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Glenn Miller and ‘Sun Valley Serenade’
Bandleader and WWII mainstay Glenn Miller disappeared 80 years ago Sunday as he flew in a small Army Air Corps plane going from England to Paris. If you have seen the biopic “The Glenn Miller Story” starring another WWII hero, James Stewart, then you will remember that scene when the world finds out he’s gone.
“Sun Valley Serenade” has been one of my guilty pleasures since I was a teenager, because my grandparents taught me to love old movies and big band music. This is both. It’s one of only two movies featuring Miller, and it’s a blessing we have these performances on film. “Chattanooga Choo Choo” – with Dorothy Dandridge, Nicholas Brothers, the Modernairres and Tex Beneke – has got to be up there with one of the finer musical performances put on film.
A lot of legends here – among the band as well as a young Milton Berle, Lynn Bari, John Payne and especially Sonia Henie – but only one is still alive: 102-year-old trumpet player Ray Anthony, who you see in this clip. He’ll be 103 in January.
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Black Friday
I can’t believe it but I am actually in a shopping mall on Black Friday. I don’t think that has happened since the ‘90s, and I really wish I kept up the streak.
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Story, song, all the day long
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Zamboni
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Nice on the ice
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Don’t they know what day it is?
Seen on my drive, a bunch of turkeys who don’t know that Thanksgiving is coming soon.
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An 80,000-year sight
Glad I got to see this tonight. A happy accident.
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Some kind of robot
,,, but I don’t know what it does.
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Pumpkin patch life
Pumpkin patches make me happy.
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Gone but not forgotten
The Washingtonville 5 Firefighters Memorial in Washingtonville, New York, on Sunday. It’s a moving tribute to the five firefighters from the Hudson Valley village who were killed on Sept. 11, 2001. The village of Washingtonville, New York, an hour north of the World Trade Center, was forever changed on Sept. 11, 2001. Even before, it was known for its higher-than-average per capita of FDNY. The late Dennis Smith, who wrote the classic “Report from Engine Co. 82,” lived there. That day, five FDNY firefighters from Washingtonville died in the towers’ collapse: Firefighter Mark Whitford, Lt. Glenn C. Perry, Battalion Chief Dennis L. Devlin, Firefighter Gerry Nevins, and Firefighter Bob Hamilton.
Washingtonville never forgets. In a leafy part of the village is a memorial park with a playground and a large memorial to the Washingtonville Five. You expand that lens a few miles in either direction from Washingtonville and many more firefighters from there died that day.
“Dedicated to the honor and memory of America’s heroic rescue workers and innocent civilians who were the victims of the attack on the World Trade Center.”
Washingtonville never forgets. None of us ever should.
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About Me
Journalist and writer. Loves writing, storytelling, books, typewriters. Always trying to find my line. Oh, and here’s where I am now.
Nows and Forevers 
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