Savoy Ballroom

This article is about the ballroom in New York City. For the ballroom with the same name in Chicago, see Savoy Ballroom (Chicago).

Dizzy Gillespie's Orchestra on the Savoy bandstand, between 1946 and 1948

The Savoy Ballroom was a large ballroom for music and public dancing located at 596 Lenox Avenue, between 140th and 141st Streets in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City.[1] Lenox Avenue was the main thoroughfare through upper Harlem. Poet Langston Hughes calls it the "Heartbeat of Harlem" in Juke Box Love Song, and he set his work "Lenox Avenue: Midnight" on the legendary street. The Savoy was one of many Harlem hot spots along Lenox, but it was the one to be called the "World's Finest Ballroom".[2] It was in operation from March 12, 1926,[3] to July 10, 1958,[4] and as Barbara Englebrecht writes in her article "Swinging at the Savoy", it was "a building, a geographic place, a ballroom, and the 'soul' of a neighborhood".[5] It was opened and owned by white entrepreneur Jay Faggen and Jewish businessman Moe Gale.[6] It was managed by African-American businessman and civic leader Charles Buchanan. Buchanan, who was born in the British West Indies, sought to run a "luxury ballroom to accommodate the many thousands who wished to dance in an atmosphere of tasteful refinement, rather than in the small stuffy halls and the foul smelling, smoke laden cellar nightclubs ..."[5][7]

  1. ^ Ward, Geoffrey C.; Burns, Ken (2000). Jazz: A History of America's Music. Alfred A. Knopf. p. 174. ISBN 978-0679765394.
  2. ^ "Savoy Ballroom 1926–1958". Savoyplaque.org. Retrieved August 30, 2015.
  3. ^ Russell, Tony (1997). The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray. Dubai: Carlton Books Limited. p. 12. ISBN 1-85868-255-X.
  4. ^ Fernandez, Manny (March 12, 2006). "Where Feet Flew and the Lindy Hopped". New York Times. Retrieved January 14, 2011.
  5. ^ a b "Swinging at the Savoy" by Barbara Engelbrecht, Dance Research Journal Vol 15 No. 2 Popular Dance in Black America, Spring 1983
  6. ^ "Moe Gale, chief tan star backer, buried". Baltimore Afro-American. September 1, 1964. Retrieved August 23, 2013.
  7. ^ Savoy Ballroom's Charles Buchanan. (Associated Press) Chicago Tribune December 13, 1984