| SavoyStyle
Shop
Vintage Videos Instructional Videos S Swing Shoes BIOGRAPHIES
The Golden Age: Whitey's
Lindy Hoprs.
|
The Big Apple from KEEP PUNCHING (also known as Jittering Jitterbugs) Short,
an excerpt from Keep Punching 1938 A film short featuring Whitey's Lindy Hoppers.It was originally part of the black-cast film Keep Punchin' and was also released as the short "Jittering Jitterbugs" in1943. Whitey's Lindy Hoppers perform a Big Apple routine which was choreographed by Frankie Manning. They also do the Lindy Hop in a fictional jitterbug contest. The short "Jittering Jitterbugs" is included in the DVD compilation Jammin' with the Greats and the full length film of Keep Punchin' both available at SavoyStyle. |
||||
| Dorothy
Johnson
Norma Miller Al Minns Frankie Manning Mildred Pollard Billy Ricker Willa Mae Ricker Russell Williams MOVIES After Seben The Big Apple Call Of The Jitterbug Can't Top the Lindy H Cootie Williams Cottontail Day At The Races Chicago & All That Jazz Frankie Manning Instructional Videos Hellzapoppin' Hot Chocolates Jammin'the Blues Jittering Jitterbugs Killer Diller Malcolm X Manhattan Merry-Go-Round Outline Jitterbug Hist Radio City Revels The Spirit Moves Stompin' at the Savoy Swing Kids Swingin'at the Savoy Symphony in Black |
The
Big Apple, a circle dance of traditional jazz steps done to swing music
in response to a caller was very popular in the late 1930s, sweeping dance
halls across the United States. In practise, in social dance settings,
The Big Apple was never done the same way twice because it was called spontaneously
by the caller in response to the music. Listen carefully to the
filmclip and you can hear Frankie Manning calling out the steps.
The Big Apple
routine in this film clip, however, was originally choreographed by Manning
and prepared for performance by Whitey's Lindy Hoppers on a 1938-39 tour
of Australia and New Zealand as part of a traveling Broadway show called
"Hollywood Hotel Review." The "Big Apple Dancers", as they were called
in the playbill, were an enormous success in Australia and New Zealand,
receiving great acclaim in the press and apparently winning the hearts
of the Australian people.
|
Dancers:
Since this aspect of the film was
completely unrehearsed, you have a good idea of the kind of dancing that
was going on in the jams in the Cats Corner at the Savoy Ballroom that
night!
|
|||
Written and researched by Judy Pritchett with Frankie Manning (C)1995,1996,2002. May be reproduced only with explicit written permission. Last updated:16 January 2006. Send your suggestions, corrections or comments to judyp@mcn.org
|
|||||
