Roy Brandt  and  Ethel Dundatscheck Brandt

Ethel was born on March 27, 1916. On her birth certificate it reads Ethel Alice Mary Bates even though her father's name was Eric Dundatscheck. The certificate read this way because Eric had eloped with Alice Bey. Eric had been too young at the time to get married so he used the assumed name of Frank Bates. Ethel had one sister Louise, and two brothers, Eric and Ronald. Ethel met Roy Brandt and formed a dance team, which competed at various levels and at several "Harvest Moon Balls". These were at the championship level. The ones that they participated in were the 5th-7th Harvest Moon Balls at Madison Square Garden (1939-1941). Since Ethel's last name usually got mangled, she often used the name Dunne instead of Dundatscheck. This didn't please her father because people at his work place always used to joke with him about it when he tried to show what his daughter had accomplished. Ethel also participated in a Kitty Foyle look-alike contest which she won at the age of 21.

Ethel remembers corresponding with Ada Dundatscheck, her father's sister in Germany. 

Roy and Ethel taught dance lessons at the "Vera Liebau-Institute of Dance Arts" under the names of Estelle and Leroy. Here they gave lessons to such people as Lawrence Welk and Jayne Walton. Ethel and Roy were married on April 5, 1941. Two years later Roy would be sent overseas to fight in World War II. He was part of the Texas Oklahoma Infantry. While he was in Europe he saw action several times.

After the war, Roy started up his own dance studio. "Brandt Studios" was located at 236 West 78th Street in New York city. 

Roy later worked for the Salvation Army up in the area of the Ramapo mountain people (known inaccurately as the Jackson Whites by some), in the Ramapo mountains of Mahwah, NJ. He worked directly with these people where he came to appreciate their culture.