Movies with Lindy Hop: Symphony in Black (original) (raw)
SAVOYSTYLESHOP
Vintage Videos
Instructional Videos
T-Shirts
Notecards
BIOGRAPHIES
First Generation:
Shorty George
Leroy Stretch Jones
Twistmouth George
T**he Golden Age:**
Whitey's Lindy Hprs.
Sandra Gibson
Ann Johnson
Dorothy Johnson
Norma Miller
Al Minns
Frankie Manning
Symphony in Black:
A Rhapsody of Negro Life
10 mins., black & white, 16mm. FAB 6260
Paramount Pictures, 1935.
Director: Fred Waller;
Photography: William Steiner, Jr.
Valburn/Ellington Collection of the Library of Congress
Mildred Pollard
Billy Ricker
Willa Mae Ricker
Russell Williams
MOVIES
After Seben
The Big Apple
Call Of The Jitterbug
Can't Top the Lindy H
Cootie Williams
Cottontail
Day At The Races
Chicago &
All That Jazz
Frankie Manning
Instructional Videos
Hellzapoppin'
Hot Chocolates
Jammin'the Blues
Jittering Jitterbugs
Killer Diller
Malcolm X
Manhattan
Merry-Go-Round
Outline Jitterbug Hist
Radio City Revels
The Spirit Moves
Stompin' at the Savoy
Swing Kids
Swingin'at the Savoy
Symphony in Black
This film of extraordinary historic and esthetic interest features Duke Ellington at the piano presumably composing the title symphony, crosscut with shots of a band playing the music. Includes the numbers "Jealousy", and the four parts of the composition in order: "The Laborers", "A Triangle (Dance, Jealousy and Blues)", "A Hymn of Sorrow" and "Harlem Rhythm". In the second part an uncredited 18-year old Billie Holliday sings the blues while watching a couple dancing Lindy Hop in silhouette behind a window shade. Dancers are not credited but Terry Monahan of the Jiving Lindy Hoppers suggests that they are "Snake Hips" Tucker (see below) and Bessie Dudley.
Also on the film is the eccentric dancer (that's a style, not an opinion) Earl "Snakehips" Tucker demonstrating his gifts in an appropriately surrealistic film sequence. Not to be missed.
This filmis part of a video collection calledDuke Ellington and his Orchestra, available through SavoyStyle Swing Dance Shop.