The Beginning of Harlem's Savoy Ballroom and the 400 Club

Harri Heinilä,
Doctor of Social Sciences,
Political history,
Jazz dance historian

The Beginning of Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom and the 400 Club
Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom at Lenox Avenue opened its doors 95 years ago on Friday,
March 12, 1926. The late Savoy Ballroom historian Terry Monaghan argued that the
“[e]arly press reports describe[d], or impl[ied],” that white businessmen Moe Gale and
I. Jay Faggen “launch[ed]” the Savoy. African American Charles Buchanan was
mentioned as its manager. Also Charles Galewski, Moe Gale’s cousin, and Larry
Spier, a songwriter, were involved in the Savoy. The story of who created and owned
the Savoy was rewritten through the years. At the very beginning, Faggen’s role in
creating the Savoy Ballroom was emphasized in the press, but later his role in that
regard was downplayed.1 The reason for that could have been his resignation: Moe
Gale and his family obviously bought Faggen out at some point because it was
reported in 1939 that Faggen was coming back to Harlem with his Golden Gate
Ballroom project, and already in August 1927 Variety reported that Faggen and Spier
were “out of the Savoy”. In 1929, Faggen was mentioned in the past tense as a
“former managing director” of Harlem’s Savoy.2

Charles Buchanan was referred to both as a co-owner and as an owner of the Savoy
Ballroom starting at the latest from 1940. Much later, likely, at the end of the 1970s,
Buchanan told that he owned 35 % of the corporation that owned the Savoy. Moe
Gale and his father owned the rest of the corporation.3 Historian Russell Gold
suggests that Buchanan got the 35 % share prior to the year 1943,4 which could
mean the year 1940 as the starting point of Buchanan’s co-ownership. A co-
ownership sounds more plausible than a full ownership considering the fact that both
Moe Gale and Charles Buchanan were depicted in 1951 as the “founders” of the
Savoy Ballroom, and when Gale died in 1964, he and Faggen were described as the
“founders” of the ballroom. According to The New York Times, Gale “sold his interest”
in the Savoy “to make a way for a housing project”, which could have taken place in
1953 when the Savoy Ballroom was sold to the City of New York. Probably, because
of problems in financing the new housing project and problems in the relocation of
the tenants who lived in the old buildings, the ballroom was kept open until 1958.5
Most likely the changes in the ownership and ultimately Moe Gale’s death led into the
changes in the “official” Savoy story.

The Savoy Ballroom announced in The New York Age in March 1926 that the
ballroom was “dedicated exclusively to” African Americans.6 When Moe Gale passed
away in 1964, Newsday reported that it was Jay Faggen who “wanted “a ballroom in
Harlem for” ” African Americans.7 The Savoy Story booklet, which the Savoy
management released in 1951 for the Savoy’s 25th birthday, stated that both Moe
Gale and Charles Buchanan simultaneously had an idea of a luxury ballroom in
Harlem, but it was Buchanan who “was going to give” it to Harlem. Both of them had
“plans and ideas that were to cause a revolutionary trend in public ballrooms and in
dance styles” also outside Harlem, and practically everywhere where there was
dancing.8 The latter suggests that the ballroom was not originally only for Harlemites.
The mention of Buchanan’s role in giving a ballroom to Harlem might have been

                                           1

included in the Savoy Story for assuring Harlemites that the ballroom still was theirs.
That is especially when considering the ratio of African American and white patrons
at the Savoy in the 1940s, which was 85 % African Americans and 15 % whites by
19469.

Because the booklet and the article about Jay Faggen were published decades after
the opening of the Savoy, they possibly do not resemble the original ideas. The
previously mentioned New York Age announcement from March 1926 suggests that
there existed at the very least an idea of relying on an African American customer
base. Terry Monaghan proposed in his Savoy Ballroom thesis that it should be
asked: “Did two white downtown [businessmen] [obviously Moe Gale and I. Jay
Faggen] really decide to open the Savoy just out of the goodness of their hearts?”10
Therefore, it could be asked how much the ballroom actually was for Harlemites and
how much it was about making a profit by exploiting Harlemites financially? There
have not been definite answers to those questions. However, it is likely that making a
profit played an important role in the Savoy management’s actions because the
ballroom was related to successful financial figures in 1928.11 Whatever were the
original intentions, ultimately, the ballroom was not only for Harlemites because
millions of customers from outside Harlem, both black and white, also visited the
Savoy.12

