Count & Harriet, Lindy Hoppers

The Count & Harriet were part of the Six Swingsters, which was Willie Jones’ dance troupe traveling with Irvin C. Miller’s Brow Skin Models when they were engaged to play in July 1947 at John Warner’s Plaza Theater and to perform in “Pitch a Boogie Woogie.”

Harriet Drayton & Count duBarry were finalists in the 1945 Harvest Moon Ball at Madison Square Garden. Bobby White, who manages and writes most of the content for swungover.com, says about this particular Count: “Most likely a fake name, perhaps alluding to the husband of Madame du Barry, who famously had only married the French count for the noble title that would allow her to live with the King Louis XV as his official courtesan. We like to imagine that perhaps Harriet’s partner didn’t want to compete in the ball and came up with a clever way of saying so.)”

Jones said that “half of my people got tired of traveling and went back to New York.” Jones’ dancing partner, Pearl Edwards, and another couple, Jessie & Blue, were the ones who left. 

Jones said that the Six Swingsters got jobs mainly from Herbert “Whitey” White, whose Lindy Hop empire at one time consisted of over 70 dancers and 12 acts that he booked with various  productions. If you wanted Lindy Hoppers for theater, movie, or vaudeville you’d likely go through Whitey. Jones said that the Six Swingsters he led for Whitey included Count & Harriet, Blue & Jessie, and his partner, whom he recalls to Robert Crease as being named Bennie; Jones told me that it was his partner, Pearl, who left to return to New York; I’m referring to her as “Pearl Edwards” because of how she’s listed in this clipping. 

Jones also told Crease: “When we’d perform, people would come up and say, ‘you guys can dance good but not so good as Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers.’ We’d say, ‘We are Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers.'”

Jessica Cookley dancing with James “Blue” Outlaw and Willie Jones and Pearl Edwards were also finalists in the 1945 Harvest Moon Ball at Madison Square Garden. So, with the Count & Harriet in those finals, the Six Swingsters did well in the ’45 competition.

Another Count: A noted swing dancer from the period, Walter Johnson, went by two nicknames, “Count” and “Lefty.” But the pairing of Count duBarry with Harriet Drayton sure sounds like the couple who tear it up in “Pitch.” Watch ’em dance!

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–August 31, 2024

Sources

Crease, Robert P. “Profiles of Original Lindy Hoppers: Willie Jones.” The New York Swing Dance Society: Footnotes. 5.1, 1990. www.frankiemanningfoundation.org/. 31 Aug. 2024.

Jones, Willie. Personal interview. Philadelphia, Pa. 25 July 1988 ?

1945 Harvest Moon Ball. Swungover.com. 16 March 2022.