Glenn Miller

The son of Mattie Lou (née Cavender) Miller and Lewis Elmer Miller, Alton Glen Miller was born in Clarinda, Iowa.[1][2] Born as Alton Glen Miller, Glenn added the second n to his name during high school.[13] Like his father (Lewis Elmer) and his siblings (Elmer Deane, John Herbert and Emma Irene), Glenn Miller went by his middle name, Glenn.[14]  As Dennis Spragg of the Glenn Miller Archives confirms, "Miller's use of his first name, Alton was necessary for legal and military purposes, which is logically why it shows up in formal documents such as his military documents, driver’s licenses, tax returns, etc."[15] He is listed as Alton G. Miller in the Army Air Forces section of the Tablets of the Missing in Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial in Cambridge, England, United Kingdom (U.K.).  His name is engraved as Major Alton Glenn Miller, U.S. Army (Air Corps) on his Government-issued (G.I.) memorial headstone in Memorial Section H at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. His last military band has a memorial tree there in section 13 on Wilson Drive. The American Holly was dedicated on December 15, 1994, the 50th anniversary of Miller's death, for the veterans of the Major Glenn Miller Army Air Forces Orchestra.[16]

He attended grade school in North Platte in western Nebraska. In 1915, his family moved to Grant City, Missouri. Around this time, he had made enough money from milking cows to buy his first trombone and played in the town orchestra. He played cornet and mandolin, but he switched to trombone by 1916.[17] In 1918, Miller and his family moved to Fort Morgan, Colorado, where he went to Fort Morgan High School. In the fall of 1919, he joined the F.M.H.S. Maroons, the high school football team that won the Northern Colorado American Football Conference in 1920. He was named Best Left End in Colorado in 1921.[13][18]

During his senior year, he became so interested in dance band music that he formed a band with some classmates.[5] The high school orchestra was an afterschool activity, but he played there too.[5][13] For a time, classes in harmony, piano, violin and music appreciation were full to the max, but classes were discontinued for some reason.[13] However, by the time he graduated from high school in 1921, he had decided to become a professional musician.[2] He missed his own graduation because he was performing out of town. His mother gladly received his diploma for him.[5]

In 1923, Miller entered the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he joined Sigma Nu fraternity.[19] He spent most of his time away from school, attending auditions and playing any gigs he could get, including with Boyd Senter's band in Denver. After failing three out of five classes, he dropped out of school to pursue a career in music. Ironically, he failed Harmony.[5]

In New York City, he studied the Schillinger system with Joseph Schillinger, under whose tutelage he composed "Miller's Tune" which was renamed and became his signature theme, "Moonlight Serenade".[20] In 1926, Miller toured with several groups, landing a good spot in Ben Pollack's group in Los Angeles. He also played for Victor Young, which allowed him to be mentored by other professional musicians.[21] In the beginning, he was the main trombone soloist of the band, but when Jack Teagarden joined Pollack's band in 1928, Miller found that his solos were cut drastically. He realized that his future was in arranging and composing.[17]

He had a songbook published in Chicago in 1928 entitled Glenn Miller's 125 Jazz Breaks for Trombone by the Melrose Brothers.[22] During his time with Pollack, he wrote several arrangements. He wrote his first composition, "Room 1411", with Benny Goodman, and Brunswick Records released it as a 78 rpm record under the name "Benny Goodman's Boys".[23]

In 1928, when the band arrived in New York City, he sent for and married his college sweetheart, Helen Burger. He was a member of Red Nichols' orchestra (Red Nichols and his Five Pennies)[5] in 1930, and because of Nichols, he played in the pit bands of two Broadway shows, Strike Up the Band and Girl Crazy. That band included Benny Goodman and Gene Krupa.[24]

During the late 1920s and early 1930s, Miller worked as a freelance trombonist in several bands. On a March 21, 1928, Victor Records session, he played alongside Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, and Joe Venuti in the All-Star Orchestra directed by Nat Shilkret.[25][26][27] He arranged and played trombone on several significant Dorsey brothers sessions for OKeh Records, including "The Spell of the Blues", "Let's Do It", and "My Kinda Love", all with Bing Crosby on vocals. On November 14, 1929,[28] vocalist Red McKenzie hired Miller to play on two records: "Hello, Lola" and "If I Could Be With You One Hour Tonight".[29][30] Beside Miller were saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, clarinetist Pee Wee Russell, guitarist Eddie Condon, and drummer Gene Krupa.[31]

In the early to mid-1930s, Miller worked as a trombonist, arranger, and composer for the Dorsey Brothers, first, when they were a Brunswick studio group and later, when they formed an ill-fated orchestra.[32] Miller composed the songs "Annie's Cousin Fanny",[33][34][35] "Dese Dem Dose",[32][35] "Harlem Chapel Chimes", and "Tomorrow's Another Day" for the Dorsey Brothers Band in 1934 and 1935. In 1935, he assembled an American orchestra for British bandleader Ray Noble,[32] developing the arrangement of lead clarinet over four saxophones that became a characteristic of his big band. Members of the Noble band included Claude Thornhill, Bud Freeman, and Charlie Spivak.

