The Benny Goodman Story him out of a romance with Alice Hammond (played by Donna Reed), whom Goodman eventually married, she says, "Bagels and caviar don't mix." The young Benny Goodman is taught clarinet by a Chicago music professor. He is advised by bandleader Kid Ory to play whichever kind of music he likes best, but to make a living, Benny begins by joining the Ben Pollack traveling band. Later in New York, where his new band band gets a lukewarm reception, Benny meets jazz lover John Hammond and his sister Alice. He is invited to the stately Hammond home to perform a Mozart
Benny Goodman "King of Swing" as part of a sales campaign, but shortly after Goodman and his crew left Chicago in May 1936 to spend the summer filming "The Big Broadcast of 1937" in Hollywood, the title "King of Swing" was applied to Goodman by the media. At the end of June 1936, Goodman went to Hollywood, where, on June 30, 1936, his band began CBS's "Camel Caravan," its third and (according to Connor and Hicks) its greatest sponsored radio show, co-starring Goodman and his former boss Nathaniel Shilkret. By spring 1936, Fletcher Henderson was writing arrangements for Goodman's band. In late