Die Benny Goodman Story

Dick Winslow

The Benny Goodman Story is a biographical film starring Steve Allen and Donna Reed, directed by Valentine Davies, and released by Universal-International in 1956. The film was intended as a follow-up to Universal's 1954 hit The Glenn Miller Story, dramatizing a popular bandleader's life.

The film captures several major moments in Goodman's life but it has been described as less than accurate in details.[2] Goodman's Jewish background is mentioned only implicitly, despite its playing a part in his artistic and personal endeavors for decades. In one scene, where his mother tries to talk him out of a romance with Alice Hammond (played by Donna Reed), whom Goodman eventually married, she says, "Bagels and caviar don't mix."