers as I could.
- My favorite memory at the Fiesta Ballroom was just hanging around with your friends and enjoying the music and trying to get autographs.
- It was always a special, fun place to go to the Fiesta Ballroom because your friends would be there.
And not only your friends from high school, but friends from the surrounding communities.
(mellow folk guitar music) - I don't remember when it burned down, but I know that it must have been in the 60s.
And I think it's unfortunate that they don't have a place like that anymore for gathering.
And it was just fun because the music was great, and your friends were there, and it was usually just a fun time all the time.
- Everybody seemed to enjoy the Fiesta Ballroom.
You didn't have to be anybody special or have a place in society.
If you liked to dance and you liked to be with people, the Fiesta Ballroom was the place to go.
(mellow folk guitar music) - Now, we travel to Glenwood to check out a night of dancing and music at one of the longest-standing ballrooms in the area.
Let's take a look.
(perky Latin jazz guitar music) - James McCauley was the developer of what came to be known as the Lakeside Ballroom.
He had a number of entertainment-style businesses in Glenwood and proposed to the city that he rebuild an open-air pavilion at the city park near the lake, into something that would be more appropriate for the visiting public.
(lively "hot" jazz music) So he used parts of that existing building, shelter, the big beams and so forth to reconstruct into that early 1909 ballroom that we knew.
When McCauley built the original ballroom, transferring it from an open-air pavilion, where the breezes from the lake just blew right through along with the mosquitos, he incorporated some screens and also shading, so there were canvas drapes that would drop over the screens to the building to shelter it if the wind was too strong.
And also, the bandstand, the bands that performed there, had a stage that was suspended over the water, (waves gently crashes) so you could hear the water lapping up against the foundations of the building as you were dancing in those early years from about 1909 up until they renovated in the 1950s.
The renovation in 1954 involved adding additional seating for the public, who was coming to enjoy the dances.
By that time, they were getting a lot of the big band groups were making national tours.
And the Kaldall and Brundeen team convinced them to make a midweek stop here in Glenwood.
They would play on weekends in larger towns.
But then, they would have midweek events at smaller venues like Spicer and Glenwood, so he enticed them to come here.
The big band era meant more people were able to come out and enjoy dancing.
They didn't have to hitch up a horse like in 1909.
So by the 40s and 50s, the post-war era especially, people were much more social, going out to enjoy an evening.
And Lakeside Ballroom needed to expand to accommodate that, so they added additional seating, opening up the floorspace for more dancing.
Put the bandstand at the end of the building, rather than in the middle and added restrooms, of course for people to really enjoy the evening.
(laid-back "hot" jazz music) Our two photos that we have here are from the 1954 renovations of the Lakeside Ballroom.
You can see in the larger building photograph, this portion of the building in the center is the original ballroom from 1909.
In the '54 renovation, moved the bandstand from the water side of the building back to the end, where the bands could load and unload their equipment more readily.
This end of the building, part of this existed as well, but was completely renovated in 1954 for additional seating and bar space.
So the main bar was at this end of the building with the ballroom down here.
And then, there was a smaller service bar up at this end.
(lively jazz music) So by that time, Tootie Kaldall and Harold Brundeen were the managers of the building.
I think Tootie probably had more of the primary management of the facility and Harold was his assistant, as I recall.
Tootie was a very busy man.
He, himself, would take event posters around and staple them to telephone poles all over the region to advertise his events.
There are very few ads in the newspaper.
It was all based on posters, and I think if you look at the series of posters that survive, many of them had a month or two worth of events on one poster, so you could distribute those and make the most of one trip for distributing posters.
The Kaldalls were good friends with Lawrence Welk as well.
So here in the Kaldall family scrapbook, they're shown in Hollywood, California at Lawrence Welk's show in 1972.
But it's curious to note that back in 1936 when they met probably, Tootie paid Lawrence Welk $275 to perform at Lakeside Ballroom.
(upbeat jazz music) One of the recent editions to our museum collection here is the Lakeside Ballroom ledger book, covers the years from 1954 to about 1970 1969 or '70.
Very exhaustive information in this ledger book.
Not only do we find out which band was playing, but what they were paid, how many people came, what the admission charge was, how much was sold in concessions, what the weather was like that night that might've affected the attendance, so just a wealth of information, trivia, and statistics kept in that ledger book.
(upbeat jazz music) (fire crackles loudly) The Lakeside Ballroom burned down on June 7th of 2003.
It was a Saturday afternoon.
There were customers at the bar.
The story goes, they were a little bit reluctant to leave, but eventually they did decide that yes, they needed to vacate the building.
(fire crackles) What was really surprising to a lot of us about the fire was that news of it spread almost instantly all across the nation.
2003 was about the time that cell phones were much in use with the picture capacity, so pictures were being sent via phone all over the country with relatives who were here in Glenwood, visitors who had their boat out on the lake.
And so there were shots from the lake, from the park.
It really became an instantaneous community mourning event to watch the building burn.
