The Pendulum Swings
And the Lindy is Hip
By TAYLOR HOLLIDAY
Los Angeles
The hepcats are on the dance floor, the men in zoot suits
with dangling watchchains and duo-tone wingtips, the women
in pencil skirts with chunky heels and Andrews Sisters
hairdos. And can they move. Whether it's the East Coast
swing or the Lindy Hop, they're jumpin' to the sounds of
swing jazz, straight from the horns of the gone guys
onstage.
But wait, this is not 1940, and these are definitely not
your parents. It's 1997, the post-grunge age, the lounge
era, and these hipsters are twenty- and thirtysomethings
who actually dress up on the weekends and go dancing--with
partners!
Yes, it's one of the most happenin' scenes in L.A.--has
been, in fact, for a couple of years for that little cult
that's always first on any scene--but now its time has
truly come: Nowadays, the mainstream is swinging too,
thanks to some serious word-of-mouth and to the
not-so-serious, hit indie-movie "Swingers."
The renaissance of swing in L.A. owes a lot to the Derby, a
dome-topped Los Feliz landmark with a fabled past that
includes the '20s-era proprietorship of Cecil B. De Mille
and decades as one of the ever-cool restaurants in the
Brown Derby chain. Co-owner Tammi Gower bought it in 1993
and restored the glamorous Old Hollywood look of its
heyday. "People told me I was crazy to open a swing club,"
she says, "but within six months it just took off." By that
she means that the 425-capacity space has lines out the
door most nights. "We have everyone from 21-year-old
tatooeds from Melrose to 65-year-olds who were dancing
swing the first time it was popular."
Of course new recruits knew from nothing about the quick
six-count of East Coast swing or the intricate eight-count
of the Lindy Hop; so the Derby began offering free dance
lessons in its private-party room a couple of nights a
week. Cutting the classes off at 120 people, it had to add
a third night to meet demand about a year ago, and this
month it's added a fourth night, for intermediate and
advanced instruction, including aerials.
The club's also had little trouble filling seven nights a
week with swing bands, from the traditional guys playing
'40s standards to the new dudes, who play their own original
swing jazz with a '90s bent. The Derby's first house band,
The Royal Crown Revue, got a recording contract and put out
its first CD last year, and its current Wednesday-night
regular, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, recently snagged its own
record deal.
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy also set the mood from the Derby stage
in "Swingers." "Since that movie came out [in October],"
says Ms. Gower, "we've seen a lot of new faces, along with
the regulars." That's because this incredibly endearing
little slice-of-life tale of some wannabe actors whose real
proclivity is for "leisure activities" used the Derby and
other L.A. retro-clubs as its backdrop.
The film stars Jon Favreau as a barely working comedian,
fresh off a longterm relationship and obsessed and
depressed over his ex. His supportive but clueless buddies
try to coach him back into the dating game with their own
hilarious hipsters' version of the rules of dating. In the
film's climactic scene, Mr. Favreau's character finally
emerges from his funk in a sort of catharsis of swing
dancing.
Mr. Favreau himself was a barely working actor who was
writing a script based on himself and his friends around
the time that the swing scene was heating up in L.A. "I
happened to go to the Derby one night," he says, "and saw
that it had a real fairy-tale quality. It was the perfect
place for a scene where a guy's luck finally changes. The
whole movie's like Oz, and I wanted this moment to be like
the Emerald City. I knew this was where it had to be." So
he started going to the Derby every week, and to other
clubs around town that were suddenly hosting swing nights,
and by the time he started filming, he'd had enough classes
and practice to do some seriously impressive moves on the
dance floor.
The movie, whose cast features the buddies he wrote about,
is still in theaters after grossing 20 times its $250,000
shooting budget. But its success may have spoiled the L.A.
swing scene for Mr. Favreau. "I can't even get into the
clubs, the neighborhood lounges, I just happened to put in
the movie. The dance floor is too crowded, and a lot of the
people don't really even know how to dance, though they're
trying their hearts out." But don't misunderstand him. He's
grateful that so many people related to the film, and he's
glad to see people having a good time in the clubs and
returning to the civilized manners of the past.
"The scene is cool," he says, because when people dress the
part, "they don't get blitzed, the men are polite, and the
women feel safe."
And swing may have an even more basic appeal: "The guys see
that all the beautiful girls are with the guys who can
dance."
Copyright c 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.