GerE Lrc Ad Libitwm €' Jazzletter PO Box 240, OiaiCA93024-0240 utu2007 Vd. 23 Na 10

coming up on records. He figured that if he got you in the The Glenn Miller Years V band playing trumpet, it would torpedo Charlie's band'" This attitude to Bamet is interesting. The bandleaders of be on cordial terms, the glaring Billy May said, "Glenn was a terrible drunk. When he'd go that period seemed to and in some of the cases they on the wagon, he'd be one of those stiff people. He never exception being Artie Shaw, Beat magazine may have divided the learned to be a decent sober man. I know other people with were friends. Down hip (or, in those days, hep) and corny, the same personality. When I drarrk and I'd stop, I'd grit my bands into two classes, its readers to be hostile to the latter. Woody teeth. and say. 'I'll stay sober, god damn it!' And then when and encouraged with Les Brown, and Glenn was you'd let go, you went qazy. Herman was on good terms and Woody Herman and "Chummy MacGregor was the first guy that told me about friends with Benny Goodman Kaye, who was relegated by the trade D"T. s. He'd wake up in the morning in New York and there indeed with Sammy category. When Glenn was overseas was nothing to drink, so he'd have to get down to Plunkett's press to the cornball Corps band, he counted on Sammy Kaye speakeasy. That was the only place you could get it. He'd run with his Army Air keeping him apprised of affairs in the down and get a cab. When he tried to get in, the back seat to write him letters this hostility to Barnet? v;ould t'e full of lions and tigers, and he would have to run business at home. Why then several factors, not the least among down to Plunkett's on the street. Chummy had been dry for One may surmise dissolute life and serial polygamy' By all six or seven years when Glenn started the band. And I know them Barnet's and testimony, Glenn was faithful to Helen a couple of times Glenn was drunk when we were working a evidence relationship, and he was obviously some- theater somewhere. And he was staggering, emceeing a show, throughout their puritan. Another factor may have been Barnet's and Chummy didn't let him up. Every time he'd come near thing of a have to make money from his band; Glenn Chumnry, Chummy would say, 'Whatsamattet, someone hit wealth: he didn't in the early days were hard. you with the bar rag, for Chris'sake?' did, and his struggles write for Miller lda, Delilah, Long Tall "The rest of the time Glenn was kind of mad at the world' Billy May would "A" Train, Always in My Heart, Blues in He was bitter about everything. Kind of a down kind of guy. fuIama, Take the "Interestingly enough, Glenn Miller was Putting things down all the time." Billy affected a grousing the Night.He said, in the Nightbefore anybody else and he turned snarl: 'Ah for Chris'sake, Dorsey did that.' offeredBlues he said the format wasn't the conventional Broadcaster Fred Hall asked Billy: "What took you to the it down because He said, 'That'll never be a hit.' We had to end Miller band, money?" AABA song. Night of course, and I did the arrange- Billy said: "What else? I enjoyed working for Charlie up doing Blues in the was bright, and he said, 'That's one I really Barnet, and I wasn't really a fan of the Miller band. A guy by ment. Miller the name of Miles Rinker worketl for the Shribman agency' blew.' playing more than I was arranging. We worked the bookers in New England, and he offered me the job with 'oI was It was a lucrative job, but Miller already Glenn." A1 Rinker was, along with Bing Crosby, one of the hard in the band. Gray and Bill Finegan' original Rhythm Boys who sang rvith Paul Whiteman. Their had two great arrangers, Jerry quite a come-down to go from the fieedom of sister was Mildred Bailey. "It was was so loose, to go with the regi- "Years later, after the war," Billy continued, "I ran into Charlie's band, where it I mean, we even had to wear the same Miles' brother Al, who said, 'Didn't you know why Glenn mented Miller band. With Charlie, we had two uniforms, a blue offered you the job? It wasn't your trumpet playing. He knew colored socks! tell us, 'Wear the blue suit tomorrow,' you were writing all the Barnet charts and a lot of the origi- and brown. They'd came with the blue suit except Bus Etri, the nals that were catching on with the public. Charlie's band was and so we all