Terry Monaghan has suggested that the Savoy management was initially reluctant to
advertise the Savoy’s dance forms because it was more interested to create a picture
of a “high class” ballroom which was distinguished to some extent from ordinary
Harlemites’ activities, and which could provide the kind of “social uplift” for African
Americans. The idea of the management’s distaste for “popular” dancing is reinforced
by its attempt to restrict the Charleston and other “wild" dancing among the Savoy
regulars at the time of the ballroom’s opening.13 However, from the get-go, dancing
became connected with the Savoy in the press reports. The New York Age in March
1926 reported that there were the Charleston contests at the Savoy during the
opening week14. In June 1926, The Savoy advertised in The New York Amsterdam
News that it had planned to organize the Charleston contests every Tuesday in July-
August 1926, which simultaneously were going to be combined with the Bathing
Beauty contests. There was also a Charleston performance at the Savoy in
December 1926.15 Perhaps, the Charleston contests were intended to control the
Charleston dancers at the Savoy? Combining the Charleston contests with the
Bathing Beauty Contests could have been for reducing the interest in the Charleston.
Anyway, the Charleston was surely allowed to some degree at the ballroom.

In March 1926, also Variety described the Savoy’s dancing by stating contradictorily
that although African Americans took their dancing seriously, however, they were not
“good dancers”. The magazine found an exception in an ambiguous “wicked stepper”
who danced like “a hound”. Despite the criticism, the article stated positively that the
ballroom is going to success in the future. This was not the first time when the US
press criticized African American jazz dancing. The African American Broadway
plays since the beginning of the 1920 had received quite mixed reviews. In those
reviews, African American dancers were not unequivocally considered to possess
“natural” dancing skills because they were referred to both as “trained” dancers and
“untrained” dancers.16

                                           2

Thus, at the very beginning, the Savoy’s dancing activities were not always
respected by outsiders and the ballroom’s management. According to Monaghan, by
fall 1929, the Savoy management had begun to see potential benefits which could be
accrued from working with Savoy dancers. That was possibly first connected with the
Corner for “skilled dancers” in 1927, and after that particularly with Harlem’s Lindy
Hop dancing, which had become popular since the Harlem Lindy Hop’s inception in
1928. Monaghan claimed that the Lindy Hop became part of the Savoy’s 400 Club
promotion in fall 1929.17

The Savoy Story mentions that the 400 Club was established in 1927, but in reality it
could have been established in 1928 because newspapers probably started to report
on the club in fall 1928 when the “rules” of the 400 Club were published in the Inter-
State Tattler in September-October 1928. According to them, the club could have
only 400 members from “both sexes between the ages of 16 and 116” who met once
a week on Tuesday nights. The applicant filled a “standard club application” for the
membership. After the applicant was accepted, an initiation followed, although it was
explained that no examinations were needed. It seems that it was not so important to
be serious because the club was for “fun and fraternalism” and happiness, as the first
400 Club articles emphasized. By October 1928, the club had already 350 members.
The rule was broken or amended later because in 1951 the club had at least 17,234
members in total. The “initiation ceremony”, which was described in general to be
“just too bad”, was taken care by a crew that consisted of otherwise unknown names,
“Johnny Wright, “Sparky”, “Brown Suit” and Lewis”. However, one of the club
members, George Ganaway, who became to be known as ‘Twistmouth George’, was
praised in October 1928 as a prime example of dancing that could be seen in the
club events and at the Savoy.18 Ganaway worked with George ‘Shorty’ Snowden on
Broadway plays and elsewhere between the end of the 1920s and the beginning of
the 1930s, and nowadays he is known as the dancer who introduced a Savoy Lindy
Hopper and Jazz Dancer Norma Miller to the Savoy Ballroom in 1932.19

A few outsiders, who visited the Savoy at the beginning of the 1930s, have described
briefly the 400 Club and its dancing. At the time, the club consisted of the best Lindy
Hoppers who tried to outdance each other. The Lindy Hop was described as violent,
but beautiful as British Nancy Cunard put it. The dancers swung “in and out dervish
fashion with never a collision”, although, at the same time, dancers fought with each
other when one of the dancers accidentally collided with another dancer. The
observers paid attention to the basic principle of the Lindy Hop: the breakaway in
which the partners of the couple separated for performing their individual steps and
then came back together. They also noted that some of the couples were “dancing in
unison, as if controlled by invisible wires”, and in spite of the amount of dancers,
approximately five hundred, there “was no impression of separate couples”. All that
was strongly connected with the orchestra that was playing for them because it
looked “like one big heart beating for them”.20

