Benny Goodman was entitled to spend two weeks at a summer camp near Chicago. It was the only time he could get away from his bleak neighborhood. He also received two years of instruction from classically trained clarinetist Franz Schoepp. When he was 17, his father was killed by a passing car after stepping off a streetcar. His father's death was "the saddest thing that ever happened in our family", Goodman said. He attended Lewis Institute (Illinois Institute of Technology) in 1924 as a high-school sophomore and played clarinet in a dance hall band. His early influences were New Orleans jazz clarinetists
Monty Budwig Budwig played with pianist Vince Guaraldi in the 1960s, including on the album "Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus". Budwig was part of Benny Goodman's band for performances in New York, and a tour of Japan in 1964. He also began his career as a studio musician in the 1960s, which encompassed film and television shows, with Steve Allen, Johnny Carson, and Judy Garland. Budwig toured Australia with Goodman in 1973. He made another international tour in 1974, this time to South America with Carmen McRae. His one recording as a leader was "Dig", for Concord Records. He died at home