On March 1, 1904, Alton Glenn Miller was born in Clarinda, Iowa. In hopes of a brighter future, Glenn's parents, Elmer and Mattie Lou Miller decided to homestead and moved on west in 1907 to Tryon, Nebraska where they lived in a sod house. In the evenings, Glenn's mother would play a simple pump organ which helped ease the lonesome existence on the plains of Nebraska. Glenn got his musical start when, one day, his father brought home a mandolin.

In 1915, Glenn's family moved to Grant City, Missouri where he played in the town band while attending gradeschool. It was at this time he was given his first trombone. Glenn quickly traded it for an old battered horn, which he practiced every chance he had. Glenn spent so much time playing that his mother worried that he "would never amount to anything".

In 1918, Glenn's family, including an infant daughter, Irene, moved to Fort Morgan, Colorado where Glenn went to high school. By now he had become very interested in a new sound called dance band music. Glenn enjoyed this music so much that he and some classmates decided to start their own band. In fact, Glenn was so excited about this new music that when it came time for his graduation in 1921, he decided to skip his graduation ceremonies and instead traveled to Laramie, Wyoming to play in a band.

By now, Glenn had made the decision that he was going to be a professional musician. His first professional contract was signed with a Dixieland group called Senter's Sentapeeds. Then another opportunity opened up where Glenn could play in the Holly Moyer Orchestra in Boulder and earn enough money to attend the University of Colorado. It was in college, that his interest in music flourished. He continued to play. After flunking three of his five courses one semester, Glenn dropped out to concentrate on his career as a professional musician and concentrate on playing and arranging music full time.

Glenn eventually headed for Los Angeles, where he had heard there were numerous band opportunities. He soon got the chance to join a band noted for finding talented musicians, the Ben Pollack Orchestra, . While playing with Pollack's band, Glenn roomed with another rising star, a clarinetist from Chicago 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 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.