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]
^Ward, Geoffrey C.; Burns, Ken (2000). Jazz: A History of America's Music. Alfred A. Knopf. p. 174. ISBN 978-0679765394.
^"Savoy Ballroom 1926–1958". Savoyplaque.org. Retrieved August 30, 2015.
^Russell, Tony (1997). The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray. Dubai: Carlton Books Limited. p. 12. ISBN 1-85868-255-X.
^Fernandez, Manny (March 12, 2006). "Where Feet Flew and the Lindy Hopped". New York Times. Retrieved January 14, 2011.
^ ab"Swinging at the Savoy" by Barbara Engelbrecht, Dance Research Journal Vol 15 No. 2 Popular Dance in Black America, Spring 1983
^"Moe Gale, chief tan star backer, buried". Baltimore Afro-American. September 1, 1964. Retrieved August 23, 2013.
^Savoy Ballroom's Charles Buchanan. (Associated Press) Chicago Tribune December 13, 1984
The SavoyBallroom was a large ballroom for music and public dancing located at 596 Lenox Avenue, between 140th and 141st Streets in the Harlem neighborhood...
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The Savoy Bearcats were an eleven-piece jazz band, led by Leon Abbey, which was the house band at the SavoyBallroom in New York City from its opening...
The SavoyBallroom, on Lenox Avenue, was a renowned venue for swing dancing, and was immortalized in a popular song of the era, "Stompin' at the Savoy"....
whites-only or blacks-only policy due to racial segregation, however the SavoyBallroom in Harlem had a no-discrimination policy which allowed whites and blacks...
Orchestra, performing across the country but most often associated with the SavoyBallroom in Harlem. Her rendition of the nursery rhyme "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" helped...
the dances that he and his cohorts helped to pioneer at New York's SavoyBallroom. In 1938, Al Minns and Sandra Gibson (see Mildred Pollard) won the Harvest...
changes to jazz music, at least in the beginning. The SavoyBallroom was the first integrated ballroom in the country, and the New York Renaissance of the...
original players were raised. They began as the Savoy Big Five, one of the premier attractions of the SavoyBallroom, opened in January 1928, a basketball team...
older, he started going to Harlem's SavoyBallroom, the only integrated ballroom in New York. He frequented the Savoy in the 1930s, eventually becoming...
closely identified with the SavoyBallroom, having originated the tune "Stompin' at the Savoy", and became feared in the Savoy's Battles of the Bands. It...
featured black performers and catered to a white clientele, while the SavoyBallroom catered to a mostly black clientele. Some religious moralists preached...
new SavoyBallroom in his absence, leaving Hines feeling "warm". When Armstrong and Singleton later asked him to join them with Dickerson at the Savoy Ballroom...
of the 1920s. Many cities had regular local competitions such as the SavoyBallroom which accelerated the development and popularization of the dance. The...
The Savoy Hotel is a luxury hotel located in the Strand in the City of Westminster in central London, England. Built by the impresario Richard D'Oyly...
Ink Spots after winning first place in an amateur contest at Harlem's SavoyBallroom. Three years later, Kenny was credited for bringing the group to global...
and Count Basie were regularly organised in big dancehalls, like the SavoyBallroom. The winner is determined by a panel of judges, the general response...
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gratitude for Powell's actions in his defense during a police raid of the SavoyBallroom in 1945. According to Monk biographer Thomas Fitterling, the police...
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