Southwest Wisconsin Small Business Seminar

It is a real treat on our show today to have Betty Hayes in the studio with us and Cheryl Baxter and we are going to talk a little history of the Richland Center Auditorium and the many dance recitals.

Betty, it is such an honor to have you in the studio with us today.

Thank you.

Thank you.

How have you been doing lately?

I've been doing okay.

Yeah.

I

think she's been doing well.

I think she's doing really well.

Yes.

I do too.

Look at her.

So Cheryl tells me this is coming up.

This is going to be your 80th.

Year Wow What what an accomplishment for you?

Yeah,

it's been great

I have to up her Guinness world record now because her world records at 76 years So now at the end of the 80th, I'm gonna she's broken her own record.

You're gonna be in the record book That's awesome.

Do you remember your very first recital?

Oh, yes, it was Yeah, it was a lone rock

And now do you mean my rich and center first one?

No, you're very first one

first one was in Lone Rock and that was in 1948.

She started teaching in 47.

So then the recital was the next year, which was 48

would be a year later, you know, you have to teach you got to have a year before you have a recital.

Wow.

Yeah.

So I'm trying to think back in my mind.

How many generations that would be three?

Yeah, I've had three generations.

Yeah.

My goodness.

Yeah.

And

that was back in the days when the parents made the costumes.

There wasn't costume houses.

The parents had to sew the costumes.

And her mother played piano.

Yeah, that's right.

There weren't records.

She didn't have any music at your mother played the piano.

Yeah.

For all the, all, all 50, I had 15 numbers in my first recital and my mother played them all on the piano because there wasn't the record companies then, you know, so, yeah.

So that was very, very interesting.

Your first recital.

So here in Richland Center then was what year?

1951.

1951.

Was

here in Richland Center.

Does anything stick out about that one?

Or do you remember it?

Oh,

yes.

Yeah.

That was quite a deal.

And then we had rain one night and the rain came.

The crane came in, the balcony, and it went running down the sips

in the balcony.

And the kids were on the fire escape trying to get in, and nobody ever got hurt.

They had to line up on the fire escape and come in that way sometimes.

All 50

dances

with

all those children, yeah.

I had parents out there, and they'd have to stay by the doors and everything.

But nobody, like Cheryl said, no one got hurt.

But they had to come up the fire escapes, go on the stage when they were done.

dancing they went the other other side of the stage went down the fire escapes they changed costumes again there was two dressing rooms upstairs and the seniors got those so they always wanted waited to be a senior so they could be in the dressing room upstairs.

And you were telling me some were across the street the Masonic?

Oh yes

that's then the Masonic Lodge let us use their place so then we had and they did actually the city did shut off the street for it.

which was wonderful, so their children were safe.

So they could cross the street without having to worry about any traffic.

They just closed the street down.

Yeah, but a few years before that they had to watch out for the cars.

Then they would cross the street, change costumes, and come back.

That's dedication too.

Many of them would tap shoes on probably, right?

Yes, they

were.

They were.

So they had to be quiet.

Good memories.

So did you have someone playing piano then or were you with records by that

point?

Then we started with records.

Part of each piano and the records as the records came out.

I would sit for hours in a record store playing.

We could play the records.

and decide what we wanted to buy.

You know, we had a little booth that you sat in.

And then it went reel-to-reel, and my dad would put everything, all the music on the reel, the big reel-to-reels, and sometimes if he was backstage.

Some of the costumes, we get stuck in the reels.

So

we

have to stop and then,

you

know,

rewind

and try to find the beginning of the song.

Because, you know, some little ballet tutu got stuck in the reel.

Oh, my goodness.

Oh, that

happened.

Yeah.

And if the tape broke, that would be like, you know.

Oh,

yes.

Oh, yes.

Boy, oh boy.

The show would have to stop for a little bit, wouldn't it?

Wow.

The other thing I have to think about is all of the vibrations from the dancers on stage.

Does that make the records skip from time?

Yeah.

Did it?

Yeah.

It would, it would.

You really got wild with the number.

And sometimes the stage would have little divots in it.

And so Ellen Keller and I, Ellen Keller Evans, we did Morning is Broken and Susan Wisnisky.

