A blast from the past

On Dec. 15, 1944, the Allies were strengthening their foothold on the European mainland--the Battle of the Bulge was about to start. Allied bombers were routinely flying bombing missions to Germany.

On this day, one of those air raids was aborted, and the RAF planes returning to England were running short of fuel. Over the English Channel, they reached a safe drop zone and dropped 4,000 pounds of bombs to lighten their load. One of the pilots then noticed a single-engine airplane spiraling down and hitting the water.

As the planes returning from Germany were over the English Channel, they crossed paths with a single-engine airplane heading from England to Paris. Aboard was bandleader Glenn Miller--an Air Force major--who was going there to play for the soldiers who had recently liberated France's capital city.

His plane never arrived, and no trace of it has ever been found.

Turn the clock ahead over 60 years to Monday night, at a local theater in a nearby city, where the Glenn Miller Orchestra performed for a large, appreciative audience. Including me, my wife and the other two from the news staff of our little paper. We were there to enjoy the music. (And yes, we paid for our own tickets.) Maybe it was a little before my time, but many of Glenn Miller's tunes are familiar to most people. "Standards," I think the term is.

The theater itself has been painstakingly restored in recent years, including a large Moller pipe organ. A large crowd had already seated themselves with still 20 minutes before the start of the concert ...


On this night, the organ got the night off, in favor of the saxophones, trombones, trumpets and clarinets of the Glenn Miller Orchestra. A sign in the lobby asked patrons to turn off their cell phones. Because when you stepped inside, you stepped back 60 years ...


The GMO (for short) is directed by Larry O'Brien, and most of the musicians appear to be younger than me. Still, it was Big Band music, as performed by an expert ensemble. Musically, they were very "tight"--expert musicians playing flawlessly, each getting their turn to take the spotlight ...


I was seated nearly at the back of the hall, but I had my camera and zoom lens along, and I was able to get some photos of the concert with available light. Here are a few scenes ...








The singing group (including three of the musicians) is called the Moonlight Serenaders, using the name of Miller's signature tune. All told (including the singers and the director), the GMO has 19 members. It tours all over the country (and, in fact, will be touring Japan late this year, according to its website).

From our town, the GMO was heading to a date in Minnesota and then will be visiting Clarinda, Iowa, which is Glenn Miller's home town--he was born in 1904 and died at the age of 40.

From Clarinda, the GMO will be playing this Sunday at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa.

The Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa.

Does that name ring a bell to some of you?