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Rodin, Dick Morgan, and had The Glenn Miller Years II a suite. We all moved into that, practically the whole band, with the exception of Pollack, sleeping on chairs, couches, of the apartment was 1411' The Pollack band was booked to play at the Little Club on the floor, anywhere. The number came up: Room l4l l,with Benny 44th Street in New York, and opened there in March 1928. And that is how that title We hadbeen out ofwork about five weeks years later recalled that the band's personnel at Goodman's Boys. home and said, 'I've got a recording date that time included himself, , and Benny Goodman when Benny came can get some money, buy some food, on saxes; Glenn on trombone, Al Harris on trumpet, Jimmy with Brunswick. We McPartland playing jazzcornet, Goodman's brother Harry on eat."' least in that period of the big bands, bass, Vic Briedis on piano, Dick Morgan on guitar, and of ( mtsicians, at have always found charming and course Pollack on drums. had a term, that I for one to staying in someone else's hotel Freeman said, "We were only there a couple of months and inventive: they referred paying for it as "ghosting.") were continually getting in trouble with the boss. We were room without registering or o'We Miller, myself and two or jusl an independent bunch of individuals and were always made that date. Goodman, playing different kinds of numberclike Blue and fluffing the boss off and getting just as fed up with him as he three more, we named Room l4l l. rvith us. It was a pretty swank place and he couldn't see us Jungle Blues and the one just over, we started kidding sitting with customers or anything like that. "After the session was about Out comes the recording manager ' "In a way those were the happiest days of our lives, only around and playing comy. 'That's it! That's what we want, we didn't know it then and maybe we don't even know it from his booth, and he says, ! ' playing as corny as now." just what you're playing there We were Another problem was the star of the show, the singer possible. had come up and Lillian Roth, then only eighteen years old but already on her "As a matter of fact, and he picked up a trombone way to stardom and alcoholism. (The filmI'll Cry Tomorrow was standing listening to us, around too. The manager said, with Susan Heyward is a chronicle of her life.) and started playing, kidding called the number Shirt Tail Stomp. Night after night the Little Club was filled with musicians, 'You gotta dothat.'We the others. It shows the taste of come to hear the band, whlch infuriated Roth, who skirmished It sold more than any of guess, the world over." The record endlessly with Pollack and his players. Whether it was for this people: still the same, I Senter. (I had a copy ofthat or some other reason, Pollack gave his notice and the band's was, ofcourse, an echo ofBoyd young, and could only presumed that engagement came to an end in May. The band was now out of record when I was very since it had Benny work. it was a joke, but I had trouble with that had it.) Jimmy McPartland and Bud Freeman were living at the Goodman's name on it. I wish I still the Detroit Sunday News Mayflower Hotel. "This was 1928, before the Stock Market In a July 7 1974 interview with he and Glenn "spent a lot of crashed," McPartland said, "and there was plenty of money Magazine, Goodman said that youngsters. We went on dates together, we floating around. A lot ofpeople gave a lot ofparties, and often time together as we played touch football we would be invited. You could get all you wanted to drink went to ball games together, when we first came to New but nothing to eat. Just the same, it was better than nothing. together. And we lived together for radio and "We couldn't pay the rent, though, so after a couple of York. We both did freelance work, as sidemen recording together." weeks we moved into the Whitby apartments where Gil records. Glenn and I did some

ItrJy 2007 McPartland said, "You know, Glenn contributed a lot to that he started on the blues, still by himself. never heard the Pollack band. He was basically an idea man, and he "We had to agree with Pee Wee. We'd certainly was a dedicated musician. He was a very decent anyone play trombone like that. We were flabbergasted. jam up on 48th Street man, but he wasn2t much of a trombone player.He acted as the They were going to a sessionlater, band's musical director and he was a real taskmaster. I where Jack lived, so we went back and told Gil Rodin and a The other remember he used to tell me to take home my parts and couple of others how wonderful Teagarden was. woodshed them. 