Charles J. Boyd 1909-2001

Charlie was born in 1909 in a house on Tallmadge Road to parents Matthew and Olive Boyd. He used to charge a nickel for backyard performances as a child. Mr. Boyd was not impressed with Charlie’s dancing interests but his mother Olive drove the boy to and from his dance lessons.

Charlie graduated from Cuyahoga Falls High School in 1928 and then went to New York where he worked in nightclubs and continued to study dance. He then performed throughout the United States and Europe.

Coming back to Cuyahoga Falls he worked as a salesman for Gardner Shoes. In 1935 he rented a hall above the shoe store on Front Street and began giving dance lessons. In 1936 he opened the Charles Boyd School of Dance on Second Street. For the next 60+ years he taught dance to people of all ages. Many of whom became very successful.

Charlie belonged to Dance Masters of America and Ohio, Dance Educators of America and the National Association of Dance & Affiliated Arts. Even at the time of his death in 2001, Charlie was teaching dance part time at St. John’s Episcopal Church in the Falls and at St. Bernard’s Catholic Church in Akron.

Charlie’s house was full of collectibles and antiques. At the time of his death a portion was left to his partner James Hay and the rest was willed to the Cuyahoga Falls Historical Society.

You may view these things in our Museum on Mondays from 9-12pm and Saturdays 10-12pm.

Also in the Cuyahoga Falls Historical Society Museum is a room dedicated to Mr. Boyd called the Charles Boyd Reading Room. In this room are the antiques mentioned above and a place where you can sit down and go through old scrapbooks and school yearbooks. We even have his favorite costume and hat on display that he wore during our various parades.

Information used from Cuyahoga Falls: Then & Now, the 1927 CF Yearbook and Find-A-Grave