October 2007 Eddie Sauter guitar player, who wore the brown suit. Now that would have Fletcher Henderson and later Mel Powell and Hefti and Ralph Burns with been a big disaster in the Miller band. Charlie made a big joke with Benny Goodman, Neal with Jimmie Lunceford and then of it and we all had a big laugh. We presented Bus as a soloist Woody Herman, Sy Oliver Dorsey, Bill that night." Paul Weston and Sy Oliver with Tommy with Claude Some of the musicians said Glenn was "chicken-shit" or Borden and Gil Evans and later Gerry Mulligan "square." Louis Mucci said, "He was almost militaristic. But Thornhill in one of the bands that Glenn backed, George with Les Brown, he got a lot of good results . . . . I stayed with the band seven Duning with Kay Kyser, Frank Comstock band he wrote for' or eight months. It was very good' I liked him." each of them strongly identified with the and Bill Al Klink said of Miller: "About my personal relationship And Miller had, as well as Billy May, Jerry Gray, with him, he kind of left me alone and I left him alone. And Finegan. as we have noted, were I think we both liked it that way. I was always trying to do my The first three sides for Bluebird, the Waters of the best, to come on time and all that. I existed there' arranged by Glenn: My Reverie, By recorded August 27, "Glenn was a totally different kind of guy as compared to Minnetonka, and King Porter Stomp, produced four Benny Goodman. He was difficult to influence about any- 1938. The next session, February 6,1939, Like to Be with thing, including musicians. Some guys were fairly close to sides, (Gotta Get Some) Shut-eye, How I'd Romance Runs in Glenn but it seems to me that Glenn never had friends who You in Bermuda, Cuckoo in the Clock, and songs, Bermuda an were on the same level with him. Although I guess Chalmers the Family, all of them trivial and was the norm MacGregor was. They were old buddies. Glenn was aloof. egregious example of the kind ofutter crap that from After I'd left the band and joined Benny, we were on a for that era. The great songs of the period came mostly but the run of what you train and I was going through the dining car. I passed where Broadway musicals and the movies, appallingly cute Benny was sitting without speaking, because that's the way heard on juke boxes was of the caliber of the on the third you did it in the Miller band. He didn't want to know about Three Little Fishes,whichMiller in fact recorded The three Miller arange- the guys and didn't bother. Benny said, 'Hey, kid, come on Bluebird session on April 4,1939. competent and over and sit down.' I was amazed at all this because Glenn ments for the first Bluebird session are second session, as bad never asked anybody to be friendly'"' conventional. The four songs on the Klink spoke of his vivid memories of the time Hal as they are, have alrangenlents by Finegan, and they are far leaving one to Mclntyre left the band. superior to Miller's, fresh and imaginative, got his hands on The "swing era" was expanding with a growing need for wonder what they were lilHarry James in starting a band, office, and was fascinated by how good they were expanding the franchise as it were. Claude Thornhill and Miller fucked them up." Charlie Spivak wanted to start their own bands. But they The third Bluebird session, April 4, 1939, contained didn't go to Artie Shaw, now drowning in money after the Finegan charts on Frankie Carle's Sunrise Serenade and on 1869. The latter would success of his record ing of Begin the Beguine for help. They Little Brown Jug,which dates from enduring hits. And on went to Glenn when he became a success, and he backed them be one of Miller's biggest and most Finegan arrangements both: he owned pieces ofthose two bands. And he promised the next session, two weeks later, two Pavanne' to back Hal Mclntyre and Tex Beneke in starting bands. were recorded, including one on Morton Gould's later team, One day he called Mclntyre aside. He said: Eddie Sauter, with whom Finegan would Benny "You're fired. You start rehearsing your own band in two experienced the same kind of interference from weeks at Haven's." Goodman. Pickers Miller was particularly hard on Bill Finegan, one of the Don Redman, who wrote for McKinney's Cotton was a greatest arrangers ja and American dance music gener- in the 1920s, was a schooled musician, Lunceford to Stravin- ally has ever known. schooled musician. Bix Beiderbecke was listening was studying If -it was indeed an era of great bands, it was also an era of sky, Debussy, and Dukas. William Grant Still bands became great anangers. Miller was correct in his assessment that it with Vardse by 1927. The harmony in dance 1930s until you got Boyd was a particular and recognizable sound that brought popular- more adventurous through the ity to aband. And the affangers were substantially responsible Raeburn in the 1940s. for the sound of each band: Gene Gifford with Glen Gray,