And we go around with dad and try to fill in all the holes on the stage

because our

point shoe would get into that

divot in the stage and

we'd, you know, follow her.

So after dress rehearsal, we'd go, oh, there's a divot, there's a, there's, we got to fill that in.

My goodness.

Talk about dedication, right?

That's right.

And he used to pack them in as far as numbers.

I mean, the auditorium was at capacity many nights, wasn't

it?

It was, yes.

Well, and you know, in those days, too, there wasn't a lot of entertainment.

And like in Lone Rock, when we were there, they were sitting in the window cells.

And there was just, but there was no other entertainment.

So everybody came, you know.

And there was a big fire curtain that they used to have.

a hole in it that we looked through, and they made an eyeball on the backside of it.

So we'd all look out to see who was in the audience.

And mom's first student, Penny Emery, that helped her start this, asked you to start the studio.

She was one of your classmates in Blue River.

We couldn't start the show until Penny got there.

And Penny was always 10 minutes late.

So the show always started 10 minutes late.

Mom would look out that people, no, Penny's not here yet.

That's VIP treatment.

Stop the show for her.

Oh

my goodness.

So then, of course, she had the chance to teach your daughter.

Yeah,

she started it too.

Yeah.

But she obviously had a little something extra.

Yeah, she did.

Did you see that early on?

Oh, yes.

Yeah, she did.

She picked up in a hurry and wanted to do it all.

Wanted to do it.

I didn't really have to persuade.

She wanted to do it.

So

that's important.

At what point did, did her skills surpass yours?

You know,

I mean,

I don't know.

You tell me.

Yep.

She, she went on, like she said, tell some of the things you

did.

Oh, well, I went to California in 1978 and did a lot of film.

My first film was Xanadu.

I think you know that with Olivia Newton, John and Jean Kelly.

So that was like,

right out of the chute, you know.

How long?

It was there three months.

Three months?

Yeah, it was there

three months.

Yeah.

Wow.

They had a big audition for Kenny Ortega, who's a famous director now.

And that was a great job.

That was like a six month job.

And then working with Gene Kelly, of course.

Mom's idol.

Mine too.

Yours too.

But

mom grew up watching Jim Kelly when she was younger.

So I got to assist him and he wanted to send me to Paris to teach at the Paris Opera but he couldn't get the visa.

So instead I did sophisticated ladies and met my husband George and did Broadway shows and otherwise I'd be in Paris probably.

Yeah and it all worked out.

It all worked out.

In the end.

And

I've done a lot of TV commercials and now I'm on TikTok.

I'm a tiktoker with my best friend, Beth, and we have a lot of followers, but we have about a million on all of our socials.

So that's kind of the new thing, social media.

Yes, it sure is.

Wow.

And you told me a story about, because I asked you about Olivia Newton-John, because that's probably one of the most common questions of you, but she evidently was the real deal.

Oh, she was the real deal.

Very sweet.

Loved her, you know, we went to her house for a big New Year's party and she came to the door dressed in a going with the wind dress and you know, I was dancing with leaf Garrett and Rod Stewart and that was in the late 70s.

So She was great in barrel Streep.

I got to work with Merrill Streep on death becomes or I was her dancing and she was the real deal to

really

really nice

And that's good to hear

really sweet.

I think

and then I got to work with Michael Jackson

a little bit on his last, I was one of the Greg Smith casting people.

So I got to sit at the table with Michael Jackson and Kenny Ortega when we cast that this is it tour.

So that was right before he passed away.

Right.

Yeah, we just watched that again, not too long ago.

Phenomenal film.

That

right.

And I'm at that table and we're, you know, I brought the headshots and put them in front of Michael and he'd pick his guys and pick 10 guys and 10 girls or no, 10 guys and two girls.

That was the tour.

So you were kind of in charge of the casting.

I was helpful with the dancers.

Yes,

with the dancers

because it'd be hard to teach Michael.

Oh,

no.

No, it was basically the casting.

Oh, my goodness.

So crazy times.

I'm curious, you know, because Hollywood actually kind of sucks some people up a little bit.

Why did that never happen to you?

I had my Midwestern roots.

I came out there with three people from the Midwest, from Wisconsin singers, Mark Sebel and.