Frankie Manning claimed that he invented the ensemble dancing in unison in the
Lindy Hop sometime in 1936 when he was part of the Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers, a
Savoy Ballroom-based dance company.21 Possibly, Manning’s statement is true in its
individual context as to his choreographies for the Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers, but the
ensemble dancing in the Lindy Hop at the Savoy and elsewhere was introduced
before his “invention” as the aforementioned quotations and other evidence suggest:

                                           3

in the movie, Rufus Jones for President, from 1933, it can be seen two Lindy Hop
couples swinging out simultaneously,22 which clearly resembles dancing in unison.

The 400 Club initiation for new members comprised three parts at the beginning of
the 1930s. First, the gorgeously dressed members of the club paraded on the dance
floor while the audience around them watched. This was followed by the actual
initiation process. In this process, “a small stick” was given to a female candidate
who was “spun around” the stick by “three strong men”. She had to do approximately
fifteen turns while the audience counted the turns. After completing the task she
either crashed to the floor or staggered “across the floor to hand her stick to the
M.C.” The male candidates had to “run” through the legs of “a long line” of the male
members of the club who hit the candidates when they passed the members.23
Perhaps, the observer mistook the idea of the line of the members to some degree
because the line was likely for a punishment of those who failed the initiation. Thus, it
was not meant to all male candidates.24 The last part of the evening rituals was “the
“floor show” “, in which, possibly, only the candidates performed, and which was
judged by the audience who either approved or criticized it.25

Celebrities like Libby Holman, Clifton Webb, Johnny Weissmuller, and Carl Van
Vechten, with musicians like Ted Lewis and Paul Whiteman, were watching the 400
Club events, and also offered “cash prizes for a Lindy Hop contest”.26 Also African
American entertainers like Bill Robinson and Ethel Waters were in the audience.
Eddie ‘Rochester’ Anderson “was even made an honorary [member] of” the club in
1940.27 Marshall and Jean Stearns depicted the club in their Jazz Dance study by
explaining that there were no “crowds” and there was “plenty of floor space” in the
Tuesday events. Their description probably did not exclude those who observed the
dancers on the dance floor as the Stearnses also stated that there were “all the fine
dancers to watch”.28 Musically, the members of the 400 Club inclined to Erskine
Hawkins in 1947 as they chose Hawkins’ band as the “best swing band to dance
to”.29 Terry Monaghan claimed ambiguously that despite Harlemites’ love for Erskine
Hawkins’ band, it “was not generally regarded as a “leading” band in the Swing
canon.”30 Did Monaghan refer to Harlemites with “the Swing canon” is unclear.
Anyway, at that point, Hawkins’ orchestra was the “leading” band among the club
members.

Norma Miller and Frankie Manning mentioned the 400 Club in their memoirs. Miller
started to frequent the Savoy after Herbert ‘Whitey’ White, the future manager of the
Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers, asked her to join his Savoy Ballroom-based dance group
probably at the beginning of October 1934 when Miller with her partner Sonny Ashby
won the Apollo Theatre Lindy Hop contest. Quite soon after Miller also Manning
joined the group.31 The 400 Club did not seem to be a big deal to Miller and Manning
because they mentioned the club only briefly in the memoirs. Manning basically
downplayed the importance of the 400 club by stating that the club was not “open
only to the best dancers” because anybody could join the club by filling the
application.32 He was supported later by Leroy Griffin, a Savoy dancer, who recalled
to have joined the 400 Club in a similar manner to Manning joined.33 When it comes
to Manning and Miller, the biggest thing in joining the club, in addition to the “reduced
admission”, seemed to be the yellow and green 400 Club corduroy jacket, which the
members could buy.34

                                            4

Because Miller and Manning were the members of the famous Whitey’s Lindy
Hoppers from the Savoy Ballroom, maybe that was a reason why they did not
consider the 400 Club so important in the Savoy activities. Indeed, Norma Miller
mentions that the club events on Tuesdays “became so popular” that the ballroom
had a radio show “called The 400 Club” which a famous Savoy Ballroom MC and an
orchestra leader Willie Bryant conducted.35 So far, there is no evidence of the
program, but there were radio programs that were broadcast from the Savoy. In one
of them the radio presenter praised Whitey’s dancers who were rehearsing “steps
you never did see before”, and suggested listeners to come to the ballroom to see
the group in action.36 Terry Monaghan has stated that the 400 Club provided the
Lindy Hoppers “opportunities to rehearse and practice” with its Tuesday night
events.37 As it has come out in this article, in those events, there were an audience
that watched dancers and even gave prizes for contests. Therefore, it would be more
accurate to say that the dancers were performing to the audience. Rehearsing and
practicing were more like by-products from their performances.

