Frankie Week, March 12-22, 2009

A Global Shim Sham
We can no longer accept videos for the mash up version of the Shim Sham, our videographer is already hard at work on the compilation video. However you can still make a video and post to the YouTube group: http://www.youtube.com/group/shimshamforfrankie The more the merrier!

Please visit the Photo/Video Guidelines page for more details on submission requirements.


We've had such amazing participation in the Global Shim Sham, over 130 videos from all over the world have been posted to the YouTube group to date. Click here to see all of the wonderful Shim Sham salutes to Frankie.

A Photo Birthday Card
Individuals or groups are encouraged during Frankie Week to create a photo "birthday card" for Frankie. Here's how you can participate:

• Take a photo of you or your group wishing Frankie Happy Birthday. Be as creative as you can about the location, costumes, signage, etc. For example, you can take a picture of your whole scene holding a sign that says "Happy Birthday Frankie from Your Fans in ______"; you can have a bunch of dancers spell out "95" and take an overhead shot of that; you can have a bunch of people shave their heads in tribute to Frankie; or wear Hellzapoppin-style baker's hats. The possibilities are endless!
• Sign-up for a free account on Flickr.com
• Upload your photo to Flickr
• Join the "Frankie 95 Birthday Greeting" group and the click on "Add Photo" to add it to the group!
• If you do not have a Flickr account, you can also email us the photos to Frankie95card@gmail.com.

Please visit the Photo/Video Guidelines page for more details on submission requirements.

We are very excited to see what people come up with!

Spreading the Lindy Love Raising Awareness about Frankie and the Lindy Hop
During Frankie Week, we'd like to raise awareness about Frankie Manning, this special birthday festival, and lindy hop in general. Some possible groups to reach out to: local media, jazz associations, schools, libraries, museums, dance studios. First and foremost you should start in your local dance community: there are many new lindy hoppers who don't know who Frankie is or who know the history of the dance he loves. Here is a general overview of the Birthday Festival that you can use or modify for your promotion efforts, here is a more extended bio about Frankie, and here is a link to a two page history of the lindy hop as well as links to other resources on the history of the dance including web links the bios and contact information for a number of Lindy historians.

Fundraise for a Birthday Greeting
We are creating a special commemorative program for Frankie's 95th Birthday Festival that will be provided (for free) to all the participants and of course Mr. Frankie Manning himself. We will have spaces in the program for your local scene or group to put your own birthday greeting for Frankie. Click here for the various options. You may wish to use Frankie Week to raise funds among your community for an extra special birthday greeting. A couple of ideas:

• Collect money from everyone at your local dance and, as a local dance, be willing to match that. IE: if you collect $300 from everyone, then you put in $300 and now you have a full page birthday greeting from the "Thursday Night Biloxi Swing Dance Society Dance" or whatever.
• Or make the night of your dance during Frankie Week a night that all the cover charge (or X% of the cover charge) goes towards the purchase of a birthday greeting.