Glenn Miller

Miller was scheduled to fly from London to Paris on Dec. 12, 1944 to make preparations for the AAF Band's Christmas concert. London was badly fogged in and the flight was postponed several times. He became increasingly frustrated with the delays, so on the afternoon of Dec. 15 he took a chance on an unscheduled flight from Twinwood Airfield. The pilot was terribly underqualified for bad weather conditions and either:

- crashed into the English Channel due to ice buildup in the plane's carburetor, which had recently been repaired in an effort to correct icing problems.

- apparently strayed into a bomb-drop area just as a group of returning RAF and AAF planes were jettisoning unused blockbusters. Two navigators reported seeing a small plane hit by one of the bombs, and while there will never be any way to know for sure, it's probable that they were the last people to see the plane carrying Major Miller.

Several other hypotheses have surfaced in recent years, but all have flaws and contradictions. See the Related Question for a summary.

Yes. His brothers were Deane, a dentist, and Herb, also a musician and bandleader. His sister was named Irene.

It's swing music, which was popular in the 1930s through WWII.

palatino

California

Daughter Jonnie spent most of her younger life as a stay-at-home parent. She has recently become more active in promoting her father's music and handling the affairs of his estate. Son Steve opted for a career as a gunsmith. He passed away in 2012.

Jonniedeemiller

"Say Si Si"

No. He went on ahead of the band with two people who weren't associated with the orchestra. Pianist Mel Powell and/or arranger Jerry Gray were also asked to accompany him but declined. In fact, no other member of the band was killed during the war.

Since she was adopted, I doubt that he did.

There was no real search immediately afterwards. The Battle of the Bulge began the next day* and no one was even aware that the plane was missing for several days. There were simply no available resources to search for it given the magnitude of the conflict.

In the 1980s a wealthy young British businessman financed a search for the plane and claimed to have found some artifacts but nothing was ever proven. A BBC investigation in 2004 determined that all that would probably remain of the small C-64 plane would be the engine block, and that a search would be near-futile because the block would be buried with thousands of years worth of other debris on the bottom of the English Channel.

(*) In fact, the run-up to the Battle of the Bulge may have contributed to the crash. All non-essential air traffic had been halted for that reason as well as bad weather, and bombing sorties were very heavy. The fact that Miller's plane was making an unauthorized flight AND hundreds of returning bombers were dropping unused shells into the Channel before landing was a prescription for tragedy.

The C-64 Norseman transport plane carrying Glenn Miller took off from Twinwood Airfield in England around 1:15 pm British War Time on December 15, 1944. Radio contact was lost shortly thereafter and the plane was never seen again.

Recent research by the University of Colorado found that the Norseman had a history of carburetor problems so despite many other hypotheses, the most likely cause of his death was that the fuel line iced up and the engine stalled over the English Channel.

They were never involved in running the orchestra. Neither showed any special interest in music (they were adopted and grew up after his disappearance) so the band was run by the corporation that Miller had established to produce his music.

Leaders have included Tex Beneke, Ray McKinley, Buddy DeFranco, Dick Gearhart, Buddy Morrow, Peanuts Hucko (very briefly), Larry O'Brien, and the current conductor, Gary Tole.

Miller's children have only become involved in musical work in the last decade or so, and then only from a legal and administrative standpoint.

In the English channel off the coast of France on December 15th, 1944

"In the Mood" is a big band era #1 hit recorded by American bandleader Glenn Miller. It topped the charts for 13 straight weeks in 1940 in the U.S. and one year later was featured in the movie Sun Valley Serenade. In 1999, National Public Radio (NPR) included the 1939 Glenn Miller recording on RCA Bluebird on the NPR 100, the list of "The 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century".

Yes. His son Steve was adopted.

Currently there are 16 or 17 musicians.

The original civilian band had a similar number of performers but also included 5 vocalists.

The Army Air Force Orchestra included between 40 and 45 musicians depending on the date and location.

Many critics consider him to have been the first pop-music superstar. He was by far the most popular musician of the first half of the 20th century, By several measures including market share and number and duration of top-ten hits, even the Beatles and Elvis Presley were unable to match his popularity.

His musical stylings influenced performers into the 1950s and 1960s, including Billy May, Bill Finegan, Eydie Gorme, and others. The Beatles gave credit to his singing group, the Modernaires, as a strong influence on their early work.

In spite of the fact that the original orchestra hasn't existed for almost 70 years and most people who heard it in person are no longer alive, there are actually more Glenn Miller fans today than back then. In the age of heavy metal and rock, interest remains so high that Glenn Miller Productions operates three "official" orchestras in the US and the EU, while dozens of other bands around the world regularly perform his music unofficially. A quick search of Amazon.com turns up hundreds of CDs and downloads, quite a tribute to a man whose entire public career was less than five years.

Ray Eberle.

He was the brother of Bob Eberly who sang with Jimmy Dorsey for several years. Ray changed the spelling of his last name to avoid confusion. Unlike Bob, Ray wasn't a well-trained singer and Miller was often criticized for hiring him. They eventually parted ways in mid-1942, shortly before the band broke up.

After the war Ray performed many of his earlier hits, sometimes as a single act but more often with his own band or with a reunion group led by fellow Miller alumnus Tex Beneke.

Ray was an admitted alcoholic, an illness that led to his relatively early death in 1979. His daughter Jan and nephew Bob Jr. continue the Eberle vocal tradition. Jan has in fact performed with an English band led by Glenn's nephew John Miller, so there are new Miller-Eberle recordings nearly 70 years later!

Without question, In the Mood is the most-remembered tune.

During his lifetime, Chattanooga Choo Choo was the biggest seller - it was only the second recording to every sell a million copies at that time, and was awarded the first Gold Record.

That would have been interesting, but the answer is unfortunately no.

The Steve Miller who is Glenn's son was adopted when Glenn was in the AAF, so he had no real contact with his father and had no musical inheritance*. At one point he was employed as a gunsmith.

(*) The musical genes run strongly in the family. Glenn's brother Herb was a trumpeter, his nephew John now leads Herb's orchestra, and niece Wynne is a dancer and entertainer.

The individual vocalists most associated with the civilian band were Marion Hutton and Ray Eberle, along with Tex Beneke who also played 1st saxophone; they were later joined by the Modernaires vocal group.

Other singers included Kathleen Lane, Kay Starr, Dorothy Claire, and Skip Nelson. Musicians Ernie Caceres and Jack Lathrop also contributed a few tracks.

The major vocalists with the AAF Band were Johnny Desmond along with Artie Malvin and the Crew Chiefs. Drummer Ray McKinley also sang from time to time, and the band was joined by any number of guest singers such as Bing Crosby, Irene Manning, Dinah Shore, and others.