The Glenn Miller Story Reviews & Ratings - IMDb IMDb 45 out of 49 people found the following review useful: A competent musical heart warmer! from Mexico 5 January 2002 It is said that Miller could never remember precisely the moment he decided to emphasize his new reed section sound... But it was during this disheartening interim, that he realized the unique sound, produced by the clarinet holding the melodic line while the tenor sax plays the same note, and supported harmonically by three other saxophones - just might be the individual and easily recognizable style that would set his band apart from all the rest... Photographed in color, Anthony Mann's 'The Glenn Miller Story' is purely a time trip to those years, when Glenn Miller's band ruled the record charts and anchored the airwaves... The film, beautifully captured Miller's spirit and follows his life story with reasonable fidelity... It is one of the most charming and touching musical biography... Appearing in glasses and winning grin, Stewart kisses Allyson, holding her face lightly with his fingers, the same way he detains his trombone slide... Stewart applied his natural musical expertise, playing on the trombone... Miller's style was there. The original sound was there.

The real music was there. The mix was there... The film traces Miller's romance and marriage to his college sweetheart, Helen Burger, and his progress from a free-lance trombonist and arranger to band leader... The pop music styles of '20s sweet and jazz bands were getting ready for the Big Band or Swing era of the '30s... About this time, Miller began writing charts that would one day to be his band's stock in fame, the clarinet "lead" sound over the saxophones... Miller's imagination, strong will, and determination kept his aspirations alive.. His music, a careful mixture of swing, jazz, and improvisation, flowed like spring with matchless string of hit records ( "Moonlight Serenade," "String of Pearls," "Pennsylvania 6-5000", "Little Brown Jug," "In the Mood," & "Chattanooga Choo Choo," among others... The constant impact of radio broadcasts, and the drawing power at dance pavilions built and sustained the momentum of Miller's popularity...

June Allyson, who regularly played the little, lip-quivering waiting wife, again she is the petite and husky-voiced woman who, once married, is supportive and inspirational.. She finances Glenn what he needs to start his own band... Her scenes with Stewart have such a natural, easy-going on the screen, that we get completely drawn into their lives... Also featuring in the film are such legendary figures as Frances Langford, Gene Krupa, and Louis Armstrong... With its unique jazz sound, 'The Glenn Miller Story' is a competent musical heart warmer with a well-cast star and successful reproduction of the Miller sound... Was the above review useful to you? 28 out of 33 people found the following review useful: A Quest for a Sound from Buffalo, New York 24 June 2005 The Glenn Miller Story is a biographical tribute to a man who is always ranked as one of the great swing bandleaders of the late thirties to middle forties era. It is indeed fortunate that when James Stewart puts a pair of glasses on, he does actually look like the real Glenn Miller.

I don't know what Helen Miller looked like, but I'm sure she was as supportive to her husband as June Allyson was to her screen hubby. The Miller story begins with Stewart and pal Harry Morgan on the road as musicians. Stewart plays a slide trombone and has ideas of how the orchestra should sound as a whole. He spends a lot of time writing arrangements for the entire band. When they're not done right as is graphically shown in a scene when Miller's famous Moonlight Serenade is performed, he decides to form his own band. He's still looking for that particular sound that he wants his orchestra to have and he chances on it in one of the more interesting scenes in the film. Swing fans when they hear it will recognize it as the genuine Glenn Miller. One glaring fault for purists though is while the instrumentals are performed nicely, the vocal part of the Miller band is left out of the film. For whatever reason singers, Ray Eberle, Marian Hutton (Betty's sister)and most of all Gordon "Tex" Beneke are not in the film. In fact Chattanooga Choo Choo, Beneke's most famous number, is performed in the film by Frances Langford as herself.

My favorite scene in the film is the nightclub scene in Harlem on the Miller wedding night. June was definitely a patient wife, but hey, if you got a chance to jam with Louis Armstrong, you drop EVERYTHING for that opportunity. Gene Krupa and other top jazz musicians are in that scene with Stewart and Satchmo, making it a real treat for jazz aficionados. For American music we are indeed fortunate that Glenn Miller succeeded in his quest for the right sound which is so lovingly captured in this film. Was the above review useful to you? 24 out of 27 people found the following review useful: excellent biopic from United Kingdom 22 March 2004 James Stewart in one of his best roles of the 1950s playing the late bandleader in the embellished story of his life; June Allyson plays his wife  one of her best roles and I believe one of her personal favourites. Watching the real Miller in Orchestra Wives' and then watching this, Stewart is really a revelation in this role.

All the hits of the band are represented  Moonlight Serenade, In The Mood, Tuxedo Junction, Chattanooga Choo-Choo, Pennsylvania 65000. Some artistic licence has been taken but the whole is funny, celebratory, and at the end fairly touching. One of the best Hollywood biopics, right in the middle of a glut of them (Love Me or Leave Me, With a Song In My Heart, The Eddy Duchin Story, Night and Day, Words and Music, Three Little Words ). Was the above review useful to you? 21 out of 24 people found the following review useful: If music be the food of love, play on Glenn, play on!(after W.S.) from United Kingdom 13 January 2002 Produced nine years after his death this is Hollywood's obituary of swing era legend Glenn Miller. Essentially a musical told around the story of his struggle to achieve musical stardom. A film that will appeal to all lovers of 1930s swing music and Glenn Miller in particular. A film also for James Stewart fans.

Casting the gangling Stewart as Miller was a huge gamble that succeeded; if it had failed so would have the film. This success was due to Anthony Mann's undoubted ability as a director. The Mann-Stewart combination had already proved itself but here both were on unfamiliar territory. Mann's forté was the outdoor adventure while Stewart was a pre-war light comedy star still trying to find a new identity. Mann had earlier directed Stewart in Winchester '73(1950)and the two were to go on to further success with The Far Country (1954) and The Man from Larramie (1955). He excels himself in bringing out previously unknown talents in Stewart that make this a career best for the Actor. Clad simply in a military raincoat, a trombone to his lips and sporting a USAAF officer's peaked cap he requires no further make-up to pass himself off as the wartime Miller. Among the lesser credits is the name of an unknown Henry Mancini but this was to be his big break as at the young age of 22 he was to become an Oscar nominee (jointly with Joseph Gershenson) for musical scoring.

Before joining Universal Mancini had been a piano player and arranger with the post-war "Glenn Miller Orchestra", by using musicians from this band, made up mainly of sidesmen from Miller's own bands, Mancini ensured an authentic re-creation of the seductive Miller sound that had enchanted teenagers in the years leading up to the war. Regrettably an argument with the Miller Estate prevented the participation of saxophonist Ted Beneke, who had earlier led the post-war band and was renowned for his performance of Chattanoga Choo-Choo in"SunValley Serenade" (1941). The fidelity of the sound track of Miller's music won the film an Oscar for best sound recording of a musical. After a ponderous start the film picks up pace in apparent tune with Miller's success until the last reel is a non-stop performance of Miller standards. Miller was supported throughout by his wife, Helen, sympathetically played by a cuddlesome June Allyson, who ceaselessly encouraged him when all seemed to have failed. When news of his death reaches her one immediately feels her sadness in her loss and spontaneously grieves with her. Get your hankies out!

