With ILHC and Camp Hollywood fast approaching, the idea of competition is in the air. This prompted me to share with you all about one of the biggest competitions back in the actual swing era besides the Harvest Moon Ball, The International Jitterbug Championships also known as the The Swingeroo.

Swivel Magazine Article

Peter Loggins originally wrote about this topic for Swivel magazine, a swing dance publication which was produced in the 90’s. An online version of this document can be found here and is posted below for your convenience.

The Biggest Contest

by Peter Loggins

In the summer 1939 Los Angeles was a hot bed for big bands and swing dancers alike. With Artie Shaw’s Orchestra on the bill, the Palomar Ballroom on Vermont and 3rd was possibly THE center of attention in the beginning of June. Upon entering the Palomar to see the great big band, dancers were greeted by promotional posters advertising the “International Jitterbug Championships” To Artie Shaws and Ken Bakers Orchestra’s ! To be held June 18th 1939 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Cash prizes over 2,500 dollars to be awarded !!! Dancers looked upon this contest as a chance to finally prove themselves.

Excited dancers chatted amongst themselves to see who would be the favorites and who had the most confidence. Early favorites were Jimmy Renkin and his partner, and Dean Collins and Jewel McGowan. In the weeks to come dancers started practicing their routines using all the tricks in the book to help them catch the eyes of the judges. The big debate was over who’s style of dancing would suit Artie Shaw’s Orchestra, swing or lindy? Roy Damron and Snooky Bishop were favorite show stoppers, coming from Alhambra and representing their troupe, “The Alhambra Alligators.” Hal Takier and Betty Roeser, from Redondo Beach, represented the famous “Ray Rand Swingers,” which the great Maxie Dorf was also part of. On many occasions Hal and Dean argued over who would win the upcoming contest that brought so many, many sponsors under the main Palomar leadership.

By Sunday the 18th over a thousand dancers had entered the contest. People from all over the United States had made the trip; representing over 20 states and 6 foreign countries! Tensions were high the night before, and many dancers could not sleep due to nervousness, however, all they had to do was do what they did best….. just dance. Lying awake at night, dancing in their heads, going over and over the routines they had been practicing only made them toss and turn in their beds. Restlessly they awaited sunrise, which would eventually heat the summer air above 80 degrees. Morning finally came.

The trip to the Coliseum was as emotional as 5 years prior, when the Coliseum hosted the 1932 Olympic summer games. Upon entering the great structure the dancers were met by over 26,000 fans. The middle of the would-be football field held the grand 12,000 foot dance floor, with one side hosting the band stand for the orchestras, and the other side hosting the judges’ platform. The Judges were dance directors sent in by different movie studios, and as they took the platform you could see Bill O’Donnell from Warner Brothers, Hermes Pan from RKO, Carlos Romero from Paramount, Nick Castle and Geneva Sawyer from 20th Century Fox along with other dance directors from other major studio’s. With over 1,000 dancers entered in the categories of Professional and Semi-Professional, smaller divisions were put together in order to run small groups of dancers at the same time, making them work their way up the ladder to the finals.

At 9:00 a.m. Ken Baker’s band swung into gear, kicking off the first rounds. The temperature was in the 70’s and rising. Early on, dancers Freddie Christopherson and his sister Betty won their Division. Jake Arkon and Marion Goldytook their Divison as well, upsetting one of the favorites: Dean Collins and Jewel McGowan. Another team to win their division was Hal Chavoor (Takier) and Betty Roeser, upsetting another favorite, Roy Damron and Snooky Bishop.

After all the Professional Division first rounds finally ended it was time for lunch and intermission while Artie Shaw’s Orchestra took to the band stand. As soon as Artie broke into one of his more popular songs thousands of fans broke through police lines and onto the field causing a mild riot. Dancers from the stands were swinging all over the huge dance floor and not until they returned to their seats did the contest continue.

The Finals finally came in the late afternoon. Under the 80+ degree Southern California sun, Artie Shaw’s Orchestra played away as the division finalist danced against each other at the same time. At 6:00 p.m. the event came to end as the dancers’ final steps made the Coliseum attendance applause with approval.

