Frank "Killer Joe" Piro (2 March 1921 – 5 February 1989) was a dance instructor to
high society who popularized steps of the
discotheque era of the 1960s and 1970s.
[Killer Joe Piro, Who Popularized Discotheque Dancing, Dies at 68 - New York Times](_blank)
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Early life
Piro was born in East Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street (Manhattan), 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and 110th Street (Manhattan), ...
, the son of an Italian tailor. He described himself as 'skinny and ugly', and, to meet girls, began dancing. Piro got hooked on dance by frequenting the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem in his late teens.
He won his moniker at the dance contests that were a big feature of the New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
scene in the 1940s. The "Killer Joe" nickname comes from a supposed ability to wear out one partner after the other on the dance floor. It has been suggested that the John Travolta
John Joseph Travolta (born February 18, 1954) is an American actor. He came to public attention during the 1970s, appearing on the television sitcom ''Welcome Back, Kotter'' (1975–1979) and starring in the box office successes ''Carrie'' (19 ...
role in "Saturday Night Fever
''Saturday Night Fever'' is a 1977 American dance drama film directed by John Badham and produced by Robert Stigwood. It stars John Travolta as Tony Manero, a young Italian-American man from the Brooklyn borough of New York. Manero spends his ...
" owes more than a little to Piro.
While serving with the US Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...
in World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, he won a National Jitterbug contest held at the 1942 Harvest Moon Ball, and earned a transfer to Broadway's equivalent of the Hollywood Canteen, where he strutted his stuff with Kathryn Cornell and other stage stars.[Musicmaker "Killer Joe" Piro](_blank)
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Dance instructor
After the war, Piro started winning dance contests at the Palladium Ballroom
The Palladium Ballroom was a New York City night club. The US mambo craze that started in 1948 began at the Palladium Ballroom. On March 15, 1946, it opened at the northeast corner of Broadway and 53rd Street.''New York Post'', March 14, 1946; p ...
in Manhattan with such frequency that he said they offered him $15 a week to be a teacher and stay out of the contests. There he recruited as his co-instructor Carmen Marie Padilla, who was also a singer and later became the poet Carmen M. Pursifull; he called their team "Killer Joe and Carmen". Piro moved on to serve as master of ceremonies at the Palladium, into which thousands of dancers would pack each night. He would offer mass lessons in whatever step was the rage, and take on all comers willing to challenge his status as the undisputed master.
The Palladium proclaimed itself the "temple of mambo" and Hollywood inevitably capitalized on the craze. Piro can be seen doing the mambo to the music of Tito Rodriguez on the 1950 Universal short subject, "Mambo Madness."
In the early fifties, he opened his own studio on 54 West 55th Street in Manhattan, where many in New York's high society came to take dance lessons. Invariably keeping a step ahead of trends, over the decades he taught what would become the mainstays of the discothèque scene: the Mambo
Mambo most often refers to:
*Mambo (music), a Cuban musical form
*Mambo (dance), a dance corresponding to mambo music
Mambo may also refer to:
Music
*Mambo section, a section in arrangements of some types of Afro-Caribbean music, particular ...
, the Cha-cha
Cha-Cha, Cha Cha, ChaCha or Chacha may refer to:
Music
*Cha-cha-cha (dance), a dance of Cuban origin
*Cha-cha-cha (music), a genre of Cuban music
* ''Cha Cha'' (album), a 1978 album by Herman Brood & His Wild Romance
* ''Cha Cha'' (soundtrack), t ...
and the Merengue, then the Twist
Twist may refer to:
In arts and entertainment Film, television, and stage
* ''Twist'' (2003 film), a 2003 independent film loosely based on Charles Dickens's novel ''Oliver Twist''
* ''Twist'' (2021 film), a 2021 modern rendition of ''Olive ...
and later the Frug, the Frog, the Watusi, and the Hully Gully
The Hully Gully is a type of unstructured line dance often considered to have originated in the 1960s, but is also mentioned some forty years earlier as a dance common in the black juke joints in the first part of the twentieth century. In its mo ...