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

In 1937, Miller compiled several arrangements and formed his first band. After failing to distinguish itself from the many bands of the time, it broke up after its last show at the Ritz Ballroom in Bridgeport, Connecticut on January 2, 1938.[36]

Benny Goodman said in 1976:

In late 1937, before his band became popular, we were both playing in Dallas. Glenn was pretty dejected and came to see me. He asked, "What do you do? How do you make it?" I said, "I don't know, Glenn. You just stay with it."[37]

The Glenn Miller Orchestra

Discouraged, Miller returned to New York. He realized that he needed to develop a unique sound, and decided to make the clarinet play a melodic line with a tenor saxophone holding the same note, while three other saxophones harmonized within a single octave. George T. Simon discovered a saxophonist named Wilbur Schwartz for Glenn Miller. Miller hired Schwartz but instead had him play lead clarinet. According to Simon, "Willie's tone and way of playing provided a fullness and richness so distinctive that none of the later Miller imitators could ever accurately reproduce the Miller sound."[38] With this new sound combination, Glenn Miller found a way to differentiate his band's style from that of many bands that existed in the late 1930s. Miller talked about his style in the May 1939 issue of Metronome magazine. "You'll notice today some bands use the same trick on every introduction; others repeat the same musical phrase as a modulation into a vocal ... We're fortunate in that our style doesn't limit us to stereotyped intros, modulations, first choruses, endings, or even trick rhythms. The fifth sax, playing the clarinet most of the time, lets you know whose band you're listening to. And that's about all there is to it."[39]

Bluebird Records and Glen Island Casino

1939 Baltimore Hippodrome Ballroom concert poster.

In September 1938, the Miller band began recording for Bluebird, a subsidiary of RCA Victor.[40] Cy Shribman, a prominent East Coast businessman, financed the band.[41] In the spring of 1939, the band's fortunes improved with a date at the Meadowbrook Ballroom in Cedar Grove, New Jersey, and more dramatically at the Glen Island Casino in New Rochelle, New York. According to author Gunther Schuller, the Glen Island performance attracted "a record-breaking opening-night crowd of 1800..."[42] The band's popularity grew.[43] In 1939, Time magazine noted: "Of the 12 to 24 discs in each of today's 300,000 U.S. jukeboxes, from two to six are usually Glenn Miller's."[44] In 1940, the band's version of "Tuxedo Junction" sold 115,000 copies in the first week.[45] Miller's success in 1939 culminated with an appearance at Carnegie Hall on October 6, with Paul Whiteman, Benny Goodman, and Fred Waring also on the schedule.[46]

From December 1939 to September 1942, Miller's band performed three times a week during a quarter-hour broadcast for Chesterfield cigarettes on CBS radio[47]—for the first 13 weeks with the Andrews Sisters and then on its own.[48] On February 10, 1942, RCA Victor presented Miller with the first gold record for "Chattanooga Choo-Choo".[5][49][50] The Miller orchestra performed "Chattanooga Choo Choo" with his singers Gordon "Tex" Beneke, Paula Kelly and the Modernaires.[51] Other singers with this orchestra included Marion Hutton,[52] Skip Nelson,[53] Ray Eberle[54] and (to a smaller extent) Kay Starr,[55] Ernie Caceres,[56] Dorothy Claire[57] and Jack Lathrop.[58] Pat Friday dubbed for Lynn Bari by singing her part in the Glenn Miller Orchestra in their two films, Sun Valley Serenade and Orchestra Wives, with Lynn Bari lip-synching.[59]

First gold record award for "Chattanooga Choo Choo" presented to Glenn Miller by W. Wallace Early of RCA Victor with announcer Paul Douglas on far left, February 10, 1942

In 2004, Miller orchestra bassist Trigger Alpert explained the band's success: "Miller had America's music pulse... He knew what would please the listeners."[64] Although Miller was popular, many jazz critics had misgivings. They believed that the band's endless rehearsals—and, according to critic Amy Lee in Metronome magazine, "letter-perfect playing"—removed feeling from their performances.[65] They also felt that Miller's brand of swing shifted popular music from the hot jazz of Benny Goodman and Count Basie to commercial novelty instrumentals and vocal numbers.[66] After Miller died, the Miller estate maintained an unfriendly stance toward critics who derided the band during his lifetime.[67]

Miller was often criticized for being too commercial. His answer was, "I don't want a jazz band."[68][69] Many modern jazz critics harbor similar antipathy. In 1997, on a website administered by JazzTimes magazine, Doug Ramsey considers him overrated. "Miller discovered a popular formula from which he allowed little departure. A disproportionate ratio of nostalgia to substance keeps his music alive."[70][71][72]

Miller's strict management style may have dampened the spirits of his civilian musicians. Some say his insistence on neat appearance and tight discipline onstage was not well-liked by some band members. He carried this philosophy into his Army Air Forces band during World War II.

