SAVOYSTYLESHOP Vintage Videos Instructional Videos T-Shirts Notecards BIOGRAPHIES  First Generation: Shorty George  Leroy Stretch Jones Twistmouth George The Golden Age:  Whitey'sLindyHprs. Sandra Gibson Ann Johnson Dorothy  Johnson Norma Miller Al Minns Frankie Manning Mildred Pollard Billy Ricker Willa Mae Ricker Russell Williams  MOVIES   After Seben The Big Apple Call Of The Jitterbug Can't Top theLindyHop Cootie Williams Cottontail Day At The Races  Chicago & All That Jazz  Frankie Manning  Instructional Videos  Hellzapoppin' Hot Chocolates  Jammin'the Blues  Jittering Jitterbugs	"Twistmouth George"  aka "Susquehanna" aka George Ganaway
		The dancer known as "Twistmouth George" --no doubt to distinguish him from his rival, "Shorty George"-- was one of the great dancers and innovators from the earliest days of the Savoy Ballroom. He went on to become a professional solo dancer and did not frequent the Savoy Ballroom as much in the thirties as George Snowden and Leroy "Stretch" Jones, whose dancing had so much influence on the 30's generation of dancers. Twistmouth is credited with inventing the twist step that women do--he claimed he taught it to his partner. Frankie Manning remembers a time that he and Herbert "Whitey" White were watching Twistmouth and his partner Edith Matthews do the basic swingout step with the woman twisting instead of doing the backstep. Whitey slapped Frankie on the knee and said "get that" so Manning could teach it to the other Lindy Hoppers in Whitey's group. Whitey then asked Twistmouth to repeat it a few times presumably because he enjoyed it so much. Frankie got it.	Twistmouth used to boast that he was such a good dancer that he could win the big Saturday night competitions at the Savoy with any partner. Indeed, Norma Miller tells a story in her delightful book, Swingin' at the Savoy : She was dancing on the sidewalk outside the Savoy Ballroom because she was too young to go in. (Dancing on the sidewalk outside of ballrooms was not an uncommon site in Harlem in those days.) Twistmouth, rushing in to enter the Saturday night contest on time, grabbed her, dragged her inside and danced with her. They won first place! This brought Miller to Whitey's attention and launched her career as a dancer at age 14.
		Written by Judy Pritchett with Frank Manning. Copyright, 1995, 1996, 1997.May not be reproduced without written permission. judyp@mcn.org.This Biography is also part of the World Lindy Hop Federation Archives maintained by Keith Hughes.