Collection documents the career of Jeni LeGon as a dancer, dance instructor, and actress.
Scope and Contents:
Collection documents LeGon's career as a dancer, dance instructor, and actress. Materials include biographical information, correspondence, photographs, early travel itineraries, schedules, personal calendars, printed advertisements, invitations to dance events, programs, newspaper clippings, magazine articles, and awards. The collection is arranged into four series: Series 1, Biographical Information and Publicity, 1930s; Series 2, Theatre and Motion Picture Film, 1935-1945, undated; Series 3, Dance Instruction and Performances, 1953-2002, undated; and Series 4: Tributes and Awards, 1979-2002.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into four series:.
Series 1, Biographical Information and Publicity
Series 2, Theatre and Motion Picture Film, 1935-1945
Series 3, Dance Instruction and Performances, 1953-2002, undatred
Series 4, Tributes and Awards, 1979-2002
Biographical / Historical:
Jeni LeGon was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1916. Her long, successful career as an African American dancer and actress began in musical theatre and vaudeville. In the 1930s she traveled across the southern United States performing first with the Whitman Sisters company and then with her half-sister, Willa Mae Lane, as the LeGon and Lane song-and-dance team. By 1935, LeGon was working under contract with Fox Studios, RKO Pictures, and MGM performing with Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Waters and Al Jolson, and Fred Astaire. Throughout the years she performed on Broadway and in other theaters and clubs including the Apollo, Cafe de Paris, Howard, Paramount, and Lincoln. Beginning in the 1950s she offered dance instruction in Los Angeles, California at the Jeni LeGon Dance Studio and Drama and Dance Playhouse; and in Vancouver, British Columbia, where she taught tap and pointe. She died on December 7, 2012 at the age of ninety-six.
Related Materials:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program Collection (AC0808)
Ernie Smith Jazz Film Collection (AC0491)
Program in African American Culture Collection (AC0408)
Frank Schiffman Apollo Theatre Collection (AC0540)
Provenance:
The collection was donated to the Archives Center by Jeni LeGon in 2002.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Forman H. Craton Collection, 1902-1983, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Sponsor:
Digitization of this collection was made possible by Andrew and Anya Shiva.
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Annamae Barlup Myers & Stephen Harriman Diaries, 1883-1894, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Sponsor:
Digitization of this collection was made possible by Andrew and Anya Shiva.
More than 300 reels of 16mm black and white and color film, silent and sound, fiction and documentary motion picture film documenting jazz and related musical performances, social and popular dance styles and performances, jazz musicians, performance locales, and documentation of African-American popular culture. A list of featured performers in the collection is shown below. The films are frequently compilations produced by Smith for lectures.
Scope and Contents:
The collection consists of 352 reels of 16mm motion picture film. Most of the film is 16mm black and white and sound (composite optical track print), although a few titles are silent or in color. The collection is comprised of compilation reels created by Ernie Smith to accompany his lectures, topical compilation reels created by Ernie Smith, compilation reels created by the Archives Center, and single title reels. The Archives Center produced master and reference video copies using a wet-gate telecine film-to-tape transfer system. Titles were often combined to allow for increased ease of handling, storage, and duplication.
The collection is strongest in the areas of jazz dance styles including Lindy Hop and tap, overviews of jazz musical performers and styles; specific jazz musicians and performers including Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Woody Herman, Artie Shaw, Bob Crosby, Lionel Hampton, Count Basie, Jack Teagarden as well as a wide range of female vocalists; and documentation of the New York jazz and club scene. The collection includes feature films and excerpts from feature films, Soundies and other film shorts, television kinescopes, and documentary films.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into one series and is not arranged in accordance with standard archival procedures. The breadth of the collection and the existence of so many multiple topic and/or performer compilation reels made it impossible to impose traditional archival series order. Therefore, each reel is described at the item level in the container list.
Biographical:
Ernest (Ernie) Smith began collecting jazz and jazz dance films during the mid-1950s. An Art Director for a New York advertising agency, Smith had a long-standing interest in jazz and jazz dance that began during his youth in Pittsburgh, Pa. Early on, Smith discovered that jazz music was best appreciated while dancing. He became an accomplished Lindy Hopper, frequenting both white and African American ballrooms.
His job at the advertising agency supported Smith's two passions - painting and jazz dance and music. Smith was also a film enthusiast so, in 1954, after taking a jazz class at the New School taught by Marshall Stearns, a leading jazz scholar, he began collecting examples of jazz and jazz dance on film. In the process of creating his film collection, Smith became one of the leading authorities on jazz and jazz dance films. He collaborated with Stearns on the 1964 book Jazz Dance, compiling the book's jazz dance film listing. He also wrote the extensive entry on jazz film for the 1988 edition of New Grove Dictionary of Jazz .
Smith built his film collection by identifying films of potential interest and acquiring them through trade and purchase. He created lecture reels on specific topics -- the history of jazz, social dance, tap dance, Duke Ellington, Lindy Hop -- and presented lecture/screenings nationally and internationally. He also provided footage for numerous documentaries and maintained active relationships with filmmakers, other film collectors, jazz scholars, the swing dance community, and musicians.
Ernie Smith donated his film collection to the Archives Center in 1993. He continues to lecture and participate in swing dance activities, but he devotes the majority of his time to painting and related artistic pursuits.