Bobby and David Saludas came out there.

So we kind of were grounded.

We'd go out in the world and then we'd come home and talk about, did you see that person and did you meet that person?

So we had our home base for the first five or 10 years.

We're all still close friends.

I

think that helped though.

You

go out there with your people.

Did you ever think about what mother would say or what mother would think, though, probably, right?

Oh, sure.

She came out a lot.

She was out there with us for a lot of things.

She came to the Academy Awards one year that I did it two times.

Yeah, they came to the awards and we went to the big party afterwards.

She had her camera, of course.

Amazing.

Taking pictures of

Tom Cruise with this, you know, award.

Wow.

Oh, yeah, she's not afraid.

No, we can see that.

Did you ever think, though, you know, your small town girl, did you ever have to kind of pinch yourself?

Like,

oh,

sure.

This is really.

And this

is a good time for your surprise.

My surprise.

OK.

Yes.

And I'm supposed to tell you it's better than a ski pop.

It's better than a ski pop.

What could be better than a ski pop, baby?

Well,

I will show you.

And you always talk about solid gold.

Yes, yes.

And

that you call your...

The solid gold dancers.

Yes.

Were you on that

show?

No, but they were all my friends.

So I have to fill from the solid gold dancers.

George, would you take this over

again?

Oh my goodness, look at that.

This

is my friend Pam.

she was an original Pam Rossi look at that so she was original oh that

is oh my goodness

and then here's my friend Macarena was a solid gold dancer

these are

all for you

and these are real autographs

yes

i

had them send them to me that's

from Trisha oh my goodness look at that

that's right all

the solid gold dancers and

here's the last one from Helene she's the blonde

I'm sorry you have to look.

It's not fair

to you.

It's not fair.

Oh my goodness.

Yeah.

Trisha.

Trisha McFarland.

And

that's from Helene Phillips.

Look at that.

That

is amazing.

She's

an original, solid, gold dancer.

I did audition.

I was to Wisconsin.

What does that mean?

That means I wasn't as sexy as those girls right there.

You're three.

I think I got down to the last five.

So, you know, I started to be a little more California-ish.

LA-ish.

You learned.

I learned.

Oh my goodness, Cheryl.

That is so nice.

That's for you.

Thank you so much.

From the

Psolegal Dancers.

I'm gonna have to admit they really are.

They really are.

Yeah.

They're much better looking than my Psolegal Dancers here on Saturday nights.

I can tell you that.

Actually, two of them I did Xana do with.

Did you really?

Yep.

Two in that.

picture on the, that, yes, Darcelle and Deborah, they were in Xanadu with me.

So I remember this when Xanadu premiered here in Richland Center.

I'm not sure how long it, you know, it used to take a while to get to Richland Center, but Betty, you were there in the lobby with some pictures and some some memorabilia from the movie.

Do you remember that?

Well, and what I learned from mom is not to be afraid to have your camera.

And those were the days before social media, so they weren't afraid of it leaking.

So they let us take pictures, so I had so many pictures from the filming.

You know, I would just walk around and take pictures of Olivia and Jean, and nobody cared.

So

I'd send them all to mom.

If they

did, I'd say, oh, they're just for my mom's dance school.

She's just going to put them on the wall.

They'd

say, OK.

OK.

And you did put them on the wall, right?

Oh, yes.

And I did.

Oh, it's so fun to reminisce a little bit and talk about these things.

But yeah, I'm going to have to frame these and get these in the studio.

Thank you so

much.

Well, they told me you always say the solid gold dancers.

I still do after all these years.

A lot of people don't know what we're talking about, probably if they were born after a certain point.

That's true.

Oh, my goodness.

As far as this for the weekend, though, this is really special for your family.

Isn't it, Betty?

Yes.

Very nice.

Very nice.

The stage will be dedicated and named in your honor.

Yeah, very

nice, yeah.

So have you thought about what that's going to feel like or what that moment's going to bring?

Yeah, well, there's a lot of memories, a lot of memories, and I think it's really nice.

And yeah, I really appreciate it.

And thank you to everybody who's been involved in it, everyone.

So that's very, very nice.

Thank you,

thank you.

