JiveBop TV Dance Party

White was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut on October 27, 1941. He is the only child of Ray E. & Doris P. White. During his youth, the family would later relocate to Torrington in northwestern Connecticut. As a youngster, Alan was a student at Rumsey Hall School from 1952 until his graduation in 1956.

White dropped out of high school in 1957, and worked various jobs in and around Torrington. In his late teenage years, he also performed in a number of local bands that served the triangle including northwestern Connecticut, Eastern New York state and Western Massachusetts. From 1960 through 1963, Alan drummed for Turk and The Party Cats alongside Turk Coury (vocals & guitar) and Michael 'Mike' Stoffi (guitar).

Exterior shot of The Rumpus Room, c.1965

Interior shot of The Rumpus Room, c.1965

The Rumpus Room, Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

In 1964, at the age of 24, Alan began working at WHVW AM 950 (known as 'Live 95') in Hyde Park, N.Y. While at WHVW, White did a two-hour daily morning news program, a drive-time show from 4PM until station sign-off, and between shows either sold advertising for the station or worked in the studio to produce ads.

While Alan was a disc jockey at WHVW, some students at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. booked him—based on his highly rated afternoon drive show at the local top 40 radio powerhouse Live 95—to DJ a dance at the college promoted under the name 'Discotheque'. The dance was based on the discotheque club concept the students had discovered in Europe the previous summer. This event would become the first known discotheque dance in the United States.

That same year, White and a business partner, Bill DeCesare (the WHVW sales manager), opened the first discotheque in the United States, the Rumpus Room Nightclub & Discotheque, in Dover Plains, N.Y.

In deejaying professionally from a booth at the club, White unintentionally became the first professional nightclub DJ in America in 1965.

From 1966 until 1967, White worked, first as a concert promoter in North Carolina, and later as a theatrical booking agent in Washington, D.C.

He served as an agent at Paramount Artists Corporation, and represented (among others):

• The British Walkers
• Little Willie & the Hand Jives
• The Chartbusters
• Dee Dee Sharp
• The Kalin Twins
• Jimmy Jones
• The Crystals
• The Shangri-Las
• Len Barry

In late 1967, White departed Paramount in Washington, and moved to Action Talents agency at 1650 Broadway in New York City. Action Talents was an agency that received financing and support from Neil Bogart of Buddah Records fame.

While at Action Talents, Alan represented a number of the biggest pop acts of the period, including The Lemon Pipers (Green Tambourine), The Ohio Express (Yummy Yummy Yummy (I've Got Love In My Tummy)), The 1910 Fruitgum Company (Simon Says, 1, 2, 3, Red Light), Joey Dee and the Starliters (Peppermint Twist, Hot Pastrami with Mashed Potatoes), The Music Explosion (Little Bit O'Soul), The Five Stairsteps and Cubie, (O-o-h Child), Johnny Maestro and The Crests (16 Candles, The Angels Listened In, Trouble in Paradise, Step By Step), The Del Satins (a vocal quartet made famous on the local New York City-based Clay Cole Show), Jordan Christopher and The Wild Ones, The Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus and The Peppermint Rainbow (Will You Be Staying After Sunday?).

Alan became an integral at Betty Sperber's Action Talents agency, and is said to have coined the name for the act The Brooklyn Bridge; a supergroup merging Johnny Maestro (whom Sperber personally managed), The Crests and The Del Satins. When the band was first introduced to the public, it happened in an appearance on the Brooklyn Bridge featuring the 12-piece band, Bogart, Sperber and the Mayor of Brooklyn, N.Y.

In 1998, White began to DJ and promote dance events for young Atlanta-area swing dancers, who had become caught up in a resurgence of interest in swing music and dancing which would later come to be known as the swing revival or the Neo-Swing movement. This trend was led musically by artists like Brian Setzer, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Squirrel Nut Zippers and Indigo Swing.

In 2001, Alan—along with web designer Dr. Clio Soleil—launched an internet radio station called SwingTop40.com, which featured a weekly Top 40 countdown show, with songs voted upon by reporting swing DJs from around the world. In 2002, SwingTop40 would partner with SwingAwards.com to digitally produce the first of two 'imaginary' special broadcasts that served as a formal awards program for the swing music industry.

When SwingTop40 ceased production in April 2003, a total of 103 weekly Swing Top 40 Countdown shows had been broadcast, and are currently archived online.[2] These archived programs serve as a detailed historic record of the swing music revival of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

On Memorial Day weekend of 2005, Alan White was inducted into the Swing DJs Hall of Fame.[3]

White being inducted into the Swing DJs Hall of Fame in 2005.

Alan currently lives in Chamblee, Georgia and continues to DJ and promote dance events in the Atlanta area. Mr. White is divorced, and the father of two sons: Zachary and Alan White, Jr.

He also presently runs a Modern Jive dance promotion company called JiveBop and a related internet radio station—JiveBopRadio.com—playing music optimized for Modern Jive dancers. A television dance party show called the JiveBop Dance Party TV Show is currently in pre-production.

• Jive Bop Radio (streaming programming)
• The archived radio programs of SwingTop40.com
• Alan White's professional homepage
• Origins of Disco #1, including historical information
• Origins of Disco #2, including historical information
• Origins of Disco #3, including historical information