The trombone of the Sentimental Gentleman of Swing poured out like warm honey, but the man behind it was hot-tempered, once struck a Hollywood actor for embracing his wife, bankrolled a rival band out of spite, and walked away unhurt from a plane crash in a Canadian cornfield. This episode frames Tommy Dorsey as a tech CEO of the big band era, driven by relentless perfectionism and a need for total control. Born in 1905 in the Pennsylvania mining town of Mahanoy Plane to a bandleader father, he started on trumpet before switching to trombone and spent the 1920s working alongside older brother Jimmy, culminating in the successful Dorsey Brothers Orchestra with Decca Records and a young Glenn Miller composing for the band in 1934 and 1935.

In 1935 a live argument over the tempo of I'll Never Say Never Again Again ended with Tommy walking off  ...