From the Postville Herald (Postville, Iowa), dated August 31, 1939:
Matter’s Ballroom – Decorah, Iowa
Free Dance – Postville’s Night To Step Out!
Tuesday, Sept. 5
Don Strickland and his Orchestra
Get your FREE tickets from one of the following places: The Palm, Thoma’s Café, Blue Arrow Café, Carlton Schroeder’s, Gordanier Cleaners, Schultz’s Meat Market.
Regular admission will be charged if you don’t have a free ticket.
Coming:
Lawrence Welk Orchestra – Tuesday, September 19
Don Roth and his Electric Band – Saturday, September 2
Les Hartman – Saturday, September 9
Gene Pieper – Tuesday, September 12
From the Mason City Globe-Gazette (Mason City, Iowa), dated January 20, 1941:
President’s Birthday Ball to Be Held at Decorah on Jan. 30
Decorah – Tickets are being sold for the President’s Birthday ball, which will be held on Thursday, Jan. 30, in Matter’s ballroom. J. Norman Lee s chairman of the drive for funds; R.W. Kaster, vice chairman; W.P. Ronan, treasurer; Alvin Renaas, secretary. Joe Flynn is in charge of all publicity.
From the Waterloo Daily Courier (Waterloo, Iowa), dated January 2, 1947:
The annual New Year dance of the Decorah fire department was Tuesday evening at the Matter ballroom where “The Troubadores” presented the music.
From the Mason City Globe-Gazette (Mason City, Iowa), dated February 21, 1949:
We Come to Your Fires, You Come to Our Dance
Decorah – Using a slogan that has always been met with liberal response, the Decorah volunteer fire department says: “We come to your fires – you come to our dance.” The annual department dance is underlined for Feb. 22 at the Matter ballroom. No advance ticket selling will be made.
Excerpt from the Cedar Rapids Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), dated December 23, 1969:
The board also approved a ballroom license for Matter’s Ballroom following action taken by the Iowa crime commission last week resulting in the suspension of Matter’s beer and liquor license on grounds of operating a disorderly place.
Excerpt from the Cedar Rapids Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), dated September 8, 1991:
[From an article about Buddy Holly and his band]
George Horton believes the Surf Ballroom stop was a last minute open date gig. Holly and the other acts traveling on a cold bus were supposed to play Matter’s Ballroom in Decorah Feb. 2, but it was snowbound, so they went to the Surf at Clear Lake, Horton said his travels have revealed.
Excerpt from the Cedar Rapids Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), dated December 21, 2000:
Matter’s Ballroom in Decorah was gutted early last week after a fire started from a heat lamp. No one was injured.
From the Cedar Rapids Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), dated March 10, 2003:
Iowa Landmark Destroyed
Fire Claims Decorah Ballroom
Rock ‘n Roll Legends Performed at Matter’s
by Cindy Hadish (The Gazette)
Decorah – Ballrooms – a piece of Americana going the way of dime stores and drive-ins – lost an icon Sunday to fire in northeast Iowa. “It’s a sad day in Decorah,” said Jim Ronan, a board member of the Iowa Rock ‘n Roll Music Association.
Matter’s Ballroom, the association’s first ballroom inductee, burned to the ground in the fire reported just after 6 a.m. No one was injured, but the building and its contents, representing nearly 90 years of history were destroyed. The cause of the fire was unknown last night. The State Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating.
“Guy Lombardo, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis . . .” Ronan’s list of musicians who played at Matter’s goes on and on. Buddy Holly and the Crickets performed at Matter’s in 1958, seven months before Holly’s death in a plane crash after a performance at another Iowa ballroom, the Surf, in Clear Lake.
A Decorah resident who helped get Matter’s inducted into Iowa’s Hall of Fame, Ronan, 52, felt a personal connection to the building and was one of many who braved frigid temperatures to watch as the ballroom went down. “There aren’t too many of them left, especially the grand ballrooms,” he said. From more than 200 ballrooms in the early 1960s, Iowa has fewer than 50 left now, Ronan estimated.
At 18,000 square feet, Matter’s, just north of Decorah and about 15 miles south of the Minnesota border, was one of the “grand” ones, he said. The ballroom began as a warehouse, built by John and Emma Matter next to their apple orchard in 1914, with the first dance held in 1916, said the Matters’ grandson, John Matter, 56, of Decorah.
Wooden benches for seating, pot belly stoves for heat and a tractor outside that ran a generator for light gave way to modernization and additions as the venue became more successful. In recent years it was used primarily for wedding receptions and banquets, more than the show that made it a landmark.
