Palladium home of the mambo.

                    Has a thousand stories   

                    

                                     by

                  Michael Terrace a/k/a Gutierrez

                                                                                                Marty Arret

                                                                                                      Part 11

Professional Dancer, NYC Public School teacher, entrepreneur, and one of the kindest men ever to grace the field of Mambo music and dance.

I first met Marty in the Bronx at my girl friend’s apartment, who was one of the best and most exciting female mambo dancers of the celebrated Palladium times. Her name was Vera Garrett. She and I were one of the more popular Mambo dancers in the Palladium show. Marty and Vera were the best of friends in high school and she was teaching him the basics of dancing and teaching the Mambo. Marty was the most eager pupil and at the time I thought to myself is he kidding, a short little fat guy wants to be a dance teacher. Little did I know, that he would turn out to be more than a good teacher, and little did I know what a great asset he would turn out to be for the Latin music and dance world, along with the kindness he bestowed on hundreds of musicians and fellow workers in the Hispanic community. I was one of the fortunate ones who received his generosity, kindness, his wit and his never ending friendship that lasted till the day he left for the Palladium Heavens. I know he went there because he was a Jewish Saint. On this earth, Marty was born of the Jewish faith and like Jesus he died a Jew.  Marty went into several businesses and positions, all within the dance and musical Mambo World, and always making each one a success. Each step he took he garnered the respect and friendship of his colleagues and even of some top underworld characters.   With his wit, intelligence and his ever present and generous helping hand he was loved and admired by all.

Graduating from Stuyvesant High School he went on to graduate from NYU with a B.S. degree in education and an M.A in supervision and administration in Industrial Arts, he accrued thirty post graduate college credits.  He then became a teacher of Industrial Arts and was placed in an area where there were more Spanish students, than there were “Anglo’s” or Caucasians and where he first heard the musical sounds that changed his life forever. Those were the sounds of the conga, the clave and “Oye Como Va” by Tito Puente, which he went for in an enormous way.  At the time there were many places in Manhattan and in the Bronx where he could dance the Mambo and Marty went every night to a different one, to learn more about this great new dance. The rumba was giving in to the new sound called Mambo and new styles were evolving, using a diamond step as the basic for the Mambo. Marty kept learning and landed a teaching job at White Row a resort hotel in Liberty NY. Coincidences do occur and this was one.  Prior to dancing at White Roe he was a waiter there along side of the legendary promoter, Billy Graham, where they both waited tables together for one season. Billy Graham also became interested in the Mambo and together they would go dancing at Corey’s restaurant, which became known as the second Palladium. This was the time Mambo was huge in the Catskills, every hotel had a Mambo band and two or more Mambo teachers. Marty was new at teaching and just one step ahead of his pupils, which was quite common with most dance teachers in the Catskills.  Ninety five percent of the teachers in the mountains were just learning to teach with no prior experience or schooling on the technique of teaching this dance. The Hotels didn’t care and didn’t know the difference; they were more interested in getting a free dance teacher and someone who would dance with the single girls every night. Marty was perfect for that.  He loved women and was very successful at catching them. (And he proved it by getting married five times)  Marty was not the best dancer around, but he made up for it by being smarter than most teachers and dancers and using his natural charm and charisma with a gentleman’s manner. Aware of his limitations, he sought out two of the most beautiful female dancers with great bodies who would enhance his act and also make him look good.  And naturally his choices were so damn good that when he did his shows with these beautiful women, the audiences were only looking at the girls and not at him.  But it was Marty who got the applause and the credits. As a sidekick, he also hired a male instructor who was tall dark and handsome and a stylish dancer and who also did a duo with Marty. His sidekick who taught with him was Robert Talbot, who was a student at NYU and one of the better dancers and one who later in life turned out to be my best friend. Bob was carried away with dancing and wanted nothing more than to be a dance teacher and even today though he is the head Professor of Law at the University of San Francisco, he still teaches the mambo and earns money dancing on stage, dancing with his wife and partner, Mona. Bob’s dream is to relive his life and go back to the Catskills and teach and dance. 