Jazz critics Gunther Schuller[73] (1991), Gary Giddins[74][75] (2004) and Gene Lees (2007)[76] have defended Miller from criticism. In an article written for The New Yorker magazine in 2004, Giddins said these critics erred in denigrating Miller's music, and that the popular opinion of the time should hold greater sway. "Miller exuded little warmth on or off the bandstand, but once the band struck up its theme, audiences were done for: throats clutched, eyes softened. Can any other record match 'Moonlight Serenade' for its ability to induce a Pavlovian slaver in so many for so long?"[74] Schuller notes, "[The Miller sound] was nevertheless very special and able to penetrate our collective awareness that few other sounds have..."[77] He compares it to "Japanese Gagaku [and] Hindu music" in its purity.[77] Schuller and Giddins do not take completely uncritical approaches to Miller. Schuller says that Ray Eberle's "lumpy, sexless vocalizing dragged down many an otherwise passable performance."[77] But Schuller notes, "How much further [Miller's] musical and financial ambitions might have carried him must forever remain conjectural. That it would have been significant, whatever form(s) it might have taken, is not unlikely."[77]

Miller from the Billboard Music Yearbook

Louis Armstrong thought enough of Miller to carry around his recordings, transferred to seven-inch tape reels when he went on tour. "[Armstrong] liked musicians who prized melody, and his selections ranged from Glenn Miller to Jelly Roll Morton to Tchaikovsky."[78] Jazz pianist George Shearing's quintet of the 1950s and 1960s was influenced by Miller: "with Shearing's locked hands style piano (influenced by the voicing of Miller's saxophone section) in the middle [of the quintet's harmonies]".[79][80] Frank Sinatra and Mel Tormé held the orchestra in high regard. Tormé credited Miller with giving him helpful advice when he first started his singing and songwriting career in the 1940s. Tormé met Glenn Miller in 1942, the meeting facilitated by Tormé's father and Ben Pollack. Tormé and Miller discussed "That Old Black Magic", which was just emerging as a new song by Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen. Miller told Tormé to pick up every song by Mercer and study it and to become a voracious reader of anything he could find, because "all good lyric writers are great readers."[81] In an interview with George T. Simon in 1948, Sinatra lamented the inferior quality of music he was recording in the late '40s, in comparison with "those great Glenn Miller things"[82] from eight years earlier. Frank Sinatra's recording sessions from the late '40s and early '50s use some Miller musicians. Trigger Alpert, a bassist from the civilian band, Zeke Zarchy for the Army Air Forces Band and Willie Schwartz, the lead clarinettist from the civilian band back up Frank Sinatra on many recordings.[83][84] With opposite opinion, fellow bandleader Artie Shaw frequently disparaged the band after Miller's death: "All I can say is that Glenn should have lived, and 'Chattanooga Choo Choo' should have died."[85][86] Clarinetist Buddy DeFranco surprised many people when he led the Glenn Miller Orchestra in the late '60s and early '70s. De Franco was already a veteran of bands like Gene Krupa and Tommy Dorsey in the '40s. He was also a major exponent of modern jazz in the '50s.[87] He never saw Miller as leading a swinging jazz band, but DeFranco is extremely fond of certain aspects of the Glenn Miller style. "I found that when I opened with the sound of 'Moonlight Serenade', I could look around and see men and women weeping as the music carried them back to years gone by."[88][89] De Franco says, "the beauty of Glenn Miller's ballads [...] caused people to dance together."[90]

In 1942, at the peak of his civilian career, Miller decided to join the war effort, forsaking an income of $15,000 to $20,000 per week in civilian life (equivalent to $250,000 to $330,000 per week in 2021), including a home in Tenafly, New Jersey.[5][91][92] At 38, Miller was too old to be drafted and first volunteered for the Navy, but was told that they did not need his services.[5][93] Miller then wrote to Army Brigadier General Charles Young.[5] He persuaded the U. S. Army to accept him so he could, in his own words, "be placed in charge of a modernized Army band".[5][2] After he was accepted into the Army, Miller's civilian band played its last concert in Passaic, New Jersey, on September 27, 1942, with the last song played by the Miller civilian band being "Jukebox Saturday Night"—featuring an appearance by Harry James on trumpet.[2] His patriotic intention of entertaining the Allied Forces with the fusion of virtuosity and dance rhythms in his music earned him the rank of captain to start a promotion to major in August 1944.[5][21]

