| Opening
in 1949, hostess Betty Corey along with
her husband Marty, owned and ran the business.
Michael Terrace recalls the Coreys as two
wonderful characters. Marty was a smiling
and endearing man who danced the Irish jig
to the mambo beat. Betty was a phenomenal
business woman and all-around good sport
who took pleasure in treating all the dance
teachers to free booze and the house fare
of Chinese cuisine.
Such generosity paid off as the instructors
reciprocated by putting on shows there and
recommending the club to their own clientele.
Every
Thursday evening, Corey’s mambo show
began at 11 p.m., lasting into the wee hours
of the morning. Unlike at the Palladium,
it
was the local dance
teachers
from
the hotels who
were
the headliners with support from Killer
Joe
and the Palladium Dancers.
|
|
| |
Michael
and
Nilda Terrace |
Tito
Rodriguez and his ten-piece piece orchestra provided
the dance tempo and the late. Larry Selden emceed
the weekly event. Both a renowned dancer and Palladium
alumnus, Larry is today considered to be among
the very most influential mambo craftsmen who
left a legacy of dozens of dance patterns that
still remain in use. In fact, the mambo techniques
as employed by Kathryn and Arthur Murray in their
famous dance studios are accredited to Larry Selden.
|
As
Corey’s was a stomping ground for
Latin musicians in the Sullivan County area
who delighted in jamming together, it was
no surprise to see Tito Puente, Machito,
Ray Barretto and ‘The King of Babalu’,
vocalist and bandleader Miguelito Valdez
on a given night. Corey’s was a madhouse
on Thursdays with a markedly high quotient
of the comic world arriving to be entertained
by the dancers starring in the mambo show.
|
Since
Larry Seldon saw in the comic performer’s
failure to acknowledge or announce a visiting
dance act as disrespectful, he duly shunned their
number, hypothetically a way of expressing “why
should we do any better?”
Corey’s was consistently sold out, mostly
by devoted attendees who were registered guests
at Grossinger’s, Kutsher’s or the
Concord resorts. In fact, Michael Terrace believes
that the proliferation of the mambo in dedicated
outlets following suit such as ballrooms and nightclubs
was due largely to the populace of the Catskill
Mountains, citing the mambo teachers and bands
as well as additional contributory factors of
inestimable value.
| Some
of the most successful dance teachers also
performed at Correy’s to great acclaim
with several teams in particular departing
from most others in style. Husband and wife
Stella and Jose Reyes, whose provocative
tango movements could command complete deference
of all in view, then regularly rouse the
same audience by following with an innately
quick-stepping samba. During one of their
typical exhibitions, impassioned ladies
in the audiences were known to toss their
keys onto the stage as an apparent nod to
Jose, a ritual to that he and his partner
grew accustomed and remained unfazed. |
|
| |
Stella
and Jose Reyes |
Comparatively
talented and the youngest dance team to take to
the stage was Steve Sands and Nadine Leach.
Born Stephen Schwartz in Manhattan’s Lower
East Side, attractive and clearly enamored to
his art to that his amicable stage attested.
|
Steve was popular with female club goers
young and old.
Blonde and stately, Nadine, whose pulchritude
earned her the moniker, `the Kim Novak of
the Mambo World’ captivated the audience
with charm. Together, their style of mambo
dancing was unique in that it was basically
authentic and adhered to traditional structure.
In her biography of Tito Puente `When the
Drums Are Dreaming’ (in the opinion
of Michael Terrace, an excellent basis for
a potential movie) former dancer Josie Powell
quotes noted mambo stylist Don Kellin as
saying: “The best dancer was a guy
named Steve Sands”. Steve also maintained
a dance studio at the Malibu County Club
in Lido Beach, New York where he taught
the mambo and performed with Nadine. |
Steve
and Nadine |
|
End
part 4
Copyright © Michael
Terrace &
Peter Settimelli
March 25, 2009
|
