Células del Ligamento Periodontal (PDLSC)

1934 and 1943

The new generation of the Savoy Lindy Hoppers were particularly active between 1934 and 1943. This Second Generation of the Savoy Lindy Hoppers was generally known as Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers, according to its manager, Herbert

‘Whitey’ White. During its function, the company was divided under different sub-groups with names like Whyte’s Hopping Maniacs, Whitey’s Congaroo Dancers, Whitey’s Jitterbugs, Whitey’s Dancers, Whitey’s Hoppers, and Whitey’s Steppers, just to name a few. Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers was the company which worked at the Savoy Ballroom, participating in the Lindy Hop competitions, performances, and masqueraded as ‘social dancers’ in the front of the ballroom audience.

Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers had diversified operations. One of the most important of the operations was their participation in the Harvest Moon Ball contest in New York. The Harvest Moon Ball contest was a New York area contest, which was organized in Madison Square Garden, and it was sponsored by the Daily News between 1935 and 1974. The contest had various dances such as the foxtrot, waltz,

633Monaghan 2004, p. 51. There might be another example about naming the dance step after the Lindy Hopper. Savoy Lindy Hopper Sugar Sullivan mentioned a step called the

‘Snooky step’ in her interview, which she called by that name because the step was used by the Lindy Hopper named Snooky. See: Sugar Sullivan interview, interviewed by Sally Sommer, March 2001 in Durham, New York Public Library. As the author of this dissertation has discussed with different Lindy Hop dancers from the 1960s period, the Snooky step still was known as the name of the certain air step combination. However, the name never became popular among the white newcomers from the 1980s and later decades, to whom the combination is mostly unknown, at least, by the name. This is easily proved by googling with the search words “snooky step”. The search gave 7 hits, which all concerned something other than the Snooky step. For comparison, the search words “shorty george”

and “step” gave 35,100 hits. The search was done on January 17, 2015.

rhumba, tango, and the Lindy Hop, which gathered dancers from the greater New York area. It was sold out every year, at least between 1935 and 1943. Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers dominated the Lindy Hop performances in the New York area. The company also became famous around the United States and the world as its nearly one hundred members continued to spread the Lindy Hop in the form of different sub-groups.⁶³⁴

4.3.1 The Beginning

Herbert ‘Whitey’ White, who was born sometime at the end of the nineteenth century in East Harlem, was the manager of the group. He started as a dancing waiter at Baron Wilkins’ Exclusive Club at West 134^th Street and 7^th Avenue in Harlem, somewhere in the end of the 1910s. Next, he taught dancing waiters at Small’s Sugar Cane Club at West 135^th Street and 5^th Avenue before 1925. There also have been claims about him as a 369^th Regiment Sergeant in World War I, as a prizefighter, and as an Alhambra Ballroom bouncer. Herbert White himself only confirmed that he participated in World War I. At the latest, in 1927, he worked at the Savoy Ballroom as a bouncer, then becoming a floor manager there.⁶³⁵ White’s activities also concentrated on the Jolly Fellows social club, which was connected to different functions in Harlem, from the Lindy Hop and social leisure activities, to petty gangsterism. Herbert White was the founder of the Jolly Fellows and the leader of the club from the beginning, likely from 1923.⁶³⁶

634See for activities of Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers and the Harvest Moon Ball for example:

Monaghan 2005, pp. 40-42, 67-68 and 72. See about different names of Herbert White’s groups for example: Manning and Millman 2007, pp. 125, 135, 162 and 182.

635Archer Winsten, ’Wake of the News’, New York Post, May 7, 1936, p. 21. About the prizefighter status see: Stearns 1994, p. 317. Leon James, who Stearns actually quotes, although Al Minns is mentioned as the quoted person, also claims that White was bouncer at Alhambra Ballroom and sergeant in 369th Regiment in World War I. However, there does not exist any other evidence for those claims. The ’Wake of the News’ article was likely made according to White’s own account to the reporter. He did not mention anything like that.

When it comes to the prizefighter claim, White’s dancers, Frankie Manning and Willie Jones, also mentioned that White was a prizefighter in the past. Possibly White himself said that to his dancers. See: Manning and Millman 2007, p. 75 and Robert Crease, ‘Willie Jones’, Footnotes: Spring 1990. Vol 5, No 1, published by The New York Swing Dance Society. Also Robert P. Crease claims, based on Manning and Miller’s interview in 1987, that White was an ex-prize fighter and born in the East Harlem in the end of the 19^th Century. See: Robert P.

Crease, ‘Last Of The Lindy Hoppers’, The Village Voice, August 25, 1987, p. 28. When it comes to White’s bouncer status at the Savoy and his army career see: Lilian Johnson, ‘From Bouncer to Jitterbug Trainer’, The Afro-American, August 12, 1939, p. 11.