'You'll be a better musician for it,' he used guys scoffed, but Rodin didn't." to say. It used to get me sore as hell, but it turned out he was Gil Rodin recalled: jam at the right. "A bunch of musicians invited me to a session the "Glenn was terribly competitive. When he played tennis' Apartments. I remember I was living at room next to mine' he'd hit every ball as hard as he could for a winner, but not Manger Hotel . . . and Pollack had the first time I'd many of them went in. I soon caught on that if I just kept the That night at the Louisiana Apartments was the without the bell ball in play, I could beat him. I did, and he'd get sore as hell' ever heard . He was playing just his slide into a glass But that was Glenn. He always tried to be the best." portion of his horn, blowing through I was Glenn was on another Benny Goodman Brunswick date and getting that eerie sound it was the blues and - - too, with McPartland and, Breidis, Morgan, and drummer Bob so knocked out I couldn't see straight. And then he sang, to Glenn Conselman. They made two titles, according to McPartland: and that was just too much! With all due respect was a whole new- Jazz Holiday andWolverine Blues. and he and I were good friends this - I was so excited McPartlandremembered attending a cocktailparty on Park world to me. When I got back to the hotel, him about Avenue with other members of the Pollack band, presumably about what I'd heard that I woke up Pollack to tell including Glenn. Also there were members of the Paul it. He said, yeah, he'd heard the name, and turned over and Whiteman band, including , , went back to sleep. and sit in. I felt Frank Trumbauer, and . McPartland lamented "The next day I asked Jack to come down and I were good to Bix the current unemployment for the Pollack band, saying funny about it because, as I said, Glenn But I just had to they were having trouble finding money for food' He asked friends and I didn't want to shorv him up. my mind I must have Bix if he could lend him ten or twenty dollars. Bix opened a have Jack in our band. In the back of wallet that was full of money and uncashed checks and figured that maybe we could have two trombones, but that proffered two one hundred dollar bills to McPartland, saying, never happened - at least not then. "Take this." McPartland declined, accepting only twenty "Well you can guess what did happen. Jack knocked out pretty dollars. everybody and, of course, that made Glenn feel play in Atlantic City "A week or so later," McPartland continued, "we went to uncomfortable. We were scheduled to that he work again, with short engagements in Atlantic City, Syra- that summer, but before we left, Glenn announced Paul Ash to do cuse, and so forth. Back in New York I was having a couple wasn't going because he'd had an offer from stay in ofdrinks with BudFreeman andPee Wee Russell one evening some affanging and he thought he'd take it and in a little speakeasy on 51st Street when Pee Wee began town." gave Glenn the talking about a trombone player, the greatest thing he had Ash's large semi-symphonic orchestra strings. Born in heard in his life. We said we would have to hear the guy, and chance to write for and learn more about Ash that time had Pee Wee said, right, he'd just pop over and get him. Two Germany and raised in Milwaukee, by o'run-outs" to drinks later Pee Wee was backwith the guy, who was wearing centered his activities on , with a horrible looking cap and overcoat and carrying a trombone surrounding areas. knew, and I felt especially bad, in a case under his arm. Pee Wee introduced us. He was Jack McPartland said, "We all have felt strongly that Teagarden, from Texas, and looked it. 'Fine,'we said. 'We've what the real reason was. Glenn must his exit gracefully. been hearing a lot about you, would sure like to hear you 'they really want that guy'and so he made jazz player play.' The guy says, 'All right,' gets his horn out, puts it "Glenn was gracious enough to bow to areal heard, too' Until then together, blows a couple of warm-up notes, and starts to play like that. It was the greatest he had ever person he'd patterned Diane. No accompaniment, just neat: he played it solo, and had been Glenn's idol, the far as every- I'm telling you he knocked us out. And when he'd done with himself on. When Glenn raved, that was it so