Marty was able to put together a routine with Nina Lazar and Bunny Asborn who was the equal of Nina in looks and dance excitement. The trio was called the Marty Arret dancers. As a schoolteacher of Industrial Arts and Design, Marty was able to design patterns in the dance that brought out the best in him and the best movements his girls could exhibit that had sexy gyrations. With his newly formed act and his side kick Bob Talbot, they danced at every Hotel that had Mambo shows and in those days there was one every night of the week. One night Killer Joe of the Palladium visited Ben Makis’ club in Brooklyn where Marty and his troupe were performing and was taken by the trio, and he hired them to dance at the Palladium. Dancing at the Palladium for Marty and the girls was like dancing before the Queen of England; it was a huge honor and a credit his claim to fame. But unfortunately it was shorted lived and ended abruptly when the Palladium was raided and closed.  That was the first and last time Marty danced at the Palladium. The closing of the Palladium devastated a thousand dancers and many more musicians, and the dance world was stunned along with a million guests who had attended the shows and dances over the years.

Marty had received many other blows.  His first wife wife died of a drug over dose, which tragedy placed upon him the singular responsibility of taking care of a daughter as well as dealing with bouts of depression. But, with some good fortune he met a bombshell Puerto Rican girl that made his head spin and she spun him into a marriage. This lady was Chi Chi Navarro, a great entertainer who sang and danced with wonderful joy and excitement. Marty now found himself taking care of his own daughter and her three children as well, driving them from place to place to do her shows.  They combined their act at the Pines Hotel in South Fallsburg, NY Along with Joe Cuba who played the dance music for them and their mambo shows.  This marriage to Chi Chi lasted less than one year. But Marty took it in stride, he always knew where his real talents were and he used that  intellectual power to guide him down the right path. Except, that is, in matters of love and marriage and that little weakness took him into and out of five marriages. But in the end he finally found success here as well and his fifth became the real true love he had always been searching for and that true love lasted till heaven summed him. Her name was and is Pattie De Vesta, daughter of a great ballroom dancer, Lillian Kenyan, whom I had the pleasure of dancing with a hundred times. Lillian was the best Lindy Hopper at the Roseland dance club. 

Marty loved the business of dancing and music and he had idols in all divisions of the talented Latin dance world. The person Marty most admired was the owner of the Palladium, Maxwell Hyman. Marty went to Max, and conveyed to Maxwell his dilemma: “I’m a mambo dancer, a teacher and I’m not talented at either, but this music is in my blood and I know that I belong in this field and I want go with my gut feelings”. Max, the old professor said, “Use your Yiddisher kup and lead and become a manager, a promoter and an owner.  Look, I like the same music and dance too and I sought out and bought out the Palladium from some dumb bells who thought they were smarter and tougher than me, but I knocked them out of the box. You can do the same by managing the raw talent that these beautiful Latinos have and help this now small group grow.” Marty’s eyes opened wide, his head started to beat like a conga drum and his cerebellum lit up and he thought of someone he considered a dumb bell that was running a mambo club into the ground. Marty was very thankful and said to Maxwell, “You’re a life saver again”, knowing how many people Max helped and saved.  Marty immediately went to a low level dance club called Corso’s on 86th street, where Tony Raimone, a less than sharp but shrewd and well connected dapper Dan owned a failing mambo club.

