A little inspiration from the 1943 short “Maharaja”.

Dancers: Hal & Betty Takier

Our friend Shelley sent us a video that has been floating around in email. It’s of Eleanor Powell & Fred Astaire dancing. The email says:

A bit of history:

It seems as if Eleanor Powell was just too good for Fred Astaire, as he never wanted to be paired with her again.

He evidently was played down by her, but they were both great, and the likes of this will never be seen again.

The year: 1940 (69 years ago).   The narrator is Frank Sinatra.

It was filmed in ONE unedited camera shot.  Amazing!

It is considered by many as one of the best dance scenes ever filmed

Personally, I tend to like this clip from the same 1940 film (Broadway Melody):

This is some rare color footage of Lindy Hop (as well as some Fox Trot) being dance to the Glen Gray Orchestra at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. This was amateur “home movie” footage that, unfortunately, did not have sound.

Looks like the had a shortage of leads back then.

Ever wonder where Michael Jackson got the inspiration for his dance moves from? This video, “Origins of the Moonwalk”, takes a look back at the dancing greats from the jazz era.

Lindy Hop legend Frankie Manning passed away today. He was an inspiration to many and memorials are in the planning.

As a tribute, here is Frankie (in overalls) dancing in 1941’s Hellzapoppin’.

In memory of Frankie Manning: May 26, 1914 – April 27, 2009

For those of you who are glued to TV channels like History and Discovery like we are, you may have seen this last week. For those who aren’t, the Discovery show “Time Warp” did a brief segment on Lindy Hop where they filmed a few moves with a high speed camera and then showed them in super slow motion. It featued dancers Nick Williams and Carla Heiney. Some of you may remember them as we brought Nick to Orlando for a workshop a number of years ago, and Carla was in Tampa a few years back. If you want to catch the show, just keep an eye out on the Discovery Channel as they re-air stuff over and over and over again.

This guy gives Rob a major run for his “dancing with two follows” money. He really is an amazing lead to do all those moves with 2 follows. This is a good example of good West Coast dancing also. You can really see how West Coast came right out of Lindy Hop. Enjoy

50 years ago today, in 1959, Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and J. P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson died in a plane crash after performing at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa. In 1971, Don McLean immortalized the event as “the day the music died” in his song “American Pie”.

In tribute, here is a clip of Buddy Holly performing on “The Arthur Murry Dance Party” in 1957. Ironically (or not), there is no dancing in this clip of the show.

This is Perry Como and Martha Stewart doing “Dig You Later” from the 1946 movie “Doll Face”. Many of you will recall this as the song I would often play as the last song of the night. Thanks to Natch for the link!

I’d love to embed the video, but it’s been disabled by YouTube… don’tcha hate it when that happens? Anyways, click the image below to play.

And remember… “It’s always fair weather when hepcats get together!”

One last video clip to get you in the mood for the Halloween dance. This is Ella Mae Morse and the Kirby Grant Orchestra doing the song “Quoth the Raven” from the 1944 movie “Ghost Catchers”. Dance choreography by Dean Collins. Dancers include Irene Thomas, Lenny Smith, Betty Stoy, Mike Tremini, Gil Fernandez, Bob Ashley, Venna Archer, Johnny Archer, and Dean Collins.