Clarinda will have you in the mood to celebrate Glenn Miller’s life and music this weekend. Photo: Clarinda Chamber of Commerce.
Clarinda celebrates its most famous native son during theGlenn Miller Festival this weekend, June 8-11, at the town square, the high school, the library and other venues around town.
The legendary trombone player and bandleader from the golden days of the big band disappeared on a flight over the English Channel during World War II, but his legacy lives on in his hometown, where the annual festival attracts bands from near and far. This year’s lineup includes the Glenn Miller Orchestra, of course, along with Michael “Gooch” Gurciello and his Las Vegas Band, the Hot Tomatoes from Denver, and the Moonlight Serenade Orchestra from Kansas City. Plus, Mike Delaney will also play some harmonica hits from some of the instrument’s greats, including Borra Minovich’s Harmonical Rascals and the Belgian virtuoso Jean-Baptiste Frederic Isidor Thielemans (better known as “Toots”).
If you go, be sure to stop by theGlenn Miller Birthplace Museum, where you can tour Miller’s boyhood home as well as a visitors center that chronicles not only his rise to worldwide fame in the 1930s and ’40s but the enduring impact of his music in the decades