October 2007 other guys I once had a conversation about this with Mel Powell, who band, the whole scene. I got together with some jazz wrote for Goodman and iater for the Miller Air Force band. I and we formed a band, like, a band." terrible' said, "I can't believe that the affangers were not aware of all "We found out that stock arrangements sounded and rhythm. We that was going on with the extension ofharmony in European We had three trumpets, three saxophones, sounded music. Bill Challis was starting to use some ofthat stuffwhen didn't have any trombones. The stock arrangements he was writing for Goldkette. Is there an answer to this so bad I started writing some stuff for the band, more tailored publishers to cluestion: were the writers waiting for the public to catch up?" for it." Stock arrangements were sold by music America. "l think I'll surprise you," Mel said. "They were waiting the bands both large and small that were all over that as a teen- for the bandleaders to catch up. The bandleaders were much "I studied harmony and counterpoint. I had alrange- more aware of what a negotiable commodity was. When an ager. I started early, and I wrote simple rifltype One thing led to arrangement would be brought in and rejected because 'That's ments. That's really how I got started. too fancy,' that was a signal that I was no longer welcome. So another out of necessitY, I think." - for a while, didn't I meant exactly what I said. If the anangers were waiting for Fred asked him: "You studied in Paris anything, they were waiting for the bandleaders." you?" I said, "Okay. Given Benny Goodman's inherentconserva- "Yeah." you were tism, I am surprised that he welcomed what you wrote. "And at that point, did you not know where just get a better Because some of it was very radical . Mission to Moscow is going in music for sure? You wanted to radical for the period." technical background." "Yeah. It gets close to peril," Mel said. "I thought that "Yeah. I just followed mY nose." arrangers? Eddie Sauter brought in some of the most inventive, imagina- "'Who did you listen to among the other tive things. Eddie was really devoted less to composition than Fletcher Henderson? Gene Gifford?" on the radio he was to arranging, in the best, deepest sense of 'ranging'. I "Yeah. I used to listen to Camel Caravan Fletcher can recall rehearsals when Eddie rvould bring music to us, and with the Casa Loma band every night. And listened to it would be rejected. A lot was lost. On some pieces that we Henderson. Sy Oliver, with Lunceford' I do know---Ibr example his arrangement for You Stepped Out Lunceford and Basie. And Duke of course." Tommy o.f'a Dream. which I always reglrded as a really advanced, Fred said, "First I heard about you was with you just walked in marvelous kind of thing Benny would thin it out. And Dorsey and Lonesome Road.I understand sometimes take the credit- for it being a hit, getting it past the with that arrangement." playing at the New a&r men. I don't think the thinning out was an improvement. "Yeah. I heard Tommy's band. He was for him,' the contrary. I think that Eddie, and I to a lesser degree, Yorker Hotel. I said, 'I'm gonna write something Quite I w'ere exploring harmonic worlds that ought to have been and I did. I met him at the New Yorker Hotel. I told him night they encouraged, rather than set aside." had this affangement for him. He told me what Thus, over in the band led by Miller's friend Goodman, had a rehearsal. I brought it in and they ran it down." was enduring the same kind of interference that "And he didn't change a thing." Sauter ttNo." Finegan was with Miller. That was a real Since Finegan was born in Nervark, New Jersey, on May "It required two sides of a 78 record. 3, 7917, he was twenty-t'wo when he became a major and departure." just prolific part of the Miller team. His parents and sisters all "Yeah. I had no idea of length in those days. I wrote played piano, and inevitably so did he. He studied music till I was finished." privately and later at the Paris Conservatory. A shy, soft- "Did you study the style of the band before you did it? Of had he? spoken, and self-effacing man, on May 4, 1997, he did a course, he hadn't totally evolved in terms of style, radio interview with Fred Hall. Fred began in broadcasting as He was doing a lot of Dixie type things." There was an engineer who did many remote broadcasts with the great "The band was mostly Dixieland at that time. out. So it created big bands, then during World War II, he did programs for the a faction in the band that wanted to broaden a particularly troops in the South Pacific. He uas an astute scholar of the a kind of a stir in the band, because it was not it." big-band era. Finegan told Fred: Dixieland arangement. The guys in the band liked "I went to a school down in a small town named Rumson, "Bud Freeman told me once he was crazy abolutit." Weston New Jersey. We had a very good music department. Good "That was it at that time for Tommy. He had Paul teachers. And there was a lot of interest in music. School and other people on staff."

