Henderson history: The woman who taught a city to tap dance

Frieda Klauder taught Henderson how to tap dance.

She learned from Ned Wayburn, a choreographer and dance director who the Library of Congress names as a seminal figure in the development of tap dancing. His school of dance in New York City trained such luminaries as Fred Astaire, Mae West, W.C. Fields, and Will Rogers, as well as more than 100 other stars.

Wayburn staged four productions of the Ziegfeld Follies 1916-19 and created the Ziegfeld Walk, allowing Ziegfeld’s chorus girls to negotiate staircases while dancing. His choreography heavily influenced the Busby Berkeley musicals of the 1930s and ‘40s.

Klauder was born June 2, 1902, and by the time she was seven years old she was taking dance lessons from Mary Bunch, according to Francele Armstrong’s June 18, 1939, column in The Gleaner.

“Ballet slippers soon became the most important thing in my life,” she said in a Nov. 29, 1966, feature in The Gleaner.

Her lessons with Bunch lasted only a couple of years, but in grade and high school she was active in both dramatics and athletics. After graduating from Brenau College in Gainesville, Georgia, where she also focused on drama, she studied six weeks at an Indianapolis dance school in 1922.

The Gleaner of Sept. 23, 1923, announced she was opening her “studio of dancing” on Oct. 1 in an upper story of 13 S. Main St. She planned to offer toe, ballet, and ballroom dancing.

Eight months later she had 31 students preparing for their first recital at the Grand Theater on June 10. It was to become a Tri-State tradition.

The Gleaner of June 11, 1924, proclaimed it a success. The opening number was an “Old Fashioned Fan Dance” featuring 11 girls, one of whom was Martha B. Marstall. She later became Martha B. Markwell and took over Klauder’s studio during World War II. Martha B’s daughter, Mary “P.C.” Markwell Head, and granddaughter, Amy Daugherty Greenwell, kept the tradition going until the COVID pandemic forced a shutdown. Greenwell recently said she hopes to reopen at some point.

The Gleaner of June 7, 1925, said Klauder’s second revue was scheduled for June 9 and 10 and that she would be using material she had picked up “after her work under Ned Wayburn in New York.” The 1924 revue “was put on in a small way and on a small scale” but the 1925 show promised a “Dance De Luxe.”

She returned to New York City in 1926-27 to study in Wayburn’s studio. The Gleaner of July 17, 1927, said she was leaving that day to be captain of Wayburn’s vaudeville production of The Promenaders, which was to open in Cleveland Aug. 21. That was to kick off a 42-week, coast-to-coast tour that would return to New York City in June 1928.

Patrons of the Princess Theater Dec. 15-16, 1927, were thrilled to see a Pathé news reel depicting Klauder leading The Promenaders strutting their stuff atop a New York City skyscraper. She then headed off on a tour of Canada.

The Gleaner of Jan. 26, 1930, noted Klauder would reopen her dance school Feb. 1 in an upper floor of 223 Second St. The March 27 Gleaner noted her pupils had just entertained 300 guests of the Owensboro Shriners and over the two previous years had “staged some very elaborate revues at the Victory Theater in Evansville.”

The reopening of her Henderson dance studio in 1930 marked the second act of her teaching career, which fostered revues that became a major draw throughout the Tri-State area. The Gleaner of June 12 took special note of “Martha B. Marstall, a natural born dancer with a conception of time that is uncanny.” In another place, that review said, “Excellent tap dancing was displayed throughout the evening.”

The Gleaner of Sept. 21, 1930, noted she was opening the fall term in her new studio in the Soaper Hotel. She began holding classes in Madisonville the following year.

The June 11, 1931, Gleaner said that year’s show was a “huge success” and that the “ever popular little dancer, Miss Martha B. Marstall, took the audience by storm.” Martha B. (as she was called) was a steadfast supporter of Klauder’s dance classes and later became one of her instructors when she opened branch studios in Evansville, Owensboro, and Madisonville. Her mother, Mary Marstall, was Klauder’s longtime costume mistress.

The Gleaner of Nov. 18, 1931, carried Klauder’s advertisement for a midnight benefit show at the Grand Theater aimed at providing financial assistance to the unemployed during the worst of the Great Depression.

