GLIDER PROJECT MEMORIES, RECOLLECTIONS

SEEKING GLIDER STORIES

by Sue Hadden for the MRHF Board

The Menominee Range Historical Foundation is collecting any personal

remembrances of the WW II CG-4A Glider which was built at the

Kingsford Ford factory from 1942-1945. These stories will be used in

the Museum’s future glider exhibit.

Ernest Thunell of Quinnesec served with the 540th Combat Engineers.

“While fighting in Salerno, Italy, I saw one glider landing on a hill about

1/2 mile from us. I saw one jeep come out of the glider, but do not know

where it drove off to. I knew that gliders were being built at the Ford

plant back home in Kingsford, where I worked before I was inducted.”

On the battlefield, the enemy had installed glider barriers. “Long poles

were partially buried upright in the ground about 100’ apart. A second

row of poles was staggered to strip the wings off gliders when they

tried to land.”

Back home, Evelyn Thunell recalls “White cloth was used in the

building of a glider. After the war when production stopped, some

workers brought home yards of this cloth. Curtains were made, baby

dresses were fashioned.” For years, Iron Mountain-Kingsford folks

used this cloth for many different things.

As a boy in Kingsford during the 1940s, Pete Meyers remembers once

witnessing The Snatch at the airport. It was a thrill to see a glider

picked up and towed away with a C47 Transport by means of a long

nylon rope suspended between 2 poles.

The Museum wants to hear more from anyone who has glider

memories. Long or short recollections are all OK. A museum

volunteer can meet with you and put your memories on a video tape.

To have your story recorded, please call Sue Hadden at 906-563-5541. Your

story could also be written down and sent to the Museum by postal mail

or email. Send to Glider Memories, MUSEUMS, PO Box 237, Iron

Mountain, MI 49801. For more Glider information, visit the website

address of the Museum which is: http://www.menomineemuseum.com Click

on “What is a glider?” for more glider facts and details.

Subject: 4th of July

Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed

the Declaration of Independence?

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors,and tortured

before they died.

Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.

Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had

two sons captured.

Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the

Revolutionary War.

They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their

sacred honor.

What kind of men were they?

Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine

were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated,

but they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that

the penalty would be death if they were captured.

Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships

swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties

to pay his debts, and died in rags.

Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move

his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his

family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty

was his reward.

Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton,

Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.

At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British

General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters.

He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his

wife, and she died within a few months.

John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13

children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste.

For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find

his wife dead and his children vanished.

As we the 4th of July holiday, remember that freedom is not free.

" The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but

because of those who look on and do nothing"

- Albert Einstein

Top(Sgtleo):_

Photographed by Chris Malcolm

Best Historical Comeback

The battle that raged on November 30, 1864, near Franklin, Tennessee, has been described as "the bloodiest hours of the American Civil War." The Confederate army suffered more than 6,000 casualties—and surrendered six months later.

Fast-forward to 2004. On the same Tennessee turf sat a red-roofed brick building. A Civil War memorial? Nope. A Pizza Hut.

Enter the Civil War Preservation Trust, which has reclaimed more than 25,000 acres of battlefields in 18 states, including Mississippi's Champion Hill, the last stepping-stone to the Siege of Vicksburg; the land adjacent to the Gettysburg battlefield, on which a casino-hotel had been planned; and Slaughter Pen Farm in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where Robert E. Lee famously said, "It is well that war is so terrible—lest we should grow too fond of it." But no Civil War site had been as modernized as Franklin's had.

Step one for the trust: Buy and destroy the Pizza Hut. The town's mayor was among those who took a sledgehammer to it. Step two: Purchase 100 acres of a golf course that had gobbled up another portion of the battlefield. The homeowners who lived along the green were at first opposed but came around. "It was a battlefield before their grandparents were born," says David Fraley of the Carter House, a museum on the site, "and in the end most people respected that."

The effort to save more of the eight-square-mile battlefield is ongoing. But the land already looks much as it did when the Blue and the Gray fought over it. The Pizza Hut is once again open land. Native grasses have replaced the golf course's sand traps. The treasure trove of war relics—like bullets and uniform buckles—unearthed last year is a bonus. "It's exciting to think those things were there all these years," says Fraley, "sitting under a fairway and waiting for us to find them."