October 2007 "Oh yeah. He had Axel Stordahl and Paul Weston and "No, it wasn'1." you Dean Kincaide." "Did he ever sketch out something for you, and took "And Sy Oliver around the corner." ir?" o'Yeah, later. Miller came in to the New Yorker like about "No. For a period there, we'd get together every week and pick out some tunes to a week later and Tommy played the chart for him. And he had look over a bunch of tunes, and he'd my phone number, and Miller called me up that same night do, and he would often slggest, 'Make this like so-and-so.' to go that way. and said, 'Would you like to write something for my band?' And I'd get the tune home. and it didn't want He never I'd never heard of him. I said, 'Well sure.' So I wrote a couple So I wouldn't do it. I did it the way I thought. of things for him and sent them to him, and one thing led to complained or said anytlring, if I didn't do it the way he the top of another and he hired me." suggested. But he wouldn't make suggestions off "Did he pay you for the first arrangements?" his head. He did a lot of eciiting on my earlier things, cutting "Nope. That was kind of the way things went in those things out. He didn't rewrite anything, or add anything. All down days." he did was cut out if I had too much in there' He cut "As far as I can tell, the first recording session with your the length of things often." to that three charts was around February of '39.Gotta Get Some Shut-eye, Fred said, "Arrangements all had to conform Cuckoo in the Clock and Romance Runs in the Family." minute or three minutes ten second limit for recording'" juke "Oh yeah. Some great tunes. That was the beginning of a Finegan said, "And th;y got shofter too, with the more long string of dogs that I had to write for him." boxes. They had them tin:ed." "So that you'd put "You had to be terribly prolific. I know the song pluggers nickles into the juke boxe,;." juke usually. were after him, but he had such a heavy recording schedule, "That was the idea. The Mafia ran the boxes, pretty much from the beginning, didn't he?" So they were determining how long the things were that we "When I first joined him, he didn't have a recording did, indirectly." contract. I joined him in the winter of 1938. It was later, in "Artie Shaw told me that lots of times he had to speed Blues in the '39,thathe got a deal." things up. He was particularly chagrined about "Did he have the clarinet lead on the saxes in the begin- Night, which he did for Victor. It came in at three-twenty- ning?" nine, or something, and thcy had to cut it back to three-ten." ttYes." "Oh yeah, it got shorter than three-ten. Things got dolr'n cut "So that was pretty well established' And there would be to two forty-five. And a lot ofjuke boxes were set to off just no departing from that." at two and a half minutes. The thing would lift off the "No." record. Most of the things. I'd try to keep 'em dou'n around "And then you did a session that produced both Sunrise two-forty-five." Serenade and Liule Brown Jug. Boy, the movie xtre got Little Fred Hall said, "I have to say that one of my very favor- Brown Jug fouled up, in terms of how they used it. Because ites from the beginning has been Pavanne. That was by played better it was such an early thing." Morton Gould, wasn't it? And I think the band point. The "They had him writing it, which he didn't." on that than it did on anything I'd heard up to that I "Was there any concept on Little Brown Juglaid down by first romantic ballad, other than Sunrise Serenade, thal from Glenn before you started.working on it?" remember is Stairway to the Stars,which was a classic "No. It started out, at least, like Sy Oliver style. I was the beginning. Ray Eberly told me once that he felt that heavily influenced by Sy atthat time." things were often pitched too high. Was that a familiar "It certainly was that." complaint?" just "It seems to me that as the years went by, the band played "Nobody ever complained. That was a miscalculation design it faster and faster." on my part, if it was pitched too high' There was no "Too fast. Too fast from the word 'Go.' He would do that. there. It was just accidentally sometimes. Ray never com- He would take liberties with things I did, much to my cha- plained. I wish he had. I'd have been more careful about it." just grin." "His ability increased over tinte, I think. Well' he was Billy May had the same complaint about Miller, as did an instinctive singer, wasn't he? And he had his brother Bob you get to the point some of the players: tempos taken too fast. to live up to. In a standard alrangement, "Yeah,"' Fred said. "I hear that it wasn't all roses, working where the singer is going to be introduced, and you modulate for Miller." a key. Who ever started that?"

