POP/JAZZ; GLENN MILLER SOUND OF 1939 AT GLEN ISLAND CASINO (original) (raw)
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POP/JAZZ
- April 27, 1984
Credit...The New York Times Archives
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April 27, 1984
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Section C, Page
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JOHN S. WILSON
FORTY-FIVE years ago - on May 17, 1939 - Glenn Miller and his orchestra began a three-month engagement at the Glen Island Casino. During that stint, the orchestra burst into a popularity that became so universal and lasting that today, 40 years after the leader's death in 1944, the Glenn Miller Orchestra is still touring the world 50 weeks of every year.
Tonight, the orchestra will perform at the Glen Island Casino for the first time since the summer of 1940. It will not be the same Glenn Miller Orchestra, of course, and it will not be quite the same Glen Island Casino. The present orchestra, organized by the Miller estate in 1956, still plays ''Moonlight Serenade,'' ''In the Mood,'' ''Chattanooga Choo Choo,'' ''String of Pearls'' and other Miller hits in the original Miller arrangements. It is staffed with young musicians, most of whom were not born until almost two decades after Miller died, and it is led by Dick Gerhart, a 55-year-old saxophonist, who joined the band in 1968.
The Glen Island Casino, which is in New Rochelle on Long Island Sound, was a springboard to success for many big bands of the 1930's, including those of Ozzie Nelson, Charlie Barnet, Claude Thornhill, Les Brown and the Dorsey brothers. The Dorsey Brothers Orchestra also ended its career there after the irascible brothers Tommy and Jimmy disagreed on the tempo for a tune one night. Each then went off to lead his own band.
A Major Refurbishing
The casino was closed in 1978, but it reopened last December after its new owners had invested $3 million refurbishing it. The original shell of the building and the dance floor in the second-floor ballroom, where the bands played, have been retained. But everything else is new, including a restaurant and two lounges looking out over the sound.
There were several reasons for the sudden success of the Miller band, according to George T. Simon, author of ''The Big Bands'' and of ''Glenn Miller and His Orchestra,'' a biography. Mr. Simon was a friend of Miller and played drums in the first Miller band, which was not a success.
''The personnel of the band became set just before it went into Glen Island,'' Mr. Simon recalled the other day. ''I remember hearing a broadcast from the Meadowbrook in New Jersey, where it played just before Glen Island, and being impressed by the fact that the rhythm section, which had not been good, was sounding great. I phoned Glenn to ask why, and he told me that Maurice Purtill had joined the band on drums. It made a difference because the band had had such bad drummers. When Glenn put up with me as the drummer in his first band, I knew he didn't know much about drumming.
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