Featuring the only film recording of the The Congaroo Dancers, led by Frankie Manning, with Ann Johnson, and Russell Williams with WillaMae Ricker. This is possibly one of the fastest Lindy Hopping done on film! .
The Congaroo dancers disbanded by 1954, due to the declining audience for jazz based Lindy Hop and for live stage shows as a whole. Frankie would live out most of the next phase of his life in a postal office, until he was brought out of retirement in the 1980s during the Swing Revival.
The Swing Era effectively came to a close in the post-war years as mindsets and modes of entertainment started to change, a change that was already effected during the war years, as many musicians were drafted, and due to rationing, it got a little too expensive for big bands to be on the road. All in all, big bands became unsustainable, and few survived past the war. Jazz music started to change too, as swing gave way to bebop…
