'Shoot for the moon. If you miss, you’ll end up in the stars.'
Artie Shaw (1910–2004)
After the Pearl Harbor attack, clarinetist and Big Band leader Artie Shaw walked away from his very lucrative career to enlist in the Navy. The former “King of Swing”—with the new title of Chief Petty Officer—persuaded Navy brass to allow him to form a group. He and his band played as many as four concerts a day entertaining American troops at Guadalcanal, on board ships, and at bases throughout the Southwest Pacific for a year and a half. Physically exhausted, he returned to the States and was medically discharged.
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