Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers

Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers was formed from the creme de la creme of the Savoy; they were the top dancers in the top ballroom of the Swing Era. With Whitey’s entrepreneurial skills, these Harlem youngsters were catapulted into world recognition thru both live performance and film. Their swing dance innovations had permanent impact on the social dance styles of the United States, Europe, Australia, and even Latin America and parts of Africa.

From its beginnings, Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers was much more than a dance troupe. It was a training ground which prepared the most talented social dancers of the Savoy Ballroom for professional gigs. It was also a social club which kept the young people out of trouble by allowing them unlimited access to the Ballroom– by day to practise; by night to dance to the best swing bands in the world.

Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers was the brainchild of Herbert “Whitey” White. An African-American man known as “Whitey” because of the streak of white in his hair, he was a former boxer who became a bouncer at the Savoy Ballroom. At one time, more than 70 swing dancers were employed by Whitey. He had a good eye for talent and, like a good coach, he knew how to nurture it. He gave many future entertainers their start in show business.

By late 1936, Whitey’s dancers had officially made the big time. His top dancers worked a 6-month gig at the the famous Cotton Club under the name “Whyte’s Hopping Maniacs” Meantime, Whitey pulled together a second group of top dancers to perform for the first time under the name “Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers” in their first major Hollywood film, the Marx Brother’s zany A Day at the Races.

Other films followed, as well as gigs at top venues in the U.S.A., Europe and Australia. Whitey did quite a juggling act; his dancers might be simultaneously performing at the Moulin Rouge in Paris, Radio City Music Hall in New York, a Broadway show and an upcoming Hollywood film. Whitey himself was on the set in Hollywood for these first films. Norma Miller reports that Whitey kept the dancers on their toes, interrupting their breaks and having them do their routine whenever movie stars and VIPs passed by. While away, he put Frankie Manning in charge of the Cotton Club gig, and then the European and Australian tours. Manning served as chief choreographer for all of Whitey’s groups, although he declined an offer from Whitey to have the Cotton Club group named Manning’s Lindy Hoppers. Dancer Louise” Pal” Andrews served as Whitey’s “Gal Friday”.

While in Hollywood working on the Lindy Hop sequence in the Judy Garland film “Everybody Sing”, Whitey got in a dispute with the producer. It seemed that the producer gave young Judy Garland breaks from the set, but would not give the young Lindy Hoppers any breaks. Concerned about protecting his dancers from both exhaustion and second class treatment, Whitey tore up the contract. The sequence was removed from the film. On that same film, Judy Garland appears in blackface!

Between gigs these dancers always came home to the Savoy Ballroom. Their growing performance skills must have brought a lot of excitement to the Cat’s Corner jams, where top dancers could shine in a circle of spectators. And the general standard of dancing at the Savoy must have been kept quite high with these talented dancers out there on the dance floor and competing in the Saturday night contests. No matter how far their professional careers went, Whitey’s dancers were always, first and foremost, social dancers and true jazz dance improvisors, even after they had a number of choreographed routines under their belts. In this they paralleled the musicians of the great Big Bands, who could perform tight arrangements and still blow completely original jazz improvisations night after night.

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