in our mailbag. But Los Angeles talk-show host Carol Hemingway has an imaginative gang of listeners, and this question was posed to us on her gabfest.
We loved it. This was an Imponderable deeply embedded in our subconscious. We have traveled through small towns with only one two-story commercial building in them. If there was a dance studio in town, it was located in that building. On the second floor.
We recently saw film critic Roger Ebert wax nostalgic about his first date. He asked his friend to a dance at Thelma Lee Ritter’s studio in Urbana, Illinois. Unfortunately, the dance was canceled. But not all was lost—Ms. Ritter’s second-floor studio was located above the Princess Theater. So Roger and his date went to the movies.
In New York, dance studios are invariably on the second floor as well. Not on the twenty-seventh floor. The second.
The best explanation we could figure out is that rents must obviously be cheaper on higher floors. Dance studios presumably have little walk-in, impulse business. Even folks with happy feet are unlikely, on the spur of the moment, to decide they instantly must have tango lessons. All of our sources indicated that these factors were crucial, but other considerations were important, too.
We heard from Connie Townsend, national secretary of the United States Amateur Ballroom Dancers Association in Baltimore, Maryland, who “reviewed the many studios with which I am familiar and was somewhat surprised to find that, indeed, most are located on second floors.” Townsend notes that all the exceptions she could think of were built specifically as dance studios by their owners.
Frank Kiley, a former ballroom dance instructor and former licensee of 1,800 ballrooms nationwide, provides a historical perspective and an architectural answer:
Previous to 1980, most studio-type ballrooms had to have twelve-foot ceilings to position loudspeakers for maximum effect. Some studios had fourteen- or eighteen-foot-high ceilings for best audio results…
Most second-floor buildings in major cities had to use special curtains to subdivide ballroom classes and higher floors tended to have larger windows and smaller pillars in their structural design.
Kiley’s reasons were echoed by Vickie Sheer, executive director of the Dance Educators of America, but she added several others as well:
When I taught for thirty-seven years, my studios were always located on the second floor. My reason was to deter anyone from coming in from street level. If people climbed a flight of stairs, there must be [genuine] interest. Also, the second-floor placement kept out annoying children opening and closing doors and being pests.
In winter, the heat in a building goes up and the cold air does not blow in, as on street level. Usually there is more square footage on a second-floor than a street-level…
Kiley, still a major copyright owner in the ballroom industry, notes that dance studios are invading shopping malls, where many have landed on the ground floor.
Submitted by a caller on the Carol Hemingway show, KGIL-AM, Los Angeles, California .
Why Are 25-Watt Light Bulbs More Expensive Than 40-, 60-, 75-, and 100-Watt Bulbs?
The old rule of supply and demand takes effect here. You don’t always get what you pay for. Richard H. Dowhan, manager of public affairs for GTE, explains:
The higher-wattage, 40-, 60-, 75-, and 100-watt light bulbs are manufactured in huge quantity because they are in demand by consumers. The 25-watt light bulb has limited uses, therefore fewer bulbs are manufactured and you don’t get the inherent cost advantage of large productions runs.
Secondly, in order to make it worthwhile for the retailer to stock a slow mover, which takes up shelf and storage space for longer periods of time, you increase the profit margin. These two factors result in a higher price.
Submitted by Alan Snyder of Palo
We loved it. This was an Imponderable deeply embedded in our subconscious. We have traveled through small towns with only one two-story commercial building in them. If there was a dance studio in town, it was located in that building. On the second floor.
We recently saw film critic Roger Ebert wax nostalgic about his first date. He asked his friend to a dance at Thelma Lee Ritter’s studio in Urbana, Illinois. Unfortunately, the dance was canceled. But not all was lost—Ms. Ritter’s second-floor studio was located above the Princess Theater. So Roger and his date went to the movies.
In New York, dance studios are invariably on the second floor as well. Not on the twenty-seventh floor. The second.
The best explanation we could figure out is that rents must obviously be cheaper on higher floors. Dance studios presumably have little walk-in, impulse business. Even folks with happy feet are unlikely, on the spur of the moment, to decide they instantly must have tango lessons. All of our sources indicated that these factors were crucial, but other considerations were important, too.
We heard from Connie Townsend, national secretary of the United States Amateur Ballroom Dancers Association in Baltimore, Maryland, who “reviewed the many studios with which I am familiar and was somewhat surprised to find that, indeed, most are located on second floors.” Townsend notes that all the exceptions she could think of were built specifically as dance studios by their owners.
Frank Kiley, a former ballroom dance instructor and former licensee of 1,800 ballrooms nationwide, provides a historical perspective and an architectural answer:
Previous to 1980, most studio-type ballrooms had to have twelve-foot ceilings to position loudspeakers for maximum effect. Some studios had fourteen- or eighteen-foot-high ceilings for best audio results…
Most second-floor buildings in major cities had to use special curtains to subdivide ballroom classes and higher floors tended to have larger windows and smaller pillars in their structural design.
Kiley’s reasons were echoed by Vickie Sheer, executive director of the Dance Educators of America, but she added several others as well:
When I taught for thirty-seven years, my studios were always located on the second floor. My reason was to deter anyone from coming in from street level. If people climbed a flight of stairs, there must be [genuine] interest. Also, the second-floor placement kept out annoying children opening and closing doors and being pests.
In winter, the heat in a building goes up and the cold air does not blow in, as on street level. Usually there is more square footage on a second-floor than a street-level…
Kiley, still a major copyright owner in the ballroom industry, notes that dance studios are invading shopping malls, where many have landed on the ground floor.
Submitted by a caller on the Carol Hemingway show, KGIL-AM, Los Angeles, California .
Why Are 25-Watt Light Bulbs More Expensive Than 40-, 60-, 75-, and 100-Watt Bulbs?
The old rule of supply and demand takes effect here. You don’t always get what you pay for. Richard H. Dowhan, manager of public affairs for GTE, explains:
The higher-wattage, 40-, 60-, 75-, and 100-watt light bulbs are manufactured in huge quantity because they are in demand by consumers. The 25-watt light bulb has limited uses, therefore fewer bulbs are manufactured and you don’t get the inherent cost advantage of large productions runs.
Secondly, in order to make it worthwhile for the retailer to stock a slow mover, which takes up shelf and storage space for longer periods of time, you increase the profit margin. These two factors result in a higher price.
Submitted by Alan Snyder of Palo
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