Also magazines in the US noted the 400 Club. The “PIC” magazine had a several
pages long report on the Savoy Ballroom in April 1938. Overall, the “PIC” article
utilizes humorous and even disparaging expressions in its textual descriptions. A few
pictures in the article depict one of the 400 Club meetings. The pictures first show the
members of the club who prepared for the “grand parade” led by a Savoy doorman
‘Big George’ Cailloux, then it is shown a membership test for male candidates, and at
the last it is shown the punishment for rejected candidates. In the test, the male
candidate stood on one foot. A female member of the club held his hand and tried to
get him out of balance by whirling his hand. If the candidate failed, he was not
considered a proper Lindy Hopper and he was punished by forcing him to crawl
between the legs of the male members of the club who stood in a line.38

Jazz Dance historian and a Savoy Ballroom regular Mura Dehn described the 400
Club otherwise in a similar fashion to the “PIC” magazine article, but she did not
utilize disparaging remarks, and she claimed that the parade consisted also of “ the
“would-be-members” “. Her description supports the idea of the “hilarious” initiation
rites. According to Dehn, the candidates had to exhibit “the current [dance] steps”
which the “whole audience” judged. Those candidates who did not succeed were
punished. While the male candidates crawled between the legs of “freshmen” who
slapped the failed candidates on back or behind, the blindfolded female candidates
spun as fast as they could and then they must walk steadily. She noted that the
“examination” produced “very interesting” and fantastic variations of the dance
steps.39

In December 1940, The Music Makers of Stage – Screen – Radio magazine
published an article about the Savoy’s dancing activities. While the article discussed
dancing at the Savoy in general, the pictures and the label texts of them depicted the
400 Club. Racist epithets were utilized in the article: it mentioned “darkies” who were
supposedly born for the Savoy because of their dancing and music skills, and it
claimed misleadingly that the Charleston was born at the Savoy. Surprisingly, the
pictures and their label texts depicted the Savoy dancing much more accurately. The
label texts emphasized the dancers’ skills and expertise in dancing without a racial
slur. The dancers did the Lindy Hop with air steps, an “interpretation of the “Big

                                           5

Apple” “, and other dances.40 The Big Apple had earlier become part of the Savoy’s
performance and social dance activities.41

In the pictures of both “The Music Makers” and the “PIC” articles, there can be seen
also white people watching the dancers. According to Terry Monaghan, there were
few white members in the 400 Club. The most known are Eva Zirker, Rudy Winter
Sr., and ‘Killer Joe’ Piro. Monaghan considered them “a new type of white visitors”
who went respectfully to Harlem to learn dancing instead of indulging in the Harlem
entertainment in an arrogant way as “upper class socialites” did in the 1920s.42
Whether the white watchers who can be seen in the pictures were the members of
the club cannot be concluded from the articles.

The 400 Club and its members drew accolades from The New York Times’ dance
critic John Martin who in his articles reviewed analytically the Savoy Ballroom’s
dancing. In his praise for the dancers (from January 1943), he refers particularly to
the 400 Club dancers whose movements were controlled and dignified even in the
“most violent figures”. Their dancing brought out improvisation and a “personal
specialty mixed in with” more familiar Lindy Hop dancing. It was “full of temperament
and quality” and parts of it were “superficially erotic”. To Martin, “[o]f all the ballroom
dancing…this [was] unquestionably the finest”.43

The Savoy Ballroom dancing including the 400 Club was recognized in the
mainstream press as a culturally remarkable activity by 1943. Overall, the positive
acknowledgement of the Savoy Ballroom dancing increased through the years since
the ballroom opened.44 The 400 Club continued probably until the Savoy closed in
July 1958.45 As John Martin’s 1943 article suggests, the members of the Savoy 400
Club took their dancing seriously. This is reinforced by a comment from George
Sullivan, one of the leading Savoy Lindy Hoppers in the 1950s, who has emphasized
that the 400 Club jacket was only for those who really were able to dance.46 Overall,
the 400 Club dancers seemed to take their dancing much more seriously than the
articles about the 400 Club with humorous and even disparaging tones in the 1920s
and later envisaged.

