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
Benny Goodman "Bugle Call Rag". NBC hired for Goodman for the radio program "Let's Dance". He needed new arrangements every week, so he was advised by Hammond to buy them from Fletcher Henderson. Goodman hired Henderson's band members to teach his musicians how to play the music. During the Depression, Henderson disbanded his orchestra because he was in debt. Goodman's band was one of three to perform on "Let's Dance", playing arrangements by Henderson along with hits such as "Get Happy" and "Limehouse Blues" by Spud Murphy. Goodman's portion of the program was broadcast too late at night to attract a large