July 2007 George Simon put it, body was concerned. Teagarden was earmarked for the Ben the bandleader, the step he took was, as point. Convinced Pollack band." "practical,unemotional and straight to the girl he sent her a terse wire, Thought he ceased playing with the band, Glenn continued that he could now support the purpose of getting to write for it. summoning her to New York for the Weldon Leon Teagarden, universally called Jack, wasborn married." into the Forrest in Vernon, Texas, on August 19, 1905, of solidly German Helen arrived in New York and checked Grande as one of the ancestry. Jack began playing trombone when he was quite Hotel. With trombonist Vincent married by clergyman small, and with his short arms unable to push the slide to the witnesses, Glenn and Helen were lower of the seven positions, he made the notes entirely with Dudley S. Stark on October 6,1928. said, "I gave him the the lip. Because of this he developed an amazing technique, In that 1974 interview, Goodman get I'd forgotten about it until many years a facility on the trombone almost like that of trumpet. Teagar- money to married. and he said, 'Here's the den and Tommy Dorsey who developed a gorgeous high later when Glenn became famous money he was talking tessitura on the horn - between them revolutionized the money I owe you.' I didn't know what technique ofthe instrument,- not only iniazzbut eventually in about. I'd forgotten about it completely." practical joker' He told symphony orchestras as well. Gil Rodin said that Glenn was a player in the McPartland's memory of that first encounter has the ring Simon, "When Earl Baker, a trumpet [Pollack] the slats in the bed so that of accuracy about it. Jack was able, and inclined, to give such band, got married, Glenn fixed But Glenn was impromptu demonstrations. I once sat with him in a booth at when they got into bed it would collapse. he wouldn't let anybody the now-vanished London House in Chicago, where he was smart. Later, when he gotmarried, went far away into Westchester working. I asked him a question about the horn. He said, "You know about it, and he even night-" shoulcl be able to play any note in any position. The slide only County at some hotel for his wedding bore the three-line rnakes it easier." I{e got his horn from the bandstand, returned A newspaper story in Colorado Married in New York 'to the booth, and with the slide in closed position played a heading Former Colorado U. Students major scale -- and so pianissimo thathe didn't disturb diners City. The story read: in the next booth. It was an amazing demonstration, and ' Helen Burger, having gone through this wonderment at Teagarden's ability, Boulder, Colo., Oct. 9 Miss of Colorado- and member of I can well imagine McPartland'5 nnd Miller's mouth- graduate of the University - New York opening encounter. Teagarden had- that effect on every the Pi Beta Phi Sorority, was married at trombonist who heard him. City Saturday to Glenn Miller, also a formeruniversity paid trombone player in By this time, Pollack perceived himself as a bandleader and student and now the highest in New York. singer, gave up the drum chair, replacing himself with Ray the . They will live Morgan. Mrs' Bauduc, and restricted himself to leading the band' Miller's parents reside at Fort and Mrs. Fred In any case, the members of Glenn's gang, including Miller is the daughter of County Clerk Benny Goodman, had left town with Pollack. George Simon W. Burger of Boulder CountY. thought that it was at this frme that Glenn gave more and more friends and business associ- thought to Helen Burger, the petite and pretty and quiet girl Mike Nidorf, one of Glenn's said' "The greatest thing he'd met in their classes at the University of Colorado. In the ates, was close to the couple. He to Glenn Miller was Helen Miller." years since then, he had kept in touch with her by letter - that ever happened "long-distance" telephone was not yet commonplace. It was George Simon wrote: assumed that they would eventually marry but her patience generations have known had by now grown short. Indeed, on his dresser he kept her During almost two I their wives and picture, inscribed, "To Glenn, the meanest man in the world'" many band leaders and musicians and that have And her parents were not enamored by the idea of her have seldom been surprised by the tensions marriages that because of marrying a man in the unstable profession of jazzmusic. She permeated their marriages - survive and flour- told Glenn that she was now "practically engaged" to another ihe occupationalhazards involved, one that impressed me man. He made his move, and in keeping with all the general ish. Of all those marriages, the was the one trends of his character, including those that later emerged in as the most endearing and enduring

