Big Band Magazine - Magazine - Page 4
THE REAL GLENN
MILLER STORY
By Dennis M. Spragg
Part Ten (Photos Courtesy of Glenn Miller Collections, University of Colorado, Boulder)
While Capt. Glenn Miller was busy auditioning musicians for the Army Air Forces
Training Command and focused on forming an elite Radio Production Unit that he
would direct. This would not be a collection of "all-stars" from various popular bands.
However, as noted in the previous chapter, important prominent band jazz
musicians did join Miller in Atlantic City. Many more musicians were assigned to
AAF base bands around the United States, including nineteen-year-old Enrico Nicola
"Henry" Mancini of Cleveland, Ohio, whose studies at Juilliard were interrupted by
the war. M/Sgt. Norman Leyden went to Seymour-Johnson Field in North Carolina,
where he continued directing the 28th AAF Band until Miller recommended him for
a different assignment.
Many talented musicians who played string instruments and previously worked for
various symphony orchestras were confused when they received orders to report
to Miller. The skepticism of these gifted and privileged musicians disappeared once
they came to rehearsals conducted by Miller. The musicians versed in classics were s
urprised to discover that their new commanding officer was quite comfortable
directing the twenty-one-person ensemble. It was clear that Capt. Glenn Miller
intended to do something very different from what he had accomplished with his
famous civilian orchestra.
On March 9, 1943, Miller traveled to Washington, D. C. with Lt. Col. Richard Daley of
AAFTC headquarters in Fort Worth. They met with Lt. Col. Edward Kirby of the War
Department Bureau of Public Relations. Their discussion formalized Miller's network
radio plan for a New York-based AAF radio production unit. Miller and Daley then
traveled to Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. They met with the AAF T
echnical School senior officers and agreed to house Miller's new unit there.
Army and AAF Bands typically contained a twenty-eight-person personnel roster, or
limit. Miller had far more people in his organization. Until AAF regulations could be
modified, Glenn had to accommodate his roster by formally assigning his people to
various other units at the AAF Technical School. Meanwhile, as AAFTC Director of
Bands, Miller continued to shuttle between New Haven, New York, and Southern
Pines, North Carolina.