Miller in uniform

Miller reported at Omaha on October 8, 1942, to the Seventh Service Command as a captain in the Army Specialist Corps.[94] Miller was soon transferred to the Army Air Forces.[95] Captain Glenn Miller served initially as assistant special services officer for the Army Air Forces Southeast Training Center at Maxwell Field, Montgomery, Alabama, in December 1942. He played trombone with the Rhythmaires, a 15-piece dance band, in both Montgomery and in service clubs and recreation halls on Maxwell. Miller also appeared on both WAPI (Birmingham, Alabama) and WSFA radio (Montgomery), promoting the activities of civil service women aircraft mechanics employed at Maxwell.[96] At Maxwell, Miller was helped by saxophonist Gerald "Jerry" Yelverton, a veteran of Miller's prewar orchestra. Miller, playing initially with Yelverton's local band, measured the impact of his modernizing concepts on a small scale and quickly and efficiently made adaptations that were used in his famous 418th AAF band in 1943 and 1944.[97]

"Major Glenn Miller Army Air Forces Orchestra was in service from March 20, 1943 to January 15, 1946"[5][11] is engraved on the black granite marker at their memorial American Holly near Miller's memorial headstone at Arlington National Cemetery[5][11] along with etchings of a trombone and the patches of Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) and the Army Air Forces (AAF). The band's title was verified by several sources including the Major Glenn Miller Army Air Forces Orchestra Veterans Association and its president, Norman Leyden (arranger, clarinetist), Sergeant Emanuel Wishnow (MGMAAFO viola), Arlington National Cemetery, Army and Air Force historian Kathy Shenkle, the Glenn Miller Archives at the University of Colorado at Boulder, the Glenn Miller Birthplace Society, the U.S. Army, and the U.S. Air Force Band and History offices.[11][5]

Miller initially formed a large marching band that was to be the core of a network of service orchestras. His attempts at modernizing military music were met with some resistance from tradition-minded career officers, but Miller's fame and support from other senior leaders allowed him to continue. For example, Miller's arrangement of "St. Louis Blues March", combined blues and jazz with the traditional military march.[98] Miller's weekly radio broadcast I Sustain the Wings, for which he co-wrote the eponymous theme song, moved from New Haven to New York City and was very popular. This led to permission for Miller to form his 50-piece Army Air Force Band and take it to England in the summer of 1944, where he gave 800 performances.[96] While in England, now Major Miller cut a series of records at EMI-owned Abbey Road Studios.[99][100] The recordings the AAF band made in 1944 at Abbey Road were propaganda broadcasts for the Office of War Information. Many songs are sung in German by Johnny Desmond, and Glenn Miller speaks in German about the war effort.[101] Before Miller's disappearance, his music was used by World War II AFN radio broadcasting for entertainment and morale, as well as counter-propaganda to denounce fascist oppression in Europe. His broadcasts included short playlets that dramatized the Four Freedoms promulgated by the Roosevelt administration, summarizing the official goals of the Allies; they equated American music with free expression and American culture. Miller once stated on radio: "America means freedom and there's no expression of freedom quite so sincere as music."[102][103][104]

Glenn Miller's AAF Orchestra recorded songs with American singer Dinah Shore. These were done at the Abbey Road studios and were the last recorded songs made by the band while being led by Miller. They were stored with HMV/EMI for 50 years, and not released until their European copyright expired in 1994.[105][106] In summarizing Miller's military career, General Jimmy Doolittle said, "next to a letter from home, that organization was the greatest morale builder in the European Theater of Operations."[5][107]

For a time, Miller worked with actor David Niven, a lieutenant colonel in the British Army, assigned to work with the radio service created by Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) and the BBC to entertain and inform American, British, and Canadian troops.