A few minor lapses mar an otherwise competent production; Miller is incongruously seen in his army raincoat an a glorious summer's day conducting his wartime band at an outdoor concert in England just after D-day while the audience and band are in standard military attire; a continuity lapse shows a German flying bomb attack taking place before D-day, 6th June, whereas the first one did not reach England until the following week. Miller's loss at the peak of popularity, flying in advance of his band to make arrangements in Paris for his Christmas concert, ensured his enduring fame. As his plane and body were never recovered the mystery of his death has added to the legend. Only in the last decade have military historians been able to piece together his last moments and pinpoint where the plane came down. Whilst crossing the English Channel in dense fog the plane, which relied entirely on a compass for navigation, wandered off course and entered a prohibited area reserved for returning Allied bombers to drop any left over bombs; it was one of these that hit the plane so bringing to its end the life of one Glenn Alton Miller.

Anthony Mann's deliberately abrupt end to the film comes as a jolt and dramatically conveys the unexpected loss of the patriotic Miller in his prime - the touch of the Master. A film that has stood the test of time; part fact, part fiction, it will remain the definitive tribute to the man and his music. Good wholesome entertainment for the whole family and a must for Stewart and Miller fans. Was the above review useful to you? 24 out of 30 people found the following review useful: Really, truly, one of the best! from Baltimore, MD 2 January 1999 "The Glenn Miller Story" appears on cable-TV from time to time. It is an historically accurate piece about a beloved man whose music defined an era. Miller is portrayed as a gracious and kind man -- an officer and a gentleman. We see Jimmy Stewart's affectionate portrayal of this simple man who spent his short musical career searching for a particular sound. The results got the whole world dancing to his new beat: Swing! The music in this movie will surely get you on your feet! The driving force in Glenn Miller's life was his love for his wife, Helen, amicably played by June Allyson. A "must-see", movie classic.

Be sure to bring a hanky! Was the above review useful to you? 14 out of 15 people found the following review useful: The Music of Glenn Miller and James Stewart, What an Awesome Combination! from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 27 May 2010 The unemployed trombone player Glenn Miller (James Stewart) is always broken, chasing his sound to form his band and hocking his instrument in the pawn house to survive. When his friend Chummy MacGregor (Henry Morgan) is hired to play in the band of Ben Pollack, the band-leader listens to one Glenn's composition and invites him to join his band. While traveling to New York, Glenn visits his former girlfriend Helen Berger (June Allyson), in Boulder, Colorado, and asks her to wait for him. Two years later he quits the band and proposes Helen that moves to New York to marry him. After the success of "Moonlight Serenade", Glenn Miller's band becomes worldwide known and Glenn and Helen and their two children have a very comfortable life. Duting the World War II, Glenn enlists in the army and travels to Europe to increase the moral of the allied troops.

In the Christmas of 1944, he travels from London to Paris for a concert to be broadcast; however his plane is never found in the tragic flight. Glenn Miller was the great idol of my father and I recall that in my childhood, he loved the albums (long-plays) of this American musician and usually commented his tragic end. I do not know how many times I listened to hits like "Moonlight Serenade", "String of Pearls", "Pennsylvania 6-5000", "Little Brown Jug", "In the Mood", "Chattanooga Choo Choo" and other Glenn Miller's musics when I was a kid. This is the first time that I watch "The Glenn Miller Story" and the awesome combination of the music of Glenn Miller and James Stewart. Further, the lovely June Allyson shows a wonderful chemistry with James Stewart and together with the stunning Louis Armstrong, Frances Langford, Ben Pollack, Gene Krupa, Barney Bigard, James Young, Marty Napoleon, Arvell Shaw, Cozy Cole, Babe Russin and others personalities, they make a great tribute to a magnificent American musician and composer. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Música e Lágrimas" ("Music and Tears") Was the above review useful to you? 11 out of 12 people found the following review useful: Endearing biopic without achieving greatness. from United Kingdom 4 March 2008 This is a very tidy film, it's got intelligence, integrity, and above all else...it doesn't merely rely on great tunes to pass as a Glen Miller story. Perhaps guilty of not fully fleshing out Miller's workaholic pursuit of the life changing sound, it manages to portray very well the grind of being on the road, and essentially it doesn't soft soap the defining moment of Miller's career as the swing sound is literally stumbled upon by accident. James Stewart plays it safe as houses as Miller, it's perfect casting when you think that Miller was such a big household name, something of an American treasure it would seem. Though it should be noted that historians say that the sweet Glen Miller portrayed by James Stewart is not quite in keeping with the real man's persona.

Regardless of any character liberty taken, director Anthony Mann crafts a very watchable tale, Stewart and the ever watchable June Allyson as Helen Miller ensure it's a very professional piece, and I dare anyone to not start tapping their feet to those wonderful tunes, but I still think that we are waiting for the definitive Glen Miller picture, some 50 odd years later. As for the ending? Well if it's played out as fact then it's a wonderful finale, but if the makers shoehorned "Little Brown Jug" into the end purely for romanticism? Well that could be construed as dangerously sugar coating what should be a sombre ending to the story. 6.5/10 Was the above review useful to you? 11 out of 13 people found the following review useful: Glenn Miller Story-Forever in the Mood *** from United States 9 January 2007 Glenn Miller's rise to fame and the tragedy that took him from us at the height of his career makes for a wonderfully entertaining film. This film is rich because of the wonderful performances of James Stewart as the band leader and June Allyson, the latter was just made for the picture.

She captures the depth of a devoted wife and we all can just cry with her when her happiness was ended so suddenly. Naturally, the supporting cast of musicians and scenes with Frances Langford, Louis Armstrong and Gene Krupa are just wonderful. We view Miller from humble beginnings to stardom, the old-fashioned Hollywood Way-he earned it by hard work and perseverance as he went through life looking for that sound. My main flaw with this film. Just like Miller's life, it ended too suddenly. It could have gone on and on while we all danced the night away in tribute to this find musician. Ever Harry Morgan's tear in the end tells you what this was all about. Was the above review useful to you? 12 out of 18 people found the following review useful: Great Movie about Glen Miller and his music! from Yakima, WA-United States 3 April 2005 This movie is a great movie about Glen Miller and his music. Jimmy Stewart does a superb playing the part of Glen Miller. June Allyson and Henry Morgan do great in this movie as well. You get to see and hear some great musicians like Louie Armstrong.

You also get to hear lots of Glen Miller music like "Little Brown Jug," "Moonlight Serenade," "Pennsylvania 6-5000," "In the Mood," "String of Pearls." "America Patrol," and more. One of my favorite part in the movie is when Glen Miller and the band are in Enland playing "In the Mood" and a German V-1 buzz bomb flies by and explodes. Everone runs for cover except for the band, they continued to play. Was the above review useful to you? 10 out of 17 people found the following review useful: One of those classics! 19 December 2001 Were Jimmy Stewart and June Allyson made for the movie,or what?! Great movie,lovely music!One of those movies that make you feel good all over,with a beautiful blend if wit,emotion and the Blues!What is even more impressive is the use of African American actors,considering the movie was made in 1954.The Jimmy and June combination evokes the chemistry of a Kate and Spencer movie.A true classic in every way,I'd watch it again in a heartbeat! Was the above review useful to you?

