Big Bands and Great Ballrooms: America Is Dancing...Again
My big band days were spread over two decades (1940s, 1950s) but they were a special six years. I met bandleaders, musicians, singers and played ballrooms, clubs and dancing and drinking spots I never forgot. I met people I never forgot either, Jack Behrens told a radio audience in 2002 about his life "on the road" after the release of his 1st book about the big band era, "Big Band Days." (AuthorHouse/2003). A nationally known award-winning columnist, editor and writer and Reader's Digest Magazine professor, Jack Behrens has written more than 14,000 magazine articles, columns and essays in national and international periodicals including Harvard's Nieman Report, Mankind, Physicians Financial News, Writer's Digest, National Observer, Business Journal and hundreds of others. "Big Bands & Great Ballrooms: America Is Dancing. . . Again" is his 20th book. His 1976 book "Typewriter Guerrillas" (Nelson-Hall) was a best seller. Columbia Scholastic Press Association awarded him the coveted Gold Key Award for his work with the student press.He's a 30 year member of America's writing elite, the American Society of Journalists & Authors. His music experience led him to become a writer. "I traveled with Bob Hope's USO Tour in the Far East while working for Pacific Stars & Stripes and once I heard Les Brown's great drummer, the late Jack Sperling, I knew I better polish my writing and put my drumsticks aside," he laughs.