Movie Biographies: The Glenn Miller Story

1954 Musical Biography
From Universal-International
Directed by Anthony Mann

Starring
James Stewart
June Allyson
Charles Drake
Harry Morgan
George Tobias


With this film I have to get personal.  I could never forget seeing it with my parents at the Madison Theater in Peoria.  It would have been a Saturday and since I was along, it would have been a matinee.  I almost never went to a movie with my father.  I always wanted to chat endlessly about the flick afterwards and he couldn't stand that.  Do that s--t with your mother, he would bark.

I don't recall the experience with such clarity because it was The Glenn Miller Story (although in our household, that would be good enough) but because it was such a happy three hours (it included lunch at the Steak n' Shake) which meant that my dad was there and having a good time and more importantly, my parents weren't arguing.  I think the only time they didn't argue was when they were listening to Big Band music and when one or both of them was sleeping.

My parents, both born in the early 1920's, were mad about that music and Glenn Miller was at the top of their charts (and most of America's as well).  Mom would always sing along and she not only knew all the words but she was herself an occasional band singer.

Peoria at that time had a dance joint called the Inglaterra on Main Street.  Most bands of any size would play a gig there at one time or another.  If there was a pretty girl in the audience she might be asked if she could sing and if so a lot of bands would ask her to come on stage and warble one of their songs.  It was heady stuff for the smalltown, very fetching blonde in full 40's drag when she was carressing that mike.  If she were still alive, she'd be pleased to sit on a sofa with you and tell you all about it.  The Ing is where she met my father.  I'm sure there were storm clouds swirling about.  

Before I was 10 I had heard about 29,000 times about the four times they saw the Miller orchestra.  Once, of course was at the Ing, and the others were when they jumped in their merry Oldsmobile and dashed off to Chicago or some neighboring state.  There was no one like Glenn Miller... there never had been and there never would be.  I'm sure you understand.

Miller's 78 rpm records (which I was never allowed to actually touch, mind you) were always blaring throughout the house.  Sometimes she would haul out her cherished outfits (yes, even after two children they still fit) and saddle shoes and she and the old man would dance.  I even remember him throwing her over his shoulder a few times.

I loved Big Band music... a legacy my parents handed down to me and I am eternally grateful.  Living a great many years since those days, I still gotta hand it to that era as producing the best music ever.  To think that what was my parents music I've long claimed  as my own.

Everybody in America liked Jimmy Stewart and our household was no exception.  One time before we knew of any film, Mama and I were looking at a picture of him in a movie mag and she said if they ever do a movie on Glenn Miller, Jimmy Stewart should play him.  Pretty, blonde, could sing, clairvoyant.

When she read that not only was Stewart signed but so was June Allyson, Mama was beside herself with glee.  My mother already liked them as a screen team having apparently drooled over them in another biopic, 1949's The Stratton Story.  

Whether the film varied too much from the truth or was too sentimental for some, I have always regarded it as an awfully good time.  While I myself adored the two leads, it is really all about this glorious music, showcased beautifully throughout the film.  (It would go on to earn a best sound from the Oscar folks.)  After the U-I logo, the cast and credits are shown as we listen to Moonlight Serenade, Miller's signature tune.  We're ready to go.

The bio opens with Miller once again hocking his trombone so he could eat.  He and his buddy Chummy (Morgan) are trying to find another gig.  They get one, they lose one.  Bands folded.  But they keep looking.  Few historians would doubt that Miller's greatest strength was as an arranger.  He had always been looking for that sound...  he wasn't sure exactly what it was or how to go about acquiring it but he was always looking.  When he got it, he already had his own band so he could finally play the type of music he wanted.

Around the same time he calls Helen Berger, his college sweetheart, he says, although he hasn't seen or talked to her in over a year.  There's some fun comedy between the two as they get their sea legs again on being a couple.  Whether this is really true or not, Stewart and Allyson play it for all it's worth.  When he lands a gig in New York, he calls her and tells her to meet him there so they can be married.  Far-fetched.  Maybe.  Probably.  But she does it.

