The Glenn Miller Story

The Glenn Miller Story is a 1954 American biographical film about the eponymous American band-leader, directed by Anthony Mann and starring James Stewart in their second non-western collaboration.

For the soundtrack album, see The Glenn Miller Story (soundtrack). For the compilation album, see The Glenn Miller Story (album).

The Glenn Miller Story

Anthony Mann

Valentine Davies
Oscar Brodney

Aaron Rosenberg

James Stewart
June Allyson
Harry Morgan

William H. Daniels

Russell F. Schoengarth

Glenn Miller
Joseph Gershenson
Henry Mancini

Universal-International

February 10, 1954 (1954-02-10) (New York)

116 minutes

United States

English

$12 million (rentals)

Plot[edit]

The film follows big band leader Glenn Miller (1904–1944) from his early days in the music business in 1929 through to his 1944 death when the airplane he was flying in was lost over the English Channel during World War II. Prominent placement in the film is given to Miller's courtship and marriage to Helen Burger, and various cameos by actual musicians who were colleagues of Miller.

Several turning points in Miller's career are depicted with varying degrees of accuracy, including: the success of an early jazz band arrangement; his departure from the Broadway pit and sideman work to front a band of his own; the failure of his first band on the road; and the subsequent re-forming of his successful big band and the establishment of the "Miller Sound" as typified by "Moonlight Serenade". Also depicted is Miller's international success touring his band in support of the Allies in World War II.

Miller is shown as disliking the tune "" and only performing it in 1944 as a "special arrangement" for his wife. The song was actually first performed and recorded in 1939,^[1] became one of his most popular early hits, and was performed numerous times by both the civilian and AAF Orchestras. The 1939 recording went on to sell over a million copies.^[2]

Little Brown Jug

Miller was, in fact, dressed down for performing jazz marches and told by a superior officer that 's marches served the military well in World War I. However, in the film, his character apologizes sheepishly and is only rescued by General Arnold whose children are fans. Miller's biographer George T. Simon states that his actual response was "Are you still flying the same planes you flew in the last war?",^[3] after which the jazz marches stayed.

Sousa

Neither nor the Modernaires performed with Miller's Army Air Force Band.

Frances Langford

There are several anachronisms in the picture. When the military band led by Miller is playing in front of General "Hap" Arnold, a B-29 bomber is in the background. The marching troops are desegregated, which did not occur until 1948. Scenes ostensibly shot in England are clearly staged in the U.S., as witness the presence of RCA Type 44 microphones during a BBC broadcast. In reality, the BBC could not afford them and designed and built its own, cheaper version.

In addition, several key plot points are either highly fictionalized from actual events or were invented for the film:

as Glenn Miller (trombone dubbed by Joe Yukl and Murray McEachern)

James Stewart

as Helen Burger Miller

June Allyson

as Chummy MacGregor (billed as Henry Morgan)

Harry Morgan

as Don Haynes

Charles Drake

as Si Shribman

George Tobias

as Gen. Henry H. Arnold, USAAF

Barton MacLane

as W Kranz

Sig Ruman

as Mr. Miller

Irving Bacon

as Mr. Burger

James Bell

as Mrs. Miller

Kathleen Lockhart

as Polly Haynes

Marion Ross

as Wilbur Schwartz (clarinet playing dubbed by Wilbur Schwartz)

Nino Tempo

Production[edit]

Universal-International's first public announcements, early in 1953, employed the soon-discarded title, "Moonlight Serenade."

This is the second of three movies that paired Jimmy Stewart and June Allyson, the others being The Stratton Story and Strategic Air Command.

Mann said "The reason I became interested in it was that I wanted to dramatize a sound. And it’s the story of finding a new sound... To tell the story of a man who is hunting something new and finally finds it, and who, during the war years, became one of the great heroes. We tried to make the narrative a little different too. When he proposes to June Allyson, it’s very humorous, because she has curlers in, and so forth. At the end when he’s dead, instead of very sentimental music, we played ‘Little Brown Jug,’ so that it gave it a different feeling from just sentimentality. Of course the film was fraught with sentimentality."^[4]

The Glenn Miller Story