October 2007 guys were seeing them for "Oh yeah. The average thing r'vith the clarinet lead, which "No. Most of the records, the was a built-in must, I'd pick up a good key for that for the the first time on the record date." you get to do?" first eight or sixteen that came before the vocal. It was never "How much run-down would just polished up. They had to do it in a a good key for the vocal, so you'd have to change to suit the "Enough to get it three-hour record date, and vocal. It was just a practical mattcr." hurry. In those days, they did a You know, four of "My two most favorite alrangements of yours in the early they wanted four sides in three hours. things for ten-inch 78 rc- vears was My Isle of Golden Dreums, which has got a tempo these two-forfy, two-forty-five change in the middle." cords." number oftakes, as time "I don't remember the tempo change. I barely remember "So you were limited in terms of the tune." began to run out." ;'Yeah, just keep doing it until we got "lt was a lovely tune. And along came Johnson Rag.That well, I dunno. We'd and somehow at the end was late in '39. That had been dotre pretty much as a cornball a decent take, then do the next tune, a half hour overtime, occasionally piece up till then, hadn't it? Russ Morgan, that sort of thing." of three hours, sometimes "Yeah. lt was a rag. Not a legitimate rag. But it was a an hour overtime, we'd get all the stuff on'" years radio full-time were '40 and ragtirne sounding thing. Miller picked that." Fred said, "My first in remotes all up and down "You did an affangement for l'{iller of Stardust. And that '41, and I did a lot of dance-band a few with Glenn. The miking leatured Johnny Best." the east coast, including quite yet the "As a matter of fact, Miller did the first half of that atthattime was rather simple for those remotes, and prettY arrangement. lt was one he had laying around. I think it's the balance was good." that the fewer mikes you can use, only one we did that way. He asked me to finish it for hirn'" "It's always my opinion right, and get the band "I notice that the two of you share credit for it. And that the better it is if you place them - stand or point in or point away' has some very good Beneke on that. What was your view of placed right. The guys would things shape up in Beneke's playing?" th" grry. were wonderful with making multiple-mike thing they do "Tex was a good play'er. I preferred Al Klink. He didn't get those days. I don't like the ttr4tthing to do. I used to write ;' solo for Klink and Miller today. I think it's ridiculous." would switch the pafis, give it tc' Tex." "Did you enjoy writing the ballads?" was a nice tune"' "They were vcry close, I gu€s::." "Yes. The good ones. Nightingrtle You must be proud of a "Yeah. And he was nlaking a:;tar, too." "You must be proud of that one. ' use those "The player I never understood with that band that I've lot of them. You did Blue Heaven. Did Glenn always been told was very close to Miller was Chummy mostly for closers for broadcasts and things?" in those days'" McGregor." "Yeah. They called them flag-wavers he have some "They were old buddies." "Not too good for dances, though. Didn't at middle tempo?" "How did you find Glenn as a human being, as a character, conception of playing everything conscious of being a dance band and and as a boss?" "Yeah. He was very "Do you want the standard answer?" he didn't want to throw the dancers a curye." band, did Glenn put his "No, I want the truth, if you dtrn't mind." "When you did originals for the "He was a cold fish.'He was totally preoccupied with name on them, or let you put your name on them?" them. But he had his own making a go of it with that band, and human values didn't "No, he put my name on went into his company, so mean a hell of a lot to him. He didn't have a lot of regard for publishing company. Everything people. I'm not just talking about me. I'm talking about the he got fifty percent anYwaY." get very emotional about whole band, the way he generally treated people." "I have heard a story that he did not he got home"' "He was born to be a major, I guess, as he was later on." some of your arrangements, but till Helen was a good friend of "He should have been in the nlilitary." "Thatls true, yeah. His wife the band was 'Fred said, "The band managecl, in spite of that, to cohere' mine. We would just sit together wherever at the Glen Island Casino, the Caf6 I never heard a more polished banrl. But maybe that's because playing, have dinner night of a rehearsal, she'd tell of the drill sergeant attitude." ifoug., places like that. The of mine' And "Yeah. well, we rehearsed a lt't too." *., h.'d come home raving about something "Did you generally not make records until you'd been on I'd say, 'Well he didn't tave atthe rehearsal."' of Stars?" the road with the affangements for a while?" "And he particularly llkedA Handful

