Sing Sing Sing

Benny Goodman and his band arrived at the Paramount Theater on the morning of March 3, 1937 to find throngs of students waiting in line. Goodman had assumed that this engagement, which started at 8:30 in the morning and preceded a Claudette Colbert picture, wouldn’t be that big of a deal. But when the band appeared on the slowly rising stage playing “Let’s Dance,” dance they did—all 12,000 of them, spilling out into the aisles, on the bandstand, and anywhere else they could find room. Goodman took the audience through a typical set with all the hits while fans clamored for autographs and snatched up $900 worth of candy. By the time Goodman finished with “Sing, Sing, Sing” at the end of a forty-three minute set, it could be safely said that the Swing Era had begun.