George Snowden

George "Shorty" Snowden (July 4, 1904 – May 1982) was an African American dancer in Harlem during the 1920s and 1930s. He and his partner Mattie Purnell invented the Harlem Lindy Hop in the dance marathon at Harlem's Rockland Palace between June and July 1928. Snowden and Purnell's invention was based on the breakaway pattern which they practically rediscovered via an accident in the dance marathon. Rita Hayworth and Fred Astaire paid tribute to Snowden in their "Shorty George" number (music by Jerome Kern, lyrics by Johnny Mercer) in the 1942 film You Were Never Lovelier.

George Snowden

George "Shorty" Snowden (July 4, 1904 – May 1982) was an African American dancer in Harlem during the 1920s and 1930s. He and his partner Mattie Purnell invented the Harlem Lindy Hop in the dance marathon at Harlem's Rockland Palace between June and July 1928. Snowden and Purnell's invention was based on the breakaway pattern which they practically rediscovered via an accident in the dance marathon. Rita Hayworth and Fred Astaire paid tribute to Snowden in their "Shorty George" number (music by Jerome Kern, lyrics by Johnny Mercer) in the 1942 film You Were Never Lovelier.