IN MEMORY OF MILLER
This week-end at the Twinwood Air Field and Arena, Clapham, Bedfordshire, England, thousands of devotees of the music of Glenn Miller will gather to enjoy the “2004 International Glenn Miller Festival.” I wish could be there, for rather personal reasons.
It has been sixty years since Glenn Miller stood on this exact spot in the Control Tower at the air base wherein the “Glenn Miller Museum” is now located. Miller and an R.A. F. friend flew from this air field on their final flight.. He and and his pilot friend had a plan which would enable him to rejoin the Glenn Miller Band which had already shipped out across the English Channel and were awaiting his arrival arrival in Paris to begin a totally new phase of their sterling musical careers
The night Glenn Miller “disappeared” was a strange one for me and the group[I happened to be with that night in London. I was a member of an 18-piece dance orchestra which had been formed at the 467th Bomb Group, station, Rackheath, Norfolk County, a few miles north of Norwich, England. Our group was called the “Airliners” directed by Lt. Rex Floyd at the time and we, that very night, appeared on stage at the “Queensbury Club “ in London where the Glenn Miller Band appeared as the musical sensation of that wartime era.. The promoters had asked guest G.I. dance bands from various bases to do shows nightly and we were one of the bands invited. We, naturally, were proud to have been chosen ”to fill in” for musicians we all admired. It was an honor, we knew, and the mystery of Miller's “disappearance” had in it a memory with special meaning to each of us in our band which was widely known as “The Airliners in the East Anglia counties.
Miller is still known and emulated in England. Glenn Miller celebrations have been held annually in Norwich and it became an annual festival last year. That was when it was centered at Twinwood - much larger, two-days long and with more show and exhibit areas. Seven bands played in concerts at the 2003 Glenn Miller Festival - mostly in the Miller tradition - and the fact that the festival is back to entertain new records crowds – for three days of concerts, dances, shows, and musical entertainments, indicate it will be there many years to come. This year again features the “Bill Baker Band” which is the official RAF orchestra for Twinwood. Then, there is “Syd Lawrence and his Orchestra”, “ Chris Smith and String of Pearls orchestra”, along with the fabulous “Sticky Wicket Swing Band.” “John Miller and his Orchestra” will also be featured The maestro will be performing at the same site where his uncle – Glenn Miller – entertained troops sixty year ago.
The always growing Glenn Miller Museum will be open, there will be special aviation displays and demonstration performances of authentic jitterbugging, jiving and other dance form as well as fashions of the “the war time years.” Photograph collections will be on display and there will sufficient foods and social amenities available to assure of an enjoyable stay in the Clapham,
Bedfordshire area.
I assume the festival will end Monday evening with the same feature which closed the show last year. While the bands play medley's of “Miller music”, there was a dramatic flyover of Lancasters and Spitfires filling the sky with other memorable sounds. One again, Glenn Miller Festival will end, I suppose, as it did last year - with not a single dry eye to be seen anywhere!
A.L.M. August 27, 2004 [c610wds]
