He moved on to a six-month residency at the Congress Hotel in Chicago, beginning in November. His performance at the Palomar Ballroom near Los Angeles on August 21, 1935, was a spectacular success, remembered as the date on which the Swing Era began. It was not particularly successful until he reached the West Coast, where his segment of Let's Dance had been heard three hours earlier than on the East Coast. During the six months he spent on the show, he scored another six Top Ten hits on Columbia, then switched to RCA Victor, for which he recorded five more Top Ten hits by the end of the year.Īfter leaving Let's Dance, Goodman undertook a national tour in the summer of 1935.

His instrumental recording of 'Moon Glow' hit number one in July, and he scored two more Top Ten hits in the fall with the instrumentals 'Take My Word' and 'Bugle Call Rag.' After a four-and-a-half-month stay at the Music Hall, he was signed for the Saturday night Let's Dance program on NBC radio, playing the last hour of the three-hour show. These record successes and an offer to perform at Billy Rose's Music Hall inspired Goodman to organize a permanent performing orchestra, which gave its first performance on June 1, 1934. He signed to Columbia Records in the fall of 1934 and reached the Top Ten in early 1934 with 'Ain't Cha Glad?' (vocal by Jack Teagarden), 'Riffin' the Scotch' (vocal by Billie Holiday), and 'Ol' Pappy' (vocal by Mildred Bailey), and in the spring with 'I Ain't Lazy, I'm Just Dreamin'' (vocal by Jack Teagarden). He also made recordings under his own name with pickup bands, first reaching the charts with 'He's Not Worth Your Tears' (vocal by Scrappy Lambert) on Melotone Records in January 1931. At 20, in September 1929, he left Pollack to settle in New York and work as a freelance musician, working at recording sessions, radio dates, and in the pit bands of Broadway musicals. His first recordings under his own name were made in January 1928. At 16, in August 1925, he joined the Ben Pollack band, with which he made his first released band recordings in December 1926. He made his professional debut at 12 and dropped out of high school at 14 to become a musician. He first began taking clarinet lessons at ten at a synagogue, after which he joined the band at Hull House, a settlement home. Goodman was the son of Russian immigrants David Goodman, a tailor, and Dora Rezinsky Goodman. The most popular figure of the first few years of the Swing Era, he continued to perform until his death 50 years later. He was an accomplished clarinetist whose distinctive playing gave an identity both to his big band and to the smaller units he led simultaneously.

Benny Goodman was the first celebrated bandleader of the Swing Era, dubbed 'The King of Swing,' his popular emergence marking the beginning of the era.

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