Page 1 of 6: Glenn Miller Glenn Miller March 1, 1904-December 14, 1944 Bandleader, trombonist Milking a cow is how the great big band leader Glenn Miller began his musical career. Using the money he earned by milking the cows, by age 13 he was able to buy himself a trombone. During his youth, he lived in several states, including Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Colorado. By 1920, when he was just sixteen years old, he was playing trombone in dance bands. He enjoyed playing in several different bands and became fairly well known, but he decided that he wanted his own band. Miller formed his first band in 1937, using his musical ability and imagination, plus his confidence and business skills. He had a band for only eight years, and it was his own stubbornness that kept them together for even that long. As George Simon stated in his book The Big Bands, the band was "put together by a man whoï¿½knew better than any other leader exactly what he wanted and how to go about getting it." The first two years of the band were very rough.

The members of the band in March of 1937 included tenor sax Johnny Harell, trumpets Charlie Spivak, Sterling Bose, and Manny Klien, and clarinet Hal McIntyre. The rhythm section included piano Howard Smith and guitar Dick McDonough. Miller always strived for perfection in his band. They would have rehearsals every day and Miller was very patient, he would play a phrase on his trombone just how he wanted it, until it was played correctly. He made many changes in the membership, especially in those rough first two years, he had trouble particularly with the drummer's spot. On October 12, 1937 Miller wrote, "We are getting a new drummer (thank God), about two hundred and fifty pounds of solid rhythm, I hope." Because of the low success of that time, Miller couldn't afford the extreme top musicians. Once, using the best musicians he could find, he recorded six songs in three hours, but with his new group it took five hours for just two songs. He continued replacing and improving. He brought in clarinet player Irving "Faz" Fazola in late 1937, in hopes of improving, but the band continued to fail.

Band morale was declining. It seemed as if everyone was against them. At one gig in New Jersey, Miller told the lighting man that he had one song which would start with the brass playing the first few bars around one microphone, and the rest of the band would come in later. He wanted the spotlight to be put on the brass at the beginning, and to bring up full stage lights when the rest of the band came in. However, that night, the song started, but the light came on the reed section, who were just standing there, confused, and waiting for their parts. By December, morale was the lowest ever. "One [trumpeter] could not get to sleep at night until he'd had so much to drink that he would roll off his bed and sleep on the floor." One member wrecked Glenn's car, and other cars broke down. Probably the worst tragedy for the band was that of the drummer Maurice Purtill leaving to play in New York. In January of 1938, he decided that the band wasn't working, and they broke up. The better musicians left and easily found jobs with other bands.

Then Miller found that he wanted to try again, and reformed the band in March, 1938. His new band used only four of the original members, alto sax Hal McIntyre, MacGreggor on piano, bass player Robby Bundoc, and trumpet Bob Price. He somehow found enough musicians out there to fill the rest of the seats. Once together again, they started playing at the Paradise Restaurant. But they were not exactly happy with it. The dull arrangements left them tired, which made their radio broadcasts become tired and uninspiring as well. But they must not have sounded too bad, for on March 1, 1939, Glenn was informed that his band was selected to play at the Glen Island Casino. This was a very high reward for the struggling band, because "being chosen to play Glen Island was as important to a band's success asï¿½appearances on Ed Sullivan's TV show would be to a singing group of the sixties." Miller was surprised, because his selection was based on the performances at Paradise Restaurant, which he was not exactly proud of. After this breakthrough, he started putting a lot more time into his band.

He revived the guitar spot, and added a trumpet and trombone, making his the first band with an eight person brass section. Other members he added were clarinetist Wilbur Schwartz, trumpet Johnny Austin, drummer Bob Spangler, and tenor saxophone Gordon "Tex" Beneke. He also added to his arrangements, using several by Bill Finegan. The Glen Island Casino gave the band its much-needed success, after quitting there in late 1939, the band started to break records. They set the Capitol Theatre record of $22,000, and the Hippodrome record of $19,000, amazing sums in that time. They played on stages with Benny Goodman, Fred Waring, and Paul Whiteman, other great musicians already recognized by the public. By 1940, the band was so successful that it could not fill all the dates offered. They had an extremely busy schedule, playing three radio shows a week, with rehearsals, five hours a night at the hotel, and four shows a day at the Paramount. In addition, that summer they recorded more than thirty songs. Even with all the success, he continued to make improvements in his staff.

In September, he hired a new bass player, Herman Alpert. Two trumpet replacements were Ray Anthony and Billy May, with lead trumpet. Then in 1941, he hired the cornet player Bobby Hackett, but fans were shocked when he wasn't in the brass section, but on guitar, because of recent dental surgery made it impossible to play the trumpet for a while. He also hired the Modernaires, a vocal quartet consisting of Chuck Goldstien, Hal Dickinson, Ralph Brewster, and Bill Conway. They sang in such songs as "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" and in the band's first of two movies, "Sun Valley Serenade." Many of the songs they recorded together have interesting histories. For example, the group's theme song, "Moonlight Serenade" began in 1935 when Miller was working on a mathematical composition exercise. It never had a single set of lyrics for very long. Eddie Herman wrote the words, titling the song "Now I Lay Me Down to Weep." This was too sad for a theme song, Another set was written by George Simon, titled "Gone With the Dawn," but it was also too depressing for them to use as a theme.

Then Mitchell Parish wrote the final lyrics, which became "Moonlight Serenade," and was recorded on the back side of the "Sunrise Serenade" record. One of the most well remembered songs was "In the Mood". It was written by Joe Garland, but it lasted eight minutes, too long to record. Miller took the song and made his own arrangement to fit on one side of a record. It strongly demonstrates a typical Miller Band sound, a certain riff repeated and fading away, then suddenly coming back fortissimo, a device he used to rouse a crowd. They had to have music in their movies, so Harry Warren was assigned to write some. He stated, "All I know is that we had to write something for Glenn Miller for his first movie, Sun Valley Serenade, so we sat down and wrote Chattanooga Choo-Choo." For a song just written for a movie, it sold over one million copies, and Miller was presented with "a gold plated copy of his record, and this became the prototype of the Gold Record now awarded by the Record Industry Association of America for all million sellers." After eight years of leading a band, as many bands do, Miller developed his own distinct sound.