Very, very, very fitting.

It's the

Richland County Performing Arts Council.

Right.

So we thank them and everybody that helped put this together.

Yeah.

Paul.

Mm-hmm.

And Paul.

Paul and Mick Cosgrove and Cheryl Delmenthal and Bob Frank and Alan Keller and Roseanne Noor and Sheila Truxell.

Yeah.

There's a

lot of people

involved.

Right.

Behind the scenes.

So

I want

to thank all of them.

Yeah.

very appreciative of all of the work they've gone to to do this.

And it's coming up Sunday at two.

Sunday at two.

And everybody's invited.

Everybody's invited.

There's no tickets.

It's just open to the public.

Donations are always accepted because they're working on the stage still.

All the donations will go towards the renovation of the stage.

And it's called the Betty Hayes Baxter Legacy Stage.

Wow.

Nice job.

Yeah, that's

nice.

I know.

So you're going for your 80th?

Yeah.

Yeah.

81st, maybe.

That's what she said to me.

Right?

We're saying the last final curtain, but she said, what if I want to go to 81?

Maybe we just put a little X through it

and

say 81.

Keep going.

Keep going.

Yeah.

Next year, June 12th, we're going to be back at the stage and we're going to do the Betty Hayes tribute show.

Yeah.

It's like a variety show.

So it'll be at the Rischen Center Auditorium.

Right.

With everybody on the fire scapes, no.

They should figure out a better way by then.

I would think.

Probably.

We maybe can decorate them with some flowers or something.

Oh,

that's a good idea.

We need the curtain with the peephole, though, so you can look out.

I think is that still there?

I

don't.

The curtain with the peephole?

If it is, it must be up in the rafters

somewhere.

I know a tree.

I had a tree for the recital, and I know they pulled that way up because there's a lot of fly space.

That's one thing that was very, very nice for the auditorium.

There was the fly space, and you don't have that everywhere.

Right.

With the high ceilings up there.

Way up that you could pull stuff up and lower it when you wanted it.

So that was a nice thing.

Well, Todd Alba was coming back to be the emcee.

Oh, good.

So that's going to be fun.

And David Saludis is coming.

And we've got the mayor speaking.

And we've got some of mom's students that went on to be teachers.

So they're coming to speak a little.

And it's going to be fun.

And then afterwards, there's a little party up in the lobby.

So, everyone's invited.

We can't wait.

What's the secret, Betty?

What is your secret to longevity and being able to teach all these years?

I

think they actually exercise, you know, with teaching.

It's been very good and it's good for the body, for everybody for exercise,

and your

love of what you're doing.

You know, if you love it, you're going to do it.

If you don't, you're not going to do it.

And so I've loved it and I've kept on going.

And of course they have Cheryl involved in what she's been doing.

It was wonderful and George, you know, what he was doing.

And Ellington, our son.

All

five.

Yeah.

So the whole family is involved and that's the secret because everybody's involved and everybody loves it.

Even

dad danced.

Yeah, even dad.

Lee Baxter.

Was he a good

dancer?

No, he was the most timid man you'd ever want to meet.

Never would he want to go on the stage.

He was born Baptist and they did not dance and then he married a dance teacher and there you go.

She taught him to dance.

And he ended up teaching ballroom with her.

Is that

right?

Yeah.

He taught

ballroom.

Taught the

tumbling.

Yeah.

And we did rich and center high school when they had the ball, when they had lessons during the year of typing and different lessons, different types of things.

And we had the ballroom classes.

And so, yeah, he helped me with that.

Yeah.

And that was wonderful.

They always say that everybody can sing, but can everybody dance?

I mean, I

think they can.

Do you?

I think they can.

I think, yeah, if they're taught and the teacher does a good job, I think they can dance.

They always say two left feet.

Right, I know they do.

I hear that a lot, but I don't listen to it.

But I think sometimes it's because I was in a lot of musicals on local stage, but the choreography is what I had the problem with I had the rhythm, but I couldn't remember So sometimes it's probably remembering too,

right?

I

didn't do that enough or I was practicing the wrong thing

Right

exactly so you you have a lot of memorabilia as well at your house, don't

you?

And

we're bringing a lot of that to the law.

