BIOGRAPHIES
First Generation:
Shorty George
Leroy Stretch Jones
Twistmouth George

The Golden Age:
Whitey's Lindy Hprs.
Sandra Gibson
George Grenidge
Leon James

Photo by Joe Mabel

Norma Miller has been in show business ever since those sidewalk days. After Whitey's Lindy Hoppers disbanded in the early forties, she formed her own company in California, Norma Miller's Dance Company and had her own show at the legendary Club Alabam in the Watts section of L.A. In the early fifties she, Billy Ricker and drummer Michael Silvers worked as the Del Rio Trio, until the night Sammy Davis Jr. saw the group and promptly hired away Mike Silvers to be his drummer. In the later fifties she formed Norma Millers Jazz Men, which included fellow Lindy Hopper Billy Ricker, Frankie Manning's son the tap dancer Chazz Young, Billy Dotson, Stoney Montenez and Raymond (?).

Norma Miller and her Jazz Men
                That's Chazz Young in the center

As a comedienne, Norma worked in Las Vegas with Redd Foxx for over 10 years, including appearances in his TV show, Sanford and Son where she is remembered as the airline stewardess who offered "Coffee, tea or ME?" In the seventies she formed another Lindy Hop and jazz performance group, the Savoy Swingers. In addition to many standard entertainment venues, this group did a series of performances in the New York City puc school system, introducing African-American dance history to the new generation. 

A lifelong close friend of Frankie Manning, Norma danced with him in Spike Lee's feature film, Malcolm X and in Debbie Allen's TV Film Stomping at the Savoy, which she choreographed with Manning as her assistant. Together they choreographed the lindy hop sequence in the Alvin Ailey ballet, Opus McShan. They were featured in the Ken Burns PBS special Jazz together.