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CHAPTER 3

“THE GLORY DAYS OF SWING”!!

Benny Goodman’s triumph at the Palomar Ballroom in California was the catalyst for a revolution in music and dance in America.  During the late thirties, hundreds of new swing bands formed all across the country.  In response to the demand, at least five of Goodman’s own sidemen – Gene Krupa, Berrigan, Teddy Wilson, Lionel Hampton, and Harry James – all started their own bands.  Established bands such as those led by Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, Jimmie Lunceford and Charlie Barnet hit the top of the charts.  Bing’s brother, Bob Crosby; Woody Herman, with his hit song “Woodchopper’s Ball”; and Artie Shaw, with “Begin the Beguine,” became household names. 

6-1-1938 DownBeat Magazine

Lionel Hampton

9-1-1939 DownBeat Magazine

The Jimmy Lunceford Orchestra, late 1930s

Swing fans eagerly awaited each issue of Downbeat and Metronome magazines to see how their favorite band rated in the latest readers poll, or which star soloist had been snatched up by another band. 

Cover of Metronome, Circa 1941                      CAB CALLOWAY                              Cover of Downbeat, April 1944

As one pianist put it, “If you were a jazz musician playing with Woody Herman, you were almost like a movie star.”  Ellington too noticed a huge increase in attention from fans, “Audiences, today, invariably crowd around the bandstand, eager to grasp every solo note and orchestral trick.”

The Duke

Enormous new ballrooms were constructed across the country – breath taking dance palaces like the Hollywood Palladium, and the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, that could literally hold thousands of couples.

Outside the Hollywood Palladium, 1940s

Inside the Hollywood Palladium, 1926

Inside the Aragon Ballroom, 1946

Swing was Big Business.  The recording industry, which had grossed just $2.5 million in 1932, was hauling in $36 million by 1939.  The relatively new radio business was one of the most important factors in promoting swing.  Fans would listen to live recordings from such famous ballrooms as the Pennsylvania Hotel in New York and the Meadowbrook Club in New Jersey.

The Meadowbrook Club

Hollywood fell hard for swing, producing scores of movies featuring bandleaders, like The Big Broadcast (a 1932 film where a crumbling radio station is saved by an all-star show featuring Bing Crosby, The Mills Brothers, The Boswell Sisters, and Cab Calloway performing “Minnie the Moocher” and “Hot Toddy”). 

The Boswell Sisters     
During the Great Depression, the Boswells were
imitated by all vocal groups, black and white.

On one Saturday in March 1937, the Goodman orchestra played at 3:30 a.m. before the showing of a movie at the Paramount Theater in New York.  Hundreds of awestruck kids showed up before sunrise to wait in line – and three thousand swing dancers in all turned out, many of them jumping out of their seats and dancing in the aisles during the performance.

          Paramount Theater, New York City 1937

Suddenly Jazz was being played everywhere, from the big city to the small town, all under the guise of a new name – Swing!

Jitterbug at a small town Elks' Club dance, April 1943

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