Willowbrook Ballroom

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Willowbrook Ballroom in Willow Springs, Illinois.

The Willowbrook Ballroom is a dance ballroom and banquet facility located in Willow Springs, Illinois along Archer Avenue. It was founded in 1921 by John Verderbar and named Oh Henry Park after the popular candy bar. Today, the ballroom continues to host ballroom dancing events weekly. In the year 2000, the Willowbrook Ballroom was voted one of only five grand ballrooms remaining in the United States still committed to ballroom dancing by Amateur Dance Magazine. The Willowbrook Ballroom has the original 6,000 square-foot maple-sprung dance floor.

The Willowbrook Ballroom is often linked to the Resurrection Mary ghost story as the ballroom where Mary last danced before her tragic death.

[edit] History

Founded in 1921 by John Verderbar, an industrious Austrian immigrant. Verderbar purchased five acres along wooded Archer Ave. He planned to build a peaceful weekend home.

His son, Rudy Verderbar, was one of the throngs of young people who danced at the nearly 400 ballrooms and dance halls that thrived in the Chicago area during the mid-to-late 1910s. After dancing in an outdoor pavilion in Michigan, Rudy waged a relentless campaign to scrap the idea of a summer home and build an outdoor dance pavilion. After some research, his father agreed, and in 1921, the all wooden Oh Henry Park was built. It proved so popular, in 1923, the open-air pavilion was enlarged and a new 10-cents-a-dance policy was implemented.

In 1930, the pavilion was destroyed in a devastating fire. Verderbar quickly assembled a team of 200 carpenters to construct an enormous outdoor dance floor in time for the next Saturday night. The remaining ten weeks of Oh Henry’s 1930 dance season drew even bigger crowds due to massive publicity touting the romantic aspects of “dancing under the stars.”

Ozzie Nelson was a popular orchestra conductor in the 1930s.

On May 3, 1931, more than 1,700 invited guests and dignitaries danced the first dances in the new Oh Henry Ballroom. It had been built at the then-staggering Great Depression-era cost of $100,000.

As Big Band fever spread throughout 1940s America, the Oh Henry Ballroom, now with air conditioning, became a major force in the Midwest’s entertainment industry. Even during the Second World War, typical weekly attendance was about 10,000 dancers. The ballroom’s popularity was reason for Chicago bus lines to be rerouted to provide direct service to and from the ballroom!

Willowbrook Ballroom attracted the best bands of their times including Ozzie Nelson and his orchestra in the 1930s with lead singer Harriet Hilliard. The 1940s orchestras of Harry James and Count Basie played the ballroom, and singer Helen O’Connell graced the stage, later so did Wayne King, Guy Lombardo, Sammy Kaye, Jimmy Dorsey, Bob Crosby, Dick Jurgens and Harry James.

In 1955, as ballrooms across the country scaled down or closed, the Verderbars set out on a course to further expand their operations. A 20,000 foot addition installed new kitchens, a restaurant and a private room for parties and banquets.

Chubby Checker played the Willowbrook Ballroom in the 1970s.

In 1959 the entire Oh Henry complex was re-named Willowbrook Ballroom. The 1960s were bringing record crowds to the ballroom, but toward the end of that decade, the public’s taste in entertainment underwent a radical change and fewer people took up ballroom dancing.

Willowbrook Ballroom survived by having contemporary bands share the stage on the same evening with the top ballroom bands. Sunday afternoon Tea Dancing began and is ongoing to this day.

As popular music changed, the entertainers on Willowbrook’s stage also changed, particularly on Friday night. Chubby Checker played the ballroom as did The Cryan’ Shames, The Association, the Buckinghams and Martha Reeves.

The Willowbrook Ballroom is located at 8900 Archer Avenue, Willow Springs, Illinois, 60480.