His distinguished orchestra was attached to SHAEF in London, and was quartered at Milton Ernest near Bedford, England. It is not an exaggeration to say that every band member owed his life to Glenn Miller.[5] When the band arrived in London, they were quartered in a BBC Radio office at 25 Sloane Court.[5] Unfortunately, this was in the middle of "Buzz Bomb Alley," an area of sleepless nights because of the constant barrage of German V-1 bombs.[5] Miller arranged for new quarters and transportation to move to Bedford on Sunday, July 2, 1944.[5] The next morning, a buzz bomb landed in front of their old quarters, destroyed the building, and killed more than 100 people.[5] None were Miller band members.[5] Miller told band manager Lieutenant Don Haynes, "As long as [the Miller Luck] stays with us, we have nothing to worry about."[5]

U.S. Army Air Force UC-64

Memorial cenotaph in Grove Street Cemetery, New Haven, Connecticut placed by a fan, not the family

Band manager Lt. Don Haynes was the last man to see Major Miller alive on the ground.[5] On December 15, 1944, without permission from his chain of command, Miller took his manager's place on the flight from Twinwood Farm Airfield to Paris, France to arrange for the band's appearance.[5] Flight Officer John Morgan piloted the single-engine Norseman UC-64 with Miller and Lt. Col. Norman F. Baessell aboard. On Baessell's orders, Morgan took off despite the foggy weather.[5] Morgan didn't even park, so he was not logged in as having arrived at Twinwood Farm Airfield. All military and civilian planes were grounded when Morgan took off. That is why Army battle operations were delayed until the next day, December 16, 1944, the day the Battle of the Bulge began. Understandably, the plane never reached France and was never found.[5][108]

His disappearance was not publicized until Christmas Eve 1944, when the Associated Press announced Miller would not be conducting the scheduled BBC-broadcast AEF Christmas Show the following day; the band's deputy leader, Tech. Sgt Jerry Gray (July 3, 1915 – August 10, 1976), stood in for him.[109]

The band performed the scheduled Christmas broadcast from Paris under the direction of Jerry Gray.[5] The Glenn Miller Army Air Forces Orchestra continued successfully for the next year under the direction of Ray McKinley.[5] Its last concert was on Nov. 13, 1945 at the National Press Club dinner for President Harry Truman in Washington, D.C., where Generals Dwight Eisenhower and Hap Arnold thanked the band for a job well done.[5]

A white marble, government-issued (Veterans Affairs) memorial headstone was placed for Major Alton Glenn Miller, U.S. Army (Air Corps) in memorial section H at Arlington National Cemetery (U.S. Army) in 1992.[5] There is a trombone etched on the back of the marker.[5] His daughter was the next of kin who requested the public marker.[5]

A private memorial cenotaph was placed in New Haven, Connecticut without the Miller family's knowledge by a devoted fan.[5] Miller has many other memorials around the world.[5] His name is engraved on the "Tablets of the Missing" in Cambridge American Cemetery (American Battle Monuments Commission) in Cambridge, United Kingdom.[5] A bust of Miller in uniform is located outside the Corn Exchange in Bedford, England, where Miller played.[5]

On behalf of the Major Glenn Miller Army Air Forces Orchestra veterans, a memorial American Holly tree was dedicated in Section 13 along Wilson Drive near Miller's memorial headstone on the 50th anniversary of his death, December 15, 1994.[5] The American Holly is meant to remind visitors of the tune "American Patrol".[5] " Taps" was sounded at the wreath ceremony, memorial service and living memorial tree dedication.[5] A moment of silence took place both at Arlington and Cambridge. The Secretary of the Air Force was the main speaker.[5] Attendees included band veterans, Miller's family, military service members, U.S. senators, and members of the Glenn Miller Birthplace Society.[5] The Jazz Ambassadors of the U.S. Army Field Band performed at the luncheon that followed the ceremony.[5] The Airmen of Note and the Army Blues had performances elsewhere that day.[5] The U.S. Air Force Band (with their orchestra) put on a 50th anniversary memorial concert that night, and took the show on tour.[5] The Coast Guard Band and Marine Corps Band commanders joined the other bands in sending written greetings.[5] On the 75th anniversary on December 15, 2019, Ms. Kathy Shenkle represented them all at a wreath ceremony there with wreaths provided by Wreaths Across America.[5]

Major Miller earned the following awards: Bronze Star Medal, World War II Victory Medal; American Campaign Medal; European, African and Middle Eastern Campaign Medal; and Marksman Badge with Carbine and Pistol Bars.[5]

Helen Miller accepted her husband's Bronze Star Medal on his behalf in a ceremony held on March 24, 1945.[5] He had not yet been declared dead officially, but his death was investigated and confirmed by retired, Air Force Major General Orvil Anderson before then.[5] Coincidentally, Anderson's wife was Maud Miller Anderson, a cousin of the musician.[5] The Andersons are buried in Arlington National Cemetery where Miller is memorialized.[5]

Bronze Star Medal Citation:

"Major Alton Glenn Miller (Army Serial No. 0505273), Air Corps, United States Army, for meritorious service in connection with military operations as Commander of the Army Air Force Band (Special), from 9 July 1944 to 15 December 1944. Major Miller, through excellent judgment and professional skill, conspicuously blended the abilities of the outstanding musicians, comprising the group, into a harmonious orchestra whose noteworthy contribution to the morale of the armed forces has been little less than sensational. Major Miller constantly sought to increase the services rendered by his organization, and it was through him that the band was ordered to Paris to give this excellent entertainment to as many troops as possible. His superior accomplishments are highly commendable and reflect the highest credit upon himself and the armed forces of the United States."[5]

Without their leader, the Major Glenn Miller Army Air Forces Orchestra members flew from England to France on December 18, 1944. SHAEF did not learn that the C-64 was overdue or that Miller was aboard it until December 18. Major Glenn Miller had no duties other than being an AAF musical and broadcasting officer assigned to SHAEF. He was not the victim of foul play.[110]

In 2019, the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) was reported to be investigating Miller's disappearance.[111][112] All conspiracy theories surrounding his death were debunked before December 15, 2019, the 75th anniversary of Miller's death.[110][2][5]

To the delight of many listeners, Glenn Miller and his music became an institution as Miller wished. His music is still played worldwide by professional and amateur musicians every day, including BBC radio.[5]

The Miller estate authorized an official Glenn Miller legacy or ghost band in 1946, the Glenn Miller Orchestra. This band was led by Tex Beneke, former tenor saxophonist and a singer for the civilian band. It had a makeup similar to the Army Air Forces Band: It included a large string section, and at least initially, about two-thirds of the musicians were alumni of either the civilian or AAF orchestras.[113] The orchestra's official public début was at the Capitol Theatre on Broadway, where it opened for a three-week engagement on January 24, 1946.[114] Future television and film composer Henry Mancini was the band's pianist and one of the arrangers.[115] This ghost band played to very large audiences all across the United States, including a few dates at the Hollywood Palladium in 1947, where the original Miller band played in 1941.[116] A website concerning the history of the Hollywood Palladium noted "[even] as the big band era faded, the Tex Beneke and Glenn Miller Orchestra concert at the Palladium resulted in a record-breaking crowd of 6,750 dancers."[117] By 1949, economics dictated that the string section be dropped.[118] This band recorded for RCA Victor, just as the original Miller band did.[118] Beneke was struggling with how to expand the Miller sound and also how to achieve success under his own name. What began as the "Glenn Miller Orchestra Under the Direction of Tex Beneke" finally became "The Tex Beneke Orchestra". By 1950, Beneke and the Miller estate parted ways.[119] The break was acrimonious,[120] although Beneke is now listed by the Miller estate as a former leader of the Glenn Miller Orchestra,[121] and his role is now acknowledged on the orchestra's website.[122]

When Glenn Miller was alive, many bandleaders such as Bob Chester imitated his style.[123] By the early 1950s, various bands were again copying the Miller style of clarinet-led reeds and muted trumpets, notably Ralph Flanagan,[124] Jerry Gray,[125] and Ray Anthony.[126] This, coupled with the success of The Glenn Miller Story (1953),[127] inspired the Miller estate to ask Ray McKinley to lead a new ghost band called the Glenn Miller Orchestra.[118] This 1956 band is the original version of the current ghost band that still tours the United States today.[128] The official Glenn Miller Orchestra for the United States is currently under the direction of Nick Hilscher.[129] The officially sanctioned Glenn Miller Orchestra for the United Kingdom has toured and recorded under the leadership of Ray McVay.[130] The official Glenn Miller Orchestra for Europe has been led by Wil Salden since 1990.[131] The Official Glenn Miller Orchestra for Scandinavia has been led by Jan Slottenäs since 2010.[132]

After the Allied victory in Europe, the Major Glenn Miller Army Air Forces Orchestra toured in Europe, and then was decommissioned and sent back to the United States.[5] "The chief of the European theater asked Warrant Officer Harold Lindsay "Lin" Arison to put together another band to take its place, and that's when the 314 was formed." According to singer Tony Bennett, who sang with it while in the service, the 314 was the immediate successor to the Miller-led AAF orchestra.[133] The Glenn Miller Army Air Forces Orchestra's long-term legacy has carried on with the Airmen of Note,[5] a band within the United States Air Force Band.[5] This band was created in 1950 from smaller groups within the Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, DC, and continues to play jazz music for the Air Force community and the general public. The legacy also continues through The United States Air Forces in Europe Band,[5] stationed at Ramstein Air Base, Germany.[134] Today, every branch of the U.S armed forces has a big band component.[5] That is in addition to concert bands, marching bands, jazz orchestras, combos, and elements that play rock, country, and bluegrass.[5] The U.S. Coast Guard has one musical organization to perform all types of music.[5] The Coast Guard Band and Yale University bands performed a joint concert for the 75th anniversary of Miller's death.[5] Major Glenn Miller is considered to be the father of modern U.S. military bands.[5]

Annual festivals celebrating Glenn Miller's legacy are held in two of the towns most associated with his youth.

