. . . on the eve of the band's big debut, The Glenn Miller Orchestra (Version 2.1) would NOT have been a success, according to THE GLENN MILLER STORY. This movie shows how the least little incident in an artist's life--a belated birthday gift, a random phone number--becomes fodder for national hits in the right hands. Apparently Karma plays the lead role in separating the wheat from the chaff. Take Joe's fragile lip, which forces James Stewart (as the title character) to rearrange all his band's songs overnight with his NEXT best instrumentalist--a clarinet player--now in the lead trumpet role. This produces the mellow jazz sound that distinguishes the Miller band forevermore. But Karma is a two-way street, as anyone who has watched Fred Astaire as dancer Vernon Castle or Petulia Clark as Mrs. Chips may recall. Glenn has solemnly pledged to his wife Helen (June Allyson) NEVER to let his band play "her" song, "Little Brown Jug." Sure enough, the minute Glenn feels cocky enough to tempt fate by renouncing this vow, he disappears into the Channel's fog.

Saw this movie on TV last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. Some great music, especially the scene with Louis Armstrong, Gene Krupa and others jamming at a night club (and was that Cozy Cole dueling with Krupa on the drums?) The story is rather sentimentalized, but Stewart, Alison and Morgan (who played the Colonel in M*A*S*H) act their roles very well - although I would have screamed if Mrs Miller had said "well honestly!" one more time.Watching the movie I had some suspicions that a lot of dramatic license was being taken with the story, e.g. when Glenn summons his future wife to drop everything to come to New York and get married. However, on checking some biographical details it appears that the New York episode and, broadly, the rest of the story, were quite close to the actual events.Well worth watching.

Glenn Miller suffered from the same criticisms that jazz musicians (Hancock, Turrentine, Hubbard) I listened to in the 70's suffered: he is too commercial. Jazz is supposed to allow for improvisation according to the "purists." Miller's heavily orchestrated music left little room for that.No matter, he dominated the charts and jukeboxes of the 40's just as Elvis and the Beatles would in the following decades because he developed a new sound that the kids went for.This film, starring the great James Stewart (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Philadelphia Story, It's a Wonderful Life) and June Allyson (Too Young to Kiss, The Stratton Story), with superb support by Harry Morgan ("M*A*S*H", "Dragnet") shows the struggles Miller went through to achieve his sound and his final success as a band leader up to his death in a plane crash (a la Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and Jiles Perry Richardson).The film not only has great music by Miller, but some of the big stars of the day in Frances Langford, Louis Armstrong, Gene Krupa, and Ben Pollack.A well deserved Oscar for Sound, and nominations for the musical score and the screenplay.Trivia: Like Amelia Earhart, Miller has never been found.

Major Miller spent a lot of his war here in the U.K. with the USAAF and frequently broadcast on the BBC ,sometimes using British service musicians. One such,the late Kenny Baker - a fine trumpeter - uncharacteristically starstuck,declared his admiration for the trombonist who looked at him for a minute then said,"Your hat's not on straight". Hard to imagine Mr J.Stewart's genial "aw shucks" bandleader being so hardass,but I guess nice guys finish last in showbiz just like everywhere else. "The Glenn Miller Story" first came to my attention in the mid 1950s when I bought a Louis Armstrong LP which contained a long version of "Basin Street Blues" which,according to the cover,was from the soundtrack of the film.Indeed the song was played by Louis and the All Stars in a nightclub scene where Miller sits in on the trombone,but although the format is similar,it is not the version on the album. I don't think Miller ever seriously considered himself a jazz musician certainly his big bands weren't jazz bands like those of his contemporaries Duke Ellington and Count Basie,but,on a good day with the the wind behind them they chugged along quite happily and fitted in well with the predominately white middle - class culture that haunted the movie - houses and ballrooms in the late 30s and early 40s. Old - timers like myself,hanging grimly on to life,only have to pick up a scratchy 78 of "String of pearls" as as we seek to broaden our wardrobe in some charity shop to be transported back to a world of Ration Books and Anderson shelters. And there's the rub.Miller's music hasn't been "relevant" for half a century - the film was released during the birth of the rock 'n' roll age - and is unlikely to appeal to the i - pod generation,so the future audience for "The Glenn Miller Story" is uncertain. Apart from Mr J.Stewart's performance and the reproduction of the sound of the Miller band,the film is pretty dire stuff.Miss J.Allyson is too sweet and All - American to be true,the clichés come thick and fast and ,as everybody know what is going to happen in the end,it's pretty hard to maintain any tension. Mr H.Morgan has the best of the feature roles - here is a man who never gave less than a fine performance.He gives a lesson in how to quietly steal a film. Buddy Rich - in his youth a drummer with Miller's great rival Tommy Dorsey - spoke for many musicians when he said "Glenn Miller should have lived - his music should have died".