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2005-001 | Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller . . . Roommates in New York City |
| Before they became famous Swing Orchestra Leaders, Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller played as sidemen with the Ben Pollack Orchestra and also as free-lance musicians in New York. This is the story of how they lived in an apartment with other musicians including, among others, Jimmy Dorsey. Through their careers, they had many similarities, as well as setbacks as they became successful, well-known leaders during the Swing Music era of the 1930's. Both were perfectionists who knew exactly how they wanted their music to sound. Both were gifted with excellent leadership talent and understood how to market popular music exactly the way that their fans desired.
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2005-002 | Harry James and Frank Sinatra |
| Harry James was already a seasoned musician at age twenty when he joined the Benny Goodman orchestra in 1937. For many years he had played his trumpet in the Mighty Haag Circus band, directed by his father. Harry developed his amazing endurance playing Circus music, including many marches played at a gallop. What happened when Harry James joined the Benny Goodman trumpet section? Benny's already-exciting band changed like it had been electrified! That trumpet section was outstanding! After Harry formed his own band, he discovered Frank Sinatra and gave him his first big opportunity. Frank said that working in a big band was a "career builder." In 1942, Harry's band unseated Glenn Miller by winning the Make Believe Ballroom poll.
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2005-003 | The Dorsey Brothers . . . Giants of the Big Band Era |
| The Dorsey Brothers were musical geniuses and had extraordinary musical ability. They grew up in Lansford, Pennsylvania, where their father, Thomas F. Dorsey, directed the Lansford Band. As an early Trombone player, Tommy Dorsey made it a popular solo instrument. During prohibition, Plunkett's, a New York Speakeasy and a base for trombone players and other musicians and was listed in the phone book as "The Trombone Club." The famous Eddie Condon claimed that this name was in honor of Tommy Dorsey. After a brief period when they had their own orchestra, "The Dorsey Brothers," they each became leader of an extremely successful and popular Big Band. Tommy's artistic trombone playing was both beautiful and an example to other musicians as they studied his phrasing. Jimmy's talent extended over several instruments as he demonstrated his excellent music ability with unique, innovative arrangements for his orchestra.
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2005-004 | Bing Crosby's "Road to Success" in Show Business |
| After Bing Crosby and Bob Hope first met on a radio show, they performed together on the same stage for a week. They were a skillful duet with a natural chemistry. In their seven "Road" pictures, Bob was a great straight man while Bing was a charming schemer who, after getting them into trouble, still ended up with the girl! After an apprenticeship with Paul Whiteman's orchestra, Bing broke away to start his own career as a singer, actor, recording star, and much loved celebrity. In addition to the wonderful comedy of Crosby and Hope, Bing delivered wonderful, loveable characters to the silver screen. His songs were marvelous and often became hits. A very successful singer, he broke away from being attached to an orchestra and, as a single act, he even had his own theme song. His biggest success was in radio where his melodious voice was heard in thousands of homes every week. With a contract worth $3,000 per week, Bing started hosting the Kraft Music Hall in 1935 and was on that program for the next twenty years! Bing called on his old friend Jimmy Dorsey and his orchestra to broadcast the Kraft show with him. When Bing died, Bob Hope said, "We have lost the most recognizable voice in the world."
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2005-005 | Louis Armstrong - Music from his Heart |
| Louis Armstrong, who started his life in a less-than-modest environment, became one of the most significant artists of the Jazz era. He composed songs at an early point in his career and set the standards for Jazz improvisation as a cornet (trumpet) player and singer. From the street parade bands of New Orleans to Mississippi Riverboats to the King Oliver Creole Jazz Band in Chicago, Louis went on to a great musical career. He was featured by many famous orchestras, made many recordings, and appeared in more than 50 movies. Sales of Louis Armstrong's Hot Fives' recordings spiraled after first being introduced in November, 1925. Later, Pianist Lil Hardin, who became Louis' wife, stated "We had no idea in the beginning that Jazz was to be so important, that someday people would want to know how we started, what we did, and what records we made." Her historical comments continued, "It amuses me to read people's words telling why we did this. I'm glad they know, because we didn't!" Making music was first nature to him. He was able to play and sing from his heart as he became the idol of musicians and fans alike.
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2005-006 | "Glenn and Tex" . . . A Tribute to Glenn Miller and Tex Beneke |
| Glenn Miller's first Big Band was a dismal financial failure. While recruiting sidemen for his second band he was put in touch with a young tenor sax player, Gordon Beneke, who was always known as "Tex." Glenn was an expert at recognizing every kind of talent and, in Tex's case, he assigned him vocal solos because he knew that Tex sang with a "down-home" twang that was particularly fitting for songs like "Chattanooga Choo Choo." Glenn was associated with Benny Goodman and Gene Krupa in Ben Pollack's Orchestra and with the Dorsey Brothers in their first band. He was asked by Ray Noble, he famous British Orchestra leader to help organize an orchestra to play at the famous Rainbow Room atop the RCA Building in New York and, after that, always had his own organizations. Much of Glenn's success can be attributed to his skill at giving his fans exactly what they wanted. Glenn Miller disbanded his extremely successful "second" Big Band to join the Army in late 1942. He believed it was his destiny to serve his country and lost his life in a plane that disappeared over the English Channel. Glenn Miller was known best for his leadership, his arranging, his "band stand" choreography, and his ability to please the fans.