Jim Hennessey emailed me a copy of the Glenn Miller Newsletter, and so I went to their site this evening and began looking around. As many of you know, I am a HUGE fan of his music and have been just about all my life.

If you aren't that familiar with his history (and even if you are), it's an interesting read. It's scary to think that his first shot as the Glenn Miller Band didn't make it, and the poor man was so depressed. How could we get through without some of those GREAT tunes???

Taken directly from the site:

http://www.glennmillerorchestra.com/

----------------

1935

Glenn began recording under his own name for Columbia. His instrumental 'Solo Hop' reached the Top 10.

1937

Glenn organized his own touring band and signed to Brunswick records.

1938

The group was unsuccessful, and was disbanded.

1939

The Orchestra played at the Glen Island Casino, NY, a major swing venue, and was heard on radio.

17 Top 10 hits including 'Sunrise Serenade'; 'Moonlight Serenade'; 'Wishing (Will Make It So)'.

Chart-toppers: 'Stairway to the Stars', 'Moon Love', 'Over the Rainbow', 'Blue Orchids', 'The Man With the Mandolin'

His 'Moonlight Serenade' radio series for Chesterfield aired on CBS three times a week.

1940

'Tuxedo Junction' sold 115,000 copies the first week. 'Pennsylvania 6-5000' was released.

31 Top 10 hits: 'Careless', 'When You Wish Upon a Star', 'Imagination', 'Fools Rush In (Where Angels Fear to Tread)', and 'Blueberry Hill'; 'The Woodpecker Son'. 'In the Mood' and 'Tuxedo Junction' were inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame.

1941

Another 11 Top 10 hits: The band made the movie, Sun Valley Serenade, introducing 'Chattanooga Choo Choo', soon a million seller.

#1 hits: 'Song of the Volga Boatmen', 'You and I', 'Elmer's Tune'.

1942

11 Top 10 hits and 3rd year as the top recording artist with 'American Patrol', 'A String of Pearls', 'Moonlight Cocktail', 'Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree (With Anyone Else but Me)' and (I've Got a Gal) In Kalamazoo' which came from Miller's second film, 'Orchestra Wives.

The end of Miller's dominance of popular music when he received an officer's commission in the Army/Air Force.

Glenn organized a service band, performed at military camps, and hosted a weekly radio series.

1943

Two more Top 10 hits including #1 'That Old Black Magic'.

1944

Took his band to Great Britain, performed for the troops and did radio broadcasts.

On December 15th, Glenn Miller boarded a transport plane to Paris, never to be seen again.

1945

'Glenn Miller', an album of 78 rpm records, topped the newly instituted album charts and became the most successful album of the year.

1947

'Glenn Miller Masterpieces, Vol. 2' topped the album charts.

1954

Miller was the subject of a partly fictionalized film biography, The Glenn Miller Story, starring James Stewart.

2003

Miller posthumously received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

BIOGRAPHY

"A band ought to have a sound all of its own. It ought to have a personality." - Glenn Miller

Alton Glenn Miller was born in Clarinda, Iowa on March 1, 1904. But it was in North Platte, Nebraska, several years later that Glenn actually got his musical start when, one day, his father brought home a mandolin. Glenn promptly traded it for an old battered horn, which he practiced every chance he got. In fact his mother worried, "It got to where Pop and I used to wonder if he'd ever amount to anything."

In 1923, Miller entered the University of Colorado, although he spent more time traveling to auditions and playing where and whenever he could. After flunking three of his five courses one semester, Glenn dropped out to concentrate on his career as a professional musician.

He toured with several orchestras and ended up in Los Angeles where he landed a spot in Ben Pollack's group, a band that included a guy named Benny Goodman. Here, Miller also got the chance to write some arrangements. Arriving in New York City, he soon sent for, and married his college sweetheart, Helen Burger in 1928, and for the next three years, earned his living as a free-lance trombonist and arranger.

Miller played and recorded with the likes of Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey (who on several of their records, featured an up-and-coming singer by the name of Bing Crosby), Gene Krupa, Eddie Condon and Coleman Hawkins. In addition, during that time, Glenn cut 18 sides for Goodman, and also worked

for radio studio conductors like Victor Young, Carl Fenton and Jacques Renard. In 1934, Miller became the musical director of the Dorsey Band, and later went on to organize The Ray Noble Orchestra, which included such players as Charlie Spivak, Peewee Erwin, Bud Freeman, Johnny Mince,

George Van Eps and Delmar Kaplan, among others.

