Charles River Editors - Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller: The Lives and Careers of America’s Most Famous Big Band Leaders

Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller

A 1942 picture of Glenn Miller

After you've done all the work and prepared as much as you can, what the hell, you might as well go out and have a good time. Benny Goodman

Sprightly swing music spills across the dimly lit club. The grayish curtains of cigarette smoke part every once in a while to reveal a sparkling stage and tables upon tables of patrons, some incurably inebriated and others high on the fast-paced nightlife. Fabulous flappers in shimmery cocktail dresses and stylish feather headbands throw their hands up and stomp their feet to the addictive beat on the dance floor. Smartly dressed men, their hair neatly parted and slicked back, toss fistfuls of dice onto the plush green baize of the craps tables. Some hover over roulette wheels, staring intently at the spinning flashes of silver, while others finger their playing cards as they sip on tumblers of whiskey, eyeing both the river and the tower of tokens next to them.

Frisky tunes, chic fashion, and American gambling are nostalgic, rose-tinted images most choose to project when visualizing the Roaring Twenties, but the other side of the coin brought an uninviting, much harsher reality that most would prefer to sweep under the rug. The first real estate bubble was on the brink of bursting, and progress was evident, but painfully slow, which gave way to yet another era of violent riots, lynchings, and other forms of oppression imposed on minorities.

When the phrase the King is used in the context of American music, most people think of Elvis Presley, but Presley was just a baby when the title was first conferred upon Benny Goodman as the King of Swing in 1935. The Swing Era was a magical period in American history between the hedonism of the Roaring Twenties and the rebelliousness sparked by rock music beginning in the 1950s. Swing music was rooted in ragtime, blues, and jazz music that had long been popular in African American enclaves in Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, and New Orleans. Swing took the entire nation by storm thanks in large part to Benny Goodman and his bands, earning Goodman the nearly undisputed title of the King of Swing.

Goodman's life was a genuine rags-to-riches story. The son of nearly destitute Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, Goodman was a musical prodigy who began playing professionally at the tender age of 13, and he was also among the first mainstream bandleaders to hire black musicians. Referring to music as a great escape for me from the poverty," Goodmans lifelong focus was on good music, no matter who it came from. As he put it, If a guy's got it, let him give it. I'm selling music, not prejudice. Goodmans popularity was so instrumental that Lionel Hampton went so far as to claim, "As far as I'm concerned, what he did in those daysand they were hard days, in 1937made it possible for Negroes to have their chance in baseball and other fields."

Apart from a few hiatuses to tend his health and his growing family, Goodman remained a consistently active musician literally right up until his death in 1986 at the age of 77. Somewhat fittingly, he died in his study with his clarinet next to him and a Brahms sonata on a music stand nearby.

Though it may be hard to fathom in the wake of Elvis Presley and popular rock bands like the Beatles, the early 20 th century featured a burgeoning music sales industry that was dominated in ways that nobody would ever reach again, including the Fab 4. While Elvis and the Beatles had a combined 71 Top 10 hits over their lengthy careers, Glenn Miller had 16 records reach #1, and he compiled 69 Top 10 hits, all in the span of four years before he had turned 40. Like any music pioneer, Miller and his band were often criticized for not being true to the roots of the music they performed, even as they perfected a sound that captivated the country. In short order, Miller and his music influenced legends ranging from Benny Goodman to Louis Armstrong.

Miller was the most popular big band leader in the United States when he walked away from his orchestra to enlist in the U.S. Army. World War II was raging, and Miller was determined to fulfill his patriotic duty, so he assembled a military orchestra to give fellow American servicemen a little taste of the homes they were missing. While based in the United Kingdom in 1944, the military orchestra was granted clearance to perform in Paris, which had been liberated from the Nazis just months before.

Miller planned his own trip across the English Channel to prepare for a few days ahead of the orchestras arrival. Millers trip had already been postponed by cold, foggy and drizzly weather, but on December 15, 1944 the pilot chose not to let similar conditions delay it again. The plane took off at about 2:00 p.m. from the airstrip at Twinwood Farm, but it never made it to Paris. As Miller himself had once prophetically put it, I dont know why I spend my time making plans like this. I have an awful feeling you guys are going to go home without me, and Im going to get mine in some goddamn beat-up old plane!

December 2019 marks the 75th anniversary of Millers disappearance, which remains among the greatest aviation mysteries of all time. What really happened on that bleak December day, and why do so many people still care?

Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller: The Lives and Careers of Americas Most Famous Big Band Leaders profiles how they rose from obscure beginnings to become some of 20 th century musics most influential figures. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about Goodman and Miller like never before.