October 2007 town "Yeah. Yeah." He was bom on October 15, 1917, in a small Hollow, Kentucky. By the age of "Did you tour with the band? If there was a performance, . improbably named Skunk band playing a strip club would you be there?" nineteen, he was working in a The advantage of the "No. I stayed home and wrote. When they'd be on location called the Swing Club in Atlantic City. "name bands" of the period somewhere, I'd go there for a while." location was that many ol the young musician had a chance to "Were you there in the days whenln the Moodbroke at the played Atlantic City, and a played thc Dollar Pier that summer' Glen Island Casino." be heard. Miller Million past stripper at the "Yes. I was living in Pelham." One evening Tanner loolthe Andrews Sisters on it. You get fifteen minutes, you've got at the table, he smiled at nre, waved and that he'd been parlicu- openers, closers, and lead-ins to everything. How they got been impressed by my phying, more than two or three tunes done, I don't know. But it was larly taken with my high register." in years of retelling the story, that after a wonderful show later. I've got to tell you, I miss the dance- Helen Miller said, Tanner got up the nerve to band remotes terribly." about a half-hour of stamnlering, when looking "Yeah. Wasn't that great in those days?" ask Glenn if he might use him as a reference "When you weren't working, you could turn the radio on for work. saicl, "You're coming with me' Hou' at night. And the later it got, the more stations you got coming Miller smiled and blurted that the only thing he in from the mid-west and so on." soon can you be packed?" Paul toothbrush, and he had it with him. "That was a big part of my musical education through high had to pack was his City to Hunt's Ocean school," Finegan said. "starting about ten o'clock at night, The Millerband went from Atlantic where Tanner joined them' every half hour there'd be another band on." Pier in Wildwood, New Jersey, "Sure. You could go from CBS to NBC red to NBC blue He wrote: a ballroom with to Mutual. I worked for mutual in those days. Mutual would "Typical of the period, Hunt's had huge facing the stage area' half the time have a class C circuit to the remote, which was rows of folding chairs along each wall play that first night the trornbonist a shame, because you lost the high and low ends on the sound' I wasn't scheduled to -but I was eager to But nobody seemed to pay any attention." I was replacing was still with the band bandsmen,- so I ambled About the same time that Miller took on Bill Finegan, he establish myself as one of the Miller just began to play . . I hired one of the finest trombone players ever to play in his into the ballroom before they ' ' - the floor and plunked or any other Paul Tanner. headed for the only unfolded chair on clatter, In addition-band, to his work with Miller, Charlie Spivak, Les myself into it. The chair collapsed with a monstrous Brown, Tex Beneke, Henry Mancini, and Nelson Riddle, sending arms and legs flying into a disorganized - and it came to me as Eugene Ormandy, Arturo Toscanini, Leonard Bernstein, and heap on the floor. I had blown my cool, peals of laughter from Zubin Mehta, he took master's and doctor's degrees at the I lay there in my only suit with - that I had been framed . . . ' University of California at Los Angeles, and then taught there the band ringing my ears - on for 23 years: performance, theory, musicology, and music "Glenn, who was wont to bestow bizarre nicknames and yelled, 'Come on, education. He went on to lecture internationally on the history those close to him, looked over at me of jazz. His days with Miller left an indelible and happy Lightning, get your horn and play with us.' frame and memory on him, and he wrote a short book about the experi- "I knew, as I untangled my six-foot-three christened, and more ence titled Every Night Was New Year's Eve: On the Road struggled to my feet, that I had been with Glenn Miller, importantly, been accePted.

