Sept. 19, 2025

Make Believe Ballroom - 9/19/25 Edition

Make Believe Ballroom - 9/19/25 Edition
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Make Believe Ballroom - 9/19/25 Edition
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This week's Make Believe Ballroom with Jeff Bressler brings you Classic Big Band Hits from the 30s and 40s. On this edition - the first bandleader ever to appear on the radio, orchestras that were artistic successes but financial failures, Jeff digs up an old box with some great bandleader quotes inside - plus many more great records and stories to cherish and enjoy on this week's program.
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It's make Believe ballroom time.

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Put all your cares away.

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All the bands are here to bring good cheer your way.

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It's make Believe ballroom time and free to everyone. It's

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no time to friend your Dalis said bombs, close your eyes.

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And vis you lie in your solitude.

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Your favorite bands are on this dance and mister Miller,

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but you're in the wood. It's make Believe ballroom time.

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We are a sweet romance.

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You make Bob, Come on, Jill.

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The last dance last.

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Hello world, I'm Jeff Presler, turning on the lights of

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the Make Believe Ballroom and welcoming you into my Crystal

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studio for another program of classic big band hits from

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the nineteen thirties and nineteen forties. Please get ready as

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I play for you some amazing big band jazz, swing, blues,

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and boogie boogie favorites. Folks, you're listening to the Make

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Believe Ballroom, broadcasting almost continuously since nineteen thirty five. Hello friends,

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and welcome into my Crystal studio for another week of

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big band music and music. It will be as I

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start things off today with a little Vincent Lopez.

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Stancing.

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Come get together, let the dance floor. Feel your leather

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step as lightly as a feather. Let yourself go. Come

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hit the timber, loosen up and start to limber. Can't

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you hear that hot marimba? Let yourself go, Let yourself go.

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Relax and let yourself go. Relax. You got yourself tied

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up in or Nott. Tonight is cold, the music hot.

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Don't come cuddle closer? Don't you dare to answer?

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Not, sir?

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Put your banker, clerk and grocer.

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Let yourself go.

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From Bluebird Records. Let Yourself Go by Vincent Lopez and

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his Orchestra for Local by Maxine Tappan, recorded in New

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York City, January the twenty first, nineteen thirty six. Now

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Vincent Lopez he holds a significant distinction. He was actually

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the first band leader ever to appear on the radio.

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He was invited with his band to perform on station

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w jay Z, which was located in Newark, New Jersey,

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and he received that invitation back in nineteen twenty one.

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They have to remember this was the very dawn of radio.

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Most people had never heard a live band come through

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their radio speakers at home, so Lopez needed to introduce

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his band and himself to the radio audience. He was

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not very familiar with radio, and he really didn't know

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what to say. He stepped up to the microphone and

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he blurted out, quote unquote, hello, everybody, Lopez speaking. And

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that actually worked, and it worked so well that it

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became his trademark that he carried throughout his career, a

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career that lasted from the early nineteen twenties right through

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Believe It or Not the early nineteen sixties. Now, another

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thing that Lopez carried throughout his career was that he'd

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open every performance with his theme song, and that was

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a song titled nolacon.

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Cot Contacting until cooped in the complet micro MICROCM contact control,

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Coca Coal compact, take conversion and contract contact and you

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can get conversion contrite.

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Can take until from the take contact a contre.

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Contractor cont contract complete compt.

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From Bluebird Records. Nola by Vincent Lopez and his Suave

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Swing Band, What a Great Name, Recorded in Hollywood, January eighth,

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nineteen forty the great pianist and band leader Vincent Lopez,

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right here on the one, the only, the original Make

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Believe Ballroom. And let's move on to another segment. But

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what you want to know something before I do that.

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I just wanted to mention something about radio. Radio was

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the mass medium of the era through the twenties, thirties,

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and forties. Obviously there was no television at the time.

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Programs like this very make Bully Ballroom, which began in

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nineteen thirty five, and other musical shows as such as

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Your Hit Parade, combined with live remote broadcasts from famous

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ballrooms like the Glen Island Casino, the Hotel Pennsylvania's Cafe Rouge,

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and the Paramount Theater in New York that brought big

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band music into homes across America. Stations often broadcast bands

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live from hotel ballrooms, nightclubs, and theaters, which made the

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music feel intimate and exciting to radio listeners. Now we

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play many big band radio remotes here on the show.

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So it was not record sales per se that brought

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big bands into people's homes. It was radio, especially during

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the depression, when money was scarce throughout most of the

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nineteen thirties and there really wasn't any spare change in

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households to purchase seventy eight rpm records. So a little

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aside there. But back to Vincent Lopez, for a moment.

