THE LONDON
SWING CATS
Authentic Lindy Hop & Jitterbug
from the 1940s
Copyright: Robert Austin 2009
Dean Collins
Dean Collins is undoubtedly the most filmed Lindy Hopper in history with
over 30 movie and short credits to his name.
Dean Collins was born in Ohio in 1917 and grew up in New Jersey. As a teenager he hung out in the Harlem clubs where he learnt Lindy Hop and at the age of 18 (1935) was "New Yorker Magazine’s" dancer of the year. He reputedly entered the Harvest Moon Ball twice in the mid-thirties and although not winning was placed highly on both occasions
In the late 1930s he moved to Los Angeles. This period was the height of the Jitterbug craze in America and many of the studios wished to cash in either directly through swing based musicals or indirectly by including swing dance scenes within other genres. Dean Collins was in the right place at the right time and a simple extras job for RKO in 1939 turned him into a choreographer for the film "Let’s Make Music" with the Bob Crosby Orchestra. From then on Dean Collins became a regular in many of the movies throughout the 1940s.
Sometimes, he is literally a blur dancing in the background adding dancehall authenticity as in "Talk of the Town" (Cary Grant 1942) or is given a higher profile like when he dances to the Andrews Sisters in "Buck Privates" (Abbot and Costello, 1941). Alongside the film credits he also appeared in a number of "soundies", the forerunners of the modern pop video, including the classic "Chool Song" and "Tabby the Cat".
To mention Dean Collins without reference to his dance partner of 11 years, Jewel McGowan would be travesty. Jewel’s dancing is a sheer pleasure to watch and I have seen no other dancer who has been able to "work that skirt" in the way she did. Dean and Jewel were undoubtedly the Fred and Ginger of Lindy Hop
In the late 1930s, Lindy Hop was not a popular dance in Southern California, dancers preferred Balboa or Shag (Collegiate). Dean Collins is credited with bringing the Lindy from the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, New York to the The Palladium on Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles. Many of the LA based dancers adopted what has become known as the Dean Collins' style.
Dancers in the Pete Smith Speciality "Groovy Moovie" (1941) show this influence executing smooth slotted whips as opposed to the more circular swing outs which had characterised "Savoy Style."
Dean Collins also taught a large number of people the dance including many celebrities including Shirley Temple, Joan Crawford and Caesar Romero and even Arthur Murray. He continued to teach throughout his life and Jonathan Bixby and Sylvia Sykes, more recent swing dance champions from Santa Barbara learnt, directly from him.
It is because of Dean Collins and his contemporaries in Los Angeles that a whole generation of dancers, via the medium of film, jitterbugged across the world
Hollywood Style
Hollywood Swing is a style of Lindy Hop from Los Angeles in the 1940s.
The dance has a variety of different names - Smooth Style Lindy; L.A. Style; Dean
Collins' Style (see below), but L.A. teachers and performers, Erik Robison and Sylvia
Skylar coined the term “Hollywood Style” which reflects both the geographic origins
of the dance and also it’s appearance in so many movies. Hollywood Swing is not only
the absolutely authentic jitterbug style, it is also the original rock ‘n’ roll jive
as danced in the classic R ’n’ R films of the 1950s. IT’S THE REAL DEAL!
“Let’s Make Music”
“Groovy Movie”
“The Powers Girl”
