I’m a huge fan of the music of the 1930’s-1940’s, so it was a treat for me to watch “The Benny Goodman Story” starring Steve Allen. As I always do when watching what is, supposedly, a true story, I went online to find out what parts of the movie were based on reality and which parts were fabricated for Hollywood. Unlike “Night and Day,” the story of Cole Porter, “The Benny Goodman Story” is largely based on fact.
Benny was born to Polish immigrants and raised in the Jewish faith. Benny was introduced to the clarinet through a teacher at the nearby Jewish school, and it all took off from there. By the time he was fifteen, he was skilled enough to start playing in bands, even though he still wore short pants. One night he heard some “hot jazz” being played by some musicians from New Orleans, and he was so taken with the sound, he started experimenting with it and came up with his distinctive flavor we know him for today.
Totally absorbed in his music and nearly oblivious to anything else, when Benny meets Alice(Donna Reed)the sister of a good friend, he doesn’t even recall her name when he meets her the second time. She has a low opinion of jazz musicians and doesn’t take him seriously. However, after hearing him perform a lovely clarinet conterto, she realizes that he’s rather talented in several different musical genres, and along with her change of heart comes the development of an attraction. Soon she’s following him all over the country as he tours.
Benny and his band meet with a lot of harsh criticism as they try to introduce their new sound. The public wanted the kind of jazz they were used to, not this rollicking new stuff Benny was coming up with. He managed to get some bookings on a radio show called “Let’s Dance,” but the show’s option wasn’t renewed and he feared his band would break up. But while playing in a dance hall one night, something happened – fearing audience reaction, he instructed his band to play the old standards, but they were choking. Finally deciding to go out in a blaze of glory, they played some of their own stuff, and the crowd went wild.
The road to success was bumpy, but Benny Goodman is undisputedly regarded as one of the fathers of jazz today. The best feature of this film was the soundtrack, with all the music performed by Benny and his orchestra themselves. Many of the musicians appeared in the movie as themselves, and it’s a fabulous collection of the great jazz music of that era. Sadly, his father didn’t live to see Benny’s tremendous success.
I highly recommend this unrated film for you and your family.
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Benny Goodman, the Clarinet King