"The miller 'sound' was a clarinet lead, with a tenor sax - or saxes - playing the same melody one octave lower than the clarinet." Other trademarks of his band included the steady brass section, consisting of four trumpets and four trombones. On September 27, 1942, Glenn Miller decided break up his band and go to serve his country in the war. After a short battle with pneumonia, he became a captain, later promoted to major, in the Air Force. Once in the Air Force, he wanted to assemble service bands to play marches and entertain troops, but found the process difficult because of strict military politics. Eventually he was assigned to the Army Air Forces Technical Training, where he did organize a band. He acquired other military musicians whom were sent to Yale University. Some of them were some of the bands original members. Drummer Ray McKinley, trumpet Zeke Zachary, bass Albert, and trombone Jim Priddy as well as arranger Jerry Gray all returned to Miller's Band. There at Yale University, the band played some swing arrangements of common marches: "The St.

Louis Blues March," and the "Blues in the Night March." During a concert in a park in the height of WWII, a German V-1 bomb buzzed overhead. As the audience ducked for cover, Miller's band played on. Miller wanted the band to go overseas, where the action was, and the refusal with other military stress began to make him more irritable. Once, he ordered his band to shave their moustaches, so they would look like real soldiers. They did not like this, some of them had moustaches for many years, and it made the wind instrument players change their technique. Glenn was very stubborn. He insisted on going overseas, and to avoid any objections, he applied for transfer using his full name, Alton Glenn Miller. Only then his application was accepted. In the spring of 1944, the army sent a group of about sixty, consisting of musicians, arrangers, producers, and announcers, to London, England. Soon after arriving in London, Glenn insisted on moving his whole band the nearby town of Bedford, because he wanted to avoid any bombs that were threatening many large cities. The tired musicians did not want to move, but he insisted.

The morning after they arrived in Bedford, a bomb scored a direct hit with the location where they were staying. Once they settled down a little, the band began to play familiar tunes for the soldiers who needed a taste of home. The band would have preferred to learn and play new songs, just for some variety in the identical gigs. But Glenn knew what the soldiers wanted to hear, and played it for them. On December 15, 1944, Glenn Miller left in a plane for Paris, flying over the English Channel, and was never seen again. This was the night before a performance that would be broadcast worldwide, in which a version of "Little Brown Jug" was to be played, a Christmas present to Miller's wife. The exact cause of the plane's disappearance is still unknown to this day. There are now three theories about how he died. The most accepted one states that the plane crashed due to poor weather conditions. Another one thinks that the plane was shot down by another plane of unknown identity flying higher than Miller's. The third is that he arrived in Paris, only to die of a heart attack, and the media made up the story of the plane crash to keep war morale up. We will never know for sure.

After his death, "Tex Beneke, his first chair sax-man and vocalist took over the bandï¿½Miller had finally became a musical success, yet his orchestra lasted a scant 4 ï¿½ years." Miller was just forty years old at the time of his death, which ended all the grand plans he was making for his band after the war. As said by George Simon in The Big Bands, "Of all the outstanding popular dance bands, the one that evokes the most memories of how wonderfully romantic it was, the one whose music people most want to hear over and over, is the band of the late Glenn Miller." The Glenn Miller Story (1954) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error The Glenn Miller Story ( 1954 ) Approved | Biography of bandleader Glenn Miller from his beginnings to his death over the English Channel in December 1944.

Director: From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC a list of 29 titles created 21 Jun 2011 a list of 28 titles created 27 Jul 2012 a list of 43 titles created 08 Jul 2013 a list of 40 titles created 29 Nov 2013 a list of 41 titles created 08 Feb 2014 Title: The Glenn Miller Story (1954) 7.3/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Won 1 Oscar. Another 6 nominations. See more awards » Photos Charles 'Slim' Lindbergh struggles to finance and design an airplane that will make his New York to Paris flight the first solo transatlantic crossing. Director: Billy Wilder Star major league pitcher Monty Stratton loses a leg in a hunting accident, but becomes determined to leave the game on his own terms. Director: Sam Wood An ex-pilot and current baseballer is recalled into the U.S.

Air Force and assumes an increasingly important role in Cold War deterrence. Director: Anthony Mann Shrimpers and oilmen clash when an ambitious wildcatter begins constructing an off-shore oilrig. Director: Anthony Mann A bounty hunter trying to bring a murderer to justice is forced to accept the help of two less-than-trustworthy strangers. Director: Anthony Mann A self-minded adventurer (Jeff Webster) locks horns with a crooked lawman (Mr. Gannon) while driving cattle to Dawson. Director: Anthony Mann Bio of swing band leader 'Benny Goodman' from age 10 (1919) to his landmark Carnegie Hall band concert in 1938. Not exactly historically accurate, but great music. Also, guest appearances ... See full summary » Director: Valentine Davies A stranger defies the local cattle baron and his sadistic son by working for one of his oldest rivals. Director: Anthony Mann A dedicated FBI agent recalls the agency's battles against the Klan, organized crime and Communist spies. Director: Mervyn LeRoy Tom Jeffords tries to make peace between settlers and Apaches.

Director: Delmer Daves The journey of a prized rifle from one ill-fated owner to another parallels a cowboy's search for a murderous fugitive. Director: Anthony Mann When a town boss confiscates homesteader's supplies after gold is discovered nearby, a tough cowboy risks his life to try and get it to them. Director: Anthony Mann Edit Storyline The unemployed trombone player Glenn Miller is always broken, chasing his sound to form his band and hocking his instrument in the pawn house to survive. When his friend Chummy MacGregor is hired to play in the band of Ben Pollack, the band-leader listens to one Glenn's composition and invites him to join his band. While traveling to New York, Glenn visits his former girlfriend Helen Berger, in Boulder, Colorado, and asks her to wait for him. Two years later he quits the band and proposes Helen that moves to New York to marry him. After the success of "Moonlight Serenade", Glenn Miller's band becomes worldwide known and Glenn and Helen and their two children have a very comfortable life. Duting the World War II, Glenn enlists in the army and travels to Europe to increase the moral of the allied troops.

In the Christmas of 1944, he travels from London to Paris for a concert to be broadcast; however his plane is never found in the tragic flight. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Did You Know? Trivia Second of three movies where James Stewart and June Allyson played husband and wife. See more » Goofs In the scene where James Stewart and June Allyson arrive in their car and are hounded by fans for autographs, one of the eager fans accidentally smashes into Allyson's head prompting her to hold her hand up to her face while she smiles. See more » Quotes Si Schribman : *Five* saxes? Glenn Miller : And the trombones, right on the left here, over there, right in there, and the four trumpets right behind them... Si Schribman : Four Trombones and Four Trumpets! When they get playing, what's gonna hold the roof on? Sy's Assistant: He's trying five saxes with a trumpet lead. Si Schribman : Maybe it's good and maybe it ain't, but it's radical!

8/19/2001 • American History Half a century after his mysterious wartime disappearance, the big-band leader and composer who gave America “Moonlight Serenade,” “String of Pearls,” and “In the Mood” endures as the musical symbol of an entire generation. Spring, 1994: It is the fiftieth anniversary of the Normandy Invasion, and the air is filled with speeches, prayers, and remembrance. And one thing else. Everywhere, it seems, there is the music of the Glenn Miller Band of the 1940s. On the evening of May 30, 1994, a group of snowy-haired celebrants–some dressed in vintage World War II uniforms–fills the floor of London’s Royal Albert Hall to dance to Miller’s “In the Mood.” On June 5, a crowd of two thousand, which includes Her Majesty The Queen Mother, listens to the very same tune played by a U.S. Air Force contingent in Portsmouth. That same day at a military cemetery near Cambridge, where U.S. President Bill Clinton speaks, the band also plays Miller’s tunes.

