RIP frankie manning.

[swingchickie]

frankie manning died this morning, just a month shy of his 95th birthday, after a bout with pneumonia. if you're not an avid lindy hopper, you probably haven't heard of him... but for the lindy community, he was like our grandfather. frankie is one of the people who basically invented lindy hop... he was a regular in the harlem swing dancing scene in the 30s and was part of the core group of dancers who evolved the dance into something magical. if you want to see what lindy is really like, check out the link below. it'll blow your brains out your ears. this is REAL lindy hop -- raw, wild, exuberant... not the sterilized version you see on "dancing with the stars". frankie is the guy in the overalls who appears towards the end (and i totally forgot until several people mentioned it... he choreographed this whole sequence).

and here he is at last year's lindyfest in texas, dancing with dawn hampton (another lindy pioneer) at 94 years old. damn, he could still work it.

the amazing thing is just how NICE frankie was. he would get flown all over the world to attend lindy events, and he'd dance with anyone who asked. several years ago he came to boston for a big dance weekend we put together, and i got to dance with him last in his birthday jam (a "jam" is basically a chance for a bunch of dancers to dance with the guest of honor -- in this case, it was celebrating frankie's birthday). it's hard to explain just how huge it is to dance with frankie -- it would kind of be like getting to be a passenger in a plane flown by the wright brothers. except that frankie was so approachable and sweet and cool, so you had to keep reminding yourself that you're dancing with a legend.





sigh. his 95th birthday celebration is scheduled for next month in NYC... i wanted to go but the tickets were so expensive... now i want to go even more, to be with all my lindy peeps again and dance in his honor.

Comments

[ms-violet.livejournal.com]

Oh, you made me get all weepy!

[boutell.livejournal.com]

Aw man! I'm sorry you lost a legend, especially one you knew personally.

But thanks for schoolin' me! I didn't know his work and it's a joy to watch.

(And how cool is it that a person might do this for, oh, let's say another 50+ years? As in longer than we've been on this earth so far?)

[jodiemim.livejournal.com]

what a great description of what made him so incredibly special. without frankie, would any of us even know each other? his influence is hard to measure...

[xtingu]

Wow, what an amazing honor.

I also never heard of him, so thanks for introducing us to his work!

Watching that Hellzapoppin' scene is mind-blowing. It's hard to believe it's not CG, you know? :-) So many opportunities for broken bones and kicked heads. I wonder how many times they had to shoot that scene? Imagine being the guy who messed it up 20 seconds before the end and they had to reshoot it? Hee...

Seriously. Thanks so much for sharing that.

Big hugs to you and your Lindy posse.

[swingchickie.livejournal.com]

seriously, i can't imagine they did many takes... if you watch the beginning of the dance part, the girl dressed as a maid has her little hat flying off her head... she grabs it and tosses it aside and keeps dancing. :)

Sad

[bohemianrapsody.livejournal.com]

That's a ripe old age..hopefully he's dancing in heaven. What a darling picture of you two!

:sniff:

[katehaney.livejournal.com]

What you said... A sweet, sweet guy. I don't remember if I ever danced with him (I had no idea he was FRANKIE MANNING OMG when I met him), but I did talk to him, and he was just as sweet as could be. Very humble. Very grateful to have the life he had. He was a lovely soul.