The Savoy was the "home of happy feet" and the house where the Lindy Hop was founded. From 1926 to its closing in 1958, dances were discovered alongside battling big bands. Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Dizzy Gillespie and Chick Webb with a young Ella Fitzgerald (second to last photo) played night after night in this two-floor, block-long complex on Lenox Avenue at 141st Street. As fate would have it, because of urban renewal's penchant for destroying pre-war buildings in the 1950's, this cultural institution was demolished so that a super block of moderate income projects could take over. One might imagine that today the city of New York would never consider destroying such institutions for real estate purposes, but it is happening to the only remaining ballroom in Harlem. See previous Renaissance Ballroom post for an update. Photo via Life Magazine
Saturday, March 21, 2009
☞ REMEMBER: The Savoy Ballroom
The Savoy was the "home of happy feet" and the house where the Lindy Hop was founded. From 1926 to its closing in 1958, dances were discovered alongside battling big bands. Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Dizzy Gillespie and Chick Webb with a young Ella Fitzgerald (second to last photo) played night after night in this two-floor, block-long complex on Lenox Avenue at 141st Street. As fate would have it, because of urban renewal's penchant for destroying pre-war buildings in the 1950's, this cultural institution was demolished so that a super block of moderate income projects could take over. One might imagine that today the city of New York would never consider destroying such institutions for real estate purposes, but it is happening to the only remaining ballroom in Harlem. See previous Renaissance Ballroom post for an update. Photo via Life Magazine
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wow i 'm a french teen and i'm reading a book on matin luther king and this book says that he was dancing in this place with a lot of others great stars like louis amstrong and pictures of the savoy ballroom make me prouder to be balck .
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