I had a totally different blog post planned for this week and then this appeared on Google….

Frankie Manning Birthday google doodle

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.

Frankie Manning in Toronto

Happy Birthday Frankie, I sure do hope your Swingin’out somewhere in the great beyond on your special day!

Frankie Manning

Did you see the Doodle today?

FURTHER READING ON LINDY HOP (collection of archived vintage blog posts):

Liz 🙂