Jitterbug is a generalized term used to describe
swing dancing. It is often synonymous with the
lindy hop
The Lindy Hop is an American dance which was born in the African-American communities of Harlem, New York City, in 1928 and has evolved since then. It was very popular during the swing era of the late 1930s and early 1940s. Lindy is a fusion of ...
dance but might include elements of the
jive,
east coast swing,
collegiate shag
The Collegiate Shag (or "Shag") is a partner dance done primarily to uptempo swing and pre-swing jazz music (185-250+ beats per minute). It belongs to the swing family of American vernacular dances that arose in the 1920s and 30s. It is believed ...
,
charleston,
balboa and other swing dances.
Swing dancing originated in the
African-American
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...
communities of
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
in the early 20th century. Many nightclubs had a whites-only or blacks-only policy due to
racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Segregation can involve the spatial separation of the races, and mandatory use of different institutions, ...
, however the
Savoy Ballroom in
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...
had a no-discrimination policy which allowed whites and blacks to dance together and it was there that the
Lindy Hop
The Lindy Hop is an American dance which was born in the African-American communities of Harlem, New York City, in 1928 and has evolved since then. It was very popular during the swing era of the late 1930s and early 1940s. Lindy is a fusion of ...
dance flourished, started by dancers such as
George Snowden and
Frank Manning. The term jitterbug was originally a ridicule used by black patrons to describe whites who started to dance the Lindy Hop, as they were dancing faster and jumpier than was intended, like "jittering bugs", although it quickly lost its negative connotation as the more erratic version caught on. Both the Lindy Hop and the "jitterbug" became popular outside Harlem when the dance was featured in Hollywood films and
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, American and British English spelling differences), many of the List of ...
, starring the performance group
Whitey's Lindy Hoppers.
Etymology

According to the ''
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...
'' (''OED'') the word "jitterbug" is a combination of the words "jitter" and "bug";
both words are of unknown origin.
The first use of the word "jitters" quoted by the ''OED'' is from 1929, Act II of the play ''
Strictly Dishonorable'' by
Preston Sturges
Preston Sturges (; born Edmund Preston Biden; August 29, 1898 – August 6, 1959) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and film director.
He is credited as being the first screenwriter to find success as a director. Prior to Sturges, other ...
where the character Isabelle says: "Willie's got the jitters" is answered by a judge "Jitters?" to which Isabelle answers "You know, he makes faces all the time."
The second quote in the ''OED'' is from the N.Y. Press from 2 April 1930: "The game is played only after the mugs and wenches have taken on too much gin and they arrive at the state of jitters, a disease known among the common herd as heebie jeebies."
The first quote containing the term “jitter bug” recorded by the ''OED'' is from the 1934
Cab Calloway
Cabell "Cab" Calloway III (December 25, 1907 – November 18, 1994) was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was a regular performer at the Cotton Club in Harlem, where he became a popular vocalist of the Swing music, swing era. His niche ...
song “Jitter Bug”. The magazine ''Song Hits'', in the 19 November 1939 issue, published the lyrics, including: “They’re four little jitter bugs. He has the jitters ev’ry morn; that’s why jitter sauce was born.”
According to H. W. Fry in his review of ''Dictionary of Word Origins'' by
Joseph Twadell Shipley in 1945 the word "jitters" "is from a
spoonerism
A spoonerism is an occurrence of speech in which corresponding consonants, vowels, or morphemes are switched (see metathesis) between two words of a phrase. These are named after the Oxford don and priest William Archibald Spooner, who report ...
bin and jitters' for 'gin and bitters'..and originally referred to one under the influence of gin and bitters".
Wentworth and Flexner explains "jitterbug" as "
e who, though not a musician, enthusiastically likes or understands swing music; a swing fan" or "
e who dances frequently to swing music" or "
devotee of jitterbug music and dancing; one who follows the fashions and fads of the jitterbug devotee... To dance, esp
ciallyto jazz or swing music and usu
llyin an extremely vigorous and athletic manner".
Early history

