General Meeting 2018

GENERAL MEETING 2018 January 2018: TONY HORTON – THE REAL GLENN MILLER STORY Once again we enjoyed a session with Tony, this time on a perennial favourite, the Big Band leader, Glenn Miller. Tony dispelled some of the myths about Glenn that were put into the 1954 hit film “The Glenn Miller Story”, starring James Stewart and June Allyson. The film was principally about the courtship and marriage of Glenn and Helen Miller. The facts we heard were that Miller was born in Iowa in 1904, the son of a railway worker father and farmer mother. He earned pocket money from milking cows and firstly spent some on a mandolin, before giving it up for a trombone. He formed a small band from class mates and at university ended up going on gigs, rather than attending to his studies and exams. Whilst a very good trombone player, he was not outstanding, but his forte was making musical arrangements and was in demand for this particular skill. Joining Ben Pollacks Band, which included other musicians who went on to make their mark in the music industry, Miller eventually moved to New York, where, driven by his wife Helen, he formed a jazz band, without any success. Miller played as a jobbing trombonist for several bands before teaming up with the British Dance Band leader, Ray Noble. Because of the Union restrictions on entertainers in America and Britain, Noble was not permitted to take his own musicians, so engaged Miller to recruit musicians for him. However, there was a big difference between the two men as Miller preferred jazz music and his arrangements were in that genre, whereas Noble was a ballad man, so this difference led to a parting of the ways. It was during this time that Miller had the basis for Moonlight Serenade in his head. The film, Tony reminded us, had Miller developing this overnight for the opening of a venue. In reality, the arrangement was changed over several years before he came up with what became a coast to coast and international hit. Before this, Miller struggled to break into the big-time. His small, 10-man jazz band had little success with the records they made as they sounded too similar to all the other bands, so by 1937 Miller was broke and the band broke up. All the time though, the arrangement for Moonlight Serenade was in his head and he changed the lead instrument from the trumpet to a clarinet. He re-formed the band in 1938 and secured some funding from a business man, Cy Shribman. For the new band he needed the best possible musicians and managed to secure the services of some of the best. These included Willy Schwartz a saxophonist, but Miller had him play as the lead clarinettist. Also added to the band were young vocalists Ray Eberle and Marion Hutton, both of whom were just 17. As a minor, Hutton was not allowed into night clubs, so to get around this, Miller “adopted” her. In 1938 the band were engaged to play at the Glenn Island Casino at New Rochelle in New York state. The performances were broadcast and they opened in 1939 with Little Brown Jug as the opening number. If you were thinking back to the film then you would be confused! This number was played then as a “new” piece released in 1944, just after Miller disappeared. The power of film! Opening night at the casino had 1800 mainly young people in the audience and they were an instant hit. Whilst there, they also recorded In The Mood, but not before they recorded Moonlight Serenade, back-to-back with Sunlight Serenade. Also, they were appearing on radio shows promoted by Chesterfield cigarettes. This must have been a big advantage to Miller as he was a chain smoker. For the radio show they had an audience of some 15 million listeners, three times weekly, coast to coast. Another recording that became a standard swing band number was Pennsylvania 6-5000. Marion Hutton left the band in 1940 and Miller engaged a group called the Modernaires, who eventually added Paula Kelly to their ranks. They sang alongside Ray Eberle and band member Tex Beneke and others. They featured on recordings with Miller on the likes of Perfidia, Chattanooga Choo Choo, Kalamazoo, Serenade In Blue, I Know Why, and Elmer’s Song. In 1941, appearing as the Phil Corey Band, The Glenn Miller Orchestra starred in the film, Sun Valley Serenade. This featured Chattanooga Choo Choo and In The Mood, with one of the stars being Sonja Henie, the Olympic Ice Skater. Tony described this film as a “stinker” as it was really only renowned for its music. A positive thing for the film was that Chattanooga Choo Choo became a million seller and Miller was awarded a Gold Record. But a sour note was created by the inexplicable substitution of Paula Kelly on the soundtrack version of Chattanooga Choo Choo for Paula Frieday, with Lynne Bari appearing performing a lip sync. A year later, they followed up with Orchestra Wives, again the best that could be said was that it had many popular tunes in it! By now, with America in the War, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, Miller had request shows for troops in the services. Miller volunteered his services to the US Navy as he was too old to be drafted, but they rejected him. Approaching the Army, he was eventually allowed to join as a Captain in 1942. The Glenn Miller Orchestra’s last appearance was on 27 September that year, and many members of his band enlisted too. Although Miller’s suggestions for modernising some of the traditional Army band music was a step too far for some of the Top Brass, Miller was eventually allowed to form what became the Army Air Force band. Shortly before this, the Millers decided to adopt two children, Steven and Jonnie. The AAF toured the country, before being sent to the UK, providing a much-needed boost to morale. The band made over 800 appearances during their tour of duty in the UK and were originally accommodated in a west end block of flats. Miller was concerned about the safety of his band with “Buzz Bombs” now falling on London. It was therefore arranged for the band to be stationed on an airfield. The day after the band moved, the flats were destroyed by one of the missiles. Perhaps this was the basis for the idea in the film where the band played on as a Buzz Bomb fell nearby! In December 1944, Miller was due to fly to Paris. There was a lot of fog, but the single engine plane eventually took off. It is believed that somewhere over the English Channel the plane came down. It is not known what happened, whether it was enemy action, friendly fire or a problem with the plane itself. There have been many theories about the disappearance of Major Miller, and we may never know the exact facts. Tony kept us nicely entertained, with just a few hiccups, with various clips of music that had many of us tapping our feet and fingers, and the occasional humming along too. February 2018: MIKE STORR - MASTERS OF MIRTH Mike is a Lincolnshire lad, no trace of Lincoln Green though, and is a proud Rotarian, with Burton Joyce. As we all know, at our time of life we can sometimes have difficulty remembering what we are saying, so Mike explained that this was why he was using a script. He has been involved in amateur dramatics for many years but having given it up he had recently been put under pressure to return to the boards as the lead in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, but declined as he was not prepared to put the frock back on for anyone! Having grandchildren and great grandchildren, Mike has been pressed into making mottos for next Christmas’s crackers and tried a few out on us to see how they might go down; does anyone know what the synonym for synonym is?; how can a civil war be civil?; do infants enjoy infancy as much as adults enjoy adultery?; why does sour cream have an expiry date?, but in the end we didn’t give him the encouragement he had hoped for, so keep trying Mike! Music halls had their origins in the mid-19th century, when the Industrial Revolution resulted in a massive expansion in the size and population of towns and cities, with the resulting need for taverns for the workers to enjoy their earnings. This led to the development of the music hall, originally where customers could carouse to their hearts content. These developed rapidly into the purpose-built Music Hall for professional entertainers with customers being drawn in by the appeal of liquor. Temperance Societies tried to counter with their own versions but failed. They were places where patriotism was drummed up, but also, if it was looked for, there was the satire too. The period we heard about was broadly covering from the end of WWI to the 1950’s and a little later. To test our memories, we heard a few catch phrases, with mixed results and at least some present were able to recognise Sandy Powell’s “Can you hear me mother?” or George Formby’s “Turned out nice again”, then “I thang you” from Arthur Askey and Max Miller, the Cheeky Chappie’s “Now there’s a funny thing”. But Mike went into some detail about one of his many favourites, Robb Wilton and his Home Guard monologue and “The day war broke out…”.

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