The Awards Ceremony was next and was held at the Palomar Ballroom. Starting with the Navy Divison, the winners were Danny Stephenson and Annabelle Hoffman. The National Champions came next: Herman Harrison and Ernestine Davidson, a black couple from Los Angeles who had the crowds roaring with laughter when Ernestine, who weighed nearly 200 lbs, went through their airsteps and routines with her partner Herman, who hardly tipped the scales at 100 lbs.

At last it was time to announce the winners of the Granddaddy of them all: The International Championships! First came the runners up: Hal Chavoor (Takier) and Betty Roeser, “The Spanish American” champions known for their fast foot work and ability to put on a good show at mach speed. Then the Big Winners were announced……… Jack Arkon and Marion Goldy from Los Angeles. Jack and Marion lived in the “Miracle Mile” area of Wilshire Blvd. and had localized many of the favorite spots in L.A. since the mid 1930’s. Winning the International Jitterbug Contest lead them to perform in Ken Murray’s, “Black Out,” and at the El Capitan theater to name couple, not to mention appearing with Artie Shaw’s Orchestra and the other winners in the weeks following the contest.

This day in history is now nothing more than a few rare, fragile, and yellowed newspapers gently tucked away, and an old memory that only a few alive can share. The Coliseum is vacant of fans and Mr. Shaw doesn’t play the music that used to move the feet of dancers. Well, at least this event did take place, although long ago, and it gives us all something to dream about as we drive past the Coliseum: the biggest Jitterbug Contest in history……

Images of the Swingeroo

One of the difficulties of researching about this event is while it was held in the Los Angeles Coliseum, it was sponsored by the nearby Palomar Ballroom so some resources (to my personal belief) have incorrectly labeled pictures as at the Palomar Ballroom for the same event. Below are some photos from the Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collections of what I believe to be from the event.

Perspective

Here are the following square feet measurements of several iconic ballrooms associated by swing dancers across the United States:

• Avalon Casino Ballroom (California): 10,000 or 18,000 sq. ft (I’ve seen it listed differently on several sites)
• Palladium Ballroom (California): 11,200 square foot (Now called the Hollywood Palladium)
• Glen Echo Spanish Ballroom (Washington D.C.): 6,500 sq. ft
• Century Ballroom (Seattle): 2,000 sq. ft

This past Tuesday I visited The Green Door, a swing dance venue in Carlisle, Pennsylvania with four friends for their “Song Request Night”. For a dollar donation toward a charity, one could request a song for the night. A bunch of friends from York/Lancaster came out and fun times were had all around. However the way the night went down picqued the idea of redefining my definition of ‘What is right for a swing dance venue/organization?’, but before that I have a slight backstory.

Warnings  

When I first started swing dancing about three years ago I asked the president of the PSU Swing dance club at the time what venues were around us if I wanted to dance on the weekend. He mentioned that the Green Door existed and that he placed in a Jack & Jill there, but to never go there. Now I do not usually like talking about places in a negative light but this backstory has a point, most of the venues in central Pennsylvania (with the exception of one) have always had the stigma here at Penn State from previous leadership that “If you want to travel go to a big city like Philly/D.C.  or else deal with bad music and low quality of dancing.”

I will candidly admit I have reinforced that myself with venues in the past in Pennsylvania and California using terms like ‘neoswing/groovy music’ and ‘east coast swing’ in a derogatory sense. Lately I have been trying to relax my penchant for as they say being a ‘hater’, which leads me to my experience yesterday.

When In Rome

My friends and I arrived in time for the newbie lesson, because if you took the lesson there was a discount on the cover charge. This lesson happened to be on West Coast Swing, which if you don’t personally know me I think is a legitimate dance but in the modern context has divorced itself too far from its roots to be called a ‘swing dance’ anymore. Nevertheless I took the lesson, had fun, and threw in some body-rolls for good measure. The music of the night was an interesting mix though, possibly because it was request night. There was a good variety of westie-music, blues, vintage swing, soul, country, top 40’s songs, and a waltz. What was fun to notice was completely different groups of dancers were out on the floor depending upon what was being played. Irregardless though everybody seemed to have a fun time and i’d say the night was a success.

