Home

Well, not totally a bum deal but…okay, yeah, it was a bum deal. But I hold no fault with the seller.

A couple months ago I bid on and won a September 1944 issue of a magazine called “Bandleaders.” Featured prominently on the cover was Captain Glenn Miller of the US Army Air Corps (tho’ by September of ’44 he had been promoted to Major and some previous owner, more than like the original owner, made that correction on the cover. Khee!)

Anyway, I only paid about $13 total for the magazine (including shipping). Although that’s quite a return for a magazine that only cost .15 cents back in the day! For a 60+ year old magazine the periodical is in fairly decent shape, but obviously it had been in a dank area for quite some time as it has that nice musty smell to it and some moisture stains. Most of this is on the back of the mag. The front is in decent shape, and with the exception of the correction of Miller’s rank, was free of any markings or tears.

Now, one would figure if somebody’s on the cover of a magazine that there would be an article written yes? You know, the ‘cover story.’ Full page spread, good lengthy article, lots of pics accompanying it?

Folks, there wasn’t a dang word written about Miller in this entire magazine. Not a word! No full page article, no half page article, no little blurb in a box, not two lines, not one line, not even his NAME! I have flipped through the magazine (carefully, as it is 60+ years old) several times now and have found nothing. There’s a full color (yes, color!) photo spread of Duke Ellington. There’s an article about Perry Como. There’s an article about “The Other Sinatra” (Frank’s cousin, whose name I can’t remember at the moment). There’s notes about Harry James and Charlie Spivak (bandleaders that had connections (James) or played (Spivak) with the Miller orchestra before Glenn went into the service). And there’s pictures and articles about bandleaders and singers that I’ve never heard of. Ever. Of course, I don’t profess to be any kind of expert on the Big Band era but I’ve honestly never heard of any of them.

Now, I’ll admit there’s a couple of pages in the magazine where photos were clipped, but I sincerely doubt they had anything to do with Miller. And I’ve checked all the page numbers and the magazine is complete, there are no missing pages. The table of contents for the mag list nothing for Miller.

Nothing.

Nothing?! Then why was he put on the cover? I mean, the guy and his military band were ducking buzz bombs in London and this magazine writes nothing about him but slaps his picture on the cover?

And the weird thing I noticed when I got to thinking about it too much was that it’s a painting based on an actual photo, as opposed to them using the actual photo. Maybe all their covers were like this or they mixed things up with artist renditions and real photographs I don’t know, but to me it seems like the use of a painting instead of an atual photo was like….a memorial. It’s a nice painting but it’s almost like Miller is looking back at the reader asking “Hey…remember me?”

Interestingly, I think this is something Miller thought of sometimes. Although he never directly came out with it, I think he may have wondered what kind of effect his going into the service would have on his civilian music career after the war. The American public, just as much today as then, has a short memory, and the hot pop flavor of today will be easily forgotten by tomorrow, replaced by something new. 

Once in the service, Miller was seen less by the civilian public. Other band leaders soon were becoming popular with the kids. Was Miller, by September of ’44, forgotten by the record buying public? One might think so based on this magazine’s odd presentation of cover photo but no story.  Sometimes, in a darker mood, Miller would say he wasn’t going to have a band after the war. Other times he talked of plans to continue with a band and was already thinking of new directions to go with it.

Unfortunately, his ultimate decision would not come to be. But as far as being remembered, Miller has most of the bandleaders and singers mentioned in this magazine beat.

For over 60 years…