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He performed for close to fifty years, and there were

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a number of extremely talented band leaders who didn't last

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a fraction of that amount of time that Vincent Lopez did.

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So why was that? Well, I'll let you know after

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this record.

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Make him from the romin. If you some troup and

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you'll be home and coming woman.

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Don't just wake up and.

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Sing and start.

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It'll be a ball by corrupting with any fine that

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just makes you work, coming home night while the coffee

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is working.

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Keep your vocal cold working.

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I'll be you. Just wake up and think, Dottie, I

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am start to day.

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Ride it's the great builder up around around about something.

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You'll be home and coming home at night.

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Wake up and swing no joy ride, taking him from

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the robin.

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If you do no problem, you'll be woman from woman

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night job.

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Wake up and sing.

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Paper a man with one.

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This bake you is coming alas night.

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Why I'm comms working, come it working, keep.

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Your vote working.

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Stop hoky monkey can okey j Just wake up and

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saying come on joy ride.

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It's the greatgular umbrella A.

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Via Bluebird Records. Wake Up and Sing by Dolly Dawn

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and Her Dawn patrol, who in actual was George Hall

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at his hotel Taft orchestra vocal by Dolly Dawn. That

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Bluebird recording took place in New York City on January

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the thirty first, nineteen thirty six. So before Dolly and George,

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I said, I wanted to discuss why a guy like

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Vincent Lopez was able to survive all those years, all

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those decades as a band leader, while many great orchestras

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and band leaders only survived a fraction of that time.

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And well, there were a number of reasons for that,

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but in my mind, the most obvious was that many

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swing and big bands of the thirties and forties unfortunately

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collapsed under financial strain despite music success on a nutshell

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artistic success, but financial failure. As they say, the economics,

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as you can imagine of running a large touring orchestra

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were brutal. Well, let's look at it this way of

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why it was a large financial nut to crack. Bands

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at that time had anywhere say, between twelve and eighteen

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musicians on their payroll. The band leader had to hire rangers, singers,

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managers were involved. Buses and trains had to be paid for,

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hotels and food allowances also had to be taken into account,

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so all these expenses could kill you. And add to

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that a band leader was not the most stable. For example,

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a lot of alcoholism, unfortunately was prevalent at the time.

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Some guys had personal problems, and some were just too

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laid back and into their music and not forward thinking

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enough when it came to set goals for their orchestras.

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Many couldn't manage their own finances, let alone of big bands,

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which in essence was like a small company. And well,

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after what I just said, you could see how failure

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could unfortunately be quite easy. I think we also have

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to take into consideration that many of these band leaders

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were still in their twenties, one fame struck, and not

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the most mature. So let's look at some of these

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bands that had all the talent in the world but

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lacked longevity. One of my favorite trumpet players of the era,

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brilliant trumpet player was Bunny Berrigan, and he appeared with

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some of the great bands of the nineteen thirties, and

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he went on to lead a short lived band starting

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in nineteen thirty seven. Despite critical acclaim and some hit records,

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The group Bunny Berregan's orchestra. Well, they hemorrhaged money. Bunny's

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alcoholism and poor business management compounded the financial strain put

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on the band, and they folded just a couple of

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years later. Let Me Play One for You by Berrigan,

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a song that was not only a hit for Bunny

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but one of the most famous recordings of the Big

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Band era.

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I'm blown around the world in a plane. I've set

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a river loser thing.

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And the noful I have charted.

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Still I can get started with you on the golf course.

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I'm under part.

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My trouble when I have asked me to starve. I've

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got a house of gold places. Still I can't get

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no place with you, all your soul supreme, the Rickie

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right of you. I dream dream, damn light of you

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and my dream.

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Because for the sight of you, baby, what good does

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it do? I've been consulted by Franklin, the.

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That of God, Ball has had me to see still

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broken heart.

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All I can guess a prod.

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From Victor Records, we just heard I Can't Get Started

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by Bunny Berrigan and his orchestra. Vocal by Bunny that

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recorded in New York City August the seventh nineteen thirty

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seven from the Crystal Studio. You're listening to the Make

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Believe Ballroom. I'm Jeff Bresler, and I'm playing some great

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music by great band leaders who for the most for

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financial reasons, had to disband their orchestras while they were

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still very popular. Now another orchestra, not lacking talent but

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money was Benny Carter's orchestra was critically admired but financially unviable.