So everybody can see the memorabilia, see a lot of pictures.

I found lots of pictures of the Rician Center auditorium stage.

So they're coming and then her awards and her Guinness World Records is on the wall up there.

So we've got the Guinness.

Yeah, she got the Guinness World Record 76 years.

So I sent everything into London, and they said, yes, she is the longest career to dance teacher in the world.

And counting.

And counting.

And counting, going for 80.

And that took

quite a while.

Oh, it took me three months, yeah.

They had to go through everything.

And I had to send 47 till whatever year 76 was, four years ago.

You had to prove every single year.

that she taught, that the studio was open, and I proved it.

A cool thing that you sent me a couple of years ago, Betty, is you found an old bill from WRC, a radio.

It was from the 50s when you had bought some ads to promote your show.

Do you remember what you paid for those?

I can't remember what it said, but it was like from 1954.

And so that was really cool, because it had the old stationery that the radio would have used at that time.

And you did a lot of promotion of the chief tones, too, Erin.

Oh,

yes.

Oh, yeah.

She taught the chief tones.

They would come to the house every Monday night.

Yeah.

And she would do their choreography.

And they were on the Rission Center auditorium stage.

Right.

Yeah.

So nice tie in there.

Was it easy to teach them?

Oh,

yes.

Oh,

yes.

Because they had all the rhythm.

Yeah, they

were good musicians.

So they.

Yeah.

Oh, yes.

They were.

And they loved it.

They really liked it.

And they worked hard at it.

Yeah.

And a great bunch of

guys.

They brought a mountain lion to the

house.

Did they bring that to

your house?

Oh, yes.

I

knew they had one.

Oh, yes.

Oh, yes, they brought it.

And it was playing with me and put his jaw right on my neck.

And they said, don't move.

And I was 12 years old.

And I said, I'm not moving.

But I did get a big welt.

Did you

really?

Yeah.

The next day, the kids at school didn't believe it was from

the

mountain

lion.

It might have been something else.

That's what they thought

anyway.

In those days, you had to develop pictures and wait for them to come back.

So when we got the picture and then she took it to school, then they said,

oh my

gosh, they really was the mountain

lion.

They brought horses.

They brought all kinds of stuff to our house.

My goodness.

The mountain lion was supposedly a gift from Walt Disney, I remember.

That's what

I heard.

Yeah.

because they had played at Disney World or Disney, probably Disneyland at that time.

But they did have to, I did hear that they did have to give it up because it did start to get bean mean, started to bite.

So they had to.

Well, I'm glad they didn't bite that.

No, they

gumd you though.

Yeah,

gumd you.

So any other funny stories you can think of like perils that happened during the performances at the auditorium?

We have one with Hartzell Fetaplace and David Saludis mom said

go out

and be a ghost and so blacklight number she threw.

David out there with a sheet and put Hartzell up on his shoulders and then threw a sheet over him and once the black light came on, David couldn't see a thing and they hadn't rehearsed it.

So David went out one direction, came back and the door jam was lower at stage right

than

stage left.

He goes out one way and Hartzell hits the top and just falls off

on

stage.

And then mom just comes out and pulls him by the legs like a dead animal or something, you know.

Yeah, that was a good one.

I bet that brought the house down.

Oh, yeah.

They probably wanted you to do it again the next

night.

And I fell off the stage because I came back and surprised mom.

And George and I, I was doing cats and I made him learn the whole cat's number.

So we're in our unitards with our cat's wigs and makeup.

And I said, you go off stage, right?

I'll go off on the left and we'll go in the audience like I do in the show.

Well, she had a piece of wire because nobody was going out.

I was a surprise.

And so it was a wire that was holding up a piece of scenery.

So my foot caught it.

I fell into the side of like a stage and my leg swelled up like a balloon.

And of course I'm running around the audience trying to, you know, be a cat and everybody's like, are you okay?

Are you okay?

I'm like, I'm being a cat.

So I've had my, my share of things

on

the stage,

you know.

You almost went on injured reserve.

Right, right.

I did.

Well, I had to call cats and say, yeah, I hurt my leg, but that thing swelled up like.

you know, one of those big, huge, whether they call them hematoma, I don't

know what they call

them.