In 1932 there were two nights of shows, which included Madisonville talent, and other shows in Madisonville and Evansville, according to The Gleaner of June 8 and 9. The 1933 show was held in the Barret Manual Training High School auditorium because the Grand Theater burned March 9 of that year; an advertisement offered “New Deal prices” that were half of what they’d earlier been.

I could find no mention of Henderson shows in 1934-35, because of the burning of the Grand, but they occurred in Madisonville, Owensboro and Evansville. The Evansville Courier & Press of Sept. 22, 1935, notes she had studios in all four cities, and that Martha B. Marstall and Helen Logan were her assistants.

The June 15, 1936, Henderson show occurred in the Kraver Theater. Well over 100 Henderson dancers were supplemented with the best talent from the other three cities.

On July 11, 1936, she married Carlyle C. Bailey, the assistant district highway engineer. They lived at 208 Hancock St.Apparently, no Henderson show was presented in 1937 but the Evansville show took place at Bosse High School June 15-16. An Evansville show also occurred at Bosse June 14, 1938, followed by a Henderson show June 22 at the Kraver Theater.

The Klauder revue returned to the Kraver June 13, 1939, which included dancers from Hopkinsville, Madisonville and Owensboro. Francele Armstrong’s column of June 18 estimated 50 people stood to watch and another 150 were turned away. Armstrong also noted throughout Klauder’s teaching career she traveled during summers for training – usually to Chicago – where she picked up new ideas.

The Gleaner of June 13, 1940, noted she had added a matinee performance, which “eliminated the need for hanging out the ‘standing room only’ sign as in former years.”

The Kraver also hosted the May 12, 1941, revue, by which time assistant Martha B. had married William Markwell Sr., according to the May 11 Evansville Press.

Klauder’s husband, Carlyle Bailey, died of a heart attack at home, according to The Gleaner of March 24, 1942, and there is no mention of Klauder leading dance recitals in either Henderson or Evansville that year.

In fact, the next Gleaner mention of a Henderson recital appeared June 19, 1943, which makes clear Martha B. Marstall Markwell was in charge of the studio at that time.

(In her later years Klauder worked as secretary to Dr. Elmer J. Rodenberg.)

In 1944 she began teaching ballroom dancing to teenagers at the YMCA and continued for years, according to the Evansville Courier & Press of Feb. 4, 1962; she was also providing ballroom dancing lessons to the Council for the Blind.

“Working with these boys and girls has been the most rewarding experience of my life,” she said.

On April 27, 1945, she married James P. Finn, a long-time friend who had attended her first marriage. The marriage certificate contains a handwritten note, “Please do not publish,” which The Gleaner honored. Her second husband died Aug. 28, 1983, and she followed three weeks later on Sept. 17.

75 YEARS AGO

Susan Starling Towles, who had been librarian since it opened Aug. 1, 1904, was relieved of clerical and routine duties by the library board, according to The Gleaner of Sept. 17, 1948.

The board made it clear, however, she retained her supervisory powers, and was required to put in only as many hours as she felt necessary.

50 YEARS AGO

The Gleaner of Sept. 26, 1973, announced groundbreaking ceremonies that day for the Henderson Municipal Center, which was to replace the 1903 City Hall.

The building was supposed to cost $972,075 but the price tag came in well over $1 million when the building was dedicated April 26, 1975.

25 YEARS AGO

A group of about 10 firefighters appeared before the Henderson City Commission and demanded to know the status of a report that had been promised about disarray at the Henderson Fire Department, according to The Gleaner of Sept. 23, 1998.

Six weeks earlier the commission had received a letter signed by 41 members of the department alleging mismanagement on the part of Fire Chief Mark McCarty.

“I expect to have something to you in the near future,” said City Manager Jeff Broughton. “I’ve got the basic data pulled together. It’s just a matter of writing it.”

Readers of The Gleaner can reach Frank Boyett at YesNews42@yahoo.com, at @BoyettFrank on the social medial platform formerly known as Twitter, and on Threads at @frankalanks.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Frieda Klauder taught Henderson, Kentucky, how to tap dance