Majestic Ballroom Closes
Minnesota ballroom dancers have said goodbye to the Majestic Ballroom in Cottage Grove. For a quarter century, the Majestic has entertained the fancy footwork of those dancers with a taste for polkas, waltzes, and fox-trots.
It's Sunday afternoon at the Majestic Ballroom. While the band - the Top Notchmen - beat out polka after polka, hundreds of couples glide, spin, and twirl across the maple dance floor. By three o'clock, the crowd is already approaching 1,000 and more customers continue to arrive. Gen Meissner, owner of the club, says it's not unusual to have such a large turnout at a Majestic Polka Festival. Today being the Majestic's last day in business doesn't hurt either.
Meissner: We're closing; we're selling it. It was doing well, and that's not the reason we're closing. We're 76 years old. That's the reason. It's time to retire and put our house in order.
Gen and her husband, Don, built the Majestic in 1973. It became famous for its floating floor, specially sprung to help the flying feet fly longer. Over the years, the Meissners showcased big bands from across the country. They even had a chance to dance with Cissy and Bobby; from the Lawrence Welk Show for those who don't remember.
The Meissners have been dancing for as long as they can remember. The met, in fact, on a dance floor in Burbank, Minnesota, and married in 1941.
Meissner: Everybody went to the dance, the girls and the guys. And when a dance number started, the boys came over and asked us to dance and that's how we met. You danced with everybody there until you got to be a couple, you know. That's how I met Don.
Don and Gen's courtship experience is far from unique in this crowd. Lloyd and Bernice Johnson met the same way. The Johnsons, who live near Albert Lea, are the reigning King and Queen of the Minnesota Polka Lovers Klub of America - known, conveniently, as POLK of A. Dressed in blazing red and white costumes, complete with shiny gold and silver crowns, the couple take a break from the dance floor to reminisce.
B. Johnson: Oh, I've been dancing since I was 12 years old, see.
L. Johnson: Well, I've been dancing a long time, too. Way long.
Actually, nearly everyone present has been dancing for quite awhile. As Lloyd Johnson points out, there are very few young faces in the crowd. Today's dance crazes, inspired by Madonna, not Glen Miller, bear scant resemblance, he says, to a well-timed polka.
L. Johnson: On the dancing they do, they don't really have to really learn a lot, to my notion. Because we've been to some of them. And, you know, they'll dance alone, they'll do their own thing. Do whatever they want to do. They don't have no special step or anything like that. But I think if they would learn and get to polka-hopping, I think they'd enjoy it, because you see some of them young people; they can really go at that.
The Johnson's say they'll miss coming to the Majestic, but will find other venues for dancing. As they head back out to the dance floor, they offer one last piece of advice.
B. Johnson: Stay young!
L. Johnson: Yeah, stay young and dance. That's good.
Stay young. And dance.
SHARE:
0 comment
Be the first to comment