Tony was a very good-looking mob-like person and a tough guy not to be taken for an fool; his street savvy was very sharp, but his business sense was stubbornly  less than sharp. Marty was by far his superior intellectually, but getting Tony to understand was going to be a hard task. Marty convincing point was that he could bring the Palladium crowd to Corso’s and double his business. Keeping the steady pace of salesman ship, Marty said “If you allow me to run a dance contest and give a free lesson to early birds and hire the mambo bands that the Palladium used for their shows and dances, you’ll have a gaint success”  Tony said “Wow that  sounds good; but what if I hire the bands and let you run the shows and it falls flat on its face?”  Marty responded, “Then you don’t have to pay me.”  Tony then said to Marty,  “You forgot one thing” to which Marty replied: “What?”  Tony then menacingly said, “I break your fucken legs and throw you down the stairs like the bouncers use to do with fuck-ups at the Palladium.” Marty now knew he was dealing with one of the wannabe mob boys. Marty stood his ground and said: “The Palladium is closed, we can’t miss!  There’s thousands of people looking for a Mambo dance place, if you don’t accept my deal, I’ll get the Roseland to do it.  Don’t pass this up, I’ll make Corso’s famous for you.” Tony thought for a minute and said, “OK, here’s our contract, shake my hand and pray that I don’t have to break your legs and throw you down the stairs.” They shook hands and Marty sensed a tone fear about the person with whom he was dealing in with, and relief that at last, he would have his own Mambo club to run. Marty was scared to death and made calls to the mambo-nicks and called me and I went to the Roseland and spread the news. We placed calls to Tito Puente and Joe Cuba, who both loved the idea, whereupon they both immediately called Tony to express their confidence in Marty’s plan. Marty got on his thinking cap on and sent out fliers, got a press release to promote the Corso’s Mambo nights and the news spread widely and quickly by word of mouth, and the song was “Papa loves Mambo at Corso’s every Wednesday.  It’s the new Palladium, with a Dance Show, a dance contest and free mambo lesson with an early bird free dish of food.”  The opening was very close to that which occurred at the Palladium opening, long lines on 86th street. Tony Raimone was thrilled and hugged and kissed Marty. Marty was not thrilled by a Mob-ish, kiss but rejoiced in his success none the less. Copying the PALLADIUM to a “T” made the joint famous in no time, even the weekends were drawing big crowds. Using his yiddisher kup again, Marty started managing mambo bands, one was Orchestra Broadway and then there was Joe Cuba, Conjunto Classico, Hector Casanova and Santiago Ceron. Coros’s success was overwhelming for Tony Raimone.  But Tony started to get jealous and railed at Marty, becoming obnoxious, abusive, he  pushed him around like a punching bag. Finally Marty had enough. He lashed out at Tony “you ungreatful bastart I made a fortune for you made Coros’s famous,you know what” before marty could finish. Tony said” You luckly I don’t 

throw you down the stairs, you’re fired! get out of here before I” Marty realized that all the pushing and lashing around was on its way to becoming more violent and so he found his way out10 of Tony’s club. Fortunately for Marty he didn’t have to look for help, it came to him, when the IRS raided Tony’s restaurant and found drugs; arresting his son along with Tony, and both Tony’s restaurant and Corso’s were closed. Tony’s financial accounting books for all his enterprises were found to have two separate sets of books and that discovery contributed to his downfall as well.  So now Tony’s Corso’s was closed and he paid heavily for his illegalities.  Marty was spared and was free to enter a new business. He had managed to save enough money to buy and start a new Palladium on Broadway and 96th Street. The building was owned by a company where Kenny Carmel was a senior partner and Vice Chairman of the Board.  Kenny, an extremely well to do gentlemen who used his money first for his wife and family, and then would use generosity help many others.  Kenny and his wife loved dancing and the world of dancers and one of the people Kenny helped was Marty Arret.  Now Marty was associated with a highly sophisticated socialite with a very keen business sense.

