Harlem's Savoy Ballroom was a major music and dance powerhouse of the SWING ERA that lasted from the early 1930's to the mid 1940's. The Savoy actually lasted longer than those two decades. Spanning the styles of popular music and dance that preceded and followed Swing from Charleston to Rock'n'Roll meant that that whilst it was a gathering point for the various cultural ingredients of the Swing mix it also had a strong influence on what happened after the hey day of Swing was over. This site celebrates the whole Savoy history and seeks to gather new information about those glorious years as well as to share what has been learnt.

The sad truth is that the Savoy records were destroyed and thus in order to understand its history we are obliged to undertake the laborious task of collecting surviving fragments of information and gathering oral recollections in order to piece together the main facets of the story. However this loss is greatly offset by the continued presence of former Savoy regulars both celebrated and relatively unknown. Frankie Manning and Norma Miller, members of the legendary 1930's dance act Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, are the best known today. They have drawn on the rich legacy of Savoy music and dance to bring back to the foreground many memories of that fabulous ballroom. There are still many other former dancers - George and Sugar Sullivan, Sonny Allen, James "Little Tops" Brown, Elnora Dyson, Dawn Hampton, Willie Posey, Pepsi Bethel, Charlotte Thacker, Vicky Diaz, Eunice Callen, Pal Andrews etc all of whom treasure cherished memories of the times when the floor bounced in perfect synch. with the music and it seemed that swing would last for ever.

One main source of information that is often used to write about the Savoy is the 1951 publication THE SAVOY STORY which the ballroom self-produced to commemorate the 25th anniversary of its opening. Key parts of this publication are reproduced in this site so that the Savoy can be read about in its own words. There is nothing quite like hearing the original music played at the Savoy, watching the few fragmentary dance clips that were recorded there or reading first hand accounts written or recalled by people who went there. This site hopes to provide more accurate source material in order to break the endless recycling of the same few stories that always appear when the Savoy's name gets mentioned in print and which seem to get progressively inaccurate each time they are repeated. From now on it will be possible to easily check these stories against original accounts. We are thus particularly interested in including memories of the Savoy from anyone who went there, worked there or knows of other locations of similar material. Whilst this site is concerned with commemorating an important American cultural institution, it also has a specific purpose in terms of understanding the specific dynamic that enabled it to produce such outstanding music and dance.

Many of us who wish fervently for a major reprise of the music and dance of the Swing Era are beginning to realise that the success of venues like the Savoy weren't accidental. Certain people went out of their way to create the conditions that enabled it to flourish. Exactly how the plans of those individuals interacted with the happy throngs of people who were just out to enjoy themselves and have a good time is not easy to pinpoint, but perhaps if we collect more first hand information we can get a lot closer to the real story.

The Savoy went through several different phases of existence. At times it was extremely well known through radio broadcasts and Hollywood and Broadway involvement. At other times it kept to itself, although the dancers still swung out as skillfully as ever. We intend to celebrate the whole history of the Savoy and the fantastic music and dance it facilitated. The Savoy Ballroom meant, and can still mean, different things depending on your approach and involvement with jazz. To many musicians and even overseas jazz fans, who never made the journey to New York, it was a famous venue where outstanding bands played. To others it was the place where Ella Fitzgerald and other well-known vocalists launched their careers. For today's new enthusiasts it was the home of Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, the best known group of dancers of this genre and especially the place where Frankie Manning and Norma Miller strutted their stuff. Yet again it was a favourite ballroom for the millions of people who actually went there from Harlem, all over the USA and around the world to dance the night away.

Putting first hand accounts of the Savoy together inevitably entails bringing contradictory versions and stories to the fore. However that's true of anything. As the ancient Greeks put it "You can never jump into the same river twice." The one solid fact that we do know is that each new generation that passed through the Savoy was totally convinced that their experience was uniquely superior to any other group that danced there. In a way they could all be right in that the Savoy represented something special to each generation that was fortunate enough to swing out on its superlative floor, although of course each individual claim does not cancel out the validity of the competing versions of the other generations. This site is not aimed at final answers but at stimulating a continuing investigation that will yield the information that you the reader will understand in your own way.