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Benny indeed was a man for all seasons. He played

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the saxophone, the clarinet, and the trumpet. He composed, arranged,

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and as we will hear, was a skilled band. Later,

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he tried one orchestra of his own in the early

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to mid thirties, and that didn't prove financially successful. So

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he tried another time with his own band, and that

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didn't last a long time either, basically nineteen thirty eight

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to forty one. But in the music business overall, Benny

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Carter certainly did have an unusually long career that lasted

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all into the nineteen nineties. As a matter of fact,

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if I'm not mistaken, during the eighties and nineties, he

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was nominated for multiple Grammy awards which included receiving and

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I remember seeing this on television a Lifetime Achievement award.

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Let's listen to one of Benny's recordings from nineteen thirty

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nine on Vocalion Records, Benny Carter and his orchestra Plymouth Rock,

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recorded in nineteen thirty nine. Now, after Benny broke up

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his band for financial reasons, he quickly went back to

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work both arranging and leading small jazz groups for as

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I mentioned, many years to come. Let's look now at

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one more band where finances and strangely enough fame course

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that to this band. Of course, we all know Ella Fitzgerald,

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aka the first Lady of Jazz. And Ella's career began

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in nineteen thirty five with the chick Web Orchestra. Chick Web,

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of course synonymous with the legendary Savoy Ballroom. And there's

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some great battles of the band at that venue that

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they seem chick Web always seemed to win. Most notably

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in my mind, was the face off with Benny Goodman

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where Chick on the drums went head to head with

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Gene Crooper. The chick Web Orchestra beat the pants off

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of Benny's band. That night, an episode that actually haunted

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Gene Crooper for the rest of his life. Let's go

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back to Ella with chick Web. So Ella's vocals and

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the swing and precision of Chick's band produced many many

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hits along the way. Chick Web, who had many physical problems,

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unfortunately passed away in nineteen thirty nine when he was

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only thirty four years old. So the idea was developed

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to have Ella continue the tradition of the Chickweb Orchestra

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by becoming its band leader. So the band was renamed

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with basically the same personnel, Ella Fitzgerald and her famous Orchestra.

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Now that band was very well received, but within a

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couple of years suffered financial setbacks and add to that,

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Ella certainly was taking off as one of the great

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soloists of the nineteen forties and beyond. So they called

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it a day, but not before Ella led the band

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no vocal here she was the bandleader for this.

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One book.

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Made from.

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Decca Records, recorded March the twentieth, nineteen forty, Ella Fitzgerald

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and her Famous Orchestra with Jubilee Swaying. So a few

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talented musicians folks who mostly for financial reasons, were not

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able to maintain longevity with their bands. You know, even well,

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let's see even Woody Herman, I know, Artie Shaw, Jimmy

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Dorsey in his early days. Even standouts like those titans

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of the industry had to disband and rebuild at times

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due to financial downfalls. I'm Jeff Bressler, and we played

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some good music while covering a tough topic there. So

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perhaps it's time to move on the things with a

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little lighter note. But first, you know, folks, come to

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think of it, I feel like I cheated you. I

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played an Ella Fitzgerald and Her Orchestra instrumental without an

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ele Fitzgerald vocal. So let's go back to Ella Fitzgerald

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and her famous Orchestra with a vocal by Ella herself.

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Let's look at the Elephitzgerald and Her Famous Orchestra playlist.

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Oh here's what I haven't heard in a long time.

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I want the way to the water. I want the

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waiter with the water for my daughter.

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I want the waiter with the water for my daughter,

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because my daughter has a daughter.

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For some water on a tree. He's got a menu

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that'll send you. He's got a menu batt'll send you.

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Wen befriend you.

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He's got a manu Batt'll send you and and befriend you,

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maybe lend you with you help me find the waiter.

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With the tray.

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While my daughter was having lunch one day, she caught

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the waiter's eye. He took a look at her and

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ran oldway. Now she's gonna die of thirst unless I

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find that guy. I want the waiter with the water.

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I want the waiter with the water for my daughter.

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Don't want the butcher of the baker or the candlestick

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of maker. Want the waiter with the water on the tree.

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She wants.

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Don't want the butcher on.

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The baker, on the candle stick a.

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Maker, the water.

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With the water around the train.

