I just stumbled across this clip of Rita Hayworth and Fred Astaire dancing ‘The Shorty George’ in the movie You Were Never Lovelier (1942). A nice, if slightly odd, little tribute to one of our legends, George “Shorty” Snowden. George was a first generation Lindy Hopper at the Savoy Ballroom, and not only created the jazz step that bears his name – The Shorty George – but legend has it, he’s the one that gave Lindy Hop its name too.

Here is (the real) Shorty George dancing with his partner, Big Bea:

And I just uploaded a high-res version of After Seben (1929) to YouTube. Shorty George is the third dancer, announced as ‘Shorty Stumps”. The emcee (in blackface) is James Barton:

My buddy Dax just gave me a few cool tracks from an album called Western Swing:

Everybody’s Truckin’, by the Modern Mountaineers
Panhandle Shuffle, by the Sons of the West
Sundown Blues, by the Texas Wanderers

All thoroughly danceable, nice strong rhythm and plenty of fun western fiddle. Especially love that first one.

The photos are from 1940 LIFE Magazine, from a shindig in North Dakota. I wonder what they were dancing to…

ABC, No. 342, Emmérico Nunes, February 3 1927, originally uploaded by Gatochy.

The Charleston at the Bristol Club Dancing.