Alton Glen "Glenn" Miller (March 1, 1904 – December 15, 1944) was an American big band conductor, arranger, composer, trombone player, and recording artist before and during World War II, when he was an officer in the US Army Air Forces.

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.

[38][39][40] 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.

[45] Miller composed the songs "Annie's Cousin Fanny",[46][47][48] "Dese Dem Dose",[45][48] "Harlem Chapel Chimes", and "Tomorrow's Another Day" for the Dorsey Brothers Band in 1934 and 1935.

[54] 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.

[64] Other singers with this orchestra included Marion Hutton,[65] Skip Nelson,[66] Ray Eberle[67] and (to a smaller extent) Kay Starr,[68] Ernie Caceres,[69] Dorothy Claire[70] and Jack Lathrop.

[75] 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.

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.

"[90] 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"[91] from eight years earlier.

Following a one-month ASC training course at Fort Meade, Maryland, he transferred to the Army Air Forces (AAF) on November 25, 1942, by order of General Henry Harley "Hap" Arnold.

[101]: 34–36 Effective January 1, 1943, Miller was assigned to the headquarters of the AAF Technical Training Command (TTC) at Knollwood Field, Southern Pines, North Carolina.

Miller would successfully attempt to fuse jazz, popular music and light classics, including strings, which was an evolutionary step beyond his civilian band.

[1] The next morning, a buzz bomb landed in front of their old quarters, destroyed the building, and killed more than 100 people,[1] which included WACs among the seventy-five American personnel lost.

It was determined that reliable radio broadcasting could be accomplished from Paris and that the Miller orchestra could be seen in person at Paris-area hospitals and by ground troops on leave from the front lines.

On a telephone call to Haynes, he learned that a mutual acquaintance, Lieutenant Colonel Norman Baessell of the Eighth Air Force Service Command at Milton Ernest, was flying to France on December 15.

AAF Headquarters in Washington, D.C. notified Miller's wife, Helen, of his disappearance on December 23, 1944, with an in-person visit to their home by two senior officers and a telephone call from Gen. H. H. Arnold.

[28] On November 13, 1945, the AAF Band appeared at the National Press Club for its final concert, which was attended by President Harry Truman and Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King.

[100][1] On January 20, 1945, an Eighth Air Force Board of Inquiry in England determined that the UC-64 airplane went down over the English Channel due to a combination of human error, mechanical failure and weather.

Using military date style, the "Major Glenn Miller Army Air Forces Orchestra in service from 20 March 1943 – 15 January 1946" is carved in the black granite marker in front of an American Holly tree.

Before it was carved in stone, the military band's title was verified by Norman Leyden who was an arranger and clarinetist in the Major Glenn Miller Army Air Forces Orchestra.

On behalf of the Glenn Miller Estate and with the full cooperation of American and British authorities, all relevant and many new documents concerning the circumstances of the accident were discovered and published, including the inquiry findings of January 20, 1945.

Given modern technology, a well-funded and patient exploration could possibly find and identify the debris of the airplane along the required air transport corridor between Langney Point (Beachy Head) and St. Valery, France.

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.

[117] By the early 1950s, various bands were again copying the Miller style of clarinet-led reeds and muted trumpets, notably Ralph Flanagan,[118] Jerry Gray,[119] and Ray Anthony.

How delighted he would have been with Ed Polic's superbly documented report" wrote George Simon as he recommended, The Glenn Miller Army Air Force Band: Sustineo Alas / I Sustain the Wings to readers of the American Reference Books Annual.

[130][131] 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.

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.

Band- [AKA Major Glenn Miller Army Air Forces Orchestra] / Yale University- New Haven, CT. / I SUSTAIN THE WINGS / Sustineo Alas.

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.