1
  Harri Heinilä. An Endeavor by Harlem Dancers to Achieve Equality – The Recognition of the Harlem-
Based African-American Jazz Dance Between 1921 and 1943. Helsinki, Finland: Unigrafia, 2015, pp.
115, 118, 124-125. Terry Monaghan, ” ”Stompin At the Savoy”: Remembering, Researching and Re-
enacting the Lindy Hop’s relationship to Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom” in Terry Monaghan and Eileen
Feeney. Dancing at the Crossroads: African Diasporic Dances in Britain: Conference Proceedings.
London: London Metropolitan University, Sir John Cass Dept. of Art, Media, and Design, 2002, pp. 38,
65. Monaghan’s thesis was updated in 2005. That is why I will use for his thesis the year 2005 instead
of the year 2002. Karen Hubbard and Terry Monaghan. ”Negotiating Compromise on a Burnished
Wood Floor,” in edited by Julie Malnig, Ballroom Boogie, Shimmy, Sham, Shake – A Social and
Popular Dance Reader. Champaign, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 2009, p. 142. ”Charles
Galewski, Realty Operator, 64.” The New York Times, August 12, 1942. ”Honors for Unusual Colored
Band.” Variety, September 1, 1926.
2
  ”Classiest Ballroom Due Soon.” The New York Amsterdam News. October 21, 1939. Leonard Lyons.
”The New Yorker.” The Washington Post. September 12, 1939. ” ”St. Louis Blues” Radio Pictures.”
Variety. September 4, 1929. ”Here and There.” Variety, August 31, 1927. ”Honors for Unusual Colored
Band.” Variety, September 1, 1926.

