I had a totally different blog post planned for this week and then this appeared on Google….
Frankie Manning the founding father of Lindy Hop would have celebrated his 102nd birthday today (he lived to be 94) and after years of emailing Google they finally made all Lindy Hoppers over the world happy…Frankie Gets/Got to be Google Doodlefied (not even sure that is a word lol). Isn’t it awesome??!!
Now you may think..”who cares, it’s just a Google Doodle”. Well one of Frankie’s Missions was to spread the love of Lindy Hop around the world and he worked very hard in the later years of his life to do this. Today marks the day that Frankie’s dream became a reality in the digital world, Frankie’s dream just went viral 🙂
Another reason this is such a milestone is because of events like the one I’m part of this weekend. Toronto Lindy Hop is running a big swing weekend with a big band and lots of fun activities called ‘Toronto Celebrates World Lindy Hop Day‘ and none of this would be possible if it were not for this man and the other Savoy/Whitey Lindy Hoppers that just went out on that Savoy Ballroom floor and danced the danced they loved…the Lindy Hop.
Check them out in action in the video below (featuring Frankie Manning).
You can also see Frankie in my blog post ‘A Lindy Hopping I will go-My Favorite Vintage Lindy Hop Videos‘
Here are I am years ago at my first swing event in Toronto, with the man himself..Frankie.
Happy Birthday Frankie, I sure do hope your Swingin’out somewhere in the great beyond on your special day!
Did you see the Doodle today?
FURTHER READING ON LINDY HOP (collection of archived vintage blog posts):
- Vintage Photo Tuesday-The Lindy Hop
- Lindy Hop in Commercials & Music Videos
- A Lindy Hopping I will go-My Favorite Vintage Lindy Hop Videos
- 91st Anniversary of the Savoy Ballroom-Home of the Happy Feet
- Celebrating Swing Dancing and the Savoy Ballroom!
- What to wear Lindy Hopping -1930s/1940s Real-Life Vintage Images
Liz 🙂
Victory is sweet! Great post, great dancing, great man!
Victory is sweet 🙂
fascinating and I adore that pin
It is a fun pin 🙂
Such amazing dancing! I hope you had a great time at your events.
I did Kate thanks for asking 🙂
A fellow Frankie AND Lindy Hop fan! I was fortunate enough to catch him at a LH workshop in Orlando Fl in 2007. He was there with Norma Miller and Chaz Young. I think he was around 92 at the time and he could still do a mean shim sham! He was an amazing man!
Oh I’m so glad you also got to meet Frankie 🙂 He was an amazing man and at the time when I met him I was still a newbie dancer and really did not fully comprehend the magnitude of who I was meeting. Now looking back, I’m in awe of that moment now.
Yay Lindy Hop!
Liz