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I want the waiter with the water. Ella Fitzgerald and

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her Famous Orchestra recorded for Decca Records on June twenty ninth,

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nineteen thirty nine. I'm Jeff Bressler. This is the Make

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Believe Ballroom. If you're just joining us on the radio,

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welcome aboard. If you've been here in the ballroom for

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the entire show so far, thanks so much. I hope

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you're enjoying the music, and folks, if you want to

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hear past shows in this series. Please go to MakeBelieve

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Ballroom dot com. That's MakeBelieve Ballroom dot com. They're over

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two hundred archived shows for your listening enjoyment. MakeBelieve Ballroom

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dot com. And if you want to reach out to me,

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I'm Jeff at MakeBelieve Ballroomradio dot com. That's Jeff at

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MakeBelieve Ballroom Radio dot com. And hopefully a little later

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on in the show, I can read a few emails

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I received over the past week. And now, guys, why

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don't I talk about Well, this was really a lost

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treasure found last week missus Bresler, the band manager as

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I call her. She guided me to the abasement too

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so often, as she does to get rid of junk

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I've not used in a while. And one of the

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old relics I found while cleaning up was a green

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vintage dark green vintage metal index card box. Now many

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of you probably remember these small boxes. They were used

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when you needed to put stuff on I guess there

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were four x six index cards you wrote stuff down

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for information management, obviously before the digital age. Well, I

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opened the box and it was really cool. I had

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things on cards in there pertaining to the make Believe

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ballroom that I hadn't seen in many years. Now, I

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found a card that had many quotes from a big

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band leaders. I don't know why I had these on

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an index card. I was probably going to use them

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on a show. So if I didn't use them when

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I collected them, why not use them now? So let's

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see how we could do this. Let's play some records,

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and before the song, I will read one of the

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band leader quotes I wrote on this specific index card.

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I probably wrote these in the nineteen eighties sometime, and

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most probably when I hosted a ballroom show on WGBB

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in New York. And look here, and the first quote

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at the top of this handwritten index card is from

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Glenn Miller. And it seems Glenn was being interviewed by

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a reporter who skeptically asked him if he felt his

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music was becoming too commercial, and Glenn said, quote unquote,

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I guess America likes my music commercial. They keep buying

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my records.

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Show and.

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Servius still.

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That recorded in Victor Studio Number two in New York

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City for Decca Records on March the thirty first, nineteen

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forty we heard slow Freight Glenn Miller and his orchestra. Now,

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let's see on my trustee recently found index card. Let

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me go down the list a little. Here, here's a

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quote from the sometimes Temperamental It's an understatement Tommy Dorsey,

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who said, quote unquote, sure, I yell you try getting

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sixteen guys to play in tune at the same time.

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Love Living, Blink the.

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Fast, recorded in Hollywood, California, on October the sixteenth, nineteen

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forty via Victor Records, and they were playing in tune

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on this one. That record was swing high Tommy Dorsey

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and his orchestra. And you know, maybe on a program

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down the line, I can read more of these quotes.

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There are a bunch on this index card from the

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Green Metal Box. So how about one more quote. Let's

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take a look here. Oh okay, here's an important one

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from Benny Goodman, who had said, quote unquote, if a

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guy's got it, let him give it. I'm selling music,

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not prejudice. Now, this quote I think needs an explanation.

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In nineteen thirty five, Benny Goodman made a move that

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would well, it would literally change the face of American

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music until nineteen thirty five, the Swing era. It was

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unfortunately and tragically divided by a strict color line. But

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as in his quote, Goodman wasn't afraid to cross that line.

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He invited the gifted jazz pianist Teddy Wilson to join

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him and drummer Gene Krupa in a new small group

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that Benny had formed that was called the Benny Goodman Trio.

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And a year later, i think it was a year later,

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Libon Great, the wonderful Lionel Hampton came aboard and the

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group became the highly celebrated Benny Goodman Quartet. At that time,

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it was more than just music. It was history on

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stage together black and white musicians side by side, breaking barriers,

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and the swinging hard was indeed history. Goodman became known

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as the King of Swing, not only for his clarinet,

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but in my estimation, for his courage to let the

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music rise above people's prejudice. Let me play one now

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from the Benny Goodman Quartet.

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Can then I? Then I? Can I? Can I.

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Th From Victor Records, We just heard moon Glow by

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the Benny Goodman Quartet, recorded in Hollywood, August the twenty first,

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nineteen thirty six, and folks, my goodness. I'm looking at

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the big bull of a clock on the wall here

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in the Crystal studio and see we are totally out

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of time. I wasn't able to read any emails from

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listeners today, but I'll make up ground next week. To

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reach me, I'm Jeff at MakeBelieve Ballroom Radio dot Com.

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That's Jeff at MakeBelieve Ballroom Radio dot Com. To hear

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past shows, MakeBelieve Ballroom dot Com. That's make Believe Ballroom

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dot Com. I'm going out here with the Tryline Stomp

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by Les Brown and his Orchestra, recorded in New York

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City June the first, nineteen thirty nine. So, folks, until

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next week. This has been Jeff Bresler

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S