October 2007 When other "I learned later that it had takcn a two-hour effort on the the band's busy schedule forced him to stop. out in rehearsal, he part of the band members to fold and stack all the chairs and affangers brought him works to be tried spot, knowing within to engineer the break-away aspects of the one that had undone either bought or rejected them on the worth his me. 'lhen, as now, musicians were known as notorious a few minutes whether or not the material was upsetting the practical jokers. time, efforts, or financial investment, usually weeks preparing the "As I uncased my horn and mounted the stand, Glenn shot writer who had, in most cases, spent when he did purchase the a sidelong glance at the venerable instrument and asked if I affangement. On those occasions the entire score in had made it myself. I hadn't, of course, but Glenn's remark hit music, he would spend hours reworking quite uncomfortably close to home. Ti-re horn had been with me order to achieve a sound consistent with his standards, since 193(), had been repaired many times. and had once been often deleting as much as he retained. note orpoor rejecred lor a welding job by a Pascagoula, Mississippi, "Glenn had an excellent ear. No questionable not hesitate blacksmith who told me ruefully as he handed it back, 'I'm intonation ever escaped his attention and he did well. To sorry, son, I only do horseshoes."' to fire any player who could not play in tune or read a major sin A few days later, Glenn askecl a friend, Simon Mantia of miss a note once in a while was not considered spot in the music the New York Pliilharmonic, to tcst thirty or so trombones to for a brass player, but to play at the wrong of professional ethics. He find a good one for Tanner. Tanner paid for it in instalments was entirely against Glenn's code of carelessness and of five dollars a week fbr the next five months. looked upon such an error as an example our lead "Before the first week had eniled,"my acceptance by the would not tolerate it. On the other hand, whenever a high note seemed band included being drafted as a somewhat reluctant partici- trumpet player Mick McMickle thought and pant in the football wars waged daily on the beach. I'd never partiiularly risky, Glenn would honor his opinion heen fbnd of contact sports. . . . Once in the arena, however, change the arrangement. was the I covered myself with glory by being able to consistently kick "There is no doubt in my mind that Glenn Miller Sousa, and the ball farlher than any of the other combatants and that greatest musical businessman since John Phillip - with even while barefoot. Glenn was hinrself quite an athlete and I'm convinced that almost any band leader, in those hectic seemed impressed by m)'ability to gain airborne yardage'" minimal talent, could have been successful trouble to Tanner said that over the years, he was constantly asked days ofballrooms and early radio had he taken the what Glenn Miller was really like. He wrote, "It's a difficult follow Glenn's lead." Finegan joined question to answer, and I always hedge a bit by pointing out In 1938, the same year that Tanner and named Marion that I don't actually know. I traveled with him, played music the band, Glenn took on a "gitl singer" I 9 I 9, in Battle w'ith him and whenever he invited me, socialized with Hutton, born Marion Thomburg on March 10, was him, but I knew- him only from tlie point of view of a young Creek, Michigan. Her sister, Elizabeth June Thornburg, her name to starstruck trombone player sitting in his horn section and must born February 26, 1921. She would change describe him from that perspective. Betfy Hutton, and Marion took the same surname. despite "Glenn Miller was an extremely knowledgeable musician, There was a tragic quality about both of them, Their father an astute businessman and a greiit organizer. He was ambi- their madcap comedic quality in performance. tious, he meant what he said, r,r'orked very hard, but was was a railroad foreman who left their mother for another when they impatient. As the band b?:came lilore and more famous' his woman. They heard nothing of him until 1939 suicide. work load kept him occupied to the point that misunderstand- received a telegram telling them he had committed ings sometimes crept into his personal relationships. With two children to raise, the mother ran a Prohibition-era "Although Glenn fronted the most popular band in the speakeasy where the two little girls began singing careers' world at the time, he played ferv solos, feeling that if his Harassed by the police, the mother moved to Detroit where playing skills were compared to tl,ose of Tommy Dorsey, he both girls sang with local bands, and in due course they sang would would come off second best. He w'as equally reticent about with the Vincent Lopez band in New York. Betty of the competing with Teagarden, Miff Moles, J.C. Higginbotham become one of the biggest film and recording stars as Murder, He Says; and others whom he greatly admired. Yet he played lead for 1940s, specializing in comic songs such Fuddy-Duddy his trombone section with a fine solid tone, good intonation, His Rocking Horse Ran Away, and The found in very and consistent quality. In my opinion, Glenn has always been Watchmaker. The sense of sadness is often escape from underestimated as a trombone plziyer. funny people, the attempt perhaps to conceal or "Glenn continued his study of musical composition until heartbreak. If you watch them in movies - Betty perhaps

