A Lifetime of Arthur Murray

For Mrs. Jessie C. Lee, a widowed tourist-home operator in Albany, N.Y., the friendly letter from the local Arthur Murray School of Dancing was an invitation to waltz into a new and more exciting life. She signed up for dancing lessons, paid higher and higher fees to win the privilege of attending parties and other extra functions at the school. After six weeks, she was persuaded to sign up for an $11,800 lifetime membership. One of the school instructors thoughtfully accompanied her home and to the bank to round up the payment. But with half her life's savings gone, Mrs. Lee became disillusioned, danced off to the police. Last week, in the third court case involving an Arthur Murray affiliate in two months (TIME, Oct. 6), the manager and two instructors of the Albany dancing school faced charges of first-degree grand larceny and conspiracy. The apparent reason for the grand jury's objection to the costly lifetime membership: Mrs. Lee is 79. Conceded Mrs. Arthur Murray, vice president of the Murray chain, after defending the lifetime membership: "In her case, I don't think she'd be doing too well."

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