An Homage to Yehoodi from Cynthia Millman, Frankie's Biographer
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CREDIT: Timothy Swiecicki
Editor’s Note: We were so pleased to receive this write up by our friend Cynthia Millman, co-author of The Ambassador of Lindy Hop with Frankie Manning. If you want to share your own remembrances of Yehoodi, head to our Facebook group. Here’s what Cynthia shared with us:
To everyone who was and is Yehoodi, I offer humongous, ginormous thanks for all you’ve done for the swing dance community . . . for decades. I am sad in a time-is-passing kind of way about this ending, but I know how much work these kinds of commitments are. If you are ready to move on I can only be grateful you were there for so long, and wish you all the very best.
Apologies in advance if I’m off on some names, places, or dates. And if I’ve left anyone out.
Soon after the site was started by Manu Smith and Frank Dellario in 1998, Stuart Math (who created the first Frankie Manning birthday film for Frankie’s 80th at Can’t Top the Lindy Hop), told me about this new-fangled thing called Yehoodi. I found it online, and was blown away by the connectivity if immediately afforded swing dancers. For instance, before Yehoodi if you wanted to explore options for buying a pair of dance shoes, you could ask around at an event. If you were lucky, you found someone in the know. If not, important information went untapped. Post Yehoodi, you could get advice from dancers around the world within days . . . or minutes.
Young dancers who have grown up with this sort of access to information are probably rolling their eyes. But mark my words, sonny boy (shaking my cane), it was revolutionary at the time.
Yehoodi not only networked dancers worldwide, they produced many wonderful events and top-quality informational posts on a regular basis about all things swing.
Yehoodi played a big role in the journey of Frankie Manning’s memoir in so many ways:
Frankie and I spent over ten years working on the book without knowing if we’d get a publisher. I worried about this a lot. Around year seven, during the cocktail hour at Margaret Batiuchok’s wedding, Frank Dellario assured me that if we couldn’t find a publisher Yehoodi would help us self-publish. (Keep in mind that this was a much less developed and more expensive process then.) My stress level went down immediately. At least I knew Frankie’s story would be shared. Eventually, Norma Miller’s book paved the way for a contract with Temple University Press, but I’ve always been grateful to Frank and Yehoodi for the support they offered at a time of need.
From the time I met him, I was fascinated by the details of Frankie’s life. But he felt that, with only a few exceptions, most dancers didn’t share this level of interest. During our years-long interview process, I dug for details. Frankie answered my questions, but wasn’t always onboard with including the material. One day, I printed out a Yehoodi thread that asked the question, “What should the follower do on count five of a swing out?” The answers filled thirteen pages, and counting. I gave it to Frankie saying, “Look, here’s this long discussion about what happens on one beat of a swing out. I think these people are into details.” He said nothing, folded it up, and put it in his coat pocket. But moving forward, and with additional encouragement from long-time partner Judy Pritchett, he was more open to including these smaller stories as we built the book.
Yehoodi offered to sponsor a publishing party for Ambassador of Lindy Hop, and collaborated with Temple University Press, The Jazz Museum in Harlem, and Riverside Church on this project. David Jacoby and Riki Panganiban met with Frankie, me, and reps from Temple to discuss details, then worked tirelessly for months to pull things together. The result was a wonderful celebration that included an interview with the authors in Riverside’s theater, followed by a dance party with the Loren Schoenberg Jazz Band in one of the church’s grand meeting halls.
Frankie Manning signing books at the Herrang Dance Camp in Sweden
As if that wasn’t enough, Yehoodi initiated a campaign to boost sales on the book’s release date. (I’d had a minor but very real panic attack when I realized I couldn’t meet the original deadline for a Fall 2006 release, thus breaking the terms of our contract with Temple. But this turned out to be a great example of things working out.) The May 26th, 2007 publication allowed Lindy hoppers around the world to buy the book en masse on Frankie’s 93rd birthday, an idea suggested by David and masterminded by Riki. Using an ancient technique called viral email, Riki orchestrated the sale with the intent of bumping the book into Amazon’s top ten. The Yehoodi team applied their talents. David lobbied musicians, dance studios and venues to donate incentives. Manu created a cool video. Ryan Swift designed banners and buttons to post on other sites. And it worked!! After a thrilling 24-hour climb, we hit #7 by day’s end on the East Coast. I later heard that we hit #6 by midnight on the West Coast, but don’t have a screen shot.
Ambassador of Lindy Hop reaching #8 on the Amazon Bestseller list. Via the Wayback Machine.
David recently reminded me that the book reached #1 in the Entertainment category on Amazon, and #2 in Biography, landing between Ronald Reagan and Albert Einstein!
I went to sleep happily overwhelmed by this incredible show of support and unity. As one dancer wrote on Yehoodi, where everyone was roll-calling in all day, “All I did was buy a book, but it felt so good.” Huge thanks to everyone who participated, and to Yehoodi for this incredible experience. (Read Riki’s account here. And an article about the sale in Publishers Weekly here.)
Yehoodi also helped celebrate the 10th anniversary of Ambassador of Lindy Hop with online coverage. And Ryan Swift conducted an interview for The Track podcast about the process of creating the book.
I enjoyed so many great times at creatively produced dance events by Yehoodi and Jelly Roll Productions, which always featured fabulous live music.
And I have many fond memories of other Yehoodites, including:
Manu Smith, who cracked me and everyone else up with his hilarious MC’ing at Yehoodi parties.
Neal Blangiardo’s sartorial elegance and vintage style know-how.
And wise-woman Amy Winn’s incredibly sage advice on any situation, no matter how challenging or sticky. I still turn to her often.
Yehoodi, you will have a warm place in my memories and heart forever. Here’s to all of us moving forward, each in our own way, and also together.
— Cynthia Millman
