Goodman Gives 70 Swing Records to Widener Library

Seventy jazz records and two record albums, personal gifts from Benny Goodman, "King of Swing", to the University to encourage the study of swing and other types of American music, were received Saturday by Mrs. Lillian Hall, custodian of the Theatre Collection in Widener Library.

Including all of the recordings of Benny's band and many rare examples of early swing, the gift will form the nucleus of a complete library of popular American music. The maestro has promised to send the Theatre Collection all his future recordings.

Watched by numerous reporters and photographers, the "King of Swing" formally presented his collection to William A. Jackson, assistant librarian of the College Library, at a large cocktail party in New York last Wednesday.

Expressing the University's appreciation for the gift, Jackson told Goodman and the grinding cameramen that the Library intends to get a complete collection of all available material on swing.