The younger John Matter’s parents, Leonard and Carol Matter, operated the ballroom after World War II. The Young John Matter and his wife, Suzanne, ran it from 1970 until they sold it in 1999 to Dan Telsrow of Decorah.
Telsrow, 46, said the ballroom was rebuilt after a December 2000 fire caused by a heat lamp used to keep pipes from freezing. Telsrow was only insured on about $250,000 of the ballroom’s $700,000 value, due to the high cost of insurance after the 2000 fire.
Sunday’s blaze was eerily reminiscent of the 2000 fire, with dozens of firefighters battling subzero temperatures. The Decorah Fire Department was again assisted by departments from Calmar, Ossian, Frankville and Mabel, Minn.
John Matter watched as the place where he spent more than 50 years was destroyed. “You have a thousand thoughts. You remember things you hadn’t thought of for years,” he said. But Matter said he was primarily concerned for the firefighters, especially after it became apparent the ballroom couldn’t be saved. “It’s wood, concrete, nails, tin – it’s a building,” he said. “But the good times and the memories will last. People still have those.”
From the Cedar Rapids Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), dated March 11, 2003:
Owner hopes to rebuild historic Decorah ballroom after fire
by Cindy Hadish (the Gazette)
Decorah – When Leonard Matter brought Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps to Matter’s Ballroom in August 1957, no one knew what to think. Back then, a good number of people looked at rock ‘n roll as the work of the devil, said Jim Ronan, a board member of the Iowa Rock ‘N Roll Association. But Vincent, with his 1956 hit “Be-Bop-A-Lula” still fresh in young people’s minds, brought in the crowds. “Kids were there before the ticket guy ever got there,” Ronan said. “That marked one of the first, if not the first, rock ‘n roll performance in the state of Iowa.”
Buddy Holly, the Beach Boys and many other rock bands were to follow, as Matter’s Ballroom enjoyed its heyday of rock ‘n roll.
Ronan reminisced about Matter’s after fire destroyed the Decorah landmark Sunday. Across the state, other ballrooms, also had their years of plenty from the big band era to country and rock ‘n roll, before arena concerts took over in the 1970s, Ronan noted. Of about 200 ballrooms in the state 40 years ago, fewer than 50 likely remain today. Even well-known venues such as the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake – where Holly performed before the plane crash that took his life – have been threatened. The Surf could have become a parking lot had it not been bought and refurbished. Ronan lists several that remain: The Col in Davenport; Electric Park in Waterloo, and Val Air in West Des Moines.
John Matter, Leonard Matter’s son, who sold Matter’s Ballroom in 1999, said the business isn’t an easy one. In recent years, places like Matter’s have depended on local, private events such as wedding receptions rather than the public dances that made ballrooms popular. Still, Dan Telsrow, Matter’s current owner, said he hopes to build a new ballroom at the site.
The State Fire Marshal’s Office said Monday that investigators would be on the scene today to search for the cause of Sunday’s blaze that destroyed the building. Telsrow estimated damage at $700,000 but was only insured for $250,000. His own antiques, along with memorabilia such as autographs from the stars who played the venue, also burned.
For his part, Ronan, who lives in Decorah, is hoping to commemorate the ballroom’s demise with a celebration this spring. “Rather than mourning, a party,” he said, noting that three generations are still around who hold memories of great times at the ballroom.
From the Cedar Rapids Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), dated March 12, 2003:
Cause Remains Mystery in Ballroom Fire
Decorah – Investigators have not yet determined the cause of a Sunday morning fire that destroyed Matter’s Ballroom, according to Lt. Rob Hansen, spokesman for the Iowa Department of Public Safety. Investigators from the State Fire Marshal’s Office were on the scene Tuesday, he said.
Owner, Dan Telsrow estimated damage at $700,000, but was only insured for $250,000. He said he hopes to build a new ballroom.
Excerpt from the Cedar Rapids Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), dated October 16, 2009:
[From an article about “The Rubber Band”]
Formed in 1966, the band broke up in 1970, reunited in 1980, broke up again in 1997 after recording its one and only album, “Retrospect.” When I talked to the guys then, that was it. But, in retrospect, they can’t forget their great time as the house band at Matter’s Ballroom in Decorah from 1966 to 1970. Matter’s is gone, a victim of a March 2003 fire. But the music can go on. Doug recalled opening for The Ventures, The Lemon Pipers, The Royal Guardsmen. How as many as 1,500 people jammed the ballroom. How “Five Foot Two” failed to ignite a Charleston dance comeback as Leonard Matter had hoped.
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