Schalk leads us down to his personal dance studio on the
estate “Wally’s World,” and even from the inside, this description
ground floor. Light pours in through floor-to-ceiling win-
rings true. A giant white marlin is mounted over the fireplace, and
dows and reflects off mirrors and the hardwood floor.
Schalk notes that the record-breaking trophy was caught off the
The studio looks out on an opulent man-made pond, com-
coast of Nantucket, on light tackle no less. On a folding table in
plete with a fountain and a floating dock with a pergola.
the center of the room is a pile of black and white photos, and he
When I asked for directions earlier in the day, Schalk’s
walks over and begins flipping through them casually.
assistant told me, “The place sticks out like a sore thumb, you can’t miss it.” The town’s people have come to call the
“I haven’t seen these in, well, I don’t even know how long,” he mutters to himself. “Here’s me on the Ed Sullivan Show. You can see Ed right there with his hands on his hips. And here’s me with my dance partner in competition. Look how skinny I was.” The photos hark back to a golden era in dance: not so much bellbottoms and John Travolta, but tuxedos and Gene Kelly. Schalk performed on Saturday evening television specials in his teens, often opening for acts like Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Looking back in time through the photos, I can almost hear the ice clinking in Dean Martin’s scotch glass, the muffled clapping of Ed Sullivan’s audience, and the unshakably cool timbre of Frank Sinatra serenading the crowd. Schalk was the son of two hardworking German immigrants. His father was a skilled tool and die maker who was short on words, and even shorter on compliments. At the age of nine, Schalk started taking dance classes with his friends under the direction of a World War II veteran. As the story goes, the veteran was an aspiring dancer, until the war left him partially crippled and dashed his dreams of ever becoming the next Fred Astaire. So instead, he molded Schalk and the other students into a formidable dance troupe, eventually making them regulars on national television.
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