Frankie Manning (May 26, 1914 – April 27, 2009) was an American
danceDance is a sport and art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....
r, instructor and choreographer. Manning is considered one of the founding fathers of the
Lindy HopThe Lindy Hop is an African American dance, based on the popular Charleston and named for Charles Lindbergh's Atlantic crossing in 1927. It evolved in New York City in the 1920s and '30s and originally evolved with the jazz music of that time...
.
Early years
Manning was born in
Jacksonville, FloridaJacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida, and is the county seat of Duval County. Since 1968, as a result of the consolidation of the city and county government, and a corresponding expansion of the city limits to include almost the entire county, Jacksonville became the...
in 1914. He moved to Harlem at the age of 3, with his mother, who was also a dancer. Frankie began dancing as a child, then started attending the early evening dances for older teens at the Rennaissance Ballroom. When he was older he started going to the Savoy, which was for better dancers. He frequented
HarlemHarlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, long known as a major African-American residential, cultural, and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands.Harlem has been defined by a series...
's
Savoy BallroomThe Savoy Ballroom located in Harlem, New York City, was a medium sized ballroom for music and public dancing that was in operation from 1926 to 1958. It was located between 140th and 141st Streets on Lenox Avenue....
in the 1930s, eventually becoming a dancer in the elite and prestigious "Kat's Corner," a corner of the dance floor in which impromptu exhibitions and competitions took place. During a dance contest in 1935, Manning and his partner Frieda Washington performed the first
air stepAn aerial is a dance move in Lindy Hop where one's feet leave the floor. The term has come to mean a wide range of special and unusual dance moves, including dips, slides, and tricks....
(often referred to as an aerial) in a
swingThe term "swing dance" commonly refers to a group of dances that developed concurrently with the swing style of jazz music in the 1920s, '30s and '40s, although the earliest of these dance forms predate swing jazz music. The best known of these dances is the Lindy Hop, a popular partner dance that...
dance competition against George "Shorty" Snowden and his partner Big Bea, at the Savoy Ballroom. The air step he performed was a "back to back roll" and was danced while
Chick WebbWilliam Henry Webb, usually known as Chick Webb was a jazz and swing music drummer as well as a band leader.- Life and career :...
played "Down South Camp Meeting", which was Manning's request after having heard the song earlier in the evening. The airstep went flawlessly to the music and astonished over 2,000 audience members watching.
Career
In 1935, Herbert White organized the top Savoy Ballroom Dancers into a professional performance group that was eventually named
Whitey's Lindy HoppersWhitey's Lindy Hoppers was a professional performing group of Savoy Ballroom swing dancers, started in 1935 by Herbert "Whitey" White. The group took on many different forms, with up to 12 different groups performing under this name or one of a number of different names used for the group over the...
. Manning created the troupe's first ensemble Lindy Hop routines and functioned as the group's
de facto choreographer, although without that title. The troupe toured extensively and made several films. While with Whitey's, Manning also danced with
Norma MillerNorma Miller is an American swing dancer known to many people as The Queen of Swing. She was interviewed along with dance partner Frankie Manning in Ken Burns documentary Jazz. Discussing the early days of swing dancing, Norma describes the start of her dancing career at the Savoy Ballroom...
, who became known as the Queen of Swing. Whitey's Lindy Hoppers disbanded around
WWIIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
when many of the male dancers were drafted. After the war, in 1947, Manning created a small performance group called the
CongaroosThe Congaroos was a dance group created in 1947 by Frankie Manning after completing his military service for World War II. The group originally consisted of Frankie Manning dancing with Ann Johnson and Russell Williams dancing with Willamae Ricker. Later Helen Daniels joined the group and...
. When the Congaroos disbanded in 1955, Manning quietly settled into a career with the
United States Postal ServiceThe United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States. It is one of the few government agencies explicitly authorized by the United States Constitution. Within the United States, it is commonly...
.
The Lindy Hop
The Lindy Hop is popularly thought to get its name from famed aviator
Charles LindberghCharles Augustus Lindbergh was an American aviator, author, inventor and explorer.On May 20–21, 1927, Lindbergh, then a 25-year old U.S...
, nicknamed "Lucky Lindy" in 1926. After Lindbergh's solo non-stop flight from New York to Paris in which he "hopped" the Atlantic in 1927, Shorty George Snowden was dancing in a marathon contest at the Manhattan Casino in
HarlemHarlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, long known as a major African-American residential, cultural, and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands.Harlem has been defined by a series...
when a reporter asked him what dance he was doing. The headlines in the newspapers in 1928 read "Lindy hops the Atlantic", so he told the reporter, "I'm doing the Lindy Hop," giving the Lindy Hop its official name.
In 1982,
Al MinnsAl Minns , was a prominent American Lindy Hop and jazz dancer. Most famous for his film and stage performances in the 1930s and 1940s with the Harlem-based Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, Minns worked throughout his life to promote the dances that he and his cohorts helped to pioneer at New York's Savoy...