On June 6, aboard the Queen Elizabeth II, celebrities that include Bob Hope, Walter Cronkite, and Sir John Mills are serenaded by Miller’s music. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic at Arlington National Cemetery, some four thousand people gather for prayers and speeches–and Miller songs played by an Army band. And in Sainte-Mère-Eglise, the first French town liberated by the Allies, “In the Mood” echoes across the landscape from loudspeakers. Miller’s music was so pervasive at the anniversary observances that one reporter, Louis J. Salome of The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, looking over the estimated forty thousand veterans at Normandy, dubbed them “the Glenn Miller generation.” What was it about this music and the band that created it that made the Miller sound the aural symbol of an era? Of all the musical aggregations of the “Big Band Era,” how did the group that recorded such hits as “In the Mood,” “String of Pearls,” “Tuxedo Junction,” “Little Brown Jug,” “Pennsylvania 6-5000,” and “Moonlight Serenade” achieve such lasting recognition?

Big Bands (generally speaking, those comprised of ten or more musicians) had been around for more than a decade before Benny Goodman and his group caught the fancy of Depression-weary America in 1935 and set it swinging. One could, perhaps, date the Big-Band Era as far back as 1924, when Paul Whiteman’s already well-known orchestra debuted George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” in a concert at New York’s Aeolian Hall and gave jazz a respectability that it had not previously enjoyed. With the door now opened, jazz bands such as the great Duke Ellington’s began to find their way into the mainstream of the American music scene. Their music–progressive, creative, and exciting–reflected the fast-paced “Roaring Twenties.” The stock market crash of 1929 and the sweeping economic depression that followed changed the nation’s mood. Americans, anxious to escape the realities of the Great Depression, turned to slower, more romantic music. “Sweet” bands such as those led by Guy Lombardo, Hal Kemp, and Eddy Duchin became popular.

Glen Gray and the Casa Loma orchestra developed a following, especially among college students, with a semi-swing sound that foreshadowed the Big Band band era. And by 1934, the Dorsey brothers–Tommy and Jimmy–and Benny Goodman had assembled their bands. But the craze that made swing by far America’s most popular form of music effectively began with the astonishing breakthrough of Goodman’s band at the Palomar Ballroom in Hollywood in August 1935. Suddenly, the youth of the United States had found a new sound, one that contained elements of jazz and yet was different. To many listeners, jazz and swing were the same, but most fans found swing [easier], more listenable, and more suitable for dancing, which was very important to the young people of the day. Jazz fans tend to think of their music as art meant for listening only. Some bands, like Goodman’s, drove pretty fast and were jazz-oriented, but others (often more successful) played what was known as “sweet” music.

In fact, by the 1940s, Big Bands were cleanly separated, like Italian sausage, into two categories–“sweet” and “hot.” But style had to be accompanied by exposure, and one of the reasons that the Big Bands ruled was their accessibility. One could hear the sounds in a range of ways, and few of them involved spending a great deal of money. Radio disk jockeys–“platter spinners”–were few. More common were live radio broadcasts of the bands, either from studios or ballrooms. The major radio networks saturated the air waves with the sound. In 1939, for example, NBC was presenting the music of no less than forty-nine bands, and CBS had twenty-one. Nor was it necessary to attend a night club to hear these ensembles live (although even that was not unaffordable for middle-class listeners; the weekday cover charge to see Glenn Miller at the Cafe Rouge of [New York’s] Hotel Pennsylvania was seventy-five cents). The most prominent Big Bands usually spent the winter at such a big-city hotel, but during the rest of the year, they were on the road night after night, taking their shows to dozens of smaller communities.

Occasionally, a Big Band was thrown in for the price of admission between shows at a big-city movie theater; these bands were not an afterthought, but the attraction that brought patrons to see the movie. Hollywood films also played a role in disseminating the big-band sound. Movie studios rushed to sign up the hot ensembles of the day, as directors churned out a succession of mediocre motion pictures, in which the image of the musicians, characterized in films by phony “jive” talk, bore little resemblance to true life. Despite their generally poor quality, however, these movies offered viewers (and preserved for posterity) the performances of such bands as those of Goodman, the Dorsey brothers, Artie Shaw, Harry James, Sammy Kaye, Woody Herman, and, of course, Glenn Miller. Although not as [pervasive] [prominent] then as they are today, recordings too boosted the accessibility of the Big Bands. In 1939, record sales totaled $50 million (up from $10 million seven years earlier), and eighty-five percent of these sales were of swing music.

By 1940 sales were $70 million, and a year later they soared to $100 million. The jukebox became a fixture in restaurants and saloons around 1934, and by the time the U.S. entered World War II in 1941, there were some three to four hundred thousand machines in the United States, most of them dispensing the music of the Big Bands. And the most popular of them all was the Glenn Miller band; in the 1940s, poll after poll consistently placed the Miller band first. It set attendance records almost everywhere it went, and by 1943 there were more than five hundred Glenn Miller fan clubs across the United States and Canada. In 1940 alone, Miller recorded forty-five songs that made it onto the top-seller[s] charts–a figure neither Elvis Presley nor the Beatles ever matched–and it was estimated that one out of three nickels put into jukeboxes went to play a Miller record. Alton Glenn Miller–he detested his first name and quickly dropped it–was born on March 1, 1904 in Clarinda, Iowa.

When Glenn was five, the family moved to Tryon, Nebraska, where they lived for five years in a sod house. After a brief stay in North Platte, [Nebraska], the Millers relocated to Grant City, Missouri in 1915, and then, three years later, to Fort Morgan, Colorado, where Glenn attended high school. Glenn’s mother played the organ, and as soon as their boys were old enough, she and her husband supplied them with musical instruments–a cornet for older brother Deane and a mandolin for Glenn.*[ 1 ] Before long Glenn had swapped his instrument for one of the brass variety, and, as his mother once told an interviewer, “He just played on that horn all the time. It got to where Pop and I used to wonder if he’d ever amount to anything.” An outstanding high school athlete, Glenn was an avid basketball player and an all-state football end. His ambition, however, was to become a professional baseball player. A picture from Glenn’s high school days shows a rugged, broad-shouldered six-footer with large hands[–a good-looking guy, save for his overlarge head and his long, wide ears].

Glen played trombone in the school band, and although no one seems to have thought of him as an exceptional musician, he took his music more seriously than he did any sport. After graduating in 1921 he delayed going to college in order to take a job in a band organized by a saxophone and clarinet player named Boyd Senter. In January 1923, Miller entered the University of Colorado, where he seems to have spent most of his time playing in a popular campus band. At the year’s end, he dropped out of school to set upon the risky career of a full-time musician. Glenn got his first big break in Los Angeles when he was hired to play in, and arrange for, the Ben Pollack band. A pioneer in expanding the small ensemble (usually of five to seven musicians) characteristic of 1920s jazz into the full-fledged Big Band, Pollack had an ear for good musicians.

