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At its state-of-the-art facilities in the St. John’s Wood area of London, and beginning as early as 1931, Britain’s legendary Abbey Road Studios has continued to provide an unparalleled backdrop for leading figures from the worlds of classical, jazz, film, television, and popular music. Maintaining its unmatched role in the British creative community throughout the struggles of World War II and beyond, the accompanying images from Abbey Road’s renowned Studio One recording room even further serve to document numerous, touching, and behind-the-scenes moments from the final months in the life of one of the most cherished figures of the American swing era.
During the height of the Allied liberation of Europe, in 1944, musical pioneer Captain Glenn Miller traveled to England to perform, broadcast, and record compositions that would forever embody a spirit of freedom and hope for millions of war-torn Americans and Europeans, and that would eventually bring him to the Abbey Road recording headquarters of EMI Records (later renamed Abbey Road Studios) for a series of landmark performances with his American Band of the Allied Expeditionary Forces (ABAEF), including various selections featuring a then up-and-coming, young entertainer named Dinah Shore. Also receiving a promotion to the rank of Major during his time in England, Miller and his orchestra would go on to have an irreversible impact on the war effort.
Assembled in close cooperation with the archives of EMI Music Ltd., the selected images make possible an intimate look inside the experience of Major Glenn Miller as he would earlier state, “lending as much support as I can to winning the war,” amidst a devastated, 1944 London community under daily rocket attack. Beyond the September 16th performances documented here, and throughout their six-month period in England, Miller and the ABAEF would participate in hundreds of additional recordings, broadcasts, and concert performances for both American and British troops and civilian personnel, before his plane was tragically lost over the English Channel on December 15th, 1944.
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Sharing A Smile, London, 1944
Abbey Road Studios
© EMI Music Ltd. |
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Pictured here sharing a charming moment with Miller, twenty-eight-year-old singer and actress Dinah Shore can be seen reviewing the music for one of the four selections she would record that day, as part of a benefit project to raise funds in support of both American and British service charities involved in the war effort. Having now been in England for slightly more than one month, in conjunction with a United Services Tour (USO), Dinah Shore had previously performed with the Glenn Miller Orchestra at their main broadcast center in the Bedford area of England.
With his orchestra originally stationed in the Chelsea area of London, in a section of the city known as “Buzz Bomb Alley” (directly under the path of the daily, German, rocket attacks), Miller had been able to quickly arrange for the band’s relocation to Bedford, for their safety, with the assistance of British film star Colonel David Niven. During Dinah Shore’s time performing as part of her live broadcasts with entire orchestra in Bedford, Shore would also go on to record four songs with a smaller group of Miller’s band members known as the Uptown Hall Swing Sextet, led by pianist Sergeant Mel Powell.
When she was not touring throughout Europe and England performing for the troops (in 1944), Dinah Shore would also appear in two, all-star, Hollywood films produced specifically as morale-boosting tributes to the Allied war effort. In the Universal Studios film “Follow the Boys,” the star-studded line-up included Dinah Shore, Donald O’Connor, Orson Welles, Marlene Dietrich, W.C. Fields, Jeanette MacDonald, and dozens more, and in Warner Brothers’ “Thank Your Lucky Stars” Shore could be seen with the likes of Humphrey Bogart, Eddie Cantor, Errol Flynn, Bette Davis, and Olivia de Havilland.
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Glenn Conducts, London, 1944
Abbey Road Studios
© EMI Music Ltd. |
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[ click to enlarge ] |
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In the accompanying photo of Miller and Shore rehearsing with the orchestra (without a microphone), the viewer begins to see a glimpse of the enormous size of the Studio One recording space at Abbey Road, with several rows of woodwind performers visible to the right of the frame. Later in this exhibition, even wider perspectives will provide complete views of both the massive size of the room itself and the large size of the entire Miller Orchestra.
As just one of the many insights into the final months of Miller’s life provided by the accompanying images, the signs of extreme, physical fatigue that had become an increasing part of his everyday routine are also evidenced by his frail figure and slightly loose-fitting uniform. With a schedule consisting of countless flights to military bases and civilian halls throughout England, involving dozens of live appearances, broadcasts, and recordings per week (even further compounded by the daily, aerial attacks on London), Miller had been unable to appear with Dinah Shore for an additional, military base performance as recently as the previous day, due to his failing health.
Having just returned from a series of USO performances on Europe’s Western Front herself, Shore had been disappointed to learn that Miller would not be appearing with her the previous day, but was able to continue the performance under the direction of drummer and future ABAEF bandleader Ray McKinley. With Miller, Shore, and the orchestra now assembled at Abbey Road for their September 16th recordings, the stage was set for what would become the group’s last performance with Shore, before her return to the United States the following week, as well as one of the final recordings of Major Glenn Miller’s life.
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