, a former member of Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, started to teach Lindy Hop at the Sandra Cameron Dance Center where he introduced a new generation of dancers to the Lindy Hop. Before he died in 1985, he told his students that Manning, another surviving member of Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, also lived in New York City.
In 1986, dancers Erin Stevens and Steven Mitchell contacted Manning and asked him to teach them the Lindy Hop. Manning at first declined, before finally agreeing to meet with them; he was skeptical that a much younger generation would really be interested in swing or Lindy. However, Mitchell and Stevens returned to California and helped to spread Lindy Hop to the West Coast and other areas of the U.S. Thus, the swing revival began. That same year, Lennart Westerlund contacted Manning and invited him to Sweden to work with
The Rhythm Hot ShotsThe Hot Shots is a collective name for two closely related Swedish dance companies based in Stockholm, Sweden: The Rhythm Hot Shots and the Harlem Hot Shots. The Hot Shots specialize in faithful reproductions of African-American dance scenes in American films from the 1920s, 30s, and 40s...
. Manning traveled to Sweden in 1987 and returned there every year from 1989 onward to teach at the
Herräng Dance CampHerräng Dance Camp is the largest annual dance camp that focuses on African American jazz dances such as Lindy Hop, boogie woogie, tap, authentic jazz, and balboa...
.
Recent years
Once the swing dance and Lindy Hop revival took hold during the late 1980s, Manning taught Lindy Hop to eager devotees around the world, occasionally appearing with
Norma MillerNorma Miller is an American swing dancer known to many people as The Queen of Swing. She was interviewed along with dance partner Frankie Manning in Ken Burns documentary Jazz. Discussing the early days of swing dancing, Norma describes the start of her dancing career at the Savoy Ballroom...
. Sometimes, dance workshops returned him to places he hadn't been in decades. For example, Frankie first visited Melbourne, Australia in 1939 to perform at the
Princess TheatreThe Princess Theatre is a 1488-seat theatre in Melbourne, Australia.It is listed by the National Trust of Australia and is on the Victorian Heritage Register.-History:...
. The
swing revivalThe Swing Revival was a late 1990s and early 2000s period of renewed popular interest in swing and jump blues music and dance from the 1930s and 1940s as exemplified by Louis Prima, often mixed with a more contemporary rock, rockabilly or ska sound, known also as neo-swing or retro...
and Melbourne's own swing and Lindy troupe, the Swing Patrol, brought him back again in 2002; it was his first visit to
MelbourneMelbourne is the capital city and most populous city of the State of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne city centre is the anchor of the larger geographical area and statistical division known as the Greater Melbourne metropolitan area – of which Melbourne is...
in 63 years.
At the age of 75, Manning co-choreographed the Broadway musical
Black and BlueBlack and Blue is a musical revue celebrating the black culture of dance and music in Paris between World War I and World War II.Based on an idea by Mel Howard and conceived by Hector Orezzoli and Caludio Segovia, it consists of songs by artists such as W. C...
, for which he received a 1989
Tony AwardThe Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Awards, recognize achievement in live American theatre and are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are for Broadway productions and...
. In 2000, he was awarded a
National Endowment for the ArtsThe National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
National Heritage Fellowship.
Manning's
autobiographyAn autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
,
Frankie Manning: Ambassador of Lindy Hop, written with co-author Cynthia R. Millman, was published by
Temple University PressTemple University Press is a university press publishing house that is part of Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.The press was founded in 1969....
in May 2007. It contains a collection of stories about the early days of
swingThe term "swing dance" commonly refers to a group of dances that developed concurrently with the swing style of jazz music in the 1920s, '30s and '40s, although the earliest of these dance forms predate swing jazz music. The best known of these dances is the Lindy Hop, a popular partner dance that...
dancing, Manning's years performing with
Whitey's Lindy HoppersWhitey's Lindy Hoppers was a professional performing group of Savoy Ballroom swing dancers, started in 1935 by Herbert "Whitey" White. The group took on many different forms, with up to 12 different groups performing under this name or one of a number of different names used for the group over the...
, his experiences during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and his post-war dance troupe, the Congaroos. The book also recounts his experiences of the revival of swing dancing that began in the mid-1980s, and the two decades following.
In recent years, Manning's annual birthday celebrations have drawn together dancers and instructors from all over the world. His 80th birthday, in 1994, was commemorated by a weekend-long celebration in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
; his 85th culminated in a sold-out party at New York's
Roseland BallroomThe Roseland Ballroom is a catering hall/music venue/dance hall in a converted ice skating rink with a colorful ballroom dancing pedigree in New York City's theatre district on West 52nd Street....
, where a pair of his dance shoes were placed in a showcase along with those of dancers such as
Fred AstaireFred Astaire , born Frederick Austerlitz, was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films...