Over the years he hired not only Miller, but also the fine Chicago cornetist Jimmy McPartland; trumpeter Charlie Spivak, who went on to form his own Big Band in 1940; Benny Goodman; trumpeter Harry James; and a trombone player who was obviously Miller’s superior–the bluesy Jack Teagarden from Texas. Although jazz always remained his first love, Miller himself was never a good enough instrumentalist to be a great jazz musician. Benny Goodman once said that Glenn “was a pedestrian trombone player and he knew it.” When Teagarden joined the Pollack band, Glenn saw the handwriting on the wall and determined to concentrate on arranging, an art for which he had a rare talent and which he had been studying with the esteemed teacher Joseph Schillinger. Certain that his arranging assignments and occasional playing would provide a measure of financial security, he wired Helen Burger, the girl he had met in college, and proposed that she come to New York to marry him. They were wed on October 6, 1928. It was a most successful marriage.

Said one of Glenn’s friends: “The greatest thing that ever happened to Glenn Miller was Helen Miller.” During the next few years, Miller arranged for Paul Ash, Red Nichols, and several lesser-known band leaders. He also filled in on the trombone with established bands and found himself playing in the orchestra pit for Broadway productions. In 1934 he was the first musician hired, both for his musicianship and his skills as an arranger, by the Dorseys when they formed their first band. Glenn’s association with the Dorseys lasted only a few months. Late in 1934 British band leader Ray Noble arrived in the United States to try his hand at wooing American audiences, who had heard and bought recordings that his “orchestra”–in reality an assemblage of musicians from other ensembles–had made in England. Anxious to cash in on the popularity of his records, Noble hired Glenn away from the squabbling brothers and gave him his first experience at organizing a Big Band. The group Miller put together included some of the finest musicians of the day, and for a time the Noble Orchestra drew crowds to the Rainbow Room atop New York’s RCA Building.

It was while with the Noble Orchestra that Glenn got his first opportunity to stand before a Big Band as leader. It was an experience he was eager to turn into a permanent situation. So in 1936 he decided to take the chance and begin recruiting musicians for a group of his own. It was a huge gamble, but one to which he brought estimable assets–his solid track record as an arranger and his shrewd commercial sense of what the public would welcome. He was also a very organized person; arranger Rolly Bundock called him “the General MacArthur of the music business.” The Glenn Miller Band played its first engagement in May, 1937 at the Hotel New Yorker. The band went to Boston and then to New Orleans, where it was a huge success (though not financially; Miller himself was taking home a little less than six dollars a week). After that, it was all downhill, and the group could not earn enough to cover expenses. To compound Miller’s woes, his wife had an operation that made it impossible for her to have children (years later the couple adopted a boy and a girl).

Following a New Year’s Eve engagement, Glenn broke the news to the band members that he had decided to call it quits. The band played its last date on January 2, 1938. It had been, if nothing else, a learning experience. Jazz has never been the most popular form of music in the United States, and the one thing Glenn liked even more than jazz was success. He had no pretensions of being too artistic to be popular. If he were to start another band, Miller vowed, it would not be for the fans, not the musicians. Too many of his players had been “prima donnas,” he felt, who were interested in satisfying their musical souls by blowing far-out riffs whether or not the kids were following them. No, his new band, when it came, would have showmanship and a commercial sweetness. It would have a “sound.” His instincts didn’t fail him. The distinctive Miller sound–a clarinet lead supported by four saxophones–had come to him while he was still with the Noble orchestra, but he had not really put it to the test with his first band. Now it would become his signature.

By March 1938 the second Glenn Miller Orchestra was in place. Miller had made some crucial additions–especially vocalists. The mainstays of the band were “girl singer” Marion Hutton, “boy singer” Ray Eberle, Gorden “Tex” Beneke, and a male quartet known as the Modernaires. Hutton, the sister of actress/singer Betty Hutton, was only seventeen when she joined the group. She was not, by her own admission, the greatest of vocalists (saxophonist Al Klink used to joke that “the mike is out of tune tonight”), but she had enormous warmth and appeal. Eberle, whose older brother, Bob Eberly with a “y,” sang for Jimmy Dorsey, was, like Hutton, a performer whose looks surpassed his vocal ability. At first a favorite of Glenn’s, he and Miller had a falling out that lead to his leaving the band in 1942. Hired for the band as a tenor saxophonist, Beneke quickly proved himself a valuable singer, ideal for some of the jazzier numbers and novelty tunes.

He lent his voice on such songs as “I Got a Gal in Kalamazoo” and “Chattanooga Choo Choo.” *[ 1 ] Younger brother Herb eventually took up the trumpet; he became a professional musician and bandleader, too, although a much less successful one. The Modernaires joined Miller in 1941. One of them, Chuck Goldstein, developed a way of singing a harmony high above the others, giving the group an unmistakable sound. “Some people,” he once remarked, “thought we had a girl with us.” Glenn drove his band with a perfectionist zeal that made it–to the exasperation of many of his musicians–by far the most precise, the most rehearsed band of the time. He managed to combine a bit of jazz, a large dose of swing, a healthy dollop of showmanship, and a sprinkling of hokum. And it worked. In March 1939, Miller contracted to play for the summer season at the celebrated Glen Island Casino in New Rochelle, New York.

This was a coveted date–not for the money, but for the exposure over the air waves; the band broadcast from the Casino ten times a week, reaching thousands of listeners. Following that engagement, they went from sellout to sellout. In Hershey, Pennsylvania, it broke the attendance record set by the Guy Lombardo Orchestra eight years before, and in Syracuse, New York, it played for the biggest audience ever gathered for a dance. Meanwhile, the band made one hit record after another, including “Little Brown Jug,” “In the Mood,” and “Moonlight Serenade,” which became Miller’s theme song. In December the band was hired for a thrice weekly CBS national radio program sponsored by Chesterfield cigarettes, and its national reputation was solidified. A poll taken in the summer of 1940 put the Glenn Miller band number one by a huge margin, almost doubling the votes of the runner-up, Tommy Dorsey. Hollywood soon beckoned, and Miller traveled to California to make two movies for Twentieth-Century Fox, Sun Valley Serenade (1941) and Orchestra Wives (1942).

As examples of cinematic art, these films are forgettable, but they are priceless as a record of the Miller band in its prime. In numbers like “Chattanooga Choo Choo,” “Serenade in Blue,” and “I Got a Gal in Kalamazoo,” the players demonstrate their showmanship, flapping their mutes, standing for solos, and flashing their choreographed pumping of trombone slides. Miller himself comes off as a credible and likeable actor. By the time Orchestra Wives was filmed, the United States was at war, and the draft was beginning to siphon off Miller’s musicians. At age thirty-eight, he was not subject to being called up, but he thought he could help the war effort. His idea was to reform military music, to update it to a style that the troops would enjoy. Glenn first offered his services to the U.S. Navy, but was turned down. So on August 12, 1942 he wrote to Brigadier General Charles D.