In April 1935, Glenn Miller recorded, for the first time, under his own name. Using six horns, a rhythm section and a string quartet, he recorded "Moonlight on the Ganges" and "A Blues Serenade" for Columbia. But selling only a few hundred records, he continued his position with the Noble Orchestra.

In 1937, Glenn Miller stepped out to form his own band. There were a few recordings -- one for Decca and one for Brunswick -- a couple of week-long stints in New Orleans and Dallas, and many one-nighters, but it was not to be. Though the group would play one more date several days later in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Glenn gave his men their final notice on New Year's Eve at the Valencia Ballroom in York, Pennsylvania. Broke, depressed and having no idea what he was going to do, he returned to New York City.

It is said that Miller could never remember precisely the moment he decided to emphasize his new reed section sound. But it was during this disheartening interim, that he realized the unique sound -- produced by the clarinet holding the melodic line while the tenor sax plays the same note, and supported harmonically by three other saxophones -- just might be the individual and easily recognizable style that would set his band apart from all the rest.

Formed in March 1938, the second Glenn Miller Orchestra -- which would later include the likes of Tex Beneke, Marion Hutton, Ray Eberle, Paul Tanner, Johnny Best, Hal McIntyre, and Al Klinck -- soon began breaking attendance records all up and down the East Coast. At the New York State Fair in Syracuse it attracted the largest dancing crowd in the city's history. The next night it topped Guy Lombardo's all-time record at the Hershey Park Ballroom in Pennsylvania. The Orchestra was invited by ASCAP to perform at Carnegie Hall with three of the greatest bands ever -- Paul Whiteman, Fred Waring and Benny Goodman -- and created more of a stir than any of them.

There were record-breaking recordings, as well, such as "Tuxedo Junction", which sold 115,000 copies in the first week. "In the Mood", and "Pennsylvania 6-5000", all appearing on the RCA Victor Bluebird label. In early 1940, Down Beat Magazine announced that Miller had topped all other bands in its Sweet Band Poll, and capping off this seemingly sudden rise to the top, there was, of course, Glenn Miller's "Moonlight Serenade" radio series for Chesterfield cigarettes which aired three times a week over CBS. In 1941, it was off to Hollywood where the band worked on its first movie, "Sun Valley Serenade", which introduced the song -- and soon-to-be million selling record --"Chattanooga Choo Choo", and featured the Modernaires and the Nicholas Brothers. Then came "Orchestra Wives". But the war was starting to take its toll on many of the big bands as musicians, and the rest of country's young men, began receiving draft notices.

On October 7, 1942, Alton Glenn Miller reported for induction into the Army and was immediately assigned to the Army Specialist Corps. His appointment as a Captain came after many months of convincing the military higher-ups that he could modernize the army band and ultimately improve the morale of the men. His training complete, he was transferred into the Army Air Corps, where he ultimately organized the Glenn Miller Army Air Force Band. Miller's goal of entertaining the fighting troops took another year to be realized, but in late 1943 he and the band were shipped out to England.

There, in less than one year, the Glenn Miller Army Air Force Band engaged in over 800 performances. Of these, 500 were broadcasts heard by millions. There were more than 300 personal appearances including concerts and dances, with a gross attendance of over 600,000. But Glenn was not to participate in the final six months of these activities.

In the Fall of 1944, the band was scheduled to be sent on a six-week tour of Europe and would be stationed in Paris during that time. Miller decided to go ahead, in order to make the proper arrangements for the group's arrival. And so, on December 15th, Glenn Miller boarded a transport plane to Paris, never to be seen again.

In his book "Glenn Miller & His Orchestra", George Simon wrote this about the man. "His favorite author was Damon Runyon. His favorite book was the Bible. Spencer Tracy and Olivia de Havilland were his favorite movie actor and actress. His big loves were trout fishing, playing baseball, listening to

good music, sleep and money. His pet hates were bad swing, early-morning telephone calls (he liked to sleep from 4 a.m. to noon), and the phrase 'goodbye now'. His favorite quotation, one he stated, was not from the Bible, nor from Runyon, but from Duke Ellington: 'It Don't Mean a Thing If it Ain't Got that Swing!'