Tex Beneke with the Glenn Miller Orchestra. Vocals: The Crew Chiefs, Arthur Melvin, Lillian Laine. 1946 I took this video from a VHS. Please contact me if you know how to get this on DVD.
Just realized why the lead singer faces the trio. They do the same thing on the Chattanooga Choo Choo, and Gal in Kalamazoo videos. When he sings his lips perform the same function as a conductor's baton---the trio sees PRECISELY when to start each note. Watch their eyes. So much quality in swing music. I think it was the high point of popular music over the decades.
Thank you for this clip! I'd never before seen Artie Melvin or The Crew Chiefs, that I recall. I'd seen a photo of Lillian Lane only. Eternal blessings to Tex Beneke for bringing back the Miller sound after the War even though Mrs. Miller was so adamantly against it.
According to biographer George T. Simon, Helen was initially all in favor of continuing the band under Tex's direction but soured on him when he tried to modernize its arrangements. Tex had been in regular correspondence with Major Miller and knew Glenn wasn't going to stand still musically. Helen, RCA, and the Miller Estate execs OTOH wanted the band permanently anchored in 1940-42. By 1950 Tex and the Estate parted ways permanently.
The story is that after Miller's death, helen Miller and Miller's attorney David Mackay ad Don Haynes got together and discussed the formation of the band. Tex was chosen as the leader although after four years in 1950, the Miller library was taken away from him because Tex was unhappy about playing the same old numbers, and was tryting to modernise the band. The dvd is available on Request Records.
I just recalled reading Tex Beneke's bio in which he said that Helen Miller's response to his desire to revive the orchestra after the War was, "Tex, how much trouble do you want to endure in one lifetime." And it's my understanding that the reason the character of Tex B isn't featured at all in THE GLENN MILLER STORY was because of Helen Miller's direction that Tex not be included due to her ongoing feud with him. My late mother confirmed the latter point. Anyway, that was my recollection.
Yes, that story's been confirmed by various Miller biographers and historians. The movie also eliminated numerous major characters like the two Rays (Eberle and McKinley), Marion Hutton, and the entire AAF string section. And that doesn't even touch on the numerous made-up and/or factually-inaccurate parts of the narrative.
Yes, I now recall having read that fact as well; Tex asserted that Glenn Miller, had he survived, wouldn't have stayed with the same old numbers year after year without modernising. Of course he'd still have featured the favorites, but wouldn't have featured nothing else but. You were right; I had the "snit" mischaracterized; it wasn't the revival of the band, it was the issue over the same numbers.
According to various Miller historians I've met, Glenn had even talked about moving away from the reed blend and coming up with a new and different sound. He never stood still musically (compare the 1939 band with 1942!) but that changed with the Beneke-led edition. Tex was the leader in name only; most of the shots were called by execs at RCA and with the Miller Estate. They wanted the band to be permanently anchored in 1941 instead of moving ahead. Tensions between Tex and RCA got so bad that they split completely in 1950.
@@Poisson4147 I didn’t realize RCA was also making the decisions. I thought the big thorn in Tex’s side was Helen Miller, to the point that she even succeeded in having Tex’s character omitted from the film “The Glenn Miller Story,” not that I ever felt the flick was entirely historically accurate.
@@georgehewett6243 According to historians George T. Simon and Dennis Spragg, the entire band including Tex were employees of the estate along with RCA. He had very little musical independence which soon started to grate on him. He tried to do some more-modern pieces ("Sterling and Cardinal", for ex.) but got all sorts of pushback from his handlers. I heard a radio interview with him where he said he often wasn't even allowed to pick which songs would be in the library; the suits did it for him. That tension paralleled the split between him and Helen because she'd been so deeply involved in both re-forming the band and in what she saw as protecting Glenn's legacy. They all felt that Tex should never deviate from the classic style, despite the fact that Miller himself had said he didn't want to stand still. As you note, the bad blood led to Tex and several other members of his bands being completely ignored in the 1954 biopic. Plus I really appreciate your agreement that the film is highly dubious factually, lol! According to information I've gotten from the University of Colorado's archives, by the end of the decade the situation had become extremely unpleasant. People like senior arranger Norm Leyden quit, and sidemen changed regularly. Behind the scenes RCA was preparing to sever all ties. They actually hired studio arranger and conductor Ralph Flanagan to form a clone band (!) that would be ready to take over once Tex was gone. According to George T. Simon, when the final break came RCA added injury to insult (yea, that's intentional) by sending their people to repossess the band's library _in the middle of a concert._ The split was never reconciled during Tex's lifetime, IMHO a huge injustice to a really nice guy who devoted most of his life to keeping the Miller flame alive. There's been a slight softening in recent years with his name being restored to the "official" band's website and a couple of his songs being added to the library.
@@Poisson4147 Truly sad to hear all of this. The endeavor of artistry has to be hampered by politics and control-oriented people. In my opinion, the finale of The Glenn Miller Story was laughable. I’m quite certain Helen Miller did not learn of Glenn’s disappearance via a radio news broadcast. That seemed to me to be melodramatic effect for the moviegoers. My late mother said she often wondered whether the real truth might have been that Miller was also a spy for the military under the “guise” of his Army Air Force band and possibly the Nazis intercepted him.
Initially it was a slimmed-down version of the AAF Band, with maybe 13 or 14 strings instead of 21 and a standard swing section instead of the massive 24 pieces Major Miller had. The band actually outdrew Miller's civilian group (!) for a while but there was a lot of stress behind the scenes. Tex had been in regular contact with Glenn during the war and knew that Miller wanted to come back with a more-modern orchestra. However the Beneke-led band was actually fully owned by RCA and the Miller Estate, who wanted it to be permanently anchored in 1940-42. Tex was increasingly frustrated by the limits placed on him. By 1950 there was a complete break, with Tex going out on his own with no legal or official collection to the Miller Estate.
@@IngDiegoVasquez_ My pleasure. I've gotten tons of information from the Glenn Miller Collections archives at the University of Colorado. They're the primary repository for recordings, artifacts, and documentation of his life and music.
Thank you; I buy a lot of MP3 individual songs from Amazon. Admittedly, with Krupa and Kenton, I'd be more selective as, on some selections, I felt they went off on tangents and lost track of the melody, where with Glenn/Tex, I'm 99% of the time likely to go for any recording they made. I admit I've heard of Jerry Wald and I think I have one LP record of his, but don't know much more than that about him. Thanks again for the info.
I'd venture to guess that it's typically more of a musicality thing. Most bands do a give-and-take thing, where one person/part will play, and then another will play something to respond to, or complement it.
It's actually called "call and response"! early arrangers learned how to get a band section to play a group of notes which could then be picked up by another part of the band!
Thank you for your information. But I don't think I will order it. Shipping & handling prices (from the US to Europe) have skyrocketed since January 1st 2013. It would cost me 29,24 USD to get this, and probably much more (import duties).
@@leeming1234 It was actually more complex than that. Tex led the orchestra from 1946 to 1950 but he was an employee of the Miller Estate rather than a full leader. He'd been in regular contact with Glenn during the war and knew that Miller wanted to come back with a more-modern orchestra. However RCA and the Miller Estate, wanted the band to be permanently anchored in 1940-42. Tex was increasingly frustrated by the limits placed on him. By 1950 there was a complete break, with Tex going out on his own with no legal or official collection to the Miller Estate.
