The Benny Goodman Story *** (1956, Steve Allen, Donna Reed, Berta Gersten) – Classic Movie Review 10,714

Steve Allen stars – quite impressively too – in writer-director Valentine Davies’s 1956 The Benny Goodman Story, a sentimental fictionalised musical around the career of Benny Goodman, the ace clarinet player from Chicago’s Jewish quarter, and his romance with Alice Hammond (Donna Reed).

The easy-going swing music, Goodman’s own playing on clarinet and guest appearances by Harry James (trumpeter at Carnegie Hall), Gene Krupa (as himself, also musician: drums), Lionel Hampton (as himself) and Teddy Wilson (as himself, also musician: piano) help to keep it swinging. Berta Gersten plays Mama Goodman. It is shot in Technicolor by William H Daniels in the studio at Universal Studios, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California.

Steve Allen was an accomplished piano player, but had to learn how to play the clarinet for the film.

Benny Goodman’s theme song is played as the Universal International globe appears on screen. Universal advertised it as ‘from the studio that gave you The Glenn Miller Story‘.

Also in the cast are Herbert Anderson, Robert F Simon, Sammy Davis Snr, Dick Winslow, Barry Truex, David Kasday, Hy Averback, Wilson Graff, and Shep Menken.

Joseph Gershenson is the music supervisor and Henry Mancini is the composer of additional music.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,714

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