Benny Goodman: A Thing on the King of Swing

BOTD clarinetist and big band leader Benny Goodman (Benjamin Goodman, 1909-1986).

The son of Jewish immigrants, Goodman grew up in Chicago, soaking up the jazz music that was only then beginning to blossom in that town in the ’20s. By his teenager years Goodman was already playing professionally in bands with peers like Bix Beiderbecke. Playing live dates and on record and radio with other folks’ bands (Red Nichols, Isham Jones, Ted Lewis), collaborating with the likes of Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey and Jack Teagarden , he put together his own group and by 1934 was beginning to have hit records like “Moonglow”, Sing Sing Sing”, and “Get Happy”, largely with the help of the weekly radio program Let’s Dance. Fletcher Henderson did his arrangements. In 1937 he organized a historic jazz concert at Carnegie Hall that went a long way toward legitimizing the music among a skeptical older generation. In later years, he even explored be bop!

In 1956, Hollywood produced The Benny Goodman Story, with jazz buff and TV comedian Steve Allen playing himself. Supporting cast includes Donna Reed as Goodman’s wife Alice Hammond (sister of the great John Hammond), Sammy Davis Jr as Fletcher Henderson, and Hy Averback, and a long list of then-contemporary jazz greats like Gene Krupa and Lionel Hampton as themselves.

As it happens fellow big band leader Ben Bernie (The Ole Maestro) has the same birthday.

For more on show biz history, please consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.