“A band swinging on a dais is like Babe Ruth swinging at home plate. It levels all the bumps of wealth and birth and makes all people free and equal. Maybe that’s why Hitler and Mussolini and all the rest of the boys won’t give it elbow room…”
“Swing is violent, at least so they tell me. But I’m willing to bet that Society is going to toss aside its toppers and tippers and really cut loose. They’ll all come slumming and stay for dancing.”
– so saith Benny Goodman in this 1938 column written to mark the occasion of his arrival in New York City.
