Glenn Miller

At 40 years old, Glenn Miller has this physical status:

Early life and career

Mattie Lou (née Cavender) Miller Miller and Lewis Elmer Miller, Algon Glen Miller, was born in Clarinda, Iowa. Glenn, born as Alton Glen Miller, added the second n to his name during high school. Glenn Miller went by his middle name, Glenn, like his father (Lewis Elmer) and his siblings (Elmer Deane, John Herbert, and Emma Irene). "Miller's use of his first name, Alton, was absolutely necessary for administrative and military use," the Glenn Miller Archives' Dennis Spragg says, "which is why it appears in official documents such as his military papers, driver's licenses, tax returns, etc." In the Army Air Forces section of the Tablets of the Missing in Cambridge, England, the United Kingdom's Alton G. Miller is identified as Alton G. Miller. On his Government-issued (G.I.), he is engraved as Major Alton Glenn Miller, US Army (Air Corps). In Arlington, Virginia, the headstone of Memorial Section H is on display. In Wilson Drive, his last military band has a memorial tree. On December 15, 1994, the 50th anniversary of Miller's death, the American Holly was dedicated to the veterans of the Major Glenn Miller Army Air Forces Orchestra.

He attended grade school in North Platte, western Nebraska, in North Platte. His family migrated to Grant City, Missouri, in 1915. He had enough funds from milking cows to buy his first trombone and performed in the town orchestra at this time. He played cornet and mandolin, but by 1916, he switched to trombone. Miller and his family immigrated to Fort Morgan, Colorado, where he went to Fort Morgan High School in 1918. He joined the F.M.H.S. in the fall of 1919. The Maroons, the high school football team that defeated the Northern Colorado American Football Conference in 1920, are the defending champions of the Northern Colorado American Football Conference. In 1921, he was voted Best Left End in Colorado.

He became so keen on dance band music that he formed a band with some classmates during his senior year. The high school orchestra was an afterschool sport, but he was also active there. For the first time, harmony, piano, flute, and music appreciation classes were full, but for some reason, classes were suspended. However, by the time he graduated from high school in 1921, he had decided to become a professional musician. Because he was out of town, he skipped his own graduation. His mother was given his diploma by his mother.

Miller, a 1923 graduate of the University of Colorado, Boulder, where he joined Sigma Nu fraternity. The bulk of his time away from school, attending auditions, and playing any gigs he could do, including with Boyd Senter's band in Denver, was spent. After failing three out of five classes, he dropped out of school to pursue a career in music. Harmony was, ironically, lacking Harmony.

He studied the Schillinger system with Joseph Schillinger, under whom tutelage he created "Miller's Tune," which was renamed and became his signature theme, "Moonlight Serenade." Miller toured with various clubs in 1926, gaining a good spot in Ben Pollack's group in Los Angeles. He also performed for Victor Young, which allowed him to be mentored by other professional musicians. He was the band's top trombone soloist at the start, but Miller discovered that his solos had been drastically reduced since he joined Pollack's band in 1928. He found that his destiny lay in arranging and composing.

The Melrose Brothers' 125 Jazz Breaks for Trombone book was published in Chicago in 1928. Several plans were made during his stay with Pollack. He composed "Room 1411" with Benny Goodman, and Brunswick Records issued it as a 78 rpm record under the name "Benny Goodman's Boys."

He sent for and married Helen Burger, his college sweetheart, in 1928, when the band arrived in New York City. In 1930, he was a member of Red Nichols' orchestra (Red Nichols and his Five Pennies) and, thanks to Nichols, he appeared in two Broadway shows, Strike Up the Band and Girl Crazy. Benny Goodman and Gene Krupa were among the group's members.

Miller played as a freelance tromboneist in several bands during the late 1920s and early 1930s. In the All-Star Orchestra, directed by Nat Shilkret, he performed alongside Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, and Joe Venuti on March 21, 1928. "The Spell of the Blues," "Let's Do It," and "My Kinda Love" were among the numerous Dorseh brothers sessions for OKeh Records, including "The Spell of the Blues," "Let's Do It" and "My Kinda Love" with Bing Crosby on vocals. Red McKenzie, a 1929 singer, recruited Miller to appear on two albums, "Hello, Lola" and "If I Could Be With You One Hour Tonight." Coleman Hawkins, clarinetist Pee Wee Russell, guitarist Eddie Condon, and drummer Gene Krupa were among Beside Miller.

Miller served as a trombone, arranger, and composer for the Dorsey Brothers from the start of 1900 to late 1930s, before they formed an ill-fated orchestra. In 1934 and 1935, Miller composed "Annie's Cousin Fanny," "Dese Dem Dose," "Harlem Chapel Chimes," and "Tomorrow's Another Day" for the Dorsey Brothers Band. He assembled an American orchestra for British bandleader Ray Noble, inventing the saxophone's arrangement that became a signature of his big band in 1935. Claude Thornhill, Bud Freeman, and Charlie Spivak were among the Noble band members.

Miller made his first film appearance in 1936 as a member of the Ray Noble Orchestra's "Why Stars Come Out at Night" in The Big Broadcast. Dorothy Dandridge and the Nicholas Brothers, who would appear with Miller in two films for Twentieth Century Fox in 1941 and 1942, were included in the film.

Miller gathered several orchestras and formed his first band in 1937. It's broken up after struggling to distinguish itself from the many bands of the time after losing to distinguish itself at the Ritz Ballroom in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on January 2, 1938.

Benny Goodman said in 1976:

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