Australian Dictionary of Biography

Hal Kennedy, 1951

Argus (Melbourne), 16 November 1951, p. 9

William ‘Hal’ Kennedy (1911–2000), showman, bandleader, and dance promoter, was born on 30 October 1911 at Korumburra, Victoria, eldest of nine surviving children of Victorian-born Sydney Kennedy, railway labourer, and London-born Doris Maude O’Shannessy. His parents would marry in 1916. Raised in Whitelaw, South Gippsland, and educated at nearby Bena, William left school at the age of fourteen to work for a blacksmith. In 1926 he went to Melbourne and entered the Commonwealth Public Service as a telegraph messenger in the Postmaster-General’s Department. He bought a drum kit in the mid-1930s and formed the Rhythm Boys dance band, which by 1939 was playing at the Casino Ballroom, Brunswick.

Rebranding himself as ‘Hal’ Kennedy, he became, after the Leggetts of Prahran, one of the most successful of a new breed of dance promoters using local halls and, increasingly, refurbished or purpose-built ballrooms with their smart bandstands, improved acoustics, and sprung dance floors. Dance programs widened beyond Old-Time (the waltz, veleta, Boston two-step, and the lancers) to incorporate Modern or New Vogue dances (such as the foxtrot, quickstep, and tango). The 50/50 dance—half Old-Time, the other Modern—became the new standard.

Kennedy had the imagination and flair to cater for the spirit of Melbourne in World War II. Ballroom dancing appealed to a society enjoying full employment and prosperity, yet working long and staggered hours, experiencing shortages of consumer goods, and coping with heightened anxiety. The thousands of American marines who joined workers and local servicemen and women in the search for entertainment and romance added a frisson to Melbourne’s dance scene.

Responding quickly to the demand for jazz and swing, by the spring of 1941 Kennedy and his Rhythm Boys were playing 50/50 at the Ziegfeld Palais, Glenferrie, on Thursdays, and at the Brunswick Town Hall on Saturdays. A year later his ‘Ragtime Band’ was at Malvern Town Hall and his Rhythm Boys were at Richmond. In February 1943 his ‘Renowned American Style Swing Band’ featured on Friday nights at Yarraville and by August he was billed at Glenferrie as ‘Hal Kennedy’s Swingsters.’ Decorum was preserved: he welcomed servicemen and women in uniform, but did not permit jitterbugging, a dance probably introduced by American servicemen. He also maintained a strict dress code of jackets and ties for the men and discouraged alcohol.

In 1944 Kennedy began to abandon his role as bandleader and compere in favour of dance promotion and management, adding to his shows guest musicians, singers, and comedians. From October that year he held weekly dances at the Martini Ballroom, Moonee Ponds, where he became manager, and in 1946 he added the Victor Ballroom at Footscray to his regular schedule. At Christmas that year he observed that while he ‘still likes to “sit in” occasionally, and really prefers playing to promoting’ (Age 1946, 5), he had given up his day job as a postman to run six dances every week at Moonee Ponds, Footscray, the Kensington Town Hall, and at Prahran.

After the war Kennedy’s shows became more elaborate. He featured stage personalities as guest artists and advertised themed nights to encourage fancy dress jollity. Winter 1947 brought a series of ‘Dance and Romance’ shows at Collingwood Town Hall, with non-stop 50/50 music from two bands and five vocalists. When the police banned Monte Carlo elimination dance prizes as a disguised form of lottery, he devised other ways of awarding lucky prizes.

On 20 March 1931, aged nineteen, Kennedy had married Elsie Elizabeth Belton at the registry office in Collins Street, Melbourne. The couple had two children, John and Betty, before divorcing in 1948. On 15 November 1951 at the Collins Street Independent Church, he married Sybil Clare Steventon, née Fraser, with whom he had three children: Hal Richard (Rick), Brett, and Sheron. Sybil was a ballroom dancing enthusiast who became an effective business partner, and the involvement of their children would make it truly a family business.

In 1951 the Melbourne Argus described Kennedy somewhat raffishly as a ‘dance band leader and teenage idol’ (Argus 1951, 9). By then his principal base was the remodelled Orama Ballroom at Footscray. In 1953, the square-dancing craze having arrived in Australia, he employed instructors and popular callers and joined the 3KZ radio station’s weekly relays from the Orama. The boom, however, was short-lived. From the mid-1950s rock’n’roll, together with television and drive-in cinemas, divided the generations and shrank ballroom attendances. Kennedy’s business survival was helped when the Leggett family retired in 1956 and chose him to continue their famous ballroom at Prahran. He ran his dances there until a devastating fire in 1976 forced him to transfer to the St Kilda Town Hall. Another fire at St Kilda in 1991 brought his business to a close.

Kennedy’s hobbies included building and racing speedboats, and through his business he was involved in charity work. An active fund-raiser for the Footscray Hospital, opened in 1953, he was later appointed a life governor, along with his wife and son Rick. The reopening of the St Kilda Town Hall in 1994 saw him honoured for his lifetime contribution to ballroom dancing. Suffering from both Parkinson’s disease and dementia, he died on 3 February 2000 at Rosebud. He was survived by Sybil and their three children, and the two children of his first marriage. In an obituary his wife described him as ‘a generous, yet modest man, who lived life to the full’ (Kennedy 2000, 7). Their daughter Sheron continued his enthusiasm as a teacher of dance.