Having cleaned up with The Glenn Miller Story (a bio-pic of a trombone playing band leader) the previous year, Universal decided to cash in on what they hoped might develop into a trend with a second musical bio-pic but this time centred around a clarinet playing band leader. Accordingly they tapped the writer of the Glenn Miller Story, Valentine Davies to write the follow-up and even allowed him to direct what turned out to be his only movie. Alas, he opted for the wrong clarinet playing leader and gave us Benny Goodman instead of the far superior Artie Shaw, thus losing out on non-musical color (Shaw was a serial husband, urbane, and a polished writer whilst Goodman was a bad nowhere to a blancmange without a clarinet in his hand). Even as a musician Goodman lagged far behind Shaw, so what we are left with is one or two well-known tunes - One O'Clock Jump, Stompin' At The Savoy, Avalon, Don't Be That Way - and appearances by musicians long past their sell-by date such as Kid Ory, Harry James, Gene Krupa, Teddy Wilson, Lionel Hampton and the ubiquitous Ben Pollack who'd probably been sleeping in a dark corner of the Sound Stage since The Glenn Miller Story was wrapped a few months earlier. On the other hand it could and did get worse, Drum Crazy (The Gene Krupa Story) anyone? See if for the music.

He was born in the spring of 1909, and beginning with his first hit recording, "Moon Glow" in 1934, he routinely scored a dozen top-ten hits on a yearly basis. Some regard his title, "The King of Swing," as insulting to the African-American tradition that became America's indigenous art form, jazz. It's true that Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Chick Webb, and Fletcher Henderson probably deserved the title, but Benny Goodman was also deserving, and moreover an admirable, seminal representative of the historical period that became known as the "Swing Era." Moreover, in his 1938 Carnegie Hall concert he broke both the "cultural" barrier that insisted on privileging classical European music over "vulgar" American popular forms as well as the color barrier that made it unusual, unlikely, and often impossible for white and black musicians to play on the same stage. Benny was a great musician, as in command of a classical repertory as of jazz, but he was also an ambassador and an example, making the public aware of the music of Billie Holiday (he also introduced Peggy Lee), Lester Young, Lionel Hampton, Teddy Wilson, and the beauties of a music that was a sophisticated American music as well as a highly swinging one.Forget the plot of this adequate but conventional love story. You'll have to look long and hard to find a movie with this much great American music. And give some thought to the revolution that began in the 1950s and changed the American landscape in the 1960s after the "British invasion." Goodman looked like a boring banker. He wore suits and ties--and he played clarinet! How could he have been adopted by a primarily young generation as a hero if not major pop star? Steve Allen is a bit better looking (and far more clever and articulate) than Goodman, but he won't explain the revolution that made hair, guitars and grubby jeans more worthy of our time, attention, and money, tons of it, than a genteel adult like Goodman. Benny instead introduced us to a guitarist who was black, wore suits, and became known as the "Father of the Jazz guitar," Charlie Christian. Benny Goodman was about sophistication, civility, and competence--and that's exactly what you get, and in abundance, from the musically hip Steve Allen.Thanks to this movie, I developed a lifelong love of jazz. I'm still swinging, and I'm still left puzzled by the sounds of distorted guitars, of groups that can't perform without vocals, and of drummers who are clueless about the subtle, airborne groove of a 4/4 walking bass, a tight hi-hat, and a shimmering ride cymbal. And I still fail to grasp the entertainment value of performers who wear torn jeans, earrings and tattoos while commanding tens of thousands for a single performance. If you can't hear music unless the beat sounds like an amplified, mechanical drill hammer, you probably won't like this movie.

It is was interesting to figure out what footage was the movie and what footage was from the actual 1938 performance at Carnegie Hall. There are two ways to figure it out: watch the color of the piano and what type of shot is taken by the camera. In close up shots with Steve Allen as Benny, the piano is brown. In far away shots, the piano is black. The far away shots are the actual 1938 footage. And of course, if you see Steve Allen (the close up shots), it is the movie footage. Without knowing that the original 1938 performance was spliced in with the 1955 movie footage , the viewer might see this as a continuity error.Although Steve Allen was not a clarinetist, one can see by his "performance" that he went to a lot of trouble to look as if he was actually playing (spoiler: Benny Goodman himself was actually playing clarinet off camera with the other musicians in the movie). As a musician and music historian, I am often annoyed when an actor or actress pretends to play a musical instrument: his or her performance usually looks fake. Excellent movie for all musicians! Very seldom do you see movies with so many great performances. It was also terrific to see some very famous musicians like Gene Krupa and Harry James.

The Goodman story looks terribly contrived and schmaltzy here in enlightened 2000. Yet schmaltz was what Hollywood was all about in 1955. So Donna Reid smiles and simpers, black man Kid Ory walks unchallenged into an NBC studio (in 1937???) and you just know the movie will end with a "and they all lived happily ever after." But maybe the Hollywood of 55 wasn't that bad. There was no heavy breathing, no f-words, no bare butts but lots of superb music by now deceased masters. The ultimate test? My wife and I really enjoyed watching it! But that doesn't seem to be the reason they make movies these days.