The clientele at the Club Broadway,  in upper Manhattan was ninety percent Hispanic, starting with the Mambo bands he hired, his office workers, the bouncers, numbering as many as twenty at times.  But of great importance to the success of this new enterprise, Marty teamed up with the owner of America’s number one theatrical agency specializing in Latin acts: Ralph Mercado.   Mercado was a promoter at Madison Square Garden of Mambo musical performance events featuring all the great Latin orchestras and performers of the times, from Tito Puente, Johnny Pacheco and Celia Cruz to then lesser known performers like Tito Nieves and Marc Anthony, who subsequently became stars in their own right. Ralph Mercado had the biggest following in all areas of Latin entertainment. Now Marty’s partner was a real businessman and his  intellect was on a par with Marty’s.  This time around they featured The EddieTorres Dance Company to entertain their new clients, in which Eddie Torres danced with his wife Maria and a long list of excellent Mambo dancers many of whom, such as Delille Thomas went on to start their own dance companies and Mambo schools.  Eddie Torres had a huge following among the young Mambo dancers of New York and Eddie was single handedly responsible for reviving the classic, “old school” Palladium style of dancing Mambo on the “Two” beat just at the time when the Mambo  started to fade and lose its cache. When Rock and Roll and then the Hustle emerged, the young dancers lost interest in the Mambo and in the ballroom dance world.   But Eddie worked in Spanish Harlem and in the Bronx and was personally responsible for rejuvenating the Mambo’s popularity back to its former heights. Marty helped Eddie jump into fame by exposing him to the public at the Club Broadway by giving Eddie the Mambo shows on Wednesday and letting him MC and perform with his own orchestra and dancers on Sundays while he was still up at the Club Broadway.

Eddie was and is more than just remarkably good at the Mambo, he was authentic or “classic” in his Palladium styling at first, but later on he began adding many of the endless turn patterns and spins that became popular among hustle dancers and the Mambo style he developed lost some of its “authenticity”.  But nevertheless, Eddie up for it with the “old timers” with his truly great dancing and especially by teaching the “on two” or “up beat” Mambo to literally tens of thousands of dancers over the many years that followed.  Eddie Torres had a great talent for choreographing mambo routines, more so than all the others in the field, and that was a great asset for the shows in which he performed and the sharpies of Spanish Harlem loved it.

When Marty lost his lease for the building at which the Club Broadway was located he opened a new club at the former location of the well-known Latin Night Club, The Chateau Madrid. The new Club Marty opened with Ralph Mercado was called the Latin Quarter and then, when issues rose about the ownership of that name, The L.Q.  And working together, Marty and Ralph created the most successful Mambo, Merengue Salsa night club in New York, hiring such name orchestras as Tito Puente Machito, Marc Anthony, El Gran Combo and Johnny Pacheco, to name but a few. Once again copying the Palladium was the way to go with the exciting performances by the best Mambo dancers available performing mambo shows and offering free lessons.  

Marty had some good friends at his side and the one great friend was Willie Rodriguez. Willie is a tough Puerto Rican that ran the club as manager.   He was in charge of almost everything; managing the bouncer’s was one of his hardest tasks.  These six foot plus giants loved their jobs as bouncers and over doing it, for them, was pure pleasure. Willie Rodriguez gained a great love and admiration for Marty, one that grew throughout the years as he worked absorbing the manner of kindness, the generosity and thoughtfulness Marty displayed with the respect he gave the Hispanic people and their communities.  Willie worked with Marty at night and during the day he severed as a Detective with the NYC police department. Willie recently retired and when Marty went to the Palladium in the sky, Willie became active in the world of Mambo as an entrepreneur, running mambo nights at varies hotels and night clubs in the tri state area.

Marty leaves behind a beautiful wife who was his beloved heart beat and soulmate, Pattie De Vesta, his son Martin Owrutzky and his grand son Joey Owrutzky, who unfortunately didn’t live up to the expectations Marty had wanted him to achieve but who does have the intellect and kindness that Marty taught him.

In closing I bring down a curtain of joy on a true friend that did it all and gave his all to every person that needed him, without asking anything in return. Thank you Marty you will always be remembered and loved. And we be will seeing you and all the others, one day in that Palladium in the sky.     Mike Terrace 

michaelterrace@gmail.com

901 237 5538