Page 183 - Cousins - Celebrities, Saints & Sinners

Glenn Miller

9th Cousin

2 times removed

Common Ancestor

Father: George Allen
Weymouth, Dorset, England
1567 - 1648

Mother: Katherine Davis
Somerset, England Born: Died:
1576 - 1624 1 March 1904 15 December 1944

Clarinda, Iowa Over the English Channel

Alton Glenn Miller was an American big-band trombonist,
arranger, composer, and bandleader in the swing era. He was
the best-selling recording artist from 1939 to 1942, leading one
of the best-known big bands. Miller's recordings include "In the
Mood", "Moonlight Serenade", "Pennsylvania 6-5000",
"Chattanooga Choo Choo", "A String of Pearls", "At Last", "(I've
Got a Gal In) Kalamazoo", "American Patrol", "Tuxedo
Junction", "Elmer's Tune", and "Little Brown Jug". In just four
years Glenn Miller scored 16 number-one records and 69 top
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ten hits—more than Elvis Presley (10 cousin, 1 times
removed) (38 top 10s) and the Beatles (33 top 10s) did in their
careers.
The son of Mattie Lou (née Cavender) and Lewis Elmer Miller, Glenn Miller was born in Clarinda, Iowa. He
attended grade school in North Platte in western Nebraska. In 1915, his family moved to Grant City, Missouri.
Around this time, he had made enough money from milking cows to buy his first trombone and played in the
town orchestra. He played cornet and mandolin, but he switched to trombone by 1916. In 1918 the Miller
family moved again, this time to Fort Morgan, Colorado, where he went to high school. In the fall of 1919 he
joined the high-school American football team, Maroons, which won the Northern Colorado American Football
Conference in 1920. He was named Best Left End in Colorado. During his senior year he became interested in
"dance band music". He was so taken that he formed a band with some classmates. By the time he graduated
from high school in 1921 he had decided to become a professional musician.

In 1926 Miller toured with several groups, landing a good spot in Ben Pollack's group in Los Angeles. He also
played for Victor Young, which allowed him to be mentored by other professional musicians. During the late
1920s and early 1930s Miller worked as a freelance trombonist in several bands. On a March 21, 1928 Victor
Records session he played alongside Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, and Joe Venuti in the All-Star Orchestra
directed by Nat Shilkret. He arranged and played trombone on several significant Dorsey Brothers sessions
for OKeh Records, including "The Spell of the Blues", "Let's Do It", and "My Kinda Love", all with Bing
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Crosby (9 cousin,2 times removed) on vocals. On November 14, 1929, vocalist Red McKenzie hired Miller to
play on two records: "Hello, Lola" and "If I Could Be With You One Hour Tonight". Beside Miller were
saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, clarinetist Pee Wee Russell, guitarist Eddie Condon, and drummer Gene Krupa.

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