636About White as the leader of the Jolly Fellows, see: Stearns 1994, p. 317; Manning and Millman 2007, p. 77; Monaghan 2004, p. 51; George Snowden interview December 17, 1959 and Leon James & Al Minns interview, December 1959, Marshall Stearns papers, the Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University; Robert Crease, ‘Willie Jones’, Footnotes:

Spring 1990. Vol 5, no 1, published by The New York Swing Dance Society. See from the Minns & James interview Leon James’ comments about White. In addition to that, George Snowden claimed in his interview that the Jolly Fellows was founded in 1923, and Leon

At the latest, around 1933-1934, White started to recruit dancers for his group at the Savoy Ballroom. His recruiting methods seem to have varied from ”rough persuasion” to “sweet talk” depending on the recruit. Dancers, who were beaten by White or his associates for their denying to join the group, were Alfred ‘Al’ Leagins and Robert ‘Rabbit’ Taylor. Norma Miller, who joined to the group after Leagins, remembers that White came with two ominous looking men to her door and said that he had “rather you worked with us than against us. I think you’d prefer that, too.”

After that, Miller agreed.⁶³⁷ Also, William Downes remembers the same kind of recruitment as Miller. Downes refused first, but he agreed after White told him that he could not enter the Savoy anymore if he did not join the group.

Frankie Manning, who joined after Miller and Downes, claims that he also first refused to join, because his friends were not invited to the group when White first asked Manning to join the group. White just turned away and became back after some weeks, inviting Manning and his friends to join to the group.⁶³⁸ Willie Jones and Leon James, who were in the group before Manning, Miller, and Downes, became members of the Jolly Fellows, and thus part of White’s group.⁶³⁹ Jolly Fellows, as an organization, was claimed to have broken up later, mainly because of White’s methods in the leading of the club.⁶⁴⁰

It was usually claimed that Herbert White was only a mediocre dancer, but he was recognized as a choreographer or an artistic director, and a coach who had ideas and the ability to train his dancers.⁶⁴¹ As Norma Miller puts it regarding the Savoy Ballroom tourist crowds, who thought that they saw “a spontaneous exhibition by a regular group of dancers”:

James claimed in the Minns & James interview that Herbert White was the 369^th Regiment Sergeant and the Alhambra Ballroom bouncer.

637Terry Monaghan, ’Obituary - Alfred Leagins’, The Dancing Times, January 2000, p.

349 and Crease 1987, pp. 28-29.

638Miller and Jensen 1996, pp. 62-64. Manning and Millman 2007, p. 76.

639Willie Jones remembers having befriended Herbert White and becoming a member of the Jolly Fellows. He also remembers that White started to gather dancers to the group around 1934. See: Robert Crease, ‘Willie Jones’, Footnotes: Spring 1990. Vol 5, no 1, published by The New York Swing Dance Society. Leon James recalls that he went through a

“rough initiation”, when he joined the Jolly Fellows, but that obviously did not happen anymore, when he became a White’s dance group member. See: Leon James & Al Minns interview, December 1959, Marshall Stearns papers, The Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University.

640’Lindy Hop Racket Probe Looms’, The New York Amsterdam News, May 21, 1938, p.

5.

641Leon James and Frankie Manning state the same that Herbert White was a good choreographer or an artistic director (as Manning puts it) and a mediocre dancer. See:

Manning and Millman 2007, p. 129; Leon James & Al Minns interview, December 1959, Marshall Stearns papers, The Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University. Also Norma Miller agrees with the choreographer claim, but does not take a stance on the ‘mediocre dancer’ claim. See: Miller and Jensen 1996, p. 63. Pepsi Bethel, who learned from White in the 1940s, remembered that White was the champ of the Lindy Hop. See: Carolyn Keleman,

‘Pepsi tries to keep tap dancing ‘authentic’ ’, The Sun, April 18, 1982, p. N5.

[W]hat they were watching was rehearsed and choreographed dance. Whitey was the original stage mother. He left nothing to chance.

