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Local History


  • With Wisconsin claiming more ballrooms in 1940 than any state, it is understandable that the state’s largest city contained some outstanding ones. Among them were the Modernistic, the Wisconsin Roof and Devine’s Million Dollar Ballroom. They continued in the tradition of the Wells Colonial Hall, which got its start in 1884 and continued holding dances…

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  • Ballroom’s in MIlwaukee

    (A fictional adventure) Let’s take a trip back in time. Imagine it’s 1939. It’s the end of the Great Depression, and before World War II. “Gone with the Wind” is playing at the local cinema, and it is the end of Prohibition. The economy is bouncing back, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt is our President. The…

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  • Blake Was a Lifelong Leader of the Band The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Nov 6, 1999  Jerry Blake, whose big-band sounds set Milwaukeeans’ feet to dancing for decades, has died in Las Vegas at age 80. Blake was leader of the house band at George Devine’s Million Dollar Ballroom at the Eagles Club from 1950 to ’68. He…

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