Jazz news: Glenn Miller: Holiday Season Radio Broadcasts

There’s something about Glenn Miller’s holiday broadcasts that seem timeless. Miller, of course, fronted two bands: His stateside orchestra from 1938 to early fall 1942 and then his Army Air Force Band from the late fall of 1942 to December 1944, when he perished over the English Channel flying from London to Paris. The latter band was more romantic and swinging, to keep nostalgia strong and spirits high. Both bands were oddly calming and comforting.

Here’s the stateside Glenn Miller band on the radio at New York’s Paradise Restaurant in the Brill Building on New Year’s Eve in 1938…

Here’s the stateside band on the radio at New York’s Cafe Rouge in the Hotel Pennsylvania on December 21, 1940…

Here’s the stateside band on the radio for its Sunrise Serenade broadcast from the Cafe Rouge on Christmas 1941, 18 days after America entered World War II…

Here’s the Army Air Force Band on December 18, 1943…

And here’s the AAFB on December 25, 1943…

Bonus: Here’s a broadcast of several bands from Hollywood and New York on New Year’s Eve in 1945…