Every detail was worked out in advance, and when the visitors came, he was ready for them. With nod of his head, or a gesture, Whitey would send a dancer out on the floor. They moved to his beat, and with the best bands in the country to practice with, getting results was never a problem.⁶⁴²

White’s dancers were in demand at the Savoy Ballroom and especially in the Corner. There were about 9-10 couples already, who were referred to as the Savoy Lindy Hoppers or “those Savoy dancers”, when Frankie Manning joined White’s group in 1934. The Saturday night contest at the Savoy was a feature where White’s dancers participated regularly and successfully. Occasionally, dancers from different New York boroughs (non-White’s group dancers) also participated in Saturday competitions. They could win the competitions if they had enough friends in the Savoy crowd or if the Savoy crowd otherwise thought that they were good enough to be the winners. The competitions were judged by applauding: the couple which got the most applause won.⁶⁴³

Even a white couple could win in the Savoy Saturday contests, as Harry Rosenberg (later known as Harry Rowe) and Ruthie Rheingold’s example indicates;

Rowe claimed that they won on several occasions in the middle of the 1930s. He and Rheingold were part of Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers.⁶⁴⁴ The Savoy Lindy Hoppers also participated in competitions outside the Savoy at that time. The Apollo Theatre, which had the Lindy Hop competitions, seemed to be the White’s group favorite in 1934.⁶⁴⁵ It also seems that with the help of wins, White could get gigs outside the Savoy for his dancers from the beginning, as Frankie Manning and his partner earned a week-long gig in West Virginia for their Apollo Theatre contest win. After that, White sent more of his dancers to various events to perform as the demand for Lindy Hoppers was increasing.⁶⁴⁶

642Miller and Jensen 1996, p. 63.

643Manning and Millman 2007, pp. 75-76 and 82-86. When it comes to the Savoy Ballroom Lindy Hop contests and outsiders who were there, for example, George Snowden told in his interview about an outsider, Little Shirley from New Jersey, who beat him in the Savoy competition, obviously, because Shirley was a new talent at the Savoy and everybody knew Snowden. See: George ‘Shorty’ Snowden interview, December 17, 1959, Marshall Stearns papers, The Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University.

644Robert P. Crease, ‘Harry Rowe’, Footnotes: July-September, 1989. Vol.4, No. 2, published by The New York Swing Dance Society.

645Miller and Jensen 1996, pp. 44-47

646Manning and Millman 2007, pp. 85-86. Manning thinks that he and his partner were White’s first couple that White was hiring out. Manning’s claim gets support from Norma Miller, who states that Herbert White wanted to put the first Lindy Hop team on the stage at the Apollo, but failed, because Miller and her partner won the Apollo Theatre competition, of which the first prize was a week-long work at the Apollo Theatre. See: Miller and Jensen 1996, pp. 45-47.

4.3.2 From the First Big Break in 1935 to the End of White’s Dancers The real big break for White’s dancers was the Harvest Moon Ball contest in August 1935. The Savoy Lindy Hoppers won the first and third prize in ‘Lindy Hop’

division. The first prize went to Savoy Lindy Hoppers couple, Leon James and Edith Mathews.⁶⁴⁷ With the help of the first prize, the Savoy Lindy Hoppers likely secured being the authority on the Lindy Hop, at least in the New York area. Frankie Manning and Norma Miller, who both participated in the Harvest Moon Ball contests, have stressed that the success in the Harvest Moon Ball was a base for getting more gigs in the entertainment world. Manning states that after the first Harvest Moon Ball “things started to get busier for the Savoy dancers.”⁶⁴⁸

White’s group also kept its competition edge and fame as a winning team, when the Harvest Moon Ball contest was again organized in August 1936. This time White’s group took two of top three spots in the Lindy Hop division. A white Roseland Ballroom couple came third. After that, Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers took all three prizes annually in the Lindy Hop division (which was changed to a ’Jitterbug Jive’ division in 1942) until 1942.⁶⁴⁹ The continuous success in the Harvest Moon Ball seemed to result in gigs inside and outside of New York, and even in other countries.

With the help of the 1935 Harvest Moon Ball success, Herbert White was able to step up the pace in marketing his dancers. The Lindy Hop Champions, Leon James and Edith Mathews, and Norma Miller with her partner Bill Hill, billed as ”winners and runners-up in the Madison Square Garden Lindy Hop contest” were recruited to the tour in Europe, including England, France, and Switzerland between October 1935 and June 1936.⁶⁵⁰ White critic Leonard G. Feather claimed in The New York Amsterdam News that ”Leon James, Edith Matthews, Bailey Hill and Norma Miller”

were ”well received by the lay press”.⁶⁵¹ Even so, the New York mainstream and other U.S. press, outside of Harlem, did not seem to have any interest in the European tour, as the press did not publish any articles about it.⁶⁵²

647The results and winners can be found from the chapter ‘Harvest Moon Ball and the Savoy Lindy Hoppers Between 1935 and 1943’.

648Manning and Millman 2007, p. 92. Norma Miller states generally, that ”The victory at the Harvest Moon Ball put Whitey [Herbert White] on top as far as Lindy Hop dancing was concerned”. See: Miller and Jensen 1996, p. 83.