                                                  6

3
   Harri Heinilä. ”The End of Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom – Observations and Explanations for Reasons.”
Open Science Framework Preprints, 2018, https://osf.io/7w945/ , p. 3. See also: ”Gale-Buchanan Buy
Golden Gate Opposish To Savoy Ballroom.” Variety. April 3, 1940. ”Group to Start Harlem Drive On
Delinquents.” New York Herald Tribune. Oct 26, 1943. ”21st Anniversary For Harlem Savoy.” The
Chicago Defender. March 22, 1947. ”O’Dwyer Mixes Campaign Staff.” The Afro-American. October 1,
1949. James Hicks. ”Big Town.” The Afro-American. February 1953. ”Wagner and Ten Get Civic
Scrolls.” New York Herald Tribune. May 18, 1954. ”Roaming the Nation.” The Chicago Defender.
March 8, 1958.
4
   Russell Gold. ”Guilty of Syncopation, Joy, and Animation: The Closing of
Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom.” in Studies in Dance History v.5, no.1, Spring 1994., p. 59.
5
   Monaghan 2005, s. 65. ”Moe Gale Dies; Impresario, 65.” The New York Times. September 3, 1964.
”Moe Gale, Musicians’ ’Angel’.” Newsday. September 3, 1964. ”Moe Gale, Was Versatile Mgr.”
Variety. September 9, 1964. Heinilä 2018, pp. 8-12.
6
   Heinilä 2015, pp. 115-116. ”Carry This Message To Your Friends.” The New York Age. March 27,
1926.
7
   ”Moe Gale, Musicians’ ’Angel’.” Newsday. September 3, 1964.
8
   ”This is Savoy! This is Harlem!” in The Savoy Story. Unknown publisher, 1951. There are no page
numbers in the booklet.
9
   Heinilä 2015, p. 116.
10
    Monaghan 2005, p. 53.
11
    Heinilä 2015, p. 119.
12
    Ibid., pp. 130-131.
13
    Monaghan 2005, pp. 38-39. Hubbard and Monaghan 2009, pp. 130-131. Terry Monaghan. ”The
Chicago and Harlem Savoy Ballrooms – Different Cultures – Different fortunes.” in Society of Dance
History Scholars Proceedings (Twenty-Eight Annual Conference Northwestern University – Evanston,
Illinois 9-12 June 2005). Society of Dance History Scholars, 2005 (2005b), p. 155. Heinilä 2015, p.
117.
14
    ”Savoy Turns 2,000 Away On Opening Night-Crowds Pack Ball Room All Week.” The New York
Age. March 20, 1926.
15
    Heinilä 2015, pp. 102-103, 105. ”Unusual Holiday Program Planned for Local Popular Savoy
Ballroom.” The New York Amsterdam News. June 30, 1926.
16
    Heinilä 2015, pp. 124-125, 258-268,
17
    Hubbard and Monaghan 2009, pp. 132-134. Heinilä 2015, pp. 121-122. Monaghan 2005b, p. 157.
18
    ”Savoy-Topics.” Inter-State Tattler. September 21, 1928. ”Savoy-Topics.” Inter-State Tattler.
October 19, 1928. ’This is Savoy! This is Harlem!’ in The Savoy Story, unknown publisher, 1951.
19
    Terry Monaghan. ”Remembering ”Shorty”.” The Dancing Times. July 2004. Norma Miller and Evette
Jensen, Swingin at The Savoy – The Memoir of A Jazz Dancer. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University
Press, 1996, pp. 37-40.
20
    Nancy Cunard. ”Harlem Reviewed, ” and ”An Example of Success in Harlem.” in Collected and
edited by Nancy Cunard – Edited and abridged, with an introduction by Hugh Ford. Negro – An
Anthology. New York, NY: Fredrick Ungar Publishing Co., 1984, pp. 49 and 205. Arnold L. Haskell.
Balletomania – The Story of an Obsession. London, Great Britain: Victor Gollancz LTD, 1947, pp. 283-
286. The observers did not mention the phrases ”the basic principle of the Lindy Hop” and ”the
breakaway”. I have concluded those phrases. See also: Heinilä 2015, pp. 135 and 143.
21
    Frankie Manning and Cynthia R. Millman, Frankie Manning – Ambassador of Lindy Hop.
Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2007,, pp. 103-104, 116. Miller and Jensen 1996, p. 97.
22
    Rufus Jones For President, The Vitaphone Corporation/Warner Bros. Pictures, 1933. One of the
male partners of the two Lindy Hop couples was possibly ’Twistmouth’ George Ganaway.
23
    Haskell 1947, p. 285.
24
    This comes out later in this article.
25
    Haskell 1947, p. 285.
26
    ”An Example of Success in Harlem.” in Collected and edited by Nancy Cunard – Edited and
abridged, with an introduction by Hugh Ford. Negro – An Anthology. New York, NY: Fredrick Ungar
Publishing Co., 1984, p. 205.
27
    Isadora Smith. ”Crowds So Heavy That ’Rochester’ Comes Near Missing Own Premiere.” The
Pittsburgh Courier. May 4, 1940.
28
    Marshall and Jean Stearns. Jazz Dance – The Story of American Vernacular Dance. New York, NY:
Da Capo Press, 1994, s. 322.
29
    ”It’s Official Now – Jitterbugs Pick Erskine Hawkins.” The Chicago Defender. August 16, 1947.
                                                      7
”Dancing Champions Pick Hawk’s Band.” The Afro-American.         August 16, 1947.

