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Tag: Black History month

Roundup of My Favorite Vintage Online Reads & Videos-Jan/Feb 2019

It’s been awhile since I have shared my favourite vintage online reads and videos with all of you. I have just been so busy after the Christmas season, travelling and working on my marketing plan for my Pinterest business that I have completely forgotten.

Well don’t worry my lovely readers, today is the day that I showcase some super online content focusing on the 1920s-1960s (the Vintage Inn’s specialty).


Lets begin with my favourite binge obsession…The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel!

No spoilers in the article below, it’s just a fun “Behind the Scenes” post from Town & Country (click on the image to be taken to the article).

AND…..
Comment below if it’s also your fav show & if your not watching it…finish this blog post and off you go to catch up with the rest of us 🙂

Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 1

Historica Canada has released a new ‘Heritage Minute‘ telling the story of the Vancouver Asahi baseball team. Challenged both on and off the field, they won multiple titles over 27 years. In 1942 their run was cut short, when they were interned along with 22,000 other Japanese Canadians.

This story is moving and very powerful and a must watch for Canadians and non Canadians alike (Video Link).


The Memory Project‘….

An initiative of Historica Canada, The Memory Project is a volunteer speakers bureau that arranges for veterans and Canadian Forces members to share their stories of military service at school and community events across the country. Our speakers have reached 2.5 million Canadians since 2001.

The Memory Project Archive houses more than 2,800 testimonials and over 10,000 images from veterans of the First World War, Second World War, the Korean War and peacekeeping missions. While the archive no longer accepts submissions, it remains the largest of its kind in Canada.

Here is one of those archived stories. The story of Alene Quick and a memory she had while serving in the Canadian Women’s Army Corps.

Alene Quick poses with friends outside the Canadian Women's Army Corps, Rosedale Barracks, where she stayed. 1940s The Memory Project vintage photo

Source: The Memory Project


Who is Hazel Scott? Alicia Keys shouts-out a legendary double piano player at the 2019 Grammys. Article by Time.com.

Hazel Scott, studio portrait, USA, 1950. (Photo by Gilles Petard/Redferns)

Video Link


As many of my readers know, I love ‘The Lindy Hop’ and have been swing dancing for almost 10 years. So it was very exciting when I saw that for Black History Month, Google’s Arts and Culture portal showcased several aspects of Lindy hop Culture. This included:

Image via Yehoodi

There’s lots more to explore on the portal on Black history and culture, so enjoy!


Recently while travelling to Malaysia last December I was finally able to see the much talked and raved about movie ‘Crazy Rich Asians‘. HOLY MOSES IT WAS AWESOME!! Hands down a fun movie that I have since watched several more times (Fun fact: My husband has watched it more haha!). Just like Mrs. Maisel, if you have not seen it yet please add it to your “must watch list”.

One of the things that caught my attention was the soundtrack. It had swing, it had a 50’s sound and it matched the movie perfectly and my toes never stopped tapping. I wanted to know about this music I was hearing.

Lucky for me, Yehoodi recently did an article entitled “The Stories behind the Swing Songs from “Crazy Rich Asians“. If this does not get you in the mood to A. Watch the movie and B. Start dancing, I don’t know what will!


That is it friends. Enjoy the last couple days of February, spring is around the corner!

Liz

Who is Dawn Hampton? 15 Awesome Facts about Dawn

This Weekend in NYC I am attending a celebration of life for one of the most amazing woman I have ever met, Dawn Hampton (she passed away Sept 25th, 2016). She was an awe-inspiring woman who achieved so much in her life and what she gave to the Lindy Hop world alone will never ever be forgotten.

It is also Black History month, so I think it’s important that the planet (or at least my readers) learn a bit more about the unforgettable Dawn and her accomplishments.

Black History Month: Dawn Hampton was an American cabaret and jazz singer, saxophonist, dancer, and songwriter. Hampton began her lifelong career as a musical entertainer touring the Midwest as a three-year-old member of the Hampton family's band The Hampton Sisters in the late 1930s

The Light Is On”- Let’s Meet Dawn Hampton

15 Awesome Facts!

1. Dawn was born in 1928, in Middletown Ohio and was one of 12 children in her family.

2. Her father Clark Deacon Hampton, Sr., had a family band and vaudeville act, which was part of a traveling carnival. Dawn grew up listening to the music of the family band, ‘Deacon Hampton’s Pickaninnys’.

