From the Improvement Era, November 1941 –

When Brigham Young Watched a Waltz

By Heber J. Grant, as told to Rachel G. Taylor

The winter before it was completed, a party was arranged in every ward in the city for the benefit of the St. George Temple. Every ward had a dance, and that was when we were allowed to have only three round dances of an evening. But Bishop Woolley of the Thirteenth Ward would not allow any round dances. They had had a dance there, and it did not pay.

In those days they had no smooth floors; they were just ordinary boards, and we used to whittle wax candles and wax the floor, but Bishop Woolley would not let us wax the Thirteenth Ward floor. He said, “I am not going to have people falling down and breaking their necks.” In those days Olsen’s band played the Danube Waltz and the other popular dance numbers to perfection, but the flute player got drunk once in the Thirteenth Ward, and the bishop wouldn’t have this band. He sent for me and said, “Now, I want you to get up a party; you have more friends among the young people than anyone; I want you to choose your own committee and arrange the whole thing and turn over the proceeds to us for the benefit of the St. George Temple. I want you to make a success of it. We generally lead every other ward in everything we try to do. I want you to be sure to beat them all.

I said: “I will do my best, but you must agree to pay the loss if there is one.”

“Loss?” he said.

“Yes, you cannot have the party in the Thirteenth Ward and make any money; the young people won’t come any more. In other places they allow them to have three round dances, and you won’t have any. I would rather dance three round dances and throw all the rest away. You have got to have three waltzes.”

“All right” said Bishop Woolley, “take the three waltzes.”

Then I said: “You won’t allow Olsen’s Quadrille Band; they are the only people who can play the Blue Danube Waltz well; that is one of the things that draws the crowd. When you say Olsen’s full band, that means the finest cornetist in Salt Lake will be there to give some cornet solos during the evening.”

The bishop said: “Take Olsen’s Quadrille Band; take your three round dances; wax your floor.”

Then I said: “There is another thing I would like; I won’t insist on it — you won’t allow a gentile to come; I would like the United States Marshal and one or two high-principled gentlemen to come and let them see how Mormon boys and girls can behave themselves. There will be no rowdyism; there will be a crowd of the finest kind of young people.”

He said: “Invite whom you please.”

I said too: “I am going to charge $1.50 instead of a dollar.”

“Oh, the people won’t pay that.”

“Yes, they will, with Olsen’s full Quadrille Band.”

We secured the finest tickets we could get. I chose Eddie Woolley as my assistant, and we got down on our knees and took the screws out of the desks in the east wing; he borrowed rugs and made it a fine drawing room and had President Young’s picture and others there, full-size.

I got one of the Young boys on the committee to get the Young family to come. I got Nelson Empey on the committee, and he agreed to get the boys in Z. C. M. I. I got Hyde Young who was down at the Utah Central Railroad to get the railroad boys. I went to Z. C. M. I. to Captain Hooper, and said: “Captain Hooper, I would like very much to have you come to a party in the Thirteenth Ward.”

He said, “I never go to parties.”

But I said, “There are two important things about this party, and this is one of them — it is for the benefit of the St. George Temple; and this is the other — tickets are $1.50,” and he laughed and handed me $1.50, and said, “Go sell it to Eldredge.” I went to Brother Eldredge, and he said: “I do not go to parties any more.” I told him the same story about this party, and he gave me $1.50. I have forgotten whom he sent me to, but I sold the ticket five or six times.

People had to show their tickets to get in, and there was a list of all the people who had tickets, and no one could go to the party who did not have a ticket and whose name was not on the list. I sat there with the alphabetical list, checking the tickets as they came in. I told Hon Young to sell his father ten, that we would like ten of his boys to come. His father said: “Let the boys pay for their own tickets.”

President Young came, however, and said: “This is for the benefit of the St. George Temple, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“Is that enough to pay for my ticket?” and he threw down ten dollars.

I said, “Plenty.” I do not know whether or not he expected any change, but he did not get any. The next morning President Young sent to Bishop Woolley and wanted a list of the people who attended the party. The bishop went up with the eighty odd dollars and handed him the list and the money. No other ward got much more than half that amount. We scooped the town, and we had four round dances. The fourth round dance was a waltz quadrille. I said, “I am going to sit by the President and see what he says.”

I said to the leader of the band: “Now when you get through with the waltz quadrille, stop playing.”

President Young said: “They are waltzing.”

I said, “No, they are not waltzing; when they waltz they waltz all around the room; this is a quadrille.”

He turned to me and laughed and said; “Oh, you boys, you boys.”