30
   Monaghan 2005, p. 49.
31
   Miller and Jensen 1996, pp. 44-49. Manning and Millman 2007, p. 77. Heinilä 2015, p. 123. ”Oriental
Fantasy Makes Hot Cha at Apollo Theatre.” The New York Age. October 6, 1934.
32
   Miller and Jensen 1996, pp. 109-110. Manning and Millman 2007, p. 66.
33
   Heinilä 2015, p. 123.
34
   Miller and Jensen 1996, p. 110.
35
   Ibid., p. 110.
36
   Monaghan 2005, s. 41.
37
   Monaghan 2005b, p. 157.
38
   Dance-Drunk Harlem’, ”PIC”, Picpix, Inc., New York, New York, April 5, 1938. Heinilä 2015, p. 126.
Although he was not mentioned by name, Cailloux can easily be recognized from the pictures of the
magazine. His picture is in ”120 Employees Maintain Model Ballroom.” Ebony. October 1, 1946.”. Both
the Ebony article and Frankie Manning confirm that he was a doorman at the Savoy. See: Millman and
Manning 2007, p. 72.
39
   ’Part III – Four Hundred Club – in Savoy’, folder 230, box 20, Papers on Afro-American social dance
circa 1869-1987, Mura Dehn, 1902-1987, Jerome Robbins Dance Division. The New York Public
Library. See also: Mura Dehn. ”Jazz Dance,” in Sounds and Fury Magazine, June 1966. Reprinted in
Gus Giordano. Anthology of American Jazz Dance. Evanston, Illinois: Orion Publishing House, 1978.
40
   mischalke04. ”Stompin’ at the Savoy.” Berlin Beatet Bestes. August 28, 2012. Retrieved March 8,
2021 from https://mischalke04.wordpress.com/tag/four-hundred-club/ . Although the cover of the
magazine says only ”DEC[ember]” without a year, it is likely from 1940, as it is mentioned in the article
that includes photocopies of pages from the magazine, because the magazine was published only
between May and December in 1940. See: ”Part Seven Periodicals – A. North America and Britain.” in
Roman Iwaschkin. Popular Music – A Reference Guide. Routledge Library Editions: Popular Music,
2016.
41
   Hubbard and Monaghan 2009, p. 136.
42
   Monaghan 2005, pp. 50 and 71. Heinilä 2015, s. 123. Stearns 1994, p. 322.
43
   Heinilä 2015, pp. 129-130.
44
   Ibid., s. 133.
45
   Hubbard and Monaghan 2009, p. 139. Heinilä 2018, p. 12. The 400 Club still was in action every
Tuesday in 1946. See: ”Lindy Hop Was Born at Savoy.” Ebony. October 1, 1946.
46
   George Sullivan interview in Myron Steves. ”DVD – George Sullivan – Savoy 80th Anniversary.”,
undated. The DVD is likely from 2006 when there was the Savoy 80th Anniversary in New York. See:
Manny Fernandez. ”Where Feet Flew And the Lindy Hopped.” The New York Times. March 12, 2006.

Sources

Archive Sources

Papers on Afro-American social dance circa 1869–1987, Mura Dehn, 1902–1987, Jerome Robbins
Dance Division, New York Public Library, New York, United States of America.

Newspapers & Magazines

Afro-American, The, Baltimore, Maryland, 1947, 1949, 1953.
Chicago Defender, The, Chicago, Illinois, 1947, 1958.
Ebony, Chicago, Illinois, 1946.
Inter-State Tattler, New York, New York, 1928.
Newsday, Long Island, New York, 1964.
New York Age, The, New York, New York, 1926, 1934.
New York Amsterdam News, The, New York, New York, 1926, 1939.
New York Herald Tribune, New York, New York, 1943, 1954.
New York Times, The, New York, New York, 1942, 1964, 2006.
Pittsburgh Courier, The, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1940.
Variety, Los Angeles, California, 1926, 1927, 1929, 1940, 1964.
Washington Post, The, Washington D. C., 1939.

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Audio & Video

Rufus Jones For President, The Vitaphone Corporation/Warner Bros. Pictures, 1933.

Literature

Cunard, Nancy, Collected and Edited by, – Edited and abridged, with an introduction by Hugh Ford.
Negro – An Anthology. New York, NY: Fredrick Ungar Publishing Co., 1984.
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Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom.” in Studies in Dance History v.5, no.1, Spring 1994.
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LTD, 1947.
Heinilä, Harri. An Endeavor by Harlem Dancers to Achieve Equality – The Recognition of the Harlem-
Based African-American Jazz Dance Between 1921 and 1943. Helsinki, Finland: Unigrafia, 2015.
Heinilä, Harri. ”The End of Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom – Observations and Explanations for Reasons.”
Open Science Framework Preprints, 2018, https://osf.io/7w945/ .
Hubbard, Karen and Terry Monaghan. ”Negotiating Compromise on a Burnished Wood Floor,” in
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Iwaschkin, Roman. Popular Music – A Reference Guide. Routledge Library Editions: Popular Music,
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The Savoy Story. Unknown publisher, 1951.

Interviews

Myron Steves. ”DVD – George Sullivan – Savoy 80th Anniversary.”, undated.

                                                 9

A correction on August 9, 2021: Herbert White asked Norma Miller to join his
Savoy Ballroom-based dance group somewhere at the end of September and the
beginning of October 1934. Norma Miller and her partner, Sonny Ashby, won the
Apollo Theatre contest probably at the end of September. They performed for one
week at the Apollo at the beginning of October 1934 after winning the contest. See
endnote 31 and the text before it.