Young, expressing his desire to “do something concrete in the way of setting up a plan that would enable our music to reach our servicemen here and abroad with some degree of regularity [and thereby] help considerably to ease some of the difficulties of army life.” General Young immediately accepted his offer. The band played their last Chesterfield show on September 24, and Glenn reported for induction on October 7, 1942. Now a captain in the Air Corps, Glenn met resistance from what he called “goddamn idiot officers” who liked the marches of John Philip Sousa just fine and saw no need for swing in the military. Eventually, however, Miller was named Director of Bands Training for the Army Air Forces Technical Training Command and authorized to organize a band at Yale University, which had become a training area for cadets. Miller proceeded to collect as many first-rate musicians as possible; some were from his group, many came from other bands. He also added a string section, getting many players from the country’s best symphony orchestras. The outfit, officially known as the 418th Army Air Forces Band, was activated on March 20, 1943, with permanent station at Yale.

The band managed to combine traditional military duties–playing at retreat parades and at review formations on the Yale Green–with performing at dances, open houses, parties, and luncheons, and on radio, over which Miller’s musicians broadcast I Sustain the Wings, a series designed to boost Air Force recruitment. Much was made at the time of the band’s use of traditional jazz tunes such as “St. Louis Blues” in march tempo, as a kind of swinging march. The military brass, fearful of scandalizing traditionalists, took pains to point out that such innovation never occurred during retreat or review, but only as the band was marching to and from these ceremonies. On July 28, Miller’s new swinging military band made its debut in the Yale Bowl. Time magazine reported at the time that “Oldtime, long-haired U.S. Army bandmasters had the horrors,” but the group was a smash with the troops. It presented an original spectacle: two drummers with full swing band kits and two string bass players–perched atop two jeeps that wheeled along slowly with the marching musicians–provided the rhythm. Despite the misgivings of traditionalists, the band was a hit.

Its appearances at bond drives were so successful that Glenn began to fear that he and his musicians might be kept stateside instead of being sent overseas to boast troop morale. Finally, in the spring of 1944 the AAF orchestra got its orders to go to England. They arrived in time to experience the German V-I buzz bombs that fell on London, killing almost five thousand people. Feeling responsible for the safety of his men, Miller persuaded the military brass to move his unit to Bedford, a village some fifty miles north of the British capital and out then of the reach of the bombs.*[ 2 ] On the day after the men had vacated their London quarters, a buzz bomb fell a few feet from the building, blowing away its entire front and leaving the place in ruins. Always the organizer, Glenn spun off sub-units from the full band, which was now known as the American Band of the Supreme Allied Command, to perform different types of music on four radio series.

Strings With Wings featured a full string section headed by George Ockner; The Swing Shift, a seventeen-piece danceband led by Ray McKinley; Uptown Hall, a seven-piece jazz ensemble under Mel Powell; and A Soldier and a Song, crooner Johnny Desmond accompanied by the full band.*[ 3 ] *[ 2 ] It wasn’t long before the Germans unleashed their V-2 bombs, which rendered Bedford as much a target for their strikes as London. *[ 3 ] Fifth unit two pianos These units instituted a backbreaking schedule of radio broadcasts and concerts. Miller was on the air thirteen times a week, and his musicians performed seventy-one live concerts during their five-and-a-half month stay in England, leading General Jimmy Doolittle to remark that “Next to a letter from home, Captain Miller, your organization is the greatest morale builder in the [European Theater of Operations]. By the time they returned to the United States and were deactivated in January 1946, the band’s members had played an estimated three hundred personal appearances on the continent before more than 600,000 people in slightly less than a year.

While still in England, much of the band’s travel was in their own C-47 air bus. One band member estimated that they spent some six hundred hours in the air, often enduring close calls when pilots had difficulty finding air strips in the dark. Miller, who disliked flying and whose ears would ring in the unpressurized cabin, considered the plane second-rate. Promoted to major in August 1944, Glenn, was becoming restless; he wanted to get his band to France so they could play for the men marching on Germany. With his health poor and his morale low, he seemed to be developing a touch of fatalism, at one point saying that he believed that he would never see his wife and child again.*[ 4 ] “I’ve had a feeling for a long time now,” he said, “that one of those buzz bombs has my name on it.” Then, on November 15, he got the go-ahead he wanted to take his musicians to the continent. At first, band manager Don Haynes was scheduled to fly to Paris ahead of the musicians to make preparations, but at the last minute Miller, characteristically impatient, decided to go himself.

On December 13, one day before his planned departure, the weather was so bad that no military aircraft were making the channel crossing. The following day, however, Haynes ran into a friend, Lieutenant Colonel Norman F. Baesell, who was going to Paris on December 15 in a general’s private plane. He invited Miller along. As takeoff time approached, rain, poor visibility, and a low ceiling continued to hamper flight schedules. Word was, however, that the weather was clearing over the continent and the plane would be allowed to leave England. As Miller looked at the nine-passenger C-64 Norseman, he was dubious. First, he noted that there was only one motor; Baesell countered that one had been enough for Charles Lindbergh when he flew the Atlantic alone in 1927. Then, after he took his seat he said, “Hey, where the hell are the parachutes?” To which Baesell retorted, “What’s the matter, Miller, do you want to live forever?” When the band arrived in Paris three days later, Miller was not there to meet them. Obviously something had gone wrong.

For days the musicians hoped that Miller would somehow turn up, but eventually the truth had to be faced. Glenn was officially reported missing on December 23. For years afterward, speculation about Miller’s fate centered on the bad weather and the plane’s lack of de-icing equipment. In late December 1985, however, two former members of a Royal Air Force bomber crew came forward with a story that provides the likeliest explanation of the accident that will probably ever surface. They had been aboard one of some 150 Lancaster bombers returning from an aborted raid on Germany on December 15, 1944. Following standard procedure, the crew jettisoned their bombs near Beachy Head on the southern coast of England. But as the bombs exploded, the gunner reportedly saw a Norseman below them fall into the sea, apparently downed by the shock waves. A check of the records at Britain’s Ministry of Defense subsequently confirmed the aborted raid and the return of the Lancasters. Miller, in other words, may have been a victim of that grim military occurrence, “friendly fire.” Shortly before his death, Glenn had outlined his postwar plans.

He would mark his return to the United States with a concert at New York’s Paramount Theater and then work only six months out of the year, spending the rest of the time raising oranges at his California ranch, “Tuxedo Junction.” Miller had no way of knowing it, but the Big Band Era was quickly drawing to a close. A strike by the musicians’ union against the record companies that lasted from August 1942 until September 1943 kept the bands out of the recording studios. Although the union eventually got what it wanted, the strike dealt a severe blow to the Big Bands. Singers, who had been able to record with choral backup, had gained popularity and were in demand for radio performances. The new vogue for romantic singers, initiated by Frank Sinatra after he left the Tommy Dorsey band in 1943, brought vocalists like Perry Como, Eddie Fisher, Patti Page, and Jo Stafford to the fore. By the end of 1946, eight of the nation’s top bands had dissolved. As big-band veteran John Best once recalled, “I was on the road with Benny Goodman, and he was guaranteed $3,000 a night.

