Sprightly swing music spills across the dimly lit club. The
grayish curtains of cigarette smoke part every once in a while to reveal
a sparkling stage and tables upon tables of patrons, some incurably
inebriated and others high on the fast-paced nightlife. Fabulous
flappers in shimmery cocktail dresses and stylish feather headbands
throw their hands up and stomp their feet to the addictive beat on the
dance floor. Smartly dressed men, their hair neatly parted and slicked
back, toss fistfuls of dice onto the plush green baize of the craps
tables. Some hover over roulette wheels, staring intently at the
spinning flashes of silver, while others finger their playing cards as
they sip on tumblers of whiskey, eyeing both the river and the tower of
tokens next to them.
Frisky tunes, chic fashion, and American
gambling are nostalgic, rose-tinted images most choose to project when
visualizing the Roaring Twenties, but the other side of the coin brought
an uninviting, much harsher reality that most would prefer to sweep
under the rug. The first real estate bubble was on the brink of
bursting, and progress was evident, but painfully slow, which gave way
to yet another era of violent riots, lynchings, and other forms of
oppression imposed on minorities.
When the phrase “the King” is used
in the context of American music, most people think of Elvis Presley,
but Presley was just a baby when the title was first conferred upon
Benny Goodman as the King of Swing in 1935. The Swing Era was a magical
period in American history between the hedonism of the Roaring Twenties
and the rebelliousness sparked by rock music beginning in the 1950s.
Swing music was rooted in ragtime, blues, and jazz music that had long
been popular in African American enclaves in Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas
City, and New Orleans. Swing took the entire nation by storm thanks in
large part to Benny Goodman and his bands, earning Goodman the nearly
undisputed title of the King of Swing. Apart from a few hiatuses to tend
his health and his growing family, Goodman remained a consistently
active musician literally right up until his death in 1986 at the age of
77. Somewhat fittingly, he died in his study with his clarinet next to
him and a Brahms sonata on a music stand nearby.
Though it may be
hard to fathom in the wake of Elvis Presley and popular rock bands like
the Beatles, the early 20th century featured a burgeoning music sales
industry that was dominated in ways that nobody would ever reach again,
including the Fab 4. While Elvis and the Beatles had a combined 71 Top
10 hits over their lengthy careers, Glenn Miller had 16 records reach
#1, and he compiled 69 Top 10 hits, all in the span of four years before
he had turned 40. Like any music pioneer, Miller and his band were
often criticized for not being true to the roots of the music they
performed, even as they perfected a sound that captivated the country.
In short order, Miller and his music influenced legends ranging from
Benny Goodman to Louis Armstrong.
Miller was the most popular big
band leader in the United States when he walked away from his orchestra
to enlist in the U.S. Army. World War II was raging, and Miller was
determined to fulfill his patriotic duty, so he assembled a military
orchestra to give fellow American servicemen a little taste of the homes
they were missing. While based in the United Kingdom in 1944, the
military orchestra was granted clearance to perform in Paris, which had
been liberated from the Nazis just months before.
December 2019
marks the 75th anniversary of Miller’s disappearance, which remains
among the greatest aviation mysteries of all time. What really happened
on that bleak December day, and why do so many people still care?
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