Big.

Not

good.

Not good is what they call it.

Do you have any funny stories out?

Those are my two that I remember.

Anything you can think of, Betty?

Well, you remember the girl coming through the...

Oh!

Cindy Perrell.

We

had the back of the stage was a huge backdrop of like...

Like canvas.

And I was standing, like I always do at the side of the stage, and I looked at the backdrop during the show, and there was this big bubble-like coming through.

And it could have taken the whole scenery down.

And I went to the edge where it was coming, and there was a student that was a little, what did I say?

Naughty naughty.

So when she came through I said I knew it would be you.

I won't mention any

names.

I

already did.

I audited her.

Oh my goodness.

Yeah.

Have either of you ever thought of writing a book?

Oh, I know I've heard people tell me that.

They should say to me different of my a couple of my friends did come and take used a microphone.

and they did have me speak and do some things.

Oh,

we did have Mickey Mouse fall off the front of the stage once.

Oh, yeah, we didn't dare say anything about that because of Disney.

Oh, didn't want to get sued.

Yeah, we don't

like it.

Statue of limitations is worn off

right now.

We've had big bird come down the aisle.

We've had all kinds of stuff.

Yeah.

My goodness.

So any big plans for the for the 80th year?

I mean, in terms of,

well, we're going to get a lot of alumni together.

So if any alumni is out there and they want to come and dance at the Betty Hayes tribute show.

Come on down.

So that'll that'll be fun.

Once you learn it must be like riding a bike, right?

Sure, I hope.

I hope they tell me that

other than conditioning.

That's probably the only thing that's true.

And

remembering, remembering.

So we're doing a big deck dancing through the decades where everybody who danced in the 50s through now will do their section of the decades.

And then we're picking some of mom's favorite numbers to do by by Blackbird.

And, you know, maybe we'll get some

Greece lightning guys.

She had 72 boys in the studio at one point.

But they weren't all in one studio.

Yeah, they were

within the

town.

Rich and center.

Right.

She taught at 16 different towns over the years.

She's known as the traveling dance teacher back then because people didn't drive.

Right?

So she drove to them.

Right.

And a lot of those men that danced, they went on even to athletic career, some of them, too.

Right?

Brady, right?

Brady Ewing.

Yes.

Right.

Maybe I'll get him to come back and dance.

Yeah, that would be, that'd be awesome.

Brady, come

back.

We'll put the pressure on him.

Oh, that would be awesome.

How has dance changed?

Over the years, is it

quite a bit

more difficult?

I would

say it's not Betty approved at the moment.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, the hip hop and the some of the some of the styles, but taps always tap ballet is always ballet.

Yeah, modern.

You know, that's all the same.

But yeah,

yeah, the cost of the costumes too, right?

Oh, sure.

Talked about sewing them back in the day, right?

But when we did order them, then I'd have the parents pay a quarterly.

So it wasn't hit all at one time.

They'd pay so much four times during the year.

So then it wasn't like, bang, you know.

But when they started to have, we could buy costumes made, you know.

And the parents didn't have to sew them all.

But when I talk to past students, they'll say, I have my costumes yet.

I still have my costumes.

Maybe some of those could make a reappearance too.

Well, and

I'm doing a lot of video next year.

So I'm going through 80 years of video because she has some home movies from the past from when she's 12 and 14 dancing.

So we've got those old movie projectors.

My goodness.

Yeah,

David Saludas is coming over because he knows a lot about those.

So he's helping us look through all the 50s and 60s and actually.

her 40s.

We have some from the 40s.

So

there's footage of when you were dancing at 12 years old.

That is amazing.

Was that the Maxine Zipper dancers?

Yeah.

Because

she toured around.

They did some USO shows and they did some state fairs.

Yep, so we've got some video of that even.

My

goodness.

They did,

yes.

Yeah.

Good stuff.

And what about people have helped you through the years too?

You've had, you know, assistants and things like that.

Oh, right.

That's some of them that are coming.

Vaughn and Holly and they all have their, Vaughn has her own studio now.

Stephanie has her own studio.

Stephanie's in Madison.

Vaughn's in Ohio.

Right.

And

Holly's here.

And this is Holly Johnson.