Tommy Dorsey was getting $4,000. Suddenly one night, the total take was just $700.” Radio disk jockeys were proliferating, rendering it unnecessary for stations to air live music. Also, a wartime twenty-percent amusement tax on nightclub checks continued into peacetime, with a predictable decline in business. Most crucial of all, tastes changed. As jazz moved into the era of bebop, fans rarely turned to Big Bands to hear their kind of music. And yet Miller’s music survived. It weathered the period of neglect, and even aversion, that inevitably envelops the recently fashionable. But now you can hear it in television commercials or dance to it in clubs and at weddings. Even fifty years after Miller’s death, to listen to his band’s biggest hits is to be struck by their huge familiarity. These were not just songs of their day, but of the century. They are an indispensable part of American popular music. *[ 4 ] He never did see his second adopted child New York writer Joseph Gustaitis is a frequent contributor to American History magazine. For more on Glenn Miller , his band, and his music see Glenn Miller & His Orchestra by George T. Simon (Thomas Y.

Crowell, 1974); Moonlight Serenade: A Bio-discography of the Glenn Miller Civilian Band by John Flower (Arlington House, 1972), and The Glenn Miller Army Air Force Band: Sustineo Alas/I Sustain the Wings by Edward F. Polic (Scarecrow Press, 1989). Glenn Miller Orchestra – Larry O’Brien November 1988 – December 2010 June 1981 – September 1983 Larry was playing trombone in the Dunes Hotel “Casino de Paris” orchestra when Glenn Miller Productions, Inc., first asked him to front the band. “It was a great surprise to even be considered for such a job and was definitely a step up for me,” Larry admits. “I was flattered and apprehensive, too. I was following some very fine leaders, and I hoped I could uphold the -fine Miller tradition.” Larry O’Brien does have a direct link back to the Glenn Miller sense of performance. He first performed with the Miller band in the early Sixties, when Ray McKinley was the leader.

Ray, of course, served in Europe with Glenn Miller’s Army Air Force band and then acted as its unofficial leader after Miller’s disappearance. Larry has been involved with the big bands during most of his career. He performed with the orchestras of Sammy Kaye, Buddy Morrow, Ralph Marterie, Ray Eberle, Billy May, Les Elgart, Boyd Raeburn, Art Mooney, and Lee Castle. In 1962, Larry was the featured soloist / lead trombonist with the Sam Donahue Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and performed all those great Tommy Dorsey solos. He also spent several years as leader of a group backing Frank Sinatra, Jr., in live appearances, recordings and television shows. They toured worldwide for almost three years and appeared numerous times on The Merv Griffin Show, The Tonight Show, and The Mike Douglas Show. The association with Frank, Jr., continued in various formats for sixteen years. In 1979, Larry settled in Las Vegas where he played with the Al Ramsey Orchestra at Ceasar’s Palace, backing up such stars as Tom Jones and Frank Sinatra. He also worked with Sergio Franchi, Wayne Newton, Roy Clark, and many other noted performers.

In June 1981, Larry accepted his first assignment as leader with the Glenn Miller Orchestra. He toured with the Orchestra through September 1983 and then returned to Las Vegas again to fulfill commitments to the Al Ramsey Orchestra at the Golden Nugget Hotel and the Russ Gary Big Band Express. Larry is quite proud of the two albums he recorded with the Big Band Express, Have Horns Will Travel and A Time To Remember, which also featured trombonist, Carl Fontana. When not working in Las Vegas, Larry toured with Pia Zadora around all of the United States and Korea. He also performed on her record Pia Today which features the Sammy Nestico Orchestra. Larry also reunited with his friend, Frank Sinatra, Jr., and with trumpeter Buddy Childers they toured Italy and performed in Las Vegas regularly. The trombone has been Larry’s instrument right from the start. He was born in Jamaica, New York on July 15, 1933. His father, Vincent, preferred classical music, but Larry and his mother, Leonore, liked the sounds of the big bands. “Tommy Dorsey was my primary motivation force.

He was the enfant terrible, the bad one who, when it came to trombone, put everybody away. I started on trombone when I was about 13, and as soon as I got interested, Dorsey became prominent. I remember picking up Marie and Hawaiian War Chant and stuff like that. From then on, he was like a religion to me.” The musical training really began at John Adams High School in Jamaica, New York, with trombone lessons by the band director. He also studied privately with trombonist Ed Kolyer who played in Broadway shows. A year later, Larry, who was then only 15, was first trombonist with the New York City All-City High School Symphony Orchestra and, at age 16, won the New York Philharmonic Orchestra Trombone Scholarship. Then there was a three-year stint in the service from 1952 to 1955. He attended the Naval School of Music in Washington, D.C. and was assigned to the 328th Army Band. When O’Brien got out of uniform, he went to New York University where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Education with his major in music.

It was while attending college that Larry joined the Sammy Kaye Orchestra, which was then performing at the Roosevelt Grill in New York City. He also toured and recorded with the orchestra and was the featured soloist on the Sammy Kaye Television Show. That job lasted right through the four years of school and whetted his appetite for the big band career. “I’m only somewhat amazed about the Miller mystique.” Larry stated. “It’s many-faceted. There’s more than one reason for the continuing popularity of the band. For one thing, Glenn gave up a lucrative band business when he was at his zenith to join the service-when he didn’t have to. He was immensely popular when he entered the service. The band had sold more records in a year than, I think, Elvis or the Beatles ever did in a year. Then he went on to form a monster band, play all over Europe for the GIs, help sell a lot of war bonds, improve morale, and generally contribute greatly to the war effort. Finally, he disappeared mysteriously in a plane that took off from England for France on December 15, 1944. No trace of the plane has ever been found.

So I think it’s a combination of all these factors in addition to the great Miller sound itself that keeps his music and his name alive.” O’Brien has his own ideas about how to keep the Miller style and sound fresh. “I’m a traditionalist, but we’re not nit-picky Miller. We’ve instituted some changes we think Glenn probably would have instituted himself were he still here such as retaining the voicing of Danny Boy as a brass chorale, but replacing the trumpets with fluegelhorns and having the trombones play in hat.” There’s more. One critic wrote: “A sense of swing feeling … seems to have returned with Larry O’Brien’s assumption of the leadership of the Glenn Miller Orchestra. [Larry] has steered his orchestra in the direction the Miller music followers demand-the band’s basic foundation-the Glenn Miller Music.” Larry O’Brien underscores his dedication to maintaining the Miller aura: “Some of the more modem part of our repertoire we play in the big band style. Some we don’t. What we’re trying to do is run this band the way we feel Glenn would have if he were still here.” Events

Question: Band leader Glenn Miller was an accomplished player of which musical instrument?
Answer: Trombone