That Old G of Mine

C. 1^' '' B ill 26 MilitRAV WlcE:i%CHeFtf.l TOOTS MONOELt^.e %0 S^ ,-t, €3 ^^ €3 |4 ^ •V g: R f i O N M e L E ^ V¥ A rt CI LlOMi?-*- ^'-^^ vioo wiusso That Old G ^«^LAW ffir^^^^ of Mine ^RT fl. t> By BENNY GOODMAN with RICHARD GERMAN 0. S I L L 13 ^f^isw 'That was some band. The brass had a hard, biting attack, ^.GG^' Bt^m^n the saxophones were warm and rich and gutty, and the rhythm pounded with an insistent solidity. It ^ E S S S T A C ¥ was a loose band, very relaxed yet utterly precise . ^e ICRIJPA G E It gave me some of the best times I ever had and some of the worst . ." In his own words, the "King of T E O D ¥ ^ i L. S CI 1^ Swing" tells the remarkable story of the great orchestra ICOE^^® whose music swept the country and rocketed him to G EC! ft G e fame. It all started twenty years ago . R iSD B ill. S^ i% It 13 O I c H *^ L, A R If PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED f-. ^.•mm'f ZINN ARTHUR OPS," said one of the boys, "do you remember That was some band. The brass had a hard, rae to think seriously, for the first time, about or Pthe time we were riding through the mountains biting attack, the saxophones were warm and rich ganizing a big band to play my kind of music. on our bus, and you, your brother Harry, Helen and gutty, and the rhythm pounded with an in Nothing much came of my thinking for a while. Ward and Vido Musso got to tellin' stories, and the sistent solidity. It was a loose band, very relaxed, I was playing in radio, making a pretty fair living. bus driver laughed so hard he ran the bus off the yet utterly precise. As saxophonist Art Rollini said I'd brought my mother, sister and two brothers to road and nearly killed us all?" recently, "Everybody seemed to think as one man; New York from Chicago, which added to my "And what about that time at Nuttings-on-the- we all did the same thing at the same time." responsibilities. Also, I wasn't quite convinced Charles," said another, "that ballroom near Boston, Like all big dance bands, mine had a constantly that the public was ready for the kind of band I on the pier out over the river? The band got to fluctuating personnel. A pal of mine, Jim Maher, dreamed of leading. Then, that March of 1934, my rockin' so good and the people were stompin' so once made a list of saxophone men who'd played brother Harry, who was playing with Ben Pollack, hard the manager was afraid the whole ballroom in bands of mine between 1934 and the present. It told me that Billy Rose was thinking of opening a would go into the river, and he called the police and came to 95 men he was sure of, plus about 15 others new night club. Naturally, he would need a band. made some of the people leave." he and I thought were on records, or 110 in all. But Oscar Levant, who was working with me on a "Remember the opening at the Paramount in the band I think of as the best and the one that radio show, introduced me to Rose and I began New York?" somebody added. "The kids got so stayed together longest during the time when the rounding up some men. I had definite ideas about excited they came up and danced on the stage, and country was really swinging, lined up like this: how I wanted my band to sound. First, I was they had cops on duty inside the theater." Gordon (Chris) Griffin, Harry James and Ziggy interested only in jazz—I wanted to create a tight, "Pops," said Hymie Schertzer, "it's been a long Elman, trumpets; Murray McEachern (or Vernon small-band quality, and I wanted every one of my time. Why, it's been twenty years." Brown) and Red Ballard, trombones; Hymie boys to be a soloist. The band had to have a driving It was last July, and we were standing in the Schertzer, Vido Musso (or Dick Clark), Toots beat, a rhythmic brass section, and a sax section recording studio at Universal-International, getting Mondello, George Koenig (or Bill DePew) and Art that would be smooth but with lots of punch. ready to record the sound track of The Benny Rollini, saxophones; Jess Stacy, piano; Harry Goodman Story. The band was not exactly the Goodman, bass; Allan Reuss, guitar; Gene Krupa, WHEN I HAD the best men I could get I started same as the Benny Goodman band of 1934-'38, but drums; Helen Ward (later, Martha Tilton), vocals. rehearsals. I didn't just ask for good musicianship; most of the old sidemen were there: Gene Krupa, I've had many groups since but I've always re I insisted on it. I've never been a particularly Harry James, Ziggy Elman, Hymie Schertzer, Babe garded that one with a special feeling. It gave me patient guy where music is concerned. When Russin, Chris Griffin, my brother Irving, Allan some of the best times I ever had, and some of the somebody let me and the band down, I got sore Reuss, Murray McEachern and Lionel Hampton worst: times when I was so close to total exhaustion and let him know it. Nothing less than perfection and Teddy Wilson. Some of the heads were grayer I could scarcely remember my own name, but mo would do: I lived that music, and expected every now, and some of the faces had been lined and ments of genuine exhilaration, too. body else to live it, too. sculptured by passing time. It all started in 1934, when I was twenty-five. However, the band I had in mind was not the Twenty years have elapsed since I got that old For most of my life—since I was thirteen—I band Billy Rose had in mind—not at first, anyhow. gang of mine together . twenty years since we had been a professional musician, and when I could We auditioned for him one afternoon, and he was were jolting along in a bus on 400-mile overnight I played the music I had learned in Chicago, where I far from impressed. He said, shortly, "Let you hops to one-night stands, eating in roadside grease was born: jazz, the improvised, creative music know," and turned to something else. I was discour traps, staving off exhaustion to play our music for originated by Negroes and usually played by small aged and disappointed; by that time I had become ever-increasing crowds. Somebody tagged our mu groups. Although jazz wasn't often a paying propo excited over the prospect of having my own band, sic "swing"; I never knew exactly who was responsi sition in those days (we used to play it in our spare and I'd been counting on getting the job. ble, but I remember that I felt uneasy about it, I time), with the help and encouragement of a Someone must have put in a good word for me; thought "swing" was a fad word, and that it would young, well-to-do jazz fan named John Hammond soon afterward, word came that we were hired. die out and leave me stuck with it. I did make a few records in the early thirties with When we reported for the first rehearsal with It didn't die out. It captured the country. To the men I liked and respected. The records got a good the show, we found that Rose seemed to have dug press and the public, I was "the King of Swing," reception, especially among musicians. They led up every last old-time vaudeville act that wasn't and the nation was my kingdom. to several more record dates for me, and also led working at the time. There were roustabout tum- Collier's for January 20, 1956 PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED 28 Things were so tough before the band finally clicked that at one point Goodman talked seriously of breaking it up biers, dogs, a trampolin act, a fire-eater, and several recall, the first things he did were Sometimes I'm Yet we were moving along. Our success on the production numbers with girls. My boys' spirits Happy and King Porter Stomp. We also got some radio got us a record contract, and our first two picked up when they saw the girls, but fell as soon other arrangements, but Fletcher was the man who sides, Dixieland Band and Hunkadola, had a pretty as we started playing the music for the show. We really made our band, by arranging popular tunes fair initial sale for a jazz record. We hired Bunny were terrible. 1 don't know why, but we couldn't in the same style he used for hot numbers, which Berigan, one of the all-time greats on the trumpet, seem to work our way through that score. we called killer-dillers. and for piano we got Jess Stacy, whom John Ham Rose came over to me and said, "It doesn't look To get used to playing the book, we played some mond had found in a run-down Chicago saloon. like you can play the show." dates around town.

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