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2005-007 | Hysterical, Screaming Crowds of Fans: The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, and Benny Goodman. |
| Hysterical, screaming crowds of fans have waited outside, mobbed the bandstand, crowded around the musicians, clapped, stomped their feet, whistled, shrieked, hollered, and applauded loudly as they cheer for their favorites! Some sit or stand quietly and just listen, but the crowd mentality takes over and bedlam reigns! Is this a new phenomenon? Certainly not, although young people of every generation seem to follow the same patterns as they choose their favorite music and those who play it. This article tells the stories of each one, the Beatles, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, and the Benny Goodman Orchestra. And do you know that each era from the Swing of the Thirties to the Ballads and Love Songs of the 40's to the Rock and Roll of the 50's to the British Invasion of the 60's has had its own favorites for whom the fans have reacted the same!
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2005-008 | Your Hit Parade: Every Saturday Night from 1935 to 1959. |
| The "Lucky Strike Hit Parade" became "Your Hit Parade" and was the program which reported, first on radio and later on TV, which tunes were the top ten popular songs each week. There are many wonderful stories about the favorite songs of the last century from popular ballads to marches to Broadway and movie hits and on to the songs about war and peace, love and hate, and even about religion. Frank Sinatra and others were heard singing these hits and the most popular musical groups of the day played them, too. Bob Hope made his screen debut in "The Big Broadcast of 1938" as he first sang, "Thanks for the Memory," his theme song for decades afterwards. Learn how tunes which had made the Hit Parade popular became scarce as the "Top 40" became the new musical poll.
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2005-009 | Muggsy Spanier and His Dixieland Cornet. How Muggsy autographed a newly-cut 78 in 1950. |
| This is the story of how Muggsy autographed his record of "Dixie Flyer" in March, 1950 for Jack Overton, then a Northwestern University college student on his way to a weekend in Wisconsin. Learn how Chicago's Blue Note got its name and Dave Garroway's "Eleven-Sixty Club" got its Theme Song. This is the story of Jazz Ltd., located in the "Gold Coast" on Chicago's East Grand Avenue, where Muggsy Spanier met his wife, Ruth, and where many Dixieland combos were heard. Clarinet player Bill Reinhart, who, with his wife, Ruth, wanted to bring high quality jazz music to Chicago, opened Jazz Limited just two years after he was discharged from the Navy in 1945. They brought favorite musicians like Sidney Bechet, Miff Mole, George Brunis, Sid Catlett and others.
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2005-010 | Blizzard Swing - The Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra |
| A March blizzard swept across Ohio in 1936 marooning the Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra. The musicians' bus broke down as they traveled to their next engagement. Learn how Jimmie's wonderful band, which was leading the way into the Swing Era with Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Chick Webb, and Fletcher Henderson, kept warm and thrilled the other snowbound people of Smithville, Ohio that day. What was it that made Jimmie's records so popular? Why did Glenn Miller admire the Lunceford Orchestra's music and performances so much? As a young black man in the early years of the twentieth century, Jimmie Lunceford earned a Bachelor's degree, studied toward his Masters, and even studied under Paul Whiteman's famous father, a music teacher and musical leader in Denver, and, later, became a teacher himself before forming his own professional orchestra.
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2005-011 | Big Band Theme Songs: Stories about Big Band Theme Songs. Includes a Lexicon, by orchestra names and by song titles, of 222 Orchestras and their 249 Theme Songs |
| When you hear Frank Sinatra singing "Come Fly With Me" you immediately recognize the singer as "Ole Blue Eyes," the "Chairman of the Board" himself. This is the story of many theme tunes, popular songs that thrilled fans and identified the orchestras that played them as they generated immediate recognition and made wonderful memories. As unique as a handwritten signature, some theme songs became more famous than the orchestra itself, as did Guy Lombardo's "Auld Lang Syne." Find out which theme song was called "America's Second National Anthem" and what famous celebrity called it that. Find out which Theme Song evoked a standing ovation led by the U. S. President and two Generals. Be reminded how Benny Goodman, the "King of Swing," played "Let's Dance" as his theme and how Tommy Dorsey's theme, "I'm Gettin' Sentimental Over You" demonstrates his outstanding ability to play the Trombone.
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2005-012 | Glenn Miller's Sound - The Clarinet Lead |
| In the movie about Glenn Miller's life, "The Glenn Miller Story," his search for a distinctive "sound" for his big band is an important part of the plot. This is the story about how Glenn found that sound. He learned a great deal during the years when he arranged music and played with the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra and when he recruited the musicians, arranged music, and played for Ray Noble, the famous British Orchestra leader. Similarly, Glenn's first orchestra, which failed and he disbanded in 1937, gave him a serious laboratory for musical experimentation. This is the story of how Glenn Miller became the most popular orchestra leader of the late thirties and early forties, how he developed the distinctive sound that became his trademark, and how he pleased his fans more than any other band leader of his time.
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