The Savoy King: Chick Webb & the Music That Changed America

It seems like there is going to be a movie made about Chick Webb, Ella Fitzgerald and the Savoy Ballroom called The Savoy King: Chick Webb and the Music That Changed America. Check out the video clips.

The documentary features interviews with Frankie Manning and Norma Miller.






(via Charlie)
What do you think of the movie? Please comment.

Watch the Birdie - Hellzapoppin

Usually you will hear the song Watch the Birdie sung by Anita O'day but it first appeared in the movie Hellzapoppin'. Here is a video clip from Hellzapoppin' with Watch the Birdie, the song is sung by Martha Raye.



Before I knew about this clip I always felt like there where something more to the story than what was told in the lyrics, now having seen the clip from Hellzapoppin' (1941), the lyrics make perfect sense.

In this clip there is lindy hop dance sequence where Betty (Martha Raye) dances with Dean Collins. When experienced lindy hoppers think of Hellzapoppin they mostly think of another famous dance sequence from this movie with Frankie Manning, Norma Miller and Al Minns and the rest of the dance troupe Harlem Cangeroos. Therefor I thought it would be nice to show some other swing dancing from that movie.

The Anita O'day version of Watch the Birdie is a great one (Gene Krupas Orchestra is playing), but be careful when you are djing it if you got a lot of beginning dancers on the dance floor because it has some tricky breaks in it.

And while we are talking about birds and photography (well, kind of...), I must show you a cartoon that is played at every Christmas Eve on Swedish television at 3 o'clock. It, together with some other cartoons, has been shown for 30 years, it's a modern tradition.



What do you think of Watch the Birdie (both the Hellzapoppin' and Anita O'day version)? Tell me.

Frankie Manning: Ambassador of Lindy Hop

Frankie Manning: Ambassador of Lindy Hop is a autobiography about Frankie Manning who is a living legend in the world of lindy hop. This 350 page book will tell about his life and his career and I think it will be an important piece in the history of swing dancing. The book is written together with Cynthia Millman.

The biography will be released in April/May but you can preorder it now if you want to get it as soon as it becomes available.

Update: Read my book review here.

If you don't want to wait that long to read about that era, I recommend that you get the book Swinging At The Savoy The Memoir of a Jazz Dancer by Norma Miller who also danced in the show troupe Whitey's Lindy Hoppers.

Temple University Press lists the contents of "Frankie Manning: Ambassador of Lindy Hop":

Contents
Acknowledgments
Foreword: Mercedes Ellington
Frankie Manning: An Appreciation by Cynthia R. Millman
Prologue: Too Stiff

PART ONE: EARLY STEPS (1914-circa 1933)
Chapter 1. Jazz Baby
Chapter 2. Early Ballroom Forays

PART TWO: SAVOY DANCER (circa 1933-1936)
Chapter 3. To the Savoy at Last
Chapter 4. Whitey, Shorty, and Stretch
Chapter 5. Win Win
Chapter 6. Up in the Air She Goes

PART THREE: WHITEY'S LINDY HOPPERS (1936-1943)
Chapter 7. Going Pro
Chapter 8. Big Time at the Cotton Club
Chapter 9. A Big Apple for Whitey
Chapter 10. On Broadway and In the Movies
Chapter 11. Stranded in Rio

PART FOUR: WAR AND HOME (1943-1984)
Chapter 12. Dancer Interrupted
Chapter 13. The Congaroo Dancers and a Day Job

PART FIVE: SECOND ACT (1984-present)
Chapter 14. Revival

APPENDIXES
A. Frankie Manning Timeline
B. Biographies of Lindy Hoppers
C. List of Works Cited or Consulted
C. Frankie's List of Swing Dance on Film/TV
D. Swing Dance Resources
E. Swing Dance Organizations and Events Index

What are your thoughts about this book? Tell me.