Sometimes planes go missing. Even in peacetime, let alone military. Some cases are not only remembered by military historians. Thus, two aircraft mysteriously disappeared in the sky in 1944. The pilot of one of them was the pilot and the wonderful writer Antoine de Saint-Exuperi, the author of «Little Prince». In the second flight, American musician Glenn Miller flew through the Channel.
Sun Valley Serenade is a 1941 musical film directed by H. Bruce Humberstone and starring Sonja Henie, John Payne, Glenn Miller, Milton Berle, and Lynn Bari. The music in the film belongs to two authors. But both his and another’s melodies were performed by American jazz musician and jazz band leader Glenn Miller. He also starred in this film. Audience immediately loved him – because comedies and melodramas are needed in war and post-war times, even necessary. You need a memory of joy, you need a changing from the horrors and hardships you’ve experienced.
In the film there is only one thing, written by G.Miller – «Moonlight Serenade». It is this thing that he started his concerts. And this is one of the few, if not the only, works written by Miller. The record uses «crystal chorus» in the section of wooden (pagan) wind – one of Miller’s inventions, which gave a unique color to the music of his orchestra – the top voice in the group of saxophones was entrusted to the clarinet. Over time, it became common in jazz. It should also be noted that Miller was one of the first band leaders to increase the pagan wind section to five instruments.
At first glance, it is not entirely clear what is so interesting about the fate of a jazz musician. But you have to understand that jazz is a highly professional art of very talented people. Second, Glenn Miller, on his own initiative, secured a transfer to the front. Finally, his death for a very long time remained a mystery, giving rise to unbelievable speculation. For example, he was long believed to have died in a brothel while working illegally in France. And the version that we have found in Russian Wikipedia, and we don’t dare bring it up – it’s so exotic.
Miller was born on March 1, 1904 in Iowa. Since childhood, as parents recall, he was drawn to jazz music, he joked that «swinging» began in infancy. The family was poor and had to work. The first employer, a butcher shop owner, gave the teenager a trombone. Miller didn’t break up with the trombones anymore.
For some time he worked in various orchestras, learning the art of arranging. By the mid-30s, the dream had come true: a small orchestra of its own was being created, which very soon gained a huge popularity in the United States. The most sought-after and highest-paid jazz orchestra in the world, with repertoire including dancing. For example, Jive is one of the dances of the competition program of any dance competition (Latin American program). One such melody became «Chattanooga Choo Choo», a 1941 song written by Mack Gordon and composed by Harry Warren.
In 1938, he finally created his own jazz band, the one that will be talked about and spoken about today as the Glenn Miller Orchestra. He played saxophonists Hal McKintyre and Tex Beneke, trumpet player Bob Price, pianist Chummy McGregor, and sang Marion Hutton. The orchestra came along great. Glenn felt it and tried to protect his miracle. He introduced iron discipline, banned talking on stage. He demanded that the handkerchiefs in the breast pockets correspond to the color of the socks. However, it was the most popular in the United States and the highest paid jazz band.
They were invited to play at the prestigious casino “Glen Island”, where the radio broadcast was from. A contract with RCA was immediately followed. The Miller Orchestra is the founder of a new musical style, Jive, a fast dance jazz.
In 1943, he headed the United States Air Force Military Orchestra. On 15 December 1944, Major Glenn Miller was scheduled to fly to France from “Twinwood Fort”. In the Paris hall of “Olympia”, the concert of his orchestra was prepared. The three of them – the pilot, Colonel Norman Bissell and Glenn Miller. The Canadian “Norsman S-64”, a small airplane, was flying over the water itself in the strongest fog. The Channel was the last thing they saw.
The plane disappeared, as did its passengers. Neither the bodies nor the car were found. This fact still does not give the right to refer to Miller as “dead”.
