Friday, December 10, 2010

Happy Feet Friday

In 1956, a bio-pic of Benny Goodman was released, starring Steve Allen as Benny. Here’s a scene based on the 1938 Carnegie Hall concert, featuring the real Martha Tilton and one of my favorite trumpet players, Ziggy Elman.



Special bonus! Here’s some actual footage from the 1938 concert.

3 comments:

Yojimbo said...

1956! That long ago. I think that was the year that Russian tanks were moving through Hungary to quell the uprising. Time is starting to move in warp speed increments.

Anonymous said...

That Martha Tilton song always seemed so schizophrenic to me.
Reminds me of a Gong Show I saw once, when two little old ladies came out and sang something or other, and midway through their song the back curtains parted and out came the USC marching band and engulfed them.

sjff

Paco said...

Sjff: Not sure I follow that, unless you mean that the song shifts from sweet to hot. That was practically the trademark of Jimmy Dorsey's band in the 1940s.

Ziggy Elman, incidentally, was pretty much the inventor of fralich swing, a style based on Jewish folk tunes.