Poor though they are, Dave and Dora
Goodman are determined to secure a good education for their sons.
In 1919, Professor Schepp offers music classes to Chicago's
tenement dwellers at Hull House, and although young Benny Goodman
dislikes the instrument at first, he becomes an excellent
clarinetist by the time he is fourteen. Benny practices his
Mozart passages, but when an opportunity to play in a ragtime band
arises, he joins the musicians' union and begins his performance
career. During a break, Benny listens with awe to the New
Orleans jazz band of Edward "Kid" Ory, who advises him to play the
way he feels and invites him to sit in.
Later, Benny, still two years away from
high school graduation, joins the Ben Pollack band and plays at
dances throughout the country. On his first visit back home,
Benny is dismayed to learn that his father, who always supported his
musical aspirations, has been killed in an accident on the way to
the train station.
The Pollack band secures a job in the
speakeasy of Benny's former neighbor, Little Jake Primo, who is now
a gangster. There he meets wealthy John Hammond, a jazz lover
and music critic, and John's sister Alice, who prefers classical to
"hot" music and is uncomfortable in Benny's presence.
Pollack's band flops in New York, and
Benny, full of ideas but worried that there is no audience for his
kind of music, is forced to perform with more traditional dance
bands in order to earn a meager living. Still impressed with
Benny's talent, Hammond invites him to perform a Mozart clarinet
concerto before an audience of blue bloods in the Hammond mansion.
Alice is pleasantly surprised by Benny's performance and remarks
that although he seems calm and quiet, "all this emotion comes
pouring out" when he plays.
Benny forms a band and begins to perform
on an NBC Saturday night radio program. Admired jazz musician
Fletcher Henderson hears the program from his home base in Harlem
and is so impressed that he begins to contribute musical
arrangements to the band. After the show is canceled, Benny's
orchestra goes on tour, but before he leaves, he and Alice declare
their strong but confusing feelings for each other. The tour
is a failure until the orchestra reaches Palomar, California, where,
the group, having won a large following of young fans on the West
Coast, is a tremendous success. Benny sees Alice in the
audience and plays "Memories of You" for her, and after the show,
the two kiss.
Benny forms a quartet that includes
Lionel Hampton, Teddy Wilson and Gene Krupa, and by the time Benny,
his orchestra and his quartet return to Chicago, they are making
headlines in Variety. Alice attends the orchestra's New
York debut, where a surging crowd dances in the aisles, and later
that day, she is relieved to learn that her father approves of the
romance. Benny's mother, however, informs her son that his
love for Alice is "like a knife in my heart." Worried, Alice
visits Mrs. Goodman, who declares that "you don't mix caviar
with bagels."
Benny is booked into Carnegie Hall, but
he wonders why Alice is not planning to attend and worries that "a
hall full of longhairs" will disapprove of the orchestra's music.
Finally realizing how much Benny loves Alice, Mrs. Goodman
secretly invites her to attend the concert, which will feature the
orchestra and guest performers Harry James, Ziggy Elman and Martha
Tilton. Travel delays nearly cause Alice to miss Benny's
triumphant performance, but she arrives in time for a standing
ovation and an encore performance of "Memories of You."
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