Jitterbugging developed from dances performed by African-Americans at
juke joints and
dance halls.
[Stearns, Marshall and Jean (1968). ''Jazz Dance: The Story of American Vernacular Dance''. New York: Macmillan. page 331. ] The
Carolina shag and single
Lindy Hop
The Lindy Hop is an American dance which was born in the African-American communities of Harlem, New York City, in 1928 and has evolved since then. It was very popular during the swing era of the late 1930s and early 1940s. Lindy is a fusion of ...
dances formed the basis of the jitterbug, which gave way to the double Lindy Hop when rock and roll became popular.
White dancers picked up the energetic jitterbug from dancers at black venues. Venues in the
Hill District of Pittsburgh were popular places for whites to learn the jitterbug.
[Stearns, Marshall and Jean (1968). ''Jazz Dance: The Story of American Vernacular Dance''. New York: Macmillan. page 330. ] The
Savoy Ballroom, a dance hall in
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...
, was a famous cross-cultural venue, frequented by both black locals and white tourists.
Norma Miller, a former Lindy Hop dancer who regularly performed at the Savoy, noted that the dances performed there were choreographed in advance, which was not always understood by the tourists, who sometimes believed the performers were just dancing socially.
A musical number called "
The Jitterbug" was written for the 1939 film ''
The Wizard of Oz''. The "jitterbug" was a
bug sent by the
Wicked Witch of the West to waylay the heroes by forcing them to do a jitterbug-style dance. Although the sequence was not included in the final version of the film, the witch is later heard to tell the flying monkey leader, "I've sent a little insect on ahead to take the fight out of them." The song as sung by
Judy Garland
Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. Possessing a strong contralto voice, she was celebrated for her emotional depth and versatility across film, stage, and concert performance. ...
as Dorothy and some of the establishing dialogue survived from the soundtrack as the B-side of the disc release of "Over the Rainbow".
Popularity

In 1944, with the United States' continuing involvement in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, a 30%
federal excise tax was levied against night clubs that featured dancing. Although the tax was later reduced to 20%, "No Dancing Allowed" signs went up all over the country. It has been argued that this tax had a significant role in the decline of public dancing as a recreational activity in the United States.
World War II facilitated the spread of jitterbug across the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans. Across the Atlantic in preparation for
D-Day
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...
, there were nearly 1,6 million American troops stationed throughout Britain in May 1944. Numbers dwindled thereafter, but as late as April 30, 1945 there were still over 224,000 airmen, 109,000 communications zone troops, and 100,000 in hospitals or preparing to serve as individual replacements.
Dancing was not a popular pastime in Britain before the war, and many ballrooms had been closed for lack of business. In the wake of the arrival of American troops, many of these re-opened, installing
jukeboxes
A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that plays a user-selected song from a self-contained media library. Traditional jukeboxes contain records, compact discs, or digital files, and allow user ...
rather than hiring live bands.
Working class
The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...
women who had never danced recreationally before made up a large part of the attendees, along with American soldiers and sailors.
British Samoans were doing a "Seabee version" of the jitterbug by January 1944. By November 1945 after the departure of the American troops following D-Day, English couples were being warned not to continue doing energetic "rude American dancing," as it was disapproved of by the
upper classes
Upper class in modern societies is the social class composed of people who hold the highest social status. Usually, these are the wealthiest members of class society, and wield the greatest political power. According to this view, the upper cla ...
.
['']Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
'', 24 November 1945. "Britons Drive to End Jiving as Yanks Go Home". page 88 ''
Time
Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
'' reported that American troops stationed in France in 1945 jitterbugged, and by 1946, jitterbug had become a craze in England. It was already a competition dance in Australia.
A
United Press
United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th ...
item datelined Hollywood on 9 June 1945 stated that dancer Florida Edwards was awarded a $7,870 judgement by the district court of appeals for injuries she sustained while jitterbugging at the
Hollywood Canteen the previous year.
In 1957, the
Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
-based television show ''
American Bandstand
''American Bandstand'' (AB) is an American Music television, music performance and dance television series that aired in various iterations from 1952 to 1989. It was hosted by Dick Clark who also served as the program's Television producer, pr ...
'' was picked up by the
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American Commercial broadcasting, commercial broadcast Television broadcaster, television and radio Radio network, network that serves as the flagship property of the Disney Entertainment division ...
and shown across the United States. ''American Bandstand'' featured popular songs of the day, live appearances by musicians, and dancing in the studio. At this time, the most popular fast dance was jitterbug, which was described as "a frenetic leftover of the swing era ballroom days that was only slightly less acrobatic than Lindy".
In a 1962 article in the ''
Memphis Commercial Appeal'', bassist
Bill Black
William Patton Black Jr. (September 17, 1926 – October 21, 1965) was an American musician and bandleader who is noted as one of the pioneers of rock and roll. He played in Elvis Presley's early trio, The Blue Moon Boys. Black later formed Bill ...
, who had backed
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...
from 1954 to 1957, listed "jitterbug" along with the
twist and
cha-cha as "the only dance numbers you can play".
[''The Blue Moon Boys: The Story of Elvis Presley's Band''. Ken Burke and Dan Griffin. 2006. Chicago Review Press. page 146. .]
See also
*
Balboa
*
Lindy Hop
The Lindy Hop is an American dance which was born in the African-American communities of Harlem, New York City, in 1928 and has evolved since then. It was very popular during the swing era of the late 1930s and early 1940s. Lindy is a fusion of ...
*
Shag
*
Big Apple
*
Charleston (dance)
The Charleston is a dance named after the harbor city of Charleston, South Carolina. The rhythm was popularized in mainstream dance music in the United States by a 1923 tune called "Charleston (1923 song), The Charleston" by composer/pianist J ...
References
{{Authority control
Swing dances
Articles containing video clips