For anybody who knows me personally they probably did a double take after that sentence. “Wait, he went to a venue that they taught westie, played for a good portion of the time non-traditional swing dance music, and didn’t complain about the experience to the point of excess?”.  The answer is yep, I enjoyed my dances to the vintage swing music myself and friends requested and just goofed around to everything else.  While it was not my picturesque idea of a swing dance venue, it seemed everyone had a good time. That combined with a conversation I overheard outside of the venue was the spark that made me contemplate the idea of what is ‘appropriate’ for a swing dance venue.

Eavesdropping and Revelations 

When I was outdoors I overheard an older gentleman talking about how he worked to get waltz/foxtrot instruction on a once a month basis at the venue. At first he got multiple complaints of, “This is a swing dance venue!” and such. But he said after time people relaxed their complaints and let him teach and have a waltz/foxtrot song played at least once a night.

If you don’t know me personally or haven’t inferred from my blog posts, my usual definition of an ideal swing dance venue was one that only promoted swing dance, had lessons that emphasized technique, played quality music (either vintage or modern bands that are respectable like Jonathan Stout and his Campus Five), and a good atmosphere.

As a dancer I travel a lot to events in Virginia/Washington D.C./New York/Ohio/Pennsylvania. Many intermediate and above dancers on the East Coast, especially the ones who travel to competitive events like ILHC (International Lindy Hop Championships) also hold the standards I listed above. But the most important fact is, in Central Pennsylvania I am also a minority.

One of the hardest things I have had to deal with (and still do) as an instructor and an organizer is realizing that not everyone joins swing dancing to become an amazing dancer. I usually date people outside of the swing dance community and have a circle of friends outside of it, my weakness as an extrovert is I came to dance for not the same reasons that the majority of people do and therefore neglect their perspective at times.

Who am I to say that the older gentleman’s experience or the wide eye newbie who likes dancing to top 40’s experience is inferior if they are enjoying themselves? While I do dance to have fun, my main objectives of dancing these days is often improvement and to the music I have a taste for, which fortunately for myself is what is usually DJed at larger Lindy Hop events. However this is irrelevant for people who are just looking to get a little exercise, meet new people, and have fun.

Ideas to Mull About

This topic the idea of how keeping everyone happy from newbies, experienced dancers, people who like multiple dances, to only Lindy Hoppers is a problem that has been rehashed over the years several times. I have friends in the travel circuit who live in isolated areas and say they barely dance in their home scenes because their local scene is sub-par to them.

On one hand my organizer tendencies tell me to do what I can to support my local community and improve it as a whole. But on the other hand my traveling dancer tendencies tell me to just drive the extra hour to Baltimore or some other established place that caters to my tastes.

While I try to promote the ideas and standards kept by my peers in the international swing dance community, as of late I have been coming to the realization that maybe not the best swing dance atmosphere is one that maintains that, but addresses the needs of the community it serves.

How to balance those two is something I struggle with. I’d love to hear any comments or thoughts any of you guys have.

Urbandictionary.com’s top rated post describes Baltimore as,

” The greatest city on earth. Sure its a little dirty, but thats a city for ya. “

Having attended Boston Tea Party the last two years and ILHC last year, I can tell you the Baltimore swing dance scene is a force to be feared and loved. (Still debating if I am afraid how much I love them, or love how much I am afraid of them.) From streaking through dance floors, throwing epic parties with Albuquerque, to entering contests en masse, they always bring energy to wherever they show up.

Incentive to Strut On Down

Michael Seguin originally posted via Facebook that folks coming down from Philly this past weekend would only have to pay 5 bones (dollars) for cover to see the Boilermaker Jazz Band.  Realizing that State College is an additional 1 hour and fourty minutes away and that I am a cheapskate, I asked if we could get the discount as well. In his infinite generosity, he decided to grant all Pennsylvanians and Delawarians the discount. Afterwards I rounded up four other friends and by Friday afternoon we were off for our first foray to the Baltimore Strut.

Baltimore Strut

The most difficult thing about the night was actually finding the venue, which they affectionately refer to as “a dive”. The Dance Rink is no Spanish Ballroom, however the place has character (and unisex bathrooms). A quote I got when asking about the venue I think does the place justice,

“It is a weird, funky space, but Baltimore has the energy these days!”

