Movie Music Monday – The Glenn Miller Story – Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian

Before I start today, I promise that this will all tie together. Today’s film is the biography of Glenn Miller, The Glenn Miller Story. The 1954 film starred Jimmy Stewart as Glenn Miller and June Allyson as his wife.

The film really is good, even though there are places where it may not be historically accurate. Jimmy does a pretty good job as Miller. I think any time someone plays a musician, who isn’t necessarily a musician, you’re going to be scrutinized by a musician. I watched pretty closely to his trombone “playing” and it is good enough to fool some people.

The movie follows Miller through his early career right up until he is lost over the English Channel. When I first saw this movie, I was unaware that was how he died. I really did enjoy this movie and recommend it to those who love music.

I picked this film today because one of the songs in it, made history today. Glenn and his band had many hits. They include, I Got a Gal in Kalamazoo, Moonlight Serenade, American Patrol, and Tuxedo Junction. His best known is In the Mood, but none of those are songs that I’m presenting today.

It was on this day in 1942 that the first literal gold record was awarded. It was given to Glenn Miller from RCA Victor Bluebird for selling 1.2 million copies of “Chattanooga Choo Choo” on this day. W. Wallace Early, the manager of record sales had this to say:

“We’re mighty proud of that Chattanooga Choo Choo, and the man that made the record, Glenn Miller. You see it’s been a long time – 15 years in fact – since any record has sold a million copies. And Chattanooga Choo Choo certainly put on steam and breezed right through that million mark by over 200,000 pressings. And we decided that Glenn should get a trophy. The best one we could think of is a gold record of Chattanooga.”

In 1958, the Recording Industry Association of America introduced a gold record award program. It was for any record which received one million dollars in retail sales.

So, hop on board as we chug along on the Chattanooga Choo Choo…