. For his 86th birthday, a huge gala was held in Tokyo in his honor, which included workshops taught by the maestro himself; the climax of the festivities featured a live orchestra. Manning drew a huge crowd of Japanese and foreign expatriate swing enthusiasts for this memorable occasion. Dedicated cruises were organized for his 89th and 90th birthdays; for his birthday dances, Manning followed his custom of dancing with one woman for every year of his life, partnering 89 and 90 women, respectively, in succession.
Before his death in April 2009, Manning had been planning to celebrate his 95th birthday in May 2009 in New York City at a special Lindy Hop dance event over Memorial Day weekend. The event, commonly referred to as Frankie Fest or Frankie 95, proceeded without him but in his memory and gathered dancers and instructors from around the world. In anticipation of the event, dance groups from all over the globe posted more than 160 videos to
YouTubeYouTube is a video sharing website on which users can upload and share videos. Three former PayPal employees created YouTube in February 2005. In November 2006, YouTube, LLC was bought by Google Inc. for $1.65 billion, and is now operated as a subsidiary of Google...
of local performances of the
Shim ShamThe Shim Sham Shimmy, Shim Sham or just Sham originally is a particular tap dance routine. It is credited to Leonard Reed, who originally called it Goofus, or to Willie Bryant...
(a swing line dance long associated with Manning) as well as many videos of a Savoy-style routine choreographed especially for the Frankie 95 celebration by noted swing dancer and Lindy instructor Peter Strom. On Sunday of Frankie 95, attendees attempted to set three
Guinness world recordsGuinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing an internationally recognised...
in
Central ParkCentral Park is a large public, urban park that occupies over a square mile in the heart of Manhattan in New York City. It is host to approximately twenty-five million visitors each year...
, including one for the greatest number of people dancing the Shim Sham simultaneously in one place.
Proceeds from the five-day Frankie 95 celebration were used to create a Frankie Manning Foundation.
A resident of
Corona, QueensCorona, Queens is a highly dense neighborhood in the former Township of Newtown in the New York City borough of Queens surrounded by Flushing, Jackson Heights, Forest Hills and Elmhurst....
, Manning died in
ManhattanManhattan is one of the five boroughs of New York City, located primarily on Manhattan Island at the mouth of the Hudson River.New York County, which has the same boundaries as the Borough of Manhattan , is the most densely populated county in the United States, with a 2008 population of 1,634,795...
on April 24, 2009.
Filmography
- Radio City Revels (1938)
- Keep Punching (1939)
- Hellzapoppin'
Hellzapoppin' is a 1941 Universal Pictures adapatation of the musical of the same name directed by H.C. Potter. The cast includes Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson , Martha Raye, Mischa Auer, Shemp Howard , Hugh Herbert, and The Six Hits.The credits for the movie assert that "any resemblance between...
(1941)
- Hot Chocolates (1941)
- Jittering Jitterbugs (1943)
- Killer Diller
Killer Diller is a 1948 American musical film directed by Josh Binney and released by All American.The movie features The Clark Brothers , Nat King Cole, Moms Mabley, Dusty Fletcher, Butterfly McQueen, the Andy Kirk Orchestra and the Four Congaroos .-Plot Summary:Dusty Fletcher plays a comic, tap...
(1948)
- Malcolm X (1992) - choreography
- Stompin' at the Savoy
"Stompin' at the Savoy", is a 1934 jazz standard composed by Edgar Sampson. It is named after the Savoy Ballroom.Although the song is credited to Benny Goodman, Chick Webb, and Edgar Sampson, and the lyrics by Andy Razaf, in reality the music was written and arranged for Chick Webb's band by...
(1992) - choreography
- Jazz: A Film by Ken Burns
Jazz: A Film By Ken Burns is a documentary miniseries directed by Ken Burns.Jazz is the last in a trilogy by Burns, following The Civil War and Baseball...
(2000)
- Frankie Manning: Never Stop Swinging (2009)
See also
- Savoy-Style Lindy Hop
Savoy-style Lindy Hop is a contemporary term used to describe Lindy Hop as danced by African American dancers at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem in the 1930s and 1940s. It has been used in contrast with the terms 'Hollywood-style Lindy Hop' or 'Smooth-Style Lindy Hop', popularly associated with Dean...
- African-American vernacular dance
- Lindy hop
The Lindy Hop is an African American dance, based on the popular Charleston and named for Charles Lindbergh's Atlantic crossing in 1927. It evolved in New York City in the 1920s and '30s and originally evolved with the jazz music of that time...
- History of Lindy Hop
The History of Lindy Hop begins in the African American communities of Harlem, New York during the late 1920s in conjunction with swing jazz. Lindy Hop is closely related to earlier African American vernacular dances but quickly gained its own fame through dancers in films, performances,...
- Shim Sham
The Shim Sham Shimmy, Shim Sham or just Sham originally is a particular tap dance routine. It is credited to Leonard Reed, who originally called it Goofus, or to Willie Bryant...
- Herräng Dance Camp
Herräng Dance Camp is the largest annual dance camp that focuses on African American jazz dances such as Lindy Hop, boogie woogie, tap, authentic jazz, and balboa...
External links