", 6 January 2007 (UTC)

[ Herb Miller Orch ] 
né: John Herb Miller (he used the form: J. Herb Miller) 
b. 1915, d. 1987. Age: 72 (Stroke) 
Overview 
Herb Miller, Glenn Miller's younger brother, was born in North Platte, Nebraska, and, like Glenn, studied music in High School. Herb worked his way through college by playing the trumpet. He spent a short spell working in his brother's band, doubling as trumpeter and also as business manager. Herb then accepted an offer to play trumpet with Charlie Spivak. Herb did have a band of his own in the early 1940s. In 1943, he and his band appeared in a movie called ""Spotlight Scandals,"" starring Harry Langdon (about a year before he died), and featuring singer Bonnie Baker. William Beaudine was the director. Late in the 1950s, Herb formed his band and toured the U.S. with appearances in hotels and ballrooms, including the Aragon Ballroom in Ocean Park, CA, the Jerry Jones Ballroom, and the Rendezvous Ballroom in Salt Lake City, UT. Yet, despite Herb's best efforts, the band only met with moderate success. The only album cut by the band, in America, was on Herb's own label, Millertone. While Herb's band never came even remotely close to the fame that his older brother Glenn achieved, it is still active and quite popular in England today (1999). After WWII, Herb settled in Pacific Grove, California, and made that his home base for about 25 years. 

Mr. John Lovejoy, a former student of Herb's and onetime member of his band, recalls: 
""Herb didn't form his band while his brother was alive, and not until many years after his brother's death. He was so devastated by his brother's disappearance that he got out of the commercial music business and moved to Pacific Grove, where he got a job as an elementary and junior high school music teacher in the Pacific Grove Unified School District. 

""I first met Herb when I was in fourth grade and became a beginning trumpet student of his. Herb's son, John, ( -John Arthur Miller, who today still leads the Herb Miller Orchestra in England), was my best friend in grammar school. Herb was a very talented music teacher, gruff but fair, and the kids all loved him. He also was the leader of the Monterey Civic Band, to which most of us Herb Miller Orchestra members belonged. (NB: Mr Lovejoy has advised that circa 2002, the orchestra was re-named the ""John Miller Orchestra"".) 

""Herb, for some reason, decided in the late 1950s to form his own band, and his own children were a part of it. John (known as 'Jackson') played bass and sang; Mary Luann, his eldest daughter, who went by 'Luann', also sang and played piano; Richard 'Richie' Miller, his younger son, played trumpet; and Janet, or 'Jannie,' his youngest child, sang. His wife, Ann, was band manager. Some of the rest of us were his former students who were still in high school or had recently graduated; other members were area teachers. One of his trumpet players, Tony Venza (whose playing sounded like Harry James), drove a moving van for a living. 

""Initially, Herb was quite ambivalent about using his brother's fame to boost his own image. He actually used to claim that his band and Glenn's were not at all alike. But, in fact, they were almost identical. Herb looked and talked like Glenn ('And now, something a little old, new, borrowed and blue...'), although he was shorter in stature. He played Glenn's most famous songs, and his own arrangements sounded just like Glenn's. The only difference was that he used only two trombones instead of four, as Glenn did. 

""The first record Herb made was called 'First Steps Of A New Miller' on the Millertone label. It was a failure, of course, since he paid for it out of his own pocket, and distribution was limited. And, of course, even in the 1950s-'60s, his music was dated. He thought it was because of rock and roll, which he fervently believed was a communist plot. He reasoned that the communists introduced rock and roll into American culture in order to put 'legitimate' musicians out of work and thereby ruin the American economy. 

""Herb had a few other idiosyncrasies, too. For instance, when people found out he was Glenn's brother, they would inevitably mention Glenn's death. Herb would explode, 'Glenn's not dead! Don't ever say that again!' Later, a few years after he'd started his own band, he seemed to have accepted his brother's death. That's when he started drinking and when he started trading on his brother's name. 

""After moving to England, he really went overboard on comparing himself to Glenn. He even had a poster made up with him posing exactly like the famous picture of Glenn, holding a trombone and looking over his shoulder. This was kind of strange because Herb's main instrument was the trumpet. 

""Herb was one of the most intense and driven people I've ever known. And, he was