649 See the chapter ‘Harvest Moon Ball and the Savoy Lindy Hoppers Between 1935 and 1943’.

650Miller and Jensen 1996, pp. 86, 89 and 97; Leonard G. Feather, ’The London Lowdown’, The New York Amsterdam News, November 2, 1935, p. 13.

651Leonard G. Feather, ’The London Lowdown’, The New York Amsterdam News, November 2, 1935, p. 13.

652I have not found any mentions from The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Variety, The Billboard, The Boston Daily Globe, The Christian Science Monitor, New York Herald Tribune or The Chicago Daily Tribune concerning the mentioned tour.

The group kept touring abroad. Whyte’s Hopping Maniacs, as White’s dancers were named for the Cotton Club show, traveled to Europe during the summer of 1937. The tour included Paris, London, Manchester, and Dublin. The show also included, for example, the Berry Brothers (the eccentric dance trio), and Teddy Hill and his Cotton Club Orchestra.⁶⁵³ The Manchester Guardian stated, “Whyte’s Hopping Maniacs abandon themselves whole-heartedly to the primitive ebullience of the Lindy Hop”.⁶⁵⁴ The Stage reported that they ”show agility” in a hilarious dance number.⁶⁵⁵ They were noted positively for their performance, although the papers discussed them only briefly, and without in-depth analyses possibly, because the Lindy Hop was not considered a serious dance. The references to the humorous nature of the performance speaks for that as well. The tour overall was successful.

One of the Lindy Hoppers, Naomi Waller, possibly made even the cover of the Paris version of Match magazine.⁶⁵⁶

The next international tour happened when Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers were hired for a big production, called Hollywood Hotel Revue, containing about 60 entertainers, in August 1938. According to Manning, the Lindy Hoppers were the only African-American performers in the show. The show traveled to New Zealand and Australia, and returned back to New York, likely in July 1939.⁶⁵⁷ The audiences of the revue received them with ovation.⁶⁵⁸

The last international tour of Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers followed the participation in the movie Hellzapoppin’ in 1941. White’s movie group, minus one couple, went on the six to twelve week tour in Brazil, which lasted ten months, ending in October-November 1942. That lasted longer than was planned, because they did not have money for flight tickets earlier, and they could not use ships due to the U.S.

participation in World War II; those ships were sunk by torpedoes.⁶⁵⁹ The Billboard

653Manning and Millman 2007, pp. 134-135 and 137.

654’Variety At The Palace’, The Manchester Guardian, September 7, 1937, p. 13.

655’Manchester’, The Stage, September 9, 1937, p. 12.

656Manning and Millman 2007, p. 137; Terry Monaghan, ‘Naomi Waller’, undated. The author of the dissertation has a copy of this article. Monaghan claims in the article that Waller made the cover of the “Paris-Match” magazine. The issue of the magazine is unknown. The author of the dissertation has not found the issue. The Match magazine was possibly published from 1926. See: http://www.chevallet.eu/revues2.htm . The site was accessed on November 23, 2015.

657Manning and Millman 2007, pp. 153-154 and 159. See also: Miller and Jensen 1996, pp. 134-135. Concerning the return date, according to Eunice Callen, who was part of the revue, they returned in July 1939. See: Robert P. Crease, ‘Eunice Callen’, Footnotes:

November – December, 1989. Vol. 4, No. 3, published by The New York Swing Dance Society. Also Pal Andrews, who danced in the Savoy Pavilion at the World’s Fair, remembers seeing the Australian group in the audience of the Savoy Pavilion in July 1939, when the group was just arrived. See: Robert P. Crease, ‘Pal Andrews’, Footnotes: Spring 1991. Vol 6, No. 1, published by The New York Swing Dance Society.

658See: Manning and Millman 2007, pp. 155-156 and 268. Manning and Millman’s claim about the Lindy Hoppers’ success is based on newspaper clippings from different articles. This is analyzed later in more detail in this chapter, when also the success in other events is discussed.

659Manning and Millman 2007, pp. 176 and 182-187. Manning claims that they spent ten months in Brazil. See: Manning and Millman 2007, p. 186. Also, according to Norma

reported on their Brazil tour in three different articles during winter and spring 1942, saying that audiences liked them.⁶⁶⁰

The first Harvest Moon Ball in 1935 also resulted in domestic gigs. Frankie Manning claims that he and his partner had a gig in New Jersey for four weeks after the first Harvest Moon Ball in 1935.⁶⁶¹ Manning has stressed how the Cotton Club-connected shows had an effect on the success of Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers.

According to him, in the beginning of 1936, White’s dancers were recruited to the

According to him, in the beginning of 1936, White’s dancers were recruited to the