Provenance:
The Archives Center acquired the collection from Ernie Smith in 1993.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but the films are stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
African Americans in the performing arts -- 1930-1970 Search this
Genre/Form:
Motion pictures (visual works) -- 20th century
Citation:
Ernie Smith Jazz Film Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Sponsor:
America's Jazz Heritage: A Partnership of the The Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund and the Smithsonian Institution provided the funding to produce many of the video master and reference copies.
A collage of film clips put together for the Exhibition Flight Gallery. 1. Smoke loop. 2. Piper J-3 Cub taking off from an automobile roof. 3. Running takeoff of a Piper Cub. 4. Automobile to airplane transfer (country road). 5. Hooded hook on transfer (by the feet). 6. Straight jacket and parachute escape. 7. Human pick-up with Stinson (Aircraft) SR-10F Reliant. 8. French ribbon snatch. 9. Belly slide. 10. Bendix race crash. 11. Mass parachute drop from a balloon. 12. Little girl tap dancing on top of a balloon. 13. Balloon gymnastics. 14. Glider over the cliff (French?). 15. Crashing into a house. 16. Motorcycle to airplane transfer (on the beach). 17. Hydroplane to airplane transfer. 18. Sport boxing on an Avro 504. 19. Diving out of an airplane into the water. 20. Lilian Boyar - wingwalker. 21. Hanging by teeth. 22. Wing to wing transfer. 23. Automobile to air aircraft transfer (beach). 24. Train to airplane transfer. 25. Flying into house. 26. Flying into house at the Minnesota State Fair (1935) with a bow from Captain Frank Frakes. 27. Roman C. Warren flying his Thomas Morse Scout under Mission Bridge (Santa Anna River) at Riverside California June 13, 1926. 28. Hanging by hair. 29. Wingwalking (Dougherty 'torn wing' aircraft). 30. Automobile (Ford Mustang) to airplane (Piper Cub) transfer with a flaming finish (crashing through a wall of fire). 31. Little girl tap dancing on the upper wing of a Curtiss JN-4 Jenny.
Collection Restrictions:
No restrictions on access
Collection Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
Collection Citation:
Donald Sewell Lopez Collection, NASM.2008.0042, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
This tape were recorded on Nov. 7, 1953, at a square dance in Springfield, Missouri. The performers include callers, fiddler, banjo player, bass player, and, on one track only, a pianist. Most tracks are square dances with calling; at least one track is exhibition dancing without calls, and another is tap dancing with piano accompaniment. None of the personnel are identified. The tapes are poorly recorded, and perhaps have deteriorated over time; the 2nd half of -2619 contains ripples, which are probably the source of the sound volume fluctuations. The back of the -2619 tape box states that the first and last tracks feature the Missouri Champ as caller; the penultimate track caller on that tape is "local." One square dance track on -2619, without calling, features, "Exhibition Dancing." The back of the tape box of -2619 has a number "3," and -2620 has a number "2," so presumably -2620 was recorded prior to -2619. See other sheets for list of tracks and durations.
Restrictions:
Restrictions on access. No duplication allowed listening and viewing for research purposes only.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
This tape were recorded on Nov. 7, 1953, at a square dance in Springfield, Missouri. The performers include callers, fiddler, banjo player, bass player, and, on one track only, a pianist. Most tracks are square dances with calling; at least one track is exhibition dancing without calls, and another is tap dancing with piano accompaniment. None of the personnel are identified. The tapes are poorly recorded, and perhaps have deteriorated over time; the 2nd half of -2619 contains ripples, which are probably the source of the sound volume fluctuations. The back of the -2619 tape box states that the first and last tracks feature the Missouri Champ as caller; the penultimate track caller on that tape is "local." One square dance track on -2619, without calling, features, "Exhibition Dancing." The back of the tape box of -2619 has a number "3," and -2620 has a number "2," so presumably -2620 was recorded prior to -2619. See other sheets for list of tracks and durations.
Restrictions:
Restrictions on access. No duplication allowed listening and viewing for research purposes only.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
Restrictions on access. No duplication allowed listening and viewing for research purposes only.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
Collection Citation:
Moses and Frances Asch Collection, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution.
124 Swimmy Swim (ACT-062) / Woody Guthrie. Guitar. English language.
125 Poor Boy (ACT-064) / Woody Guthrie. Guitar. English language.
126 Put Your Finger in the Air (ACT-065) / Woody Guthrie. Guitar. English language.
127 Dance Around (ACT-065) / Woody Guthrie. Guitar. English language.
129 Wake Up (ACT-065) / Woody Guthrie. Guitar. English language.
131 Clean-O (ACT-065) / Woody Guthrie. Guitar. English language.
132 Put Your Finger in the Air (ACT-066) / Woody Guthrie. Guitar. English language.
133 Dance Around (ACT-066) / Woody Guthrie. Guitar. English language.
134 Wake Up (ACT-066) / Woody Guthrie. Guitar. English language.
135 Clean-O (ACT-066) / Woody Guthrie. Guitar. English language.
136 Songaree (ACT-067) / Cisco Houston. Guitar. English language.
138 Miner's Song (ACT-069) / Woody Guthrie. Guitar. English language.
139 Put Your Finger in the Air (ACT-071) / Woody Guthrie. Guitar. English language.
Local Numbers:
FP-CDR-0188-7
Restrictions:
Restrictions on access. No duplication allowed listening and viewing for research purposes only; No duplication.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
![view Wingwalker digital asset: Wingwalker [NASM-NASM_DA-00021]](https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?max=170&id=https://sirismm.si.edu/siris/electronicresource.gif "Wingwalker [NASM-NASM_DA-00021]")
