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Jean Veloz, an iconic dancer who popularized the Hollywood style of Lindy Hop in the musical comedy Swing Fever and more recently worked as a dance instructor on The Bachelorette, has died. She was 98. As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, Veloz passed away on Sunday (January 15) at her home in Los Angeles, as confirmed by her friend, agent, and manager Rusty Frank, who co-produced 2010’s A Tribute to the Groovie Movie, which honored Veloz. “Jean innovated a style of swing dance that was admired around the world,” Frank said (via THR). “It was silky smooth and greatly contrasted the more jitterbug style prevalent during the 1930s-’40s. Every moment spent with Jean was a lesson on how to live a life. Her positive attitude was unparalleled, her love of people immense.’”  Veloz made a 2017 appearance on NBC on the Steve Harvey-hosted Little Big Shots: Forever Young, where she danced to “One Girl and Two Boys,...

Jean Veloz, the innovative Lindy Hop dancer who dazzled in Swing Fever and other Hollywood musicals of the 1940s, has died. She was 98.

Veloz died Sunday at her home in Los Angeles, her friend, agent and manager Rusty Frank told The Hollywood Reporter. Frank co-produced the 2010 event A Tribute to the Groovie Movie, which celebrated Veloz and her contribution to dance.

“Jean innovated a style of swing dance that was admired around the world,” Frank said. “It was silky smooth and greatly contrasted the more jitterbug style prevalent during the 1930s-’40s.”

Generations of dancers idolized her.

In MGM’s Swing Fever (1943), Veloz whirled with servicemen portrayed by Lennie Smith and Don Gallagher in the high-octane number “One Girl and Two Boys,” accompanied by Kay Kyser’s band and sandwiched between Marilyn Maxwell’s singing.

She also did the jitterbug in Where Are Your Children? (1943), starring Jackie Cooper; danced with...

Good neighbor policy? Wartime exigencies inspired an intra-hemisphere cultural exchange, with the movies seizing on the new popularity of Latin music. Republic’s contribution gives us the great songs of Ady Barroso and a full soundtrack of his compositions — in a featherweight musical romance, of course.

Brazil

Blu-ray

Olive Films

1944 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 91 min. / Street Date December 6, 2016 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98

Starring Tito Guízar, Virginia Bruce, Edward Everett Horton, Robert Livingston, Veloz and Yolanda, Fortunio Bonanova, Richard Lane, Frank Puglia, Aurora Miranda, Billy Daniel, Dan Seymour, Roy Rogers.

Cinematography Jack A. Marta

Film Editor Fred Allen

Songs Ary Barroso, Hoagy Carmichael

Written by Frank Gill Jr., Laura Kerr, Richard English

Produced by Robert North

Directed by Joseph Santley

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

The wartime ‘Good Neighbor Policy’ was a P.R. blitz intended to steer South America toward the U.S. and away from the Axis.