Since 1975, the Glenn Miller Birthplace Society has held its annual Glenn Miller Festival in Clarinda, Iowa.[5] The festival's highlights include performances by the official Glenn Miller Orchestra under the direction of Nick Hilscher, and numerous other jazz musicians, visits to the restored Miller home and the new Glenn Miller Birthplace Museum, historical displays from the Glenn Miller Archive at the University of Colorado, lectures and presentations about Miller's life, and a scholarship competition for young classical and jazz musicians.[135]

Glenn Miller SwingFest logo

Every summer since 1996, the city of Fort Morgan, Colorado, has hosted a public event called the Glenn Miller SwingFest. Miller graduated from Fort Morgan High School, where he played football and formed his own band with classmates. Events include musical performances and swing dancing, community picnics, lectures, and fundraising for scholarships to attend the School for the Performing Arts,[136] a nonprofit dance, voice, piano, percussion, guitar, violin, and drama studio program in Fort Morgan. Each year, about 2,000 people attend this summer festival, which serves to introduce younger generations to the music Miller made famous, as well as the style of dance and dress popular in the big-band era.

Glenn Miller's widow, Helen, died in 1966.[137] Herb Miller, Glenn Miller's brother, led his own band in the United States and England until the late 1980s.[138][139] In 1989, Glenn Miller's adopted daughter purchased the house in Clarinda where Miller was born,[5] and the Glenn Miller Foundation was created to oversee its restoration; it is now part of the Glenn Miller Birthplace Museum. In 1953, Universal-International pictures released The Glenn Miller Story, starring James Stewart; Ray Eberle, Marion Hutton, and Tex Beneke neither appear in nor are referred to in it.[140] In 1957, a new Student Union Building was completed on the Boulder campus and the new ballroom was named the Glenn Miller Ballroom. In 1996, the U.S. Postal Service issued a Glenn Miller postage stamp.[5][141]

There are archives, museums and memorials in the United States and England that devoted to Glenn Miller.[142] The Glenn Miller Archives at the University of Colorado at Boulder houses many of Miller's recordings, gold records and other memorabilia. It is also open to scholarly research and the general public.[143] Formed by Alan Cass, the Glenn Miller Archives includes the original manuscript of Miller's theme song, "Moonlight Serenade", among other items of interest.[5][144] In 2002, the Glenn Miller Museum opened to the public at the former RAF Twinwood Farm, in Clapham, Bedfordshire, England.[145] At Cambridge, United Kingdom, Miller's name is engraved as Alton G. Miller on the "Tablets of the Missing" at the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial.[5] His government-issued, white marble, memorial headstone is located in Memorial Section H (# 464-A) by Wilson Drive at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia.[5]

Major Miller has an official, government-issued memorial headstone at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia which is run by the U.S. Army.  It was requested by his living next of kin, his daughter in 1992.  If any remains had been found, he might have been buried at Arlington National Cemetery alone or in a group burial with Flight Officer John R. S. Morgan and Lieutenant Colonel Norman Baessell who died with him when their plane iced over in the winter weather and dropped into the English Channel.  They were all listed as having been Missing in Action on December 15,1944 and were all declared dead in 1945.  It is standard operating protocol to wait one year and one day to declare someone dead officially. However, the Army declared him dead in December 1944.  The Army already knew he was dead when they presented his Bronze Star Medal to Miller's wife in 1945.  This was confirmed in a 1946 Army publication. The Army refers to Glenn Miller as having a finding of death (FOD) and having been missing in action (MIA) with remains not recoverable since Dec. 15, 1944. None of their remains were ever found during the official U.S. Army search and investigation in 1944-1945. The investigation was led by Major General Orvil Anderson who was married to a cousin of Glenn Miller, Maud Miller.[5]

There are many memorials for Miller around the world. A memorial monument was placed by a fan in Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven, Connecticut, next to the campus of Yale University.[5][146] A fan of Glenn Miller, Peter Cofrancesco bought a gravesite at Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven, Connecticut, and placed a black granite cenotaph / memorial headstone to honor him.[146]  He has no relationship to Major Miller's family.  Here is the inscription along with corrections that should be made if it is ever replaced or moved to a non-grave location.  Etching of Major Miller in uniform / IN MEMORY / Major  A. Glenn Miller / 0505273 / U.S. Army Air Force [sic, Forces] - W. W. II / Born- Clarinda, Iowa -  /  March 1, 1904 / Missing in Action- [sic, Died] / Europe, Dec. 15, 1944 [sic, English Channel] / 1943-1944 / 418th A.A.F.T.T.C. Band- [418th A.A.F.T.T.C. Band AKA Glenn Miller Army Air Forces Orchestra] / Yale University- New Haven, CT. [sic, Conn.] / I SUSTAIN THE WINGS / Sustineo Alas.[147]

