Some say 'Shorty George' is
credited with renaming the Breakaway
the Lindy
Hop at a dance contest in 1927 at the "Inn at the Park"
aka Madison Square Garden contests (later to be named Harvest
Moon Ball) with 'Mattie Purnell', and later would do it
again at the Manhattan Casino (some say the Rockland Palace ballroom)
in New York in July of 1928. Snowden's name also applies to a
dance step called the Shorty George (a.k.a. Boogie Walks),
which was originally said to be the Baltimore
Buzz...
Shorty George danced at the Savoy
Ballroom in New York and like Chic Webb was titled the 'King
of the Savoy'. His dance troupe The 'Shorty George Trio' would
inspire many dancers as well as lead to other dance troupes, namely
the Whitey's Lindy Hoppers in the 1930s. Shorty and his dancers
would later dance in many shows at the Cotton Club and Small's
Paradise with Small's eventually becoming his home base.
'Snowden danced up to the early 1940's, but had to retire his
dancing due to bad knees and feet caused by his dancing. And as
far as I know (was told) he passed away due to emphysema
sometime in the 1970's / 1980's (not verified). Fred Astaire paid
homage to Shorty by using the song "Shorty George" in
two of his films, "Cover Girl" and "You Were Never
Lovelier" and also sung the version in "Gilda."
However the song was not written for this Shorty George.
'note: I have also listed
the various Shorty George songs and artist's because many of you
have e-mailed me asking for variations to the original so to save
us both the time of having to search them out on Amazon, I have
added them here.
NOTE: Some reports say the Manhattan Casino
contest was 7/4 and 6/17... plus a few others, the confusion is
mainly because this was a Marathon dance contest that could (and
did) last for months, however it has been reported to have lasted
80 days.