When Johann Strauss, Jr. came to America in 1872, concert promoters in Boston went all out. They built a great wooden hall which held an audience of 100,000, not to mention an additional 20,000 singers and musicians. Strauss conducted his own music, communicating with the multitudes through 100 assistant conductors. A sincere expression of our love of Strauss' music (or celebrity?), or a megalomaniacal lust for spectacle? Strauss was pretty sure he knew. Bill Morelock looks at the American sojourn of a reluctant Waltz King.