Vintage Photo of  the Deacon Hampton's Pickaninnys

3. Dawn began performing at the age of 3 and two years later sang “He Takes Me to Paradise” (Source).

4. When she was very young, she wanted to be a ballet dancer then she found out that ballet does not swing (source).

5. In the mid 1950s Dawn and her sisters became the ‘Hampton Sisters’ after several of their brothers went off to study music. They had a very long career together.

1950s vintage photo of the 'Hampton Sisters' singing group featuring Dawn Hampton. Black History Month.
Hampton Sisters (left)-Carmelita, Dawn, Altera, Virtue

6. 1958 Dawn joined the cast of the Off-Broadway hit show, “Greenwich Village, U.S.A.”. The show ran for a year at New York’s legendary ‘The Bon Soir’. An original cast album of the show features several solo tracks by Dawn.

Vintage Record: 1958 Dawn joined the cast of the Off-Broadway hit show, "Greenwich Village, U.S.A.". The show ran for a year at New York's legendary 'The Bon Soir'. An original cast album of the show features several solo tracks by Dawn.
Source: Richard Skipper

7. During the early 60’s, Dawn worked as the house singer at the ‘Lion’s Den’. The Lion’s Den was also the scene of a singer’s talent competition. Barbara Streisand relates in a Vanity Fair interview that one of her first times singing on stage was at one of these competitions. She tells how she was a little unnerved, because she came on stage after Dawn, “and the lusty applause for Dawn Hampton [was] ringing in my ears.”

8. Surgery in 1964 to her vocal cords saw Dawn lose most of her vocal range BUT she never lost her eagerness or ability to perform and her optimistic spirit.

9. Dawn spent much of the next 20 years performing  as a cabaret singer in clubs around New York City. Reviewers called her a “singer’s singer” and dubbed her the “Queen of Cabaret”.

Dawn Hampton Cabaret Performer

10. Dawn is talented in writing music and lyrics: In 1989 Dawn collaborated with pianist/performer Mark Nadler, writing music and lyrics for the honky-tonk mini-opera ‘Red Light’ which was given the Manhattan Association of Cabarets (MAC) Award in 1990. Dawn and Mark also collaborated on ‘An Evening with Dawn Hampton’, which enjoyed an extended run at ‘Don’t Tell Mama’.

Dawn also wrote the music and lyrics for the play “Madame C. J. Walker” (Madame (1867-1919) was an African-American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and a political and social activist. Eulogized as the first female self-made millionaire in America).

Lastly, she would find time to write a book with her niece, entitled ‘Two Penny Soap Opera’.

Deacon Hampton's Pickaninnys
Source: Richard Skipper

11. 1992-Dawn appeared with Frankie Manning in the Movie ‘Malcom X’.

12.  In the late 1990s and into the early 2000s, Hampton took advantage of the craze for swing dance by bringing to the scene her smooth style and theatrical presence that has brought her international acclaim. She has never stopped since those early days.

Dawn Hampton and frankie Manning
Dawn Hampton with Frankie Manning (June 2007) by photographer Eli Pritykin.
Dawn Hampton
Dawn Hampton, Ryan Francois, John Dokes – Splanky at Frankie’s Centennial Savoy Ball 2014 – Photo by Jane Kratchovil

13. Dawn lived in NYC and could be found in New York City dancing and listening to some of the best swing bands around.

14. Dawn and her family are in a documentary called ‘The Unforgettable Hampton Family’ that aired in 2011 (click on image to watch doc).

The Unforgettable Hampton Family
Source: Culture Unplugged

15. Dawn has been known to answer her phone saying “God Is Good. The Light Is On!” (source).

Dawn Hampton - Black History Month
Source: Advanced Style Blog Post

In Conclusion…

Watching Dawn dance heightens the experience of merely listening to jazz and reunites the relationship between music and movement. In Dawn’s own words, “The light IS on!”

Check out Dawn’s talk at Toronto Lindy Hop’s Sunday of TOWLHD, as well as watch her dance dance dance 🙂

Lastly, here is my husband and I with Dawn during her visit to Toronto in 2015 (We are both wearing Dawn on our shirt).

Dawn Hampton Toronto Lindy Hop

Hope you enjoyed learning about Dawn and her life. If you have any stories about Dawn, please share them in the comments section below.

FURTHER READING:

Liz