October 2007 reached her career peak in Annie Get Your Gun and Marion editor Dave Dexter wrote: the appeared in the two films Miller made you will be struck "Hal Dickinson was sort of the founder of - Ralph by their physical resemblance to each other, right down to the Modernaires, in Buffalo. with Chuck Goldstein, four gestures, the very way they moved their heads. Betty was Brewster, and Bitl Conway. They were the original later on. They were with Paul partly responsible for Marion' s j oining the Mill er band. While boys. They were with Miller Marion was working with Lopez in Boston, Betty pressed Whiteman prior to that. Hal told me a story. When they were Hershey, Miller on her sister's behalf. Marion told George Simon: Glenn was riding high, they were appearing in who "Finally, Glenn said, 'Come to New York. I'll pay your Pennsylvania. Hal atthatlime was dating Paula Kelly, in expenses.' So I went to New York and auditioned with the was singing with Al Donalrue's band. They were working job in band. Glenn was kind but he was clipped and not very wann' Cincinnati. Hal figured orrt that if they finished the nearest big airport, Betty was so firmly entrenched and I kept apologizing for not Hershey, he could go to Pittsburgh or the for breakfast and being as good. But Glenn kept encouraging me. get a plane to Cincinnati, nre et Paula maybe "I was only seventeen then, and so Glenn and Helen they'd spend a few hours together, and he'd fly back to the became my legal guardians. I grew terribly dependent. He next Miller one-nighter, u'hich was in Allentown. flew represented a source of strength. After all, isn't a little girl "He got in a taxi, got on a plane early in the morning, day together. always in search of a father? He fulfilled the image of what a to Cincinnati, and they spent a good part of the father ought to be. If he had told me to walk up Broadway He went to the airport, and the flight was booked up or naked, I would have. Of course, I was a people pleaser to whatever. He got a plane to Philadelphia, and spent all his begin with. But I was tenibly afraid of incurring his wrath'" money. and there was a limousine strike in Philadelphia. get But he Marion never considered herself a great singer, nor for that Now he had to get a private taxi to to Allentown. The job started matter did Glenn, who once told a friend, "'We'11 cover up her had to make that job. Miller was very strict. quarter to singing with good affangements." At one point, hoping to at eight o'clock. And the cab pulled up about a impress him, she went to a noted voice teacher, and Glenn eight. He'd arranged with Al Brewster to have his uniform his detected a change in her singing. He asked what she was ready in the dressing roortt. He ran in, quickly changed sitting there doing, and she told him. He told her, "Knock off the goddamn clothes, ran out on stage for the dor.vn beat. He's lessons. I want yott to sound like Marion Hutton'" Art Lund with the other Modernaires. "When you were working had a similar experience when he was singing with the Benny Fred Hall asked Bill Finegan, input? Were Goodman band. Marion told George Simon: "I was crushed' with the Modernaires, did the singers have any Irealizedthen there was nothing in the universe except what the orchestral arrangements written around them?'l on he wanted.It was the Doctrine According to Glenn." "Most of the time, the things with the Modernaires play for Bili .A. number of the big bands carried vocal groups, such as them, I did the vocal arrangements. I'd it group. He'd the Pied Pipers with Tommy Dorsey and the King Sisters with Conway, who was kind of the brains of that Alvino Rey, and before that the Rhythm Boys with Paul teach it to them. They di.ln't read. But they had fantastic Whiteman. The Modernaires started as in 1935 as a trio at memories. He'd play a phrase down for them once, and Lafayette High School in Buffalo, New York. The members, they'd have it." Hal Dickinson, Chuck Goldstein, and Bill Conway, joined the "Some of their later str-rff is so gorgeo:us. Rhapsod); in you brought Ted Fio Rito Orchestra, after which they went with the Ozzie Blue and Moonlight Sonala, were those things Nelson band under the name the Three Wizards of Ozzie. in or were those things you were asked to write?" I did. The When they joined the Fred Waring Orchestra and took on a "Rhapsody in Blue tumed up in the one medley fourth member, Ralph Brewster, they became the slow theme. And then Glenn asked me to enlarge on it and Modernaires, then went on to a feafure position on the Paul make a separate thing on it." Whiteman radio show in 1937 and recorded many of the "Was the thoughi in nrind from the very begtnning to current songs with Jack Teagarden. They became part of the showcase Bobby Hackett?" "No. But with Bobby t)tere, how could you not use him? Miller band and a definitive part ofits sound - in 1941, recording Perfidia,- Chatanooga Choo-Choo, which purport- He was wonderful." edly became the first gold record with more than a million '12 year PO Box 240, copies sold, 1 Know Wy (and So Do You), Elmer's Tune, The Jazzletter is published times a at per year. Serenade in Blue, and I've Got a Gal in Kalamazoo. Ojai California93024-0240, at $80 In an autobiography, journalist and one-time Down Beat Copyright A2007 Gene Lees

October 2007