6 January 2007 UTC Herb Miller Orch n 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