SAVOY LINDY HOPPERS

The name "Savoy Lindy Hoppers" was used by the successive groups of elite dancers at the Ballroom who set the standard for the dance form and performed there, as an attraction for tourists and visitors, and in varying degrees were engaged to perform elsewhere in the USA or abroad. As the Savoy was open for so long, from the last years of the 1920's "Jazz Age", through the Wall Street Crash and the Depression and New Deal, and then through the beginning and end of the Second World War and then the Korean War, it saw a lot of generations come and go through its doors. Some families recall having three of their generations socially dancing there. One of the problems about the Savoy is that it is often spoken or written about as if everything was set in one single pattern and that it never changed. People are always effected by the events going on around them whether they are aware of it or not, and it worked like this at the Savoy. Some dancers didn't like what the younger dancers were doing and dropped out, some didn't but just carried on doing their own thing. Others were drafted into the armed services, which left the floor open for new "stars" to emerge. Some got married, had children, which meant in many cases the parents hardly went back to the Savoy, but in other cases the parents brought their children with them and they happily played in and out of the booths that lined the dance floor whilst mom and dad practiced. There are many ways the dancers changed, however four main generations of Lindy Hoppers can be seen in the Savoy's history. However these divisions shouldn't be read as hard and fast. Shorty Snowden continued to dance at the Savoy when Whitey's Lindy Hoppers's were on top. Al Minns and Leon James from WLH's continued to be popular and admired dancers at the Savoy well after World War Two. Frankie Manning's Congeroos [1946-54] continued to rehearse at the Savoy but tended to concentrate on developing their act rather than bothering that much with the social or competition dance scenes. There was always a mixture of people coming and going and inevitably they influenced each others dancing.

First Generation: 1928-1935 Led by George "Shorty" Snowden and George "Twistmouth" Gannaway. Snowden had an on/off relationship with the Savoy management as he recalls in Marshall Stearns book JAZZ DANCE. Eventually he moved his group to SMALL'S PARADISE where they became the resident Lindy Hoppers although he continued to attend the Savoy until he gave up dancing altogether around 1939 because of foot problems.

Second Generation: 1934-1941 "Whitey's Lindy Hoppers" led by Herbert "Whitey" White that featured up to 70 dancers the best known of whom now is Frankie Manning and Norma Miller. Whitey became the unofficial floor entertainment manager at the Savoy around 1935 and organized the dancers to entertain visitors and celebrities. These Savoy Lindy Hoppers got the widest exposure of any of the different generations through their Broadway and Hollywood appearances and international tours. Whitey left the Savoy for reasons that are not exactly clear in 1941 and the classic period came to an end when the police temporarily closed down the Savoy in 1943 for six months.

Third Generation 1943-1950 The Lindy Hopping didn't stop at the Savoy because Whitey left but the name of the dance was changed in 1942 to "Jitterbug Jive". Some of the more recent members of Whitey's Lindy Hoppers like James "Blue" Outlaw, Eunice Callen and "Pepsi" Bethel encouraged newcomers to the Savoy to take the Lindy seriously. New dancers emerged like Lee Moates who never won a Harvest Moon Ball, but became himself a mentor for the following generation. There are some indications that Whitey himself was interested in returning to the Savoy to promote the Lindy again in 1950 as "Blue" Outlaw got together a new group in that year under the old WLH's name of the "Jiveadeers" who performed at the Apollo. However Whitey died of a heart attack in Oswego before the performance.

Fourth Generation 1950-58 It's hard to draw a line between the group and the previous one except that new leading dancers emerged of the caliber of Delma "Big Nick" Nicholson, Teddy Brown and "Sugar" Sullivan who scored decisive victories for the Savoy in the Harvest Moon Ball, after some outright losses and dubious decisions during the time of the Third Generation. Savoy Lindy Hoppers were back on top, and a growing number of stylish and dare devil dancers emerged including Ronnie Hayes, Ruth Hampton, Willie Posey, Vicky Diaz and many others who were on their way to re-establishing a whole new Savoy dance supremacy but it was closed down. There was even a newer group of dancers edging onto the floor like Sonny Allen and Ray McHethen in the very last period before it locked its doors forever.