Klarinet Archive - Posting 001190.txt from 2003/03

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausmann1@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Benny Goodman Story (movies about jazz musicians)
Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2003 17:09:33 -0500

At 03:38 PM 3/28/2003 -0600, Ed Lacy wrote:
>We have mentioned several really sappy movies about jazz musicians. It
>might be fun to try to decide which one is the best (or the least bad)
>of the group. Let's see, there is:
>
>The Benny Goodman Story
>The Glenn Miller Story
>The Eddie Duchin Story (the sappiest of all, I think)
>Young Man with a Horn (starring Kirk Douglas as a Bix Beiderbecke clone)
>The Five Pennies
>
>And there were two movies starring the Glenn Miller orchestra, although
>they were not specifically about Miller or his band:
>
>Orchestra Wives
>Sun Valley Serenade
>
>We mustn't forget the original sound movie, the Jazz Singer, starring Al
>Jolson, which actually has nothing to do with jazz. This one wasn't
>very good when it first appeared, but it has been re-made at least two
>more times (in the 1950's, starring Danny Thomas, and in the 1980's,
>starring Neil Diamond), and each time it has been remade it has been
>worse than the previous time.
>Also, The King of Jazz, one of the earliest movies in both sound and
>color, about, and starring, Paul Whiteman, which also has little if
>anything to do with jazz.
>
>And, then in later times there is:
>
>High Society, with Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby
>Bird (about Charlie Parker)
>'Round Midnight (about a fictitious player, but apparently based on
>events in the life of Dexter Gordon, and the lead is played by him.)
>(There is also one from the 60's starring Paul Newman and Natalie Wood,
>but I can't think of the title right now. This is a pretty good one.)
>
>Finally, I'll make my nomination for what I think is the most
>entertaining movie about jazz musicians, although the basic premise has
>more holes in it than Swiss cheese:
>
>The Gang's All Here, starring Benny Goodman, Mel Powell, Louis
>Armstrong, Tommy Dorsey and more (working from memory of a long time
>ago).
>
>Any other suggestions or additions to the list?

It is my understanding that, of the ones mentioned above, Orchestra Wives
actually comes closest to portraying the life of a musician at the time.

There is a bio-pic about Gene Krupa, too, which stared Sal Mineo. A web of
fiction woven around a few facts, like the other ones mentioned.

Bill Hausmann

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is TOO LOUD!

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