A set of 1930s-40s live radio swing from ‘The Home of Happy Feet’, the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, New York City is the feature on this week’s Phantom Dancer.

Every Tuesday, authentic jazz deco singer and actor, Greg Poppleton, brings you The Phantom Dancer.

The Phantom Dancer is your non-stop mixtape of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio, recorded live-to-air at 107.3 2SER Sydney, Tuesdays 12:04 – 2pm.

It’s re-broadcast on 22 radio stations of the Community Radio Network and online.

You can hear this week’s Phantom Dancer immediately after the 31 July broadcast online at 2ser.com. That’s the place where you’ll also find lots of past Phantom Dancer swing jazz mix tapes.

THIS WEEK’S PHANTOM DANCER MIX

– has a set Charlie Barnet from live 1957-59 radio, a set of jazz from the humorous 1940-41 ‘Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street’ radio series, a set of 1935 Claude Hopkins Orchestra radio transcriptions and the Savoy Ballroom feature. See the play list below….

SAVOY BALLROOM

‘The Home of Happy Feet’ was described by poet Langston Hughes in his ‘Juke Box Love Song’ as the ‘Heartbeat of Harlem’ – Harlem being the centre of the African-America community in New York City.

On this week’s Phantom Dancer, the 1938 CBS broadcast of ‘This is New York’, Fats Waller names it as the Harlem go-to place ‘where everyone’s hip to the jive’. He then launches into the 1934 song that has since become a jazz standard, ‘Stomping at the Savoy’.

Being in Harlem, and as the ‘soul of the neighbourhood’, the dance hall, billed at its opening as the ‘World’s Finest Ballroom’, had a largely black clientele and band roster. However, the club had a no-discrimination policy, the important thing was that patrons knew how to dance and could swing.

10,000 SQUARE FEET

The ballroom at the Savoy, on the second floor of the building accessed by a marble staircase, was 10,000 square feet in area and could hold 4,000 people.

The ballroom walls were painted pink and lined with mirrors. Coloured lights shone on the sprung dance floor. The floor was replaced every three years because of the amount of dancing that took place.

On opening night, 20 March 1926, the New York Age reported, “Savoy Turns 2,000 Away On Opening Night – Crowds Pack Ball Room All Week”.

LINDY HOPPERS

Herbert White was a bouncer turned floor manager at the Savoy in the early 1930s. He kept an eye out for the best dancers to form his own dance troupe. This made the Savoy unique in that it came to house the best Lindy Hoppers.

Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers, as the cohort came to be known, turned professional in 1935 appearing on Broadway and in Hollywood including the 1937 Marx Brothers’ movie, ‘A Day at the Races’.

“The Savoy held a yearly dancing festival called the Harvest Moon Ball featuring lindy dancers. The first Ball was held in 1935, and the contestants introduced the Lindy Hop to Europe the next year.” (wiki)

As well as The Lindy Hop, other dances born in the Savoy dance hot house were The Flying Charleston, Jive, Snakehips, Rhumboogie, and variations of the Shimmy and Mambo.

‘The Evolution of Negro Dance’ was the Savoy’s contribution to the 1939 New York World Fair.

BANDS

The Savoy had a double bandstand so the music could be continuous for dancers with two bands playing alternatively each night. This also allowed the famous Savoy swing band cutting contests of the late 1930s.

Swing bands synonymous with the Savoy include the orchestras of Chick Webb, Erskine Hawkins, Lucky Millinder, Buddy Johnson and Cootie Williams who you’ll hear with Charlie Parker on this week’s Phantom Dancer mix.

The NYPD and Army shut the Savoy down in April 1943 on vice charges, despite the place having been run by gangsters since its 1926 opening. The ridiculous closure was reversed by mid-October that year.

TORN DOWN

The Savoy continued to operate until October 1958. Despite a big campaign to save it, the building was demolished for a housing complex.