As promised, when we got to the door we were only charged five dollars and there was ice cold water and soda. The Boilermakers as usual did an excellent job, they kept the energy levels up and dancers excited. I particularly enjoyed their performance of the Benny Goodman classic, “Goody, Goody“. Also kudos to Sarah Sullivan who also spun some good tunes during the band breaks.

After the band was done playing, they did something I usually strongly disagree with, which is play non-swing dance music. However in the case of the Baltimore Strut, it oddly meshed really well with the event’s personality and I didn’t mind it at all. Even danced a few of the songs myself.

Blues Kickin’

One of the highlights of the night was the contest the strut put on, which was a “Blues Kicking” competition.  If you are unfamiliar with blues kicking, an excellent example is below at 0:56:

Luke Albao was the judge, who was in great juxtaposition to the venue was impeccably dressed. For the final judging, there was a soul train to the song ” Bad Romance” by Lady Gaga in which Luke gave a thumbs up or thumbs down via a chicken wing he was eating who were the winners. The mayhem promised in the promotional logo was delivered, winners recieved a free copy of the Boilermaker Jazz Band’s new CD “Nice Work If You Can Get It”.

What I Took From This

The Baltimore Strut is like that back alley, family owned, Chinese restaurant that you love. Sure the location may not be the best or meeting health code regulations. But the place has character, family sense of pride and togetherness, and is bloody delicious.

Lately I have been on the hunt to find recordings of live performances by swing era jazz bands for my personal collection and for DJing. In that hunt I have stumbled on what I consider a treasure trove of live recordings, at this link:

http://www.imaginaryplanet.net/weblogs/idiotprogrammer/2010/06/free-legal-benny-goodman-mp3s/

Before and during WWII many jazz artists like Benny Goodman and Glen Miller did live broadcasts on the air. While amazing, unfortunately if you wanted to DJ any of this stuff you would have to self edit the songs in between annoucements and commercials from companies like Camel Caravan.

However the folks over at http://www.archive.org/ were kind enough to edit and in most cases label songs from many of Benny Goodman’s broadcasts during the WWII era.

While some of the songs due to recording technology at the time are probably not the best to DJ at certain venues, one can appreciate the different feel these live recordings have from recording sessions.

If you plan to use the blog linked, my recommendation is scroll down to “More Free Benny Goodman MP3 Compilation Downloads”.  To quote the blog’s suggestion,

Benny Goodman (unspecified 795 10 songs without names!) The amazing thing about this one is that it contains 10 live broadcasts of 30 minutes each from Manhatten, presumably in 1937! All are commercial-free  except the last one (Camel Caravan).

The best part of this all (at least according to the blog), all of these are free and legal! If you have any suggestions for other live recordings, please comment below. Otherwise, enjoy!

Visually Learn (Swing Dance Definition): The ability to learn something in swing dance via one’s own sense of vision. 

People Who Can Learn How to Dance V.S. People Who Need Dance Instruction

It is a strong belief of mine that when it comes to being a swing dancer, once of the skills that separates people who can learn how to dance and those who need dance instruction is the ability to visually learn.

Besides being the main avenue of dance instruction back in the actual swing era, there are many advantages to acquiring the skill of being able to virtually learn. One of the advantages of acquiring this skill is in group lessons you can understand material at a much faster rate then people who need to wait for descriptions will require. In addition you may pick up on stylistic variations the instructors are doing and possibly details about the move they are not mentioning for time/simplicity reasons.

Another advantage of improving your ability to visually learn is not being limited to group/private lessons & instructional videos as avenues to learn. Your learning avenues expand to your fellow dancers at your local scene, your peers in the swing dance community on youtube, and vintage clips of dancers back in the 20’s-40’s. Anything you can watch, can potentially become yours. You become your own teacher and responsible for learning.

Lastly, when it comes to learning choreography (which some people dread like the plague) it gives you a serious edge in understanding and storing the material. On a personal note I notice people who tend to struggle with choreography are also those who tend to have trouble visually picking things up and require the instructor to repeat which moves, with what counts, happen after what moves.

