Sometime during the early years of WWII, big band leader Glenn Miller and his smaller, war-years orchestra, toured America building support for the war effort. It was probably 1942 when the superstar and his band (probably) played in the ballroom at the very tippy top of the currently vacant and desolate Brownwood Hotel. At the time, the Brownwood Hotel was at the peak of its glory years. Brownwood was bustling with 80,000+ soldiers and swing was the music of the hour.
Did Miller actually play Brownwood? It’s almost certain he did. Brownwood fits the criteria for the military towns the band was touring. We know he played through Texas. Why wouldn’t he play here?
Miller was the biggest “pop” star of his age. With the world at war, Miller’s smooth and jumping instrumental swing dance music was one of the things that unified the country during the darkest nights of the war years. Miller’s music was on the radio all of the time, and it became the soundtrack of a generation. The late 30s was the pinnacle of swing music, and as America woke up and surged into war production, bands led by Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, and the Dorsey Brothers were at the top of the charts.
Miller took a commission in the Army, then transferred to the Army Air Force to lead a smaller morale-boosting band that would tour the country, and then eventually go over to England to support the war effort as the Allies planned their invasion of Europe.
Anywho, sometime in 1942 – and I wish someone out there had the details, or pictures, or anything – the rumor is that Glenn Miller and his Army Air Force band came to Brownwood. Now is where we get to use our imagination. Remember, this was the booming, swarming downtown Brownwood of the war years. Small military towns like Brownwood were hopping and vibrant with energy.
On a certain night… we’ll call it a Saturday night since we don’t know any better, there must have been an even higher level of excitement. Glenn Miller is in town! This would have been the equivalent of Michael Jackson or Prince coming to town in the 1980s, or when Elvis came to Brownwood in 1955. The ballroom at the top of the Brownwood Hotel was probably packed with well-dressed partygoers. A swing concert in 1942 wasn’t like a concert today. It wasn’t an affair where the band played, and the crowd just packed in around the stage screaming and waving their arms. That didn’t become a thing until Elvis and then the Beatles went on Ed Sullivan. Concerts in the 1930s and 40s were participatory. There wouldn’t have been rows upon rows of seating, either. There were likely tables set up around the exterior of the dance floor, but the rest of the room was for dancing. High class and elegance were the style for a Glenn Miller concert.
Go put on Moonlight Serenade or Chattanooga Choo-Choo and close your eyes and dream you up a time travel memory. I’ll show you how.
I can imagine people, dressed to the nines, walking through the streets of downtown towards the hotel. I stop, and I can feel the warm breeze on my skin and ruffling my hair. Sounds of the city, and music coming from the windows way up there on the top floor. I can imagine cabs pulling up the front of the place and the “swells” sweeping out and into the lobby. I can imagine the elevator operator smiling and closing the doors so he could swish his passengers up to the elegant ballroom.
Shined shoes, new dresses, maybe furs.
But I don’t really know if it happened. I think it did, and now it did – since I can imagine all of it. Every minute. The whole playlist. The breathless walk home in the night.
But Bunker, won’t you be embarrassed if someone can prove that Glenn Miller never came to Brownwood? Nah.
I’m pretty sure it happened. At least for me.
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Michael Bunker is a local columnist for BrownwoodNews.com whose columns appear on Wednesdays and Sundays on the website.
