Savoy Ballroom

St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture, Jan 29, 2002 by Willie Collins

The Savoy Ballroom was the most popular dance venue in Harlem. Many of the dance crazes of the 1920s and 1930s were perpetuated there. The Savoy was a veritable institution that featured the best of jazz bands, competitions, and dancers. Vocalist Ella Fitzgerald made her famous recording of "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" with the Chick Webb Orchestra, the Savoy's house band, later leading the band after Webb's untimely death. Moe Gale (Moses Galewski), Charles Galewski, and a Harlem real estate investor Charles Buchanan opened the Savoy Ballroom to the public on March 12, 1926. Moe Gale was known as "The Great White Father of Harlem," since he discovered and mentored a number of musicians and groups. Charles Buchanan served as manager. The Savoy Ballroom was connected by landline to a New York radio station and often broadcast the bands that played there. It enjoyed a successful run from its opening in 1926 to 1956, when it closed.

First marketed as "The World's Most Beautiful Ballroom" and later as "The Home of Happy Feet," the Savoy was situated on the second floor of a building that stretched for a whole block on 596 Lenox Avenue between West 140th Street and West 141st Street in New York's Harlem. The interior consisted of a large dance floor of approximately 200 by 50 feet, two bandstands, and a retractable stage. Marble stairs were sandwiched between mirrored walls. The springy dance floor bounced from the dancer's feet and was completely renovated every three years. Street car barns occupied the site prior to the ballroom's opening.

Also known as "The Track" because of its early use for dog racing, the Savoy was a dancer's paradise. Different nights drew different clienteles and emphases. Saturday night saw the largest crowds and was known as "square's night" to the regulars because there was not much room to dance. Wednesday and Friday nights were reserved for social clubs and other voluntary associations. Thursday night was known as the "kitchen mechanics' night" since most of the patrons were domestics off for the evening. Tuesday was the night for serious dancers because there was plenty of floor space. The "Opportunity Contest," where money was given to dancers who won first and second prizes, was held on Sunday nights. Sunday night also attracted a number of celebrities. In addition to its black clientele, the Savoy encouraged and welcomed white dancers and spectators. "The lindy-hoppers at the Savoy even began to practice acrobatic routines, and to do absurd things for the entertainment of the whites. Then Harlem nights became show nights for the Nordics," observed poet Langston Hughes.

The Savoy was a place of intense and creative dance activity--new and old steps were refined and taken to new heights in response to the evolution of swing jazz and be-bop. When the Savoy opened in 1926, it instituted a policy that sprightly dances such as the Charleston were forbidden. Two muscular bouncers enforced the rule; but the dancers evaded the policy by creating "the run," a swift step that allowed them to quickly escape the bouncers. Savoy dancers even adapted to the new and difficult-to-dance-to rhythms of be-bop, and the bands that played there likewise created new rhythms in response to the movement of the dancers. The Savoy dancers were known to add "air steps" to the Lindy that later became known as the Jitterbug. Many dance steps were disseminated after dancers at the Savoy Ballroom were filmed so that others could watch and learn the movements.

In its 30 years of existence, the Savoy featured a veritable who's who of jazz bands of the Swing Era. Some bandleaders were inherently associated with the Savoy because of their long residencies there. The first such band was the Charleston Bearcats, who opened the Savoy and later changed their name to the Savoy Bearcats. Fess Williams and His Royal Flush Orchestra and the Fletcher Henderson band also participated in the opening night's ceremonies. In 1927, the Missourians became the Savoy's house band. By 1935, drummer Chick Webb and vocalist Ella Fitzgerald played frequently at the Savoy, several years later becoming the house band and broadcasting nationally. Trumpeter and bandleader Erskine Hawkins achieved great popularity playing at the Savoy from 1939-1941, and continued playing extended engagements through the 1950s. Another group that enjoyed a long association with the Savoy Ballroom was the Savoy Sultans, a swing band led by Al Cooper, that was extremely popular with dancers and played a powerful swing later known as "jump." Benny Carter, Coleman Hawkins, Andy Kirk, and Glenn Miller, among many other bandleaders, played single engagements at the ballroom.

Chick Webb's band has been inextricably linked to the Savoy Ballroom. In October 1932, the band was renamed Chick Webb's Savoy Orchestra and began setting record-breaking attendances. More than 4,600 patrons came to one breakfast dance. The Webb band, on most occasions, won out in the battles of the bands. One of the band members, alto saxophonist Edgar Sampson, wrote "Stompin' at the Savoy," the ballroom's theme song. Sampson's "Stompin' at the Savoy," Eddie Durham's "Harlem Shout," and Sy Oliver's "Raggin' the Scale" and "For Dancers Only" set the riff instrumental formula for dozens of white swing bands from Tommy Dorsey to Miller to Les Brown. "Stompin' at the Savoy" was a hit for the Benny Goodman band and "Big John's Special," his encore for his Carnegie Hall performance, was reportedly named after the Savoy's doorman.