“On 26 May 2002, Frankie Manning and Norma Miller, surviving members of Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers, unveiled a commemorative plaque for the Savoy Ballroom.” (wiki)

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Dancing at the Savoy c 1950s

31 JULY PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney, Live Stream, Digital Radio Community Radio Network Show CRN #324
107.3 2SER Tuesday 31 July 2018 After the 2SER 12 noon news, 12:04 – 2:00pm (+10 hours GMT) National Program: ArtSoundFM Canberra Sunday 7 – 8pm and early morning on 23 other stations.
Set 1	Charlie Barnet
Redskin Rhumba (theme) + Lumby	Charlie Barnet Orchestra	‘Charlie Barnet Show’ Radio Transcription 1957
Along The Santa Fe Trail	Charlie Barnet Orchestra	Salt Air Ballroom KDYL Salt Lake City UT 5 Jun 1957
Moten Swing + Redskin Rhumba	Charlie Barnet Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Palladium Ballroom AFRS Re-broadcast 1959
Set 2	Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street
Open + Beale St Blues	Henry Levine Dixieland Octet	‘Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street’ WJZ NBC Blue NY 16 Jun 1940
Flying Home	Lionel Hampton	‘Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street’ WJZ NBC Blue NY 19 Aug 1940
I Dreamt I Dwelled in Harlem + Close	Paul Lavalle Woodwinds	‘Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street’ WJZ NBC Blue NY 1 Sep 1941
Set 3	The Blooz
Pointless Mama Blues	Herbie Fields and Miles Davis (voc) Rubberlegs Williams	Comm Rec New York City 24 Apr 1945
Chubby’s Blues	Woody Herman’s First Herd (voc) Woody Herman	Meadowbrook Ballroom Cedar Grove NJ WABC CBS NY 18 Feb 1945
Rocky Mountain Blues	Fletcher Henderson Orchestra	Comm Rec New York City 21 Jan 1927
Set 4	Latin Sounds
Agata	Nino Taranto	Comm Rec Turin 1937
Pim Pam Pum	Nita Rosa (voc) Xavier Cugat Orchestra	‘Xavier Cugat Show’ AFRS Re-broadcast 1944
Instrumental + Close	Enric Madriguera and his Music of the Americas	‘One Night Stand’ Copacabana New York City AFRS Re-broadcast 5 Jul 1945
Set 5	Trad Jazz on Radio
Back To Coajingalong	George Trevare Orchestra	Comm Rec Sydney 1945
Bay City (theme) + Ragtime Dance	Turk Murphy San Francisco Jazz Band	Easy Street KCBS CBS San Francisco 9 Dec 1958
Indiana	Kid Ory Jazz Band	Club Hangover KCBS CBS San Francisco 10 Oct 1954
Farewell Blues + Close	Muggsy Spanier	‘This is Jazz’ WOR Mutual NYC 22 Mar 1947
Set 6	Claude Hopkins Radio Transcriptions
I’d Do Anything For You	Claude Hopkins Orchestra	Radio Transcription New York City 18 Oct 1935
Chasing the Blues Away	Claude Hopkins Orchestra	Radio Transcription New York City 1935
Singin’ in the Rain	Claude Hopkins Orchestra	Radio Transcription New York City 1935
Put On Your Old Gray Bonnet	Claude Hopkins Orchestra	Radio Transcription New York City 1935
Set 7	Stompin’ at the Savoy
Stompin’ at the Savoy	Fats Waller	‘This is New York’ WABC CBS NY 11 Dec 1938
Body and Soul (theme) + Chicago	Coleman Hawkins Orchestra	Savoy Ballroom Aircheck 4 Aug 1940
The Count Steps In	Count Basie Orchestra	Savoy Ballroom Aircheck 30 Jun 1937
Floogie Boo + Close	Cootie Williams Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Savoy Ballroom AFRS Re-broadcast 12 Feb 1945
Set 8	Progessive Jazz on the Air
The Gentle Art of Love (theme) + Aw, C’mon	Oscar Pettiford	Birdland WABC ABC NY Jun 1957
Little Girl Blue	Stan Getz	Basin Street WCBS CBS NY 1956
Cement Mixer	Slim Gaillard	Birdland WJZ ABC NY 20 May 1951