Miller was awarded a Star for Recording on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6915 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.[5][148] The headquarters of the United States Air Forces in Europe Band at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, is named Glenn Miller Hall.[5]

Additionally, on June 25, 1999, the Nebraska State Highway Commission unanimously agreed to name Nebraska Highway 97 between North Platte, where Miller attended elementary school, and Tryon, where the Miller family briefly lived, as Glenn Miller Memorial Highway.

Miller had a staff of arrangers who wrote originals such as "String of Pearls" (written and arranged by Jerry Gray)[149] or took originals such as "In The Mood" (writing credit given to Joe Garland[150] and arranged by Eddie Durham[151]) and "Tuxedo Junction" (written by bandleader Erskine Hawkins[152] and arranged by Jerry Gray[153]) and arranged them for the Miller band to either record or broadcast. Glenn Miller's staff of arrangers in his civilian band, who handled the bulk of the work, were Jerry Gray (a former arranger for Artie Shaw), Bill Finegan (a former arranger for Tommy Dorsey),[154] Billy May[155] and to a much smaller extent, George Williams,[156] who worked very briefly with the band as well as Andrews Sisters arranger Vic Schoen[157]

According to arranger and conductor Norman Leyden, he and others did arrangements "for Miller in the service, including Jerry Gray, Ralph Wilkinson, Mel Powell, and Steve Steck."[5] In 1943, Glenn Miller wrote Glenn Miller's Method for Orchestral Arranging, published by his own company the Mutual Music Society in New York,[5][158] a 116-page book with illustrations and scores that explains how he wrote his musical arrangements.[5]

• Declared death in absentia
• Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
• Kalamazoo, Michigan
• List of people who disappeared
• List of swing musicians
• Role of music in World War II

• Bennett, Tony (1998). The Good Life. New York: Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-02469-8.
• Butcher, Geoffrey (1997). Next to a Letter from Home. North Pomfret, Vt: Trafalgar Square. ISBN 0-7515-1078-5. Chattanooga Choo Choo-The Life and Times of the World-famous Glenn Miller Orchestra by Richard Grudens 2004 ISBN 1-57579-277-X
• Friedwald, Will (1997). The Song Is You. New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80742-4.
• Flower, John (1972). Moonlight Serenade: a bio-discography of the Glenn Miller Civilian Band. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House. ISBN 0-87000-161-2.
• Miller, Glenn (1943). Glenn Miller's Method for Orchestral Arranging. New York: Mutual Music Society. ASIN: B0007DMEDQ
• Miller, Glenn (1927). Glenn Miller's 125 Jazz Breaks For Trombone. Chicago: Melrose Brothers Music Company.
• Miller, Glenn (1939). Feist All-Star Series of Modern Rhythm Choruses Arranged By Glenn Miller For Trombone. New York: Leo J. Feist, Inc.
• Newton, Wesley Phillips. "Launching a legend: Maxwell Field and Glenn Miller's Army Air Forces Band." Alabama Review 53.4 (2000): 271–96.
• Simon, George Thomas (1980). Glenn Miller and His Orchestra. New York: Da Capo paperback. ISBN 0-306-80129-9.
• Simon, George Thomas (1971). Simon Says. New York: Galahad. ISBN 0-88365-001-0.
• Schuller, Gunther (1991). The Swing Era: The Development of Jazz, 1930–1945. Volume 2. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-507140-9.
• Spragg, Dennis M (2017). Glenn Miller Declassified. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-1612348957.
• Sudhalter, Richard (1999). Lost Chords. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-514838-X.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Glenn Miller.

• The Glenn Miller Birthplace Society, which organizes the annual Glenn Miller Birthplace Festival in Clarinda, Iowa
• Glenn Miller Archives – official repository for the legacy and property of Alton Glenn Miller, University of Colorado Boulder
• Glenn Miller at IMDb
• Glenn Miller recordings at the Discography of American Historical Recordings.
• Glenn Miller Glenn Miller Resources from Glenn Miller's biographer and Glenn Miller Archives and Glenn Miller Birthplace Society historian Dennis M. Spragg
• Recordings Miller made for Brunswick records as a sideman in the late 1920s and early 1930s
• Glenn's Swing Orchestra – tribute to Glenn Miller (in French language)
• "The Disappearance of Glenn Miller" – documentary in the PBS Series History Detectives
• Internet Archive - In The Mood