Frankie Manning born - May 26, 1914

On this day in 1914, dancer and Lindy Hop innovator Frankie Manning was born. Find out more about Frankie Manning in an episode of Stuff You Missed in History Class at https://www.missedinhistory.com/tags/lindy-hop.htms

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class as a production of I
Heart Radio. Hello, Welcome to This Day and History Class,
where we dust off a little piece of history every day.
Today is May nineteen. The day was made nineteen fourteen.

(00:29):
Frank Benjamin Manning was born in Jacksonville, Florida, to Jerry
and Lucille Hadley Manning. Frankie would have a long and
storied career in dancing, choreographing, and teaching, and he would
become known as an ambassador of the Lindy Hops. When
Frankie was a child, he had many experiences with dance

(00:50):
and music. He danced while his family and friends played
instruments at his uncle's farm after their work was done
for the day, and he would go to parties with
his mom and watch people dance. By the time he
was ten years old, Frankie was dancing on his own
at home, but his mom told him that he was
too stiff to be a dancer. That comment sparked Frankie's

(01:13):
interest in dance, and he began practicing to music and
studying dancers at ballrooms and private parties. Frankie and his
friend Herman Jackson were going to social dances pretty much
every week and they started getting better at dancing. One
dance Frankie would attend was at the Renaissance Ballroom. While

(01:34):
he was at the Renaissance, he saw people doing the
Lindy Hop. The Lindy Hop is an energetic dance that
originated in Harlem and was popular during the Swing era
in America. It has elements of Black dance like improvisation,
and of European dance traditions like partner dancing and embraces.
The African American vernacular dance evolved out of the Charleston,

(01:57):
the Collegiate, and the Breakaway. When Frankie was about fifteen
years old, he and his girlfriend did the Charleston, a
fast paced dance that involved swinging the arms and quick
foot movement. At a dance, people started throwing money at them.
Frankie considered it the first time he was paid as
a dancer. Frankie soon heard of the Savoy Ballroom, which

(02:20):
opened in nineteen in Harlem. The Savoy was a jazz nightclub,
and it was one of the few public spaces that
was racially integrated at the time. Many dance styles were
developed at the Savoy, and the Lyndy Hop was the
staple dance there. Frankie took his first trip to the
Savoy when he was around nineteen years old. He began

(02:42):
watching people dance and trying to learn from them, but
soon Herbert white asked Frankie to join his dance troupe,
Whitey's Lindy Hoppers. That gave Frankie the privilege to get
in the Savoy for free and practice when the ballroom
was closed. He began refining his own all of the
Lindy Hop while he danced at the Savoy. In nineteen

(03:04):
thirty four, Frankie and his partner Hilda Morris won a
contest and performed shows for a week at the Apollo Theater.
The pair began to tour as dancers. As Frankie had
more success as a dancer and became known for his
unique aerial moves, his professional dancing career gains steam. Frankie
and Whitey's Lindy Hoppers performed around the United States, France, England,

(03:27):
Australia and New Zealand. They performed in Singing in a
Dream on Broadway, the film Radio City Rebels, and the
film Held a Poppin. They toured with legendary jazz singers
Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald. The troop was invited to
South America to tour. While they were in South America,

(03:47):
the US entered World War Two. Frankie was drafted in
nineteen forty three. After the war ended, he did not
enjoy as much financial success as he had before. He
still performed in a new troop, and he toured with
big names, but the music and dancing in America had
changed and the Lindy hop was not as popular. Late

(04:10):
in Frankie's life, as a swing revival popped up in
the United States, he began touring the world teaching people
how to Lindy hop and how to teach the Lindy hop.
He also began working as a choreographer and one a
Tony Award for his choreography and the musical Black and Blue. Notably,
Frankie worked on Spike Lee's biopic Malcolm X. He died

(04:33):
in two thousand nine at age ninety four. I'm Eve
Stepcote and hopefully you know a little more about history
today than you did yesterday. And if you'd like to
learn more about Frankie Manning, listen to the two parts
stuff you missed in History Class, Episode called Frankie Manning
and the Lindy Hop. And if you're so inclined, you

(04:54):
can follow us at T D i h C Podcast
on instag Ram, Facebook, and Twitter. Thanks again for listening
and we'll see you tomorrow. For more podcasts from I
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(05:17):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.