July 2007 Spanier, Jack Teagarden, between Helen and Glenn Miller. Krupa, , Muggsy McKenzie liked But much as I liked and admired Glenn, it was to and Glenn played with him. Obviously impressive band Helen that I gave most credit for their happiness. In her Glenn and when he put together an Russell Glenn- own quiet way she was an immensely strong person. including Krupa, Hawkins, Condon, and - on the date' Years later, asked what She would remain discreetly in the background, and yet, was the only trombonist he'd ever done on whenever Glenn had an important decision to make, he he considered to be the best playing would turn to her, and she would help him. Polly records, Glenn said, "Those two sides I did with the Mound Haynes, their closest friend and confidante, recently City Blue Blowers, One Hour and Hello, Lola." Nichols, but Nichols described the subtle depth of their relationship: "I've Glenn did not particularly like Red George Gershwin never known any couple that said so little and felt so gave him work. Nichols was engaged by rJp much." for the pit band for his Strike the Band. The show. opened in Boston on December 25, 7929 ,New Haven on January 6, New York on January The late June Allison, my neighbor for several years, told 1930, and the Times Square Theater in in his George me that for The Glenn Miller Story, she worked on her 14. According to Howard Pollack, book of Press' preparation to play Helen Miller' Helen was on the set almost Gershwin, His Life and Work (rJniversity California Teagar- all the time, and June spent as much time with her as she 2006), Nichols augmented the orchesffa with Charlie Pee Wee Russell, could. When I asked him what he thought of the movie, Steve den, , Benny Goodman, and possibly Miller, Helen and Glenn's son adopted not long before Glenn Babe Russin, , Glenn Miller, opening night in went into the U.S. Army Air Corps, said, "June Allison did a Tommy Dorsey. Gershwin conducted the Miller very good job of playing my mother. Jimmy Stewart did a New York, as he had that in Boston. Nichols hired that year. very good job of playing Jimmy Stewart." again for the Gershwin show later Gene Krupa, fresh into New York from Chicago, said For the first three years after their marriage, Helen and Glenn later of the experience: sat right in front lived at 30-60 Twenty-ninth Street, in Astoria, Long Island. "I couldn't read anything then. But Glenn They were not far from the Fifty-ninth Street bridge to of me. He was so great to me."And Benny Goodman testi- Crazy. And it Manhattan, nor from the subway. Glenn had more or less easy fied: "Hildy Elkins was the conductor in Girl how well Gene followed him thanks to access to the recording and broadcasting studios and to the was amazing - theater district. Glenn, of course." Whatever insecurities Glenn felt about his trombone The same group was hired for a revival of Strike Up the playing, they could only have been exacerbated by the fact Band. Pollack writes: with Gershwin on the thut i, 7929 he recorded with a group led by Tommy and "Robert Russell Bennett worked to reveal that Broad- Jimmy Dorsey. He also recorded alongside Jack Teagarden on orchestrations, many of which survive to the more delicate many records by and His Five Pennies. He might way's evolving sound, in some contrast popular dance-band trends have found some consolation in the fact that Dorsey too was sonorities ofthe 1 920s, paralleled a develop- insecure about his jazz p)ayin1 But Glenn was apparently in its emphasis on saxophones and trumpets the forenamed- secure about his abilities as a writer: he wrote a lot of arrange- ment related not only to the hiring of iazz have helped prepare ments forNichols, who played tasteful cornet afterthe manner musicians (Glenn Miller might even Gershwin's music of Bix Beiderbecke. some of the arrangements), but also to The singer on one of the recordings with Nichols was Red itself." and wrote the McKenzie, once a St. Louis bellhop who would play jazz on Glenn continued to record with Nichols He also worked with comb-and-paper while his friend Dick Selvin played kazoo' arrangement for the ball ad Te a fo r Tw o. They found their way to Chicago, where they recorded his friend Benny Goodman, who was recording under time. He also wrote Arkansas Blues and Blue Blues under the sobriquet Mound different names, as was the custom of the Blues, the City Blue Blowers. They moved to New York, where McKen- the verse for Jack Teagarden's classic Basin Street with me, down the zie showed considerable ingenuity in snagging record dates line that begins, "Won't you come along for which he sometimes used as many as ten musicians. At Mississippi." were going good for one time or other, , Coleman Hawkins, Gene Goodman said years later, "Things