.
His students included the Duke of Windsor, Sita Devi Gaekwar - Maharani of Baroda, Dame Margot Fonteyn
Dame Margaret Evelyn de Arias DBE (''née'' Hookham; 18 May 191921 February 1991), known by the stage name Margot Fonteyn, was an English ballerina. She spent her entire career as a dancer with the Royal Ballet (formerly the Sadler's Wells ...
, Ray Bolger
Raymond Wallace Bolger (January 10, 1904 – January 15, 1987) was an American actor, dancer, singer, vaudevillian and stage performer (particularly musical theatre) who started in the silent-film era.
Bolger was a major Broadway performer in ...
, Luci Baines Johnson, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Jacqueline Lee Kennedy Onassis ( ; July 28, 1929 – May 19, 1994) was an American socialite, writer, photographer, and book editor who served as first lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963, as the wife of President John F. Kennedy. A pop ...
and, by 1965, more than a million other Americans, according to an obituary in ''The New York Times.''
His fame somehow spread far enough to be photographed by Richard Avedon and to inspire a Filipino guitar band, the Rocky Fellers, to record a tribute tune, "Killer Joe," for Scepter Records in 1963. The record earned the band a spot on the Top 40 pop charts for a few weeks.
Piro was a guest on the February 16, 1965, edition of the satirical NBC-TV program, ''That Was The Week That Was'', where he and the show's singer, Nancy Ames, demonstrated some of the latest dance steps.
Despite being the undisputed "King of the Discotheque," Piro never opened his own club. Asked why, he replied, "I like things the way they are. I don't want to be watching a cash register, watching the waiters - it would take all the beauty of dancing away from me and I would get old."
Discotheque albums
By the mid-sixties, American imitations of European discothèques—clubs where the patrons danced to records spun by a disk jockey instead of a live band—were starting to catch on, and with these clubs, the demand for new dance steps skyrocketed. Record labels feverishly rushed out whole albums of music to monkey or limbo by, or else mimicked the discothèque effect by assembling compilations of everything from the foxtrot to the boogaloo. Piro was invited to shake his moneymaker for the cover of discothèque albums ''Discotheque!'' (Enoch Light
Enoch Henry Light (August 18, 1907 – July 31, 1978) was an American classically trained violinist, danceband leader, and recording engineer. As the leader of various dance bands that recorded as early as March 1927 and continuing through at le ...
), ''The Mule'' ( Skitch Henderson), and ''Viva La Pachanga'' ( Joe Sherman).
In 1965, Piro released his own dance album entitled "Killer Joe's Internationial Discotheque." The LP served as an instructional dance record and repackaged hits by Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson Sr. (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential singers in history, and was often referred to by contemporaries as "The Ge ...
, The Clovers
The Clovers are an American rhythm and blues/doo-wop vocal group who became one of the biggest selling acts of the 1950s.The Guinness Who's Who of Fifties Music. General Editor: Colin Larkin. First published 1993 (UK). . The Clovers p77. They had ...
, and other mainstays of Atlantic's R&B back catalog. The album promised it was as "the first authentic discotheque album by the King of the Discotheque," and was supervised by Atlantic Records
Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...
producers Jerry Wexler
Jerry may refer to:
Animals
* Jerry (Grand National winner), racehorse, winner of the 1840 Grand National
* Jerry (St Leger winner), racehorse, winner of 1824 St Leger Stakes
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Jerry'' (film), a 2006 Indian fil ...
and Nesuhi Ertegun
Nesuhi Ertegun ( Turkish spelling: Nesuhi Ertegün; November 26, 1917 – July 15, 1989) was a Turkish-American record producer and executive of Atlantic Records and WEA International.
Early life
Born in Istanbul in the Ottoman Empire, Nesuhi ...