(determined jazz music) The momentum to rebuild the ballroom was almost instantaneous as well.
One of the primary features that is still a part of the new ballroom is its proximity to the water, so you can walk out of the ballroom and directly to the water.
You can still arrive at the lakeside by boat, instead of by car, so that's one of the primary features we had as a design team as well was being able to access the building from the water.
(determined jazz music) The money from the insurance for the building, for the loss of the building obviously helped to spur the reconstruction fund.
And then, various members of the dance club.
(determined jazz music) - [Voiceover] The actual club, the anniversary of the Lakeside Dance Club will have its 30th anniversary this summer.
- [Voiceover] And the Winter Dance Club, this is the seventh season of the Winter Dance Club.
Jewett and I have been the chairs of the Lakeside Dance Club since about 2005.
- Well, Barbara and I have been dancing together for 55 years.
But in terms of coming to the dance club, on occasion when our children were young, we would maybe make it to one dance a year.
- Well, there are several goals that the clubs has in mind.
One of them is to provide quality live music for dancing.
And the second one is that we can provide lessons for people, opportunities to continue to grow their dance.
- [Maria] And (stomping) one uh two, three uh four, five, six.
One uh two, three uh four, five, six.
One uh two, three uh four, five, six.
One uh two, three uh four, five, six.
One uh two, three uh four, five, six, good.
So what this-- I started doing dance lessons here last fall.
I think November was my first one.
I've been dancing mostly all my life, but I started ballroom dancing in 2005, and I was very attracted to the partnership aspect and the fact that it's very social, and it's a great way to connect with people.
And so, I love doing it myself, and I love teaching to extend that.
- We came for the first time two weeks, well the last dance that was here and really loved it, so decided to come back.
We had no experience ballroom dancing, (laughs) so the free lessons was also a nice motivator to come dancing.
I think the instructors have been very helpful, not only the instructors, but anyone dancing on the floor is also a learner.
There's always more to learn, so they will stop and have some empathy for you if you're messing up a move and just stop and try to help as much as they can.
- So yeah, I think the teachers are so nice person.
Yeah, I like.
- [Voiceover] Well the first members, of course, were Rod and Joan Wolf along with the Zubers.
They started the group.
(languid big band jazz music) - It was right after we moved to Morris, which was in 1967, we started going over to the ballroom for dances.
They had, I believe it was Friday, and Saturday night was old time, and Sunday was modern.
And we used to kind of like the old time dances.
- Yes, when we came over years ago, we would have to let them know we were coming, so there'd be a place for us to sit.
And because there were a lot of people going to the ballroom at that time from Morris and other towns all around.
- People from different areas, there were people that came from Fergus Falls, Moorhead, Minneapolis, St.
Cloud, all over the country, Graceville, Ortonville, many of them.
You got to meet them and know them because you danced with 'em.
- They come from 40 different communities, 50 different communities in some cases.
So from all over central Minnesota, from Fargo, from even Wisconsin, and the metro area.
- When I think of going there since I was 15, that would've been 1945.
So yeah, that's right, so that's when we started going every Friday night.
In the summer, we'd go over there to dance.
And we would try hard to get a ride (laughs) with somebody (laughs) 'cause some of the guys would drive over there on a Friday night, and it was quite a deal.
- This Lakeside Ballroom Club is so special!
You have people that have been dancing together as a couple for 50 years, 40, 50 years.
And you have younger couples, and everybody's enjoying the music and the dancing together.
And I love seeing the individuality and the creative expression of people that have been dancing for a long time.
- The future of Lakeside is really in the hands of the young people.
Because 30 years when the members that first formed the club, many of them are gone now.
And the aging process, we'll need to bring new people in in order for the club to continue.
- I guess it's up to old grandma and grandpas like us to get our children to get their children to just take 'em by the hands and says, "Come on, we're gonna do it."
- Well, it's good, clean entertainment, going over there to dance.
I tell you, you can't beat it!
We had a wonderful time!
- Yeah, it's an unbelievable experience.
I think people that come and have the dancing experience here, they're enthusiastic about it.
They wanna come back.
They're charmed by the atmosphere and the kind people and the great music, and I welcome everybody.
Hope people would come.
All ages would be welcome.
(sultry jazz music) - Well, that's all for this week.
For more information, go to our website.
See you again next time (mouse clicks) on Postcards.
- [Voiceover] This program on Pioneer Public Television is funded by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4th, 2008.
Additional support provided by Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen in honor of Shalom Hill Farm, a nonprofit, rural education retreat center in a beautiful prairie setting near Windom in Southwestern Minnesota.
shalomhillfarm.org The Arrowwood Resort & Conference Center, your ideal choice for Minnesota resorts, offering luxury townhomes, 18 holes of golf, Darling Reflections Spa, Big Splash Waterpark, and much more.
Alexandria, Minnesota, a relaxing vacation or great location for an event.
ExploreAlex.com Easy to get to, hard to leave.
(whimsical classical music)