When the camera gets closer, it switches to Eddie “Shorty” Davis dancing with Mildred “Boogie” Pollard (she later took the stage name Sandra Gibson and became a notable female Blues dancer), followed by George Greenidge dancing with Eleanor “Stumpy” Watson, and then “Tiny” Bunch and Dot Johnson. The dancers saw the move as entertaining and in good fun, whereas Hollywood codes of the day might have thought it too risque. Frankie suspected it had to do with a move he did where the leader puts his head against the backside of his follower and she walks off, bouncing his head up and down. He’s the first leader dancing in the background with Lucille Middleton, however the rest of his jam was cut from the film.

Notable for being Frankie Manning’s first swing-outs in a feature film. It’s only a few tiny seconds, but at least we have that much.Ī Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers performance for a film.

Still, though, it’s great to see a young Frankie Manning in a suit, in his element. Whether or not its social dancing is hard to say, as he very well might have realized there was a camera filming him, and changed his dancing because of it. We are lucky to have a few brief seconds of Frankie Manning dancing with a partner in a crowded Savoy ballroom from what is probably the late 1930s. It’s very rare for us to have social dancing footage of the original dancers in the original swing era. (1930s?) Frankie Manning Dancing at the Savoy Ballroom

Erin stevens lindy hop