, brother of Ahmet Ertegun
Ahmet Ertegun (, Turkish spelling: Ahmet Ertegün; ; – December 14, 2006) was a Turkish-American businessman, songwriter, record executive and philanthropist.
Ertegun was the co-founder and president of Atlantic Records. He discovered and ch ...
.Tate Houston
Tate Houston (November 30, 1924 – October 18, 1974) was a Detroit-based American baritone and tenor saxophonist.
He played with Lionel Hampton's band and in 1946, he recorded with the Billy Eckstine band. In 1947, he played with Sonny Stitt ...
, Cornell Dupree, Eric Gale
Eric Gale (September 20, 1938 – May 25, 1994) was an American jazz and R&B guitarist.
''Early life and career''
Born in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York, Gale grew up in a diverse household. His paternal grandfather was from Yorksh ...
and Chuck Rainey
Charles Walter Rainey III (born June 17, 1940) is an American bass guitarist who has performed and recorded with many well-known acts, including Aretha Franklin, Steely Dan, and Quincy Jones. Rainey is credited for playing bass on more than 1,00 ...
.
The record features music to accompany the Watusi, the Monkey
Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as the simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes, which constitutes an incomple ...
, the Swim, the Bossa Nova
Bossa nova () is a style of samba developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is mainly characterized by a "different beat" that altered the harmonies with the introduction of unconventional chords and an innovativ ...
, the Merengue, the Jerk, the cha-cha Watusi, the Hully Gully
The Hully Gully is a type of unstructured line dance often considered to have originated in the 1960s, but is also mentioned some forty years earlier as a dance common in the black juke joints in the first part of the twentieth century. In its mo ...
, the Mlle, the Frug
The Frug ( or /frug/) was a dance craze from the mid-1960s, which included vigorous dance to pop music. It evolved from another dance of the era, the Chicken. The Chicken, which featured lateral body movements, was used primarily as a change of pa ...
, and the Shake, among others. Songs include " The Girl from Ipanema," " What'd I Say?", " Twist and Shout" and " Hang on Sloopy" as well as the main theme, "Killer Joe," by the Rocky Fellers. The album encourages "there is a great deal of fun waiting for you, so don't waste a moment, hear this album, and have yourself a discotheque."
Later life
Piro was featured in a 1960s print advertisement for Mobil
Mobil is a petroleum brand owned and operated by American oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil. The brand was formerly owned and operated by an oil and gas corporation of the same name, which itself merged with Exxon to form ExxonMobil in 1999.
...
. The advertisement described the dangers of driving while tense, showing an image of Piro’s face that was edited to make him look scarier.
In 1965, Smirnoff Vodka hired Piro to create a new dance called the Mule for the Moscow Mule
A Moscow mule is a cocktail made with vodka, ginger beer and lime juice, garnished with a slice or wedge of lime. The drink is a type of buck and is sometimes called a vodka buck.
The Moscow mule is popularly served in a copper mug, which ta ...
(at the time the "Smirnoff mule").kidney disease
Kidney disease, or renal disease, technically referred to as nephropathy, is damage to or disease of a kidney. Nephritis is an inflammatory kidney disease and has several types according to the location of the inflammation. Inflammation can ...
at Lenox Hill Hospital at the age of 67, just shy of his 68th birthday.
References
External links
Killer Joe Piro, Who Popularized Discotheque Dancing, Dies at 68
- New York Times
*
*http://www.spaceagepop.com/piro.htm
*http://www.mambofello.com/articles/mcny.htm
*http://www.upperitaly.net/index.php?id=129
*http://www.streetswing.com/histmain/z3mule1.htm
2007 book, Josephine Powell, 2007, Tito Puente: When The Drums Are Dreaming,
Author House, Bloomington, Indiana, 2007, p 138-139,153,178,210,265. www.josephinepowell.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Piro
People from East Harlem
Dance teachers
1921 births
1989 deaths
United States Navy personnel of World War II
American people of Italian descent