By visually learning you; gain the ability to acquire material on average faster in group classes, notice details in the instructors body language that give you additional insight to the material being taught in classes, give yourself many additional learning resources for dance,  allows one to a certain degree become their own teacher, and helps to make learning choreography a less difficult and stressful endeavor.

How to Gain the Ability

The trick to getting better at learning things visually is as you probably guessed, repetition of attempting to learn things visually. It is not something that one can get overnight and like all skills is something to be refined and maintained with practice.

There are some tricks to getting better at visually learning though and pitfalls to avoid. One of the rookie mistakes a lot of people make is they only watch the footwork. Watch how the body moves, often there are subtle clues on how a movement operates, the legs and feet usually just follow from the origin of motion there. In addition when you watch, pay full attention. Even in group classes when an instructor is demoing something, until they say to try it, don’t jump the gun and try the move at the same time. Instead watch carefully and try to visually absorb every detail they are presenting through their motion. When you actually attempt the move, most likely it will come a lot easier.

If somebody was to take one thing away from this I would say, listening is important however make sure to watch as well.

So I was reading a topic on yehoodi today that made me just mentally facepalm when I read one of the responses. If you are unfamilar with the term facepalm, according to wikipedia it is defined as,

A colloquial term referring to the physical gesture of striking one’s own face in a display of exasperation. It is similar in function to a sigh. In Internet discussions, the term is used as an expression of embarrassment, frustration, disbelief, disgust or general woe. It is also used when the person making the gesture does not believe that words can express the level of idiocy.

Normally I am a pretty easy going guy, however like everybody certain things make me simply boggled with how people do certain actions.

However this is a personal list of pet-peeves/things I find moronic when i’m out and about swing dancing.

1. Constantly Talking Trash on Other Dancers

This is bad enough because it shows you aren’t a polite person. However, I have found in 99% of cases that I run into these people they actually tend to be bad dancers as well, which then strays into the realm of being a hypocrite. I’ll never forget one of the worst first impressions someone ever made on myself is when one person approached me talking trash about the non-amazing dancers at a venue.

2. Making Up Swing Era/Dance History

Unlike a college exam where making up information on the spot might get you some partial credit points, when talking about history in relation to swing dances/the swing era you get no points for at best telling partial truths, at worst making up false information. “I don’t know” is always a better answer then spreading misinformation.

3. Doing Aerials on the Social Dance Floor

Aerials have a few places such as jam circles, performances, and competitions. Right next to my face when I am trying to lead a swingout on the social dance floor is not one of them. I have been trying to be more pro-active about this and I encourage everybody else, if you catch someone doing it politely say something. Most venues have strict anti-aerials on the social dance floor rules, so you can always start the conversation with the excuse you don’t want them to lose their cover charge for the night.

4. Constantly Claiming To Wanting to Get Better, Then Doing Nothing About It

If I had a nickel for every time I have heard someone claiming they wanted to get better at swing dancing, I could probably afford to go to Herrang. I am though a firm believer in the idiom, talk is cheap. I wish I could save many newbies from the $40-$120 private lesson where they expect the magic secret on how to become amazing and tell them one of the biggest secrets to getting better at swing dancing is called consistent practice. People can talk about how much they want to be a better swing dancer and then give reasons of why they can never make it out dancing, but that isn’t going to make them a better dancer. It is actually more likely to make me think of them as lazy and whiners.

5. People Who Insist Late Night Music Must be Slower.

I have no problem with people saying, “Well this area has people who are really into blues dancing, so we play it later on to make them happy.” However something I have gotten from a few DJs and people in certain blues heavy scenes is, “Well when it gets later the music just has to slow down” citing people get tired or worse that its common practice.

Newsflash, what do all these events have in common: ILHC, Camp Hollywood, Boston Tea Party, Hawkeye Swing Festival? Answer, they all feature music you can Lindy Hop to with a decent BPM count after midnight.  I assume when people say late night music has to be slower it is because either they don’t travel much outside of their local scene or they forgot to advertise it was a blues night.

After Hours

Well I am going to end this post with some videos of fast dancing after midnight for the potential haters out there.