It was standing room only at George Devine’s Million Dollar Ballroom on a busy night in the 1950s. Devine’s had long been the place for Milwaukee’s young people to meet, mingle and maybe find romance – usually to the rhythm of big bands.
Local groups performed, but there was a steady procession of national ensembles, including such legends as Guy Lombardo, Louis Prima and Lawrence Welk. In that era of the Lindy hop and the foxtrot, every band got the crowd up and moving.
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The Million Dollar Ballroom was there before George Devine took it over in 1934. The Eagle’s Club, part of the menagerie of American fraternal groups that included the Lions, Elks, Moose and Owls, built a lavish Mediterranean Revival clubhouse on 24th and Wisconsin in 1927. The $1.25 million landmark included a 4,000-capacity ballroom open to the public.
It was under Devine that the venue hit its stride. A veteran of Milwaukee’s nightclub scene (and a former state champion roller skater), Devine booked the best bands and made a profit through the belt-tightening years of the Depression and the nail-biting years of World War II.
As his clientele migrated from big bands to rock and roll, Devine followed. The ballroom was one of Buddy Holly’s last stops before his plane crashed in an Iowa cornfield on Feb. 3, 1959, the day the music died.
Devine’s sons ran the venue for a few years after their father’s death in 1964, and then came a succession of new owners and new names. The ballroom has remained active, hosting performers ranging from Bad Bunny to the Butthole Surfers. Operated today as The Rave, the 1920s showplace continues to attract young people, even if they couldn’t tell a tango from a two-step.
PHOTO IN COLLABORATION WITH MILWAUKEE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
