The Ballroom King Expands

For 25 years, U.S. dance-band managers have waltzed attendance on a stubby voluble Chicagoan named William Karzas. An engagement at Karzas' famed "wonder ballrooms"--the Trianon on Chicago's South Side and the Aragon on the North Side--means big money (an average of $4,000 a week), and often the making of a new band.*

Last week band managers waltzed round Bill Karzas more furiously than ever. Cracked one: "Everybody in the business is making love to the guy." Reason: Bill Karzas, branching out of Chicago for the first time, had just plunked down $1,500,000 to buy three more Midwest ballrooms/- hoped soon to have a chain from coast to coast.

The Brothers Karzas. To become the U.S. ballroom king, Bill Karzas started at the bottom of nowhere with his brother Andrew (who died in 1940). Immigrants from Greece 40 years ago, the brothers worked at odd jobs until they had saved up $300, then started a restaurant. When they had accumulated $6,000 they sold out and bought a Chicago nickelodeon. On $125,000 in profits, they built Chicago's first "de luxe" movie house, the Woodlawn, in 1917. Two years later they sold the Woodlawn and two smaller theaters to the Balaban & Katz chain for $1,150,000.

Then came the ballroom business, based on the sound idea that 1) big cities are lonely places, and 2) the lonely men & women would .get together and dance if they did not have to patronize Chicago's scabrous dance halls. So the Karzas brothers decided to build them a dream palace, the $1,500,000 Trianon, a garish replica of the palace at Versailles. It opened in 1922 with the biggest charity ball Chicago has ever known.

The Trianon proved so profitable that the brothers laid out $1,750,000 in 1926 to build the Aragon, which features Spanish-style towers, arched balconies, and a deep blue ceiling in which stars twinkle and fleecy white clouds float around. Says Bill Karzas, who never had time to polish his English: "We think what people want, we appeal to the five senses. We give good music for ear, beautiful place for eye, fresh air for smell, good chairs for comfort, and special ice cream for taste."

Coats & Ties. To keep his ballrooms free of rowdyism, Bill Karzas provides only "sweet" music, bans jitterbugging. He sells liquor, but he pushes orangeade and Coke harder. Men must wear coats and ties; for those who come without them, Karzas keeps a supply on hand. Girls wearing slacks and sweaters are not allowed in.

Karzas encourages the lonely hearts to get together, once held a "Married Couples Night" for patrons who had met at his ballroom. Boasted he proudly: "[There came 800 couples!"

These policies, plus big-name bands, attract about 2,500 patrons a night to each of Karzas' ballrooms (at $1 on week nights, $1.25 on Saturdays and Sundays). He grosses about $1,000,000 a year (estimated net: at least 50%).

No musician, Bill Karzas' success is partially due to his knack for picking bands people like. Says he : "I know good music when I hear it, just the same as I can't cook but I know good food when I eat it."

* Karzas discovered Wayne King; made, among others, Jan Garber and Dick Jurgens. /- The Prom in St. Paul, the Terp in Austin, Minn., the Surf in Clear Lake, Iowa.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.