July 2007 hand, had a lot of energy and, of me then. I was making as much as $80 a day in the Paramount "Glenn, on the other he was doing all the time"' Studios out on Long Island and I used to recommend Glenn course, he knew exactly what came from everyone who knew all the time. He was such a dedicated musician and always so This description of Glenn thorough." him, throughout his life. wanted to join the The major employers for musicians were the radio net- "Glenn was really the main reason I forgot- works, CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System) and NBC band. I was very much flattered I guess he hadn't - band out in (National Broadcasting Company), which actually operated ten that night when I sat in with the Pollack two networks. Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, and Artie Chicago. to have arranged for the Shaw and others were earniflg sums that were enormous for "I know Glenn was supposed him bringing in many alrange- the time, in Shaw's case $500 a week. It was probably during band but I don't remember a feeling the this period that Shaw conceived a lifetime jealousy and ments that he had actually written. I have he did instead would be to take contempt for both Miller and Goodman which smouldered on budget didn't permit it. What in it for a particu- until his death in 2004. The record companies also provided a printed stock arrangement and make cuts night he'd take the same stock employment, but after the Wall Street crash of 1929 and with lai broadcast, and on the next sound like a different theieepening ofthe Depression, they stumbled toward- and and make a different cut and it would Then sometimes he'd write a some fell into bankruptcy. A public that worried about the arrangement of the same tune. of its own. I don't remember price of bread- didn't buy many records, turning instead to short introduction or something original arrangement'" iadio, which was free, for entertainment, and to movies, which his ever coming in with a completely by Woody Herman, were inexpensive and even gave away dinnerware as an This is in keeping with a comment he said, "was a great fixer'" inducement to attend. These were the golden days of radio, one of Glenn's friends. "Glenn," job pit of a Broadway show both network and local. Because it engaged your imagination Ballew got the band a in the "included everything from in such dramas as Lights Out and Mr. District Attorney,Steve which, according to Ballew, got an assistant musical Allen once said, "Radio was theater of the mind. Television comedy to opera and we even Opera Company to work with is theater of the mindless." director of the Metropolitan and the producers Then Smith Ballew, who hadn't forgotten Glenn's kind- Glenn. But our first week's check bounced must have been a mistake' But ness to him, turned up again. He had been doing moderately said to deposit it again, that it the manager well, leading his own band. But it was only a routine band, it bounced the second time too and I contacted the rent hadn't been paid." and Ballew thought he would do better fronting a really good of the theater, who told me ten days, Ballew got stiffed band. He called Glenn to propose that he put together a new When the show closed after Ballew said, "All the guys band. for the musicians' salaries. the string players'" He recalled: "I asked him if he would play trombone, refused to accept a nickel all except - musicians: string players are anange and rehearse the band for two-fifty a week plus a This will come as no surprise to Je suis conducteur, fifty-fifty split of everything over a thousand dollars a week like that. Charles Munch, in his book to string players' since that I might make. Glenn agreed and the first musician he urged other conductors to be kind soloists manquds' contacted was Ray McKinley. I had known him as a kid in thiy were mostly embittered virtuoso was booked into the Lowery Hotel Forth Worth back in 7925, andl had even admired him then'" in November the band McPartland replacing McKinley, like Ballew and Teagarden, was a Texan, born in St. Paul, Minnesota, with Jimmy (Chummy) MacGregor came in on in Fort Worth on June 18, 1910. He and Glenn had recorded Bunny Berigan. Chalmers friendship with Miller' five sides in two sessions for the Brunswick label with Red piano, and made yet another in Saginaw, Michi- Nichols in the spring and early sufllmer of 1931. McKinley John Chalmers MacGregor was born He played with the band of Jean told George Simon: gan, on March 28,1903. jazz musicians' Then "Ballew was a nice, pleasant guy, but he knew nothing Goldkette, the nursery of many majot the Aronson band about leading a band and he didn't pretend to. He was he worked for Irving Aronson. When and some other musi- extremely handsome. He looked like one of those old Arrow passed through Cleveland, Chummy the Golden Pheasant to hear Collar ads. He had perfect symmetry. Somebody once called cians went to a restaurant called Artie Shaw with him a singing Gary Cooper. But he had too easygoing a a young saxophonist and clarinetist named exactly the same position personality to make a successful leader. the Austin Wylie band. Shaw held

July 2007 with Wylie that Miller did with Smith Ballew. He was playing in such a poor setting. The band was beneath his dignity or in the band, ryriting for it, and running it, the same sort of something. Anywny,6" stayed on as manager. He'd rehearse disciplinarian that Miller was. MacGregor and some of the the band for shows, and ofcourse, he'd show up on payday. others urged Shaw to come with the Aronson band. Shaw He had begun to act more like a tough business executive consulted his friend in the Wylie band, pianist Claude and less like a musician. He was getting more headstrong Thornhill, who urged him to take it. He was told he could than ever, and less easy to get along with." to learn a lot from Chummy MacGregor. Shaw joined the band Smith Ballew said, "He was a tough taskmaster, often in California. the resentment of men in the band. He was stiff' He had no The manager of the Lowery Hotel, according to Ballew, social amenities and.he preferred to remain in the back- wanted them to do novelty numbers in the manner of Ted ground. He was definitely an introvert. He was hard to know. Weems. Glenn and Ballew hated the idea but decided to try it. He never bared his soul to anyone. I felt I knew him then, but The musicians, however, rebelled, and the band was termi- now I have my doubts." nated, giving Glenn an education in what novelties and Smith Ballew gravitated to Hollywood where he had an "showmanship" (a term Artie Shaw hated) could do. They entirely new career as a singing cowboy in B movies . Later were replaced by Red Nichols, who by now had a band of he left the film industry and went into public relations for the fifteen men. aviation giant General Dynamics. He retired from the The band went to several more hotels, then to the Club company in 1967 and died in his native Texas in 1984' He Forest in where, Ballew said, the band played "a was eighty-trvo. simply sensation arrangement by Glenn of Stormy Weather, The band also began to fade away in 1933, which HaroldArlen hadjustwritten and forwhichhe gave me when Jack Teagarden left it, and the other members fol- one of the first lead sheets." This would not mean as much in lowed. They formed a co-operative band, with our day of ubiquitous copying machines. But in those days elected to sing and act as nominal leader. Pollack formed music had to be copied by hand, and for Arlen to give Ballew another band, but it never achieved the success ofhis earlier Doris an original lead sheet a lead sheet comprises a melody line organization. He was by now married to vocalist the with chord symbols written- above it was a mark of no little Robbins. He tried otherventures, including restaurants on - ap- respect. Sunset Strip in Hollywood and in Palm Springs, and The The band was so successful that the New Orleans engage- peared as himself in those two exercises in inaccuracy, ment was extended to six months. Benny Goodman Story and The Glenn Miller Story. Suc- hanging in But as the Depression deepened, engagements for the band cumbing to despair, he committed suicide by became intermittent. Morale in the band flagged. On the New Palm Springs in 1971. Year's Eve at the end of 1933 the band was playing the Paul Weston, who became the chief arranger of the his Muehlebach Hotel in Kansas City. Tommy Dorsey band, told me, "Tommy went through when Ray McKinley said: life regretting that he wasn't Jack Teagarden." So "All kinds of things had been happening. Chummy had Glenn and Tommy met, they could have and perhaps did Glenn been in the lock-up with the d.t.'s. And Glenn gotjuiced- it commiserate with each other about their intimidation. or was the only time I ever saw him like that. He could be a bad could not have been the trombonist ofhis self-deprecation drunk, too. Nobody knows exactly how it started, but I Tommy, who never suffered fools gladly and was acutely have understand Glenn . . . got into a real fight [with the lead choosy about the quality of musicians, would never trumpeter], right on the bandstand and they were rolling hired him. u.ornd on the floor and Frank Simeone, the little sax player, was trying to separate them and he was taking more blows than anyone." The Jazzletter is published 12 times a year at P0 Box 240, Ojai CA By late 1933, the Ballew band was almost finished. Its 93024-0240. Subscriptions are $80 a year' Subscribers may quality was falling. Glenn didn't play its last important purchase one-time only gift subscriptions for others for half price. engagement, which was at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Denver. Miller's family lived nearby. Gene Lees McKinley said, "Glenn didn't want his friends to see him Copyright @2007 by

July 2007