[Ads-l] Antedating of "Lindy Hop"

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Congratulations to Bill for the "Lindy Hop" matches in the "Elmira
Star-Gazette" and the "Pittsburgh Gazette Times". Kudos to Peter and
Fred for their careful examination of the misdated Axtell citation.

"Pittsburgh Gazette Times" is one of the main titles in ProQuest
Historical Newspapers Collection. It is available as a standalone
although many libraries do not select it for their collections.

https://about.proquest.com/en/products-services/pq-hist-news/
https://pq-static-content.proquest.com/collateral/media2/documents/brochure-hnp-pittsburghpost.pdf

The match Bill found in the "Pittsburgh Gazette Times" occurred in a
brief associated press (AP) news article. This AP article also
appeared in the Boston Globe which is available via newspapers.com.
However, the AP article does not contain "Lindy Hop" because the
phrase did not appear in the body of the article; instead, it appeared
only in the title of the "Pittsburgh Gazette Times" article.

The title in the Pittsburgh newspaper on May 25, 1927 is:
LINDY 'HOP' DIFFICULT DANCE

The title in the Boston Globe is:
BROADWAY INTRODUCES "THE LINDBERGH HOP," DANCE HONORING FLYER
Dateline: NEW YORK, May 24 (Published May 25) A.P.
https://www.newspapers.com/image/431076152/

Garson

On Mon, Mar 25, 2024 at 2:59 PM ADSGarson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Bill found a match for "Lindy Hop" in the Elmira Star-Gazette dated
> June 2, 1927.
> ProQuest has U.S. State Collections and the Elmira Star-Gazette is
> contained in the New York state collection.
> https://about.proquest.com/en/products-services/hnp-usstate-collections/
> https://pq-static-content.proquest.com/collateral/media2/documents/brochure-hnpstate-ny.pdf
>
> The match Bill found appeared in a column by Gilbert Swan called "In
> New York". Swan's column also appeared a few days earlier in "The
> Columbia Record" which is available via newspapers.com
>
> Date: May 31, 1927
> Newspaper: The Columbia Record
> Newspaper Columbia, South Carolina
> Article: In New York
> Author: Gilbert Swan
> Quote Page 4, Column 3
> Database: Newspapers.com
>
> https://www.newspapers.com/image/744607799/
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Leave it to Tin Pan Alley! Hardly had Charley Lindbergh crawled out of
> his plane at Le Bourget before the song publishers were out with one
> called "Lucky Lindy" and another bearing the gosh-awful title of "Like
> An Angel You Flew Into Everyone's Heart."
> . . .
> Obviously the first dance to be named for the Lindbergh flight was the
> "Lindy Hop." Another will be called the "non-stop" and a third the
> "French jump." Like all trick dances they will be done in a few
> theaters and dance halls where experts appear—and that will be that.
> [End excerpt]
>
> On Mon, Mar 25, 2024 at 7:10 AM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
> >
> > Another evidence of misdating is that in 1925 Lindbergh was an obscure cadet whom no one would have any reason to name a punch after.
> >
> > I am intrigued by Bill's two 1927 citations.  I am accustomed to ProQuest newspapers being big-city, large-circulation papers.  Does this mean that Bill has access to the more recent regional papers that PQ has added and that I don't have access to ?
> >
> > Fred Shapiro

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