The real Mrs. Miller was apparently a tough cookie.  She was concerned about their income or lack thereof, her husband's health and his exploitation.  There seems to be no doubt she ran the show behind the scenes.  There are moments that Allyson is given to showing a bulldog determination.

The film, of course, concentrates a great deal on the Miller marriage and as a result little is shown about the various bands he worked with in those early years.  It does, however, continue drumming home his plight to get the sound, something, he hoped, would distinguish him from other bands.  It arrives when a cornet player splits his lip and is not able to perform lead cornet on a particular arrangement.

The maestro himself

Miller then assigned that position to a lead clarinetist who would play a melodic line with a tenor saxophonist holding the same note and three other saxophonists harmonizing with a single octave.  The Miller sound was born.

He and his band were in two movies, Sun Valley Serenade in 1941 and Orchestra Wives in 1942.  One of them is briefly featured in the film.

There was a fun scene surrounding the Millers' 10th wedding anniversary as he introduces her to his newest song,  Pennsylvania 6-5000.  Of course we hear Moonlight Serenade more than once.  It would have been unthinkable to not include Tuxedo Junction, String of Pearls, In the Mood, Little Brown Jug, a little of American Patrol and of course Chattanooga Choo Choo.

Miller decides that he wants to join the war action and enlists in the army.  He had pre-arranged that he would conduct the army band and perhaps modernize it some.  He would say that the young men who stood around the bandstand and listened to his music were now in the military and he wanted to play for them, to give them a piece of home.

One of my favorite scenes takes place at an army camp where the Miller band performs and Frances Langford and The Modernaires give a rousing rendition of Chattanooga Choo Choo.  In real life Langford was not a regular singer with the Miller organization.  But Marian Hutton (Betty's older sister), Ray Eberle and Tex Beneke were.  The latter, along with The Modernaires, helped make Choo Choo the popular song it was.  But none were even mentioned in the film because all had run afoul of the tough Helen Miller.

Stewart with the real Mrs. Miller

On December 15, 1944, Miller flew out of London in dense fog on his way to Paris to set up the next gig.  His plane disappeared over the English Channel and his body was never found.  While conspiracy theories abound, it is generally assumed that the carburetor froze up, causing the plane to drop into the water.

The film ends with Helen, her two adopted children and two couples (Morgan, Drake and wives) in Helen's apartment at Christmas.  They all know Miller is missing but the Christmas show he planned would be broadcast without him.  The decision had been made to play Little Brown Jug, a song that Miller did not like and Helen loved, and she was hearing it by her husband's orchestra for the first time.  Allyson cries (she was one of the best criers in the business), as do the others and so do most people watching it.  It is a very touching finale but it was Hollywood fiction.  Oh well...

Other than the music, the film certainly owes a lot to the cast.  Stewart and Allyson were as natural as anyone was ever likely to see on the screen.  Both of them considered it to be one of their favorite films.  Morgan had one of his best roles (he was actually in Orchestra Wives with the real Miller) and the rest of the supporting cast made me a believer.  Other than Langford and The Modernaires, others playing themselves were Louis Armstrong, Gene Krupa and bandleader Ben Pollack (for whom Miller briefly worked).

A few years ago my partner and I journeyed over to Clarinda, Iowa, Miller's birthplace, for the annual festival celebrating his music.  The orchestra itself is the highlight, currently conducted by the energetic Nick Hilscher.  It was a glorious experience and we would like a return visit.  I thought of my folks.  They would have found the two-day event to be one of the best of their lives.

The film is not perfect but it's all it needs to be.  It was one of the three top grossers of the year.  For lovers of Glenn Miller's music, it's right up there with listening to his recordings.  What a sound.

Here's the happy trailer.  Are you in the mood?

Next posting:
Starting a new category called
"a glittering cast" featuring films with 
a large cast of actors