Benny Goodman is on e of those rare personalities who has become a legend in his own lifetime. His name and his clarinet will always be indelibly associated with the era of the "big band," that period of "swing" music which permeated all parts of the Western world, but especially the United States, in the 1930s and '40s. A famous engagement of three weeks at the Paramount Theatre in New York in March 1937 turned out to be the launching pad for recognition of the Benny Goodman band as the greatest of them all. The young American audience responded with near-hysteria to the strong beat and graceful improvisations of swing music. This huge success was unequivocally confirmed when the band appeared on January 16, 1938, at the New York home of classical music - Carnegie Hall. From then on, the sky was the limit for Benny, his band, his famous trio and quartet. They were constantly before the public - in theater performances, on radio, in films. They set the tone for those happy years of jazz which abounded with so many talented and devoted musicians. Benny's large collection of photographs and memorabilia has been drawn upon to provide a panorama not only of those central years in his productive life - and the many great jazzmen and singers with whom he is associated - but also of his childhood and early struggles, his great successes as a performer of "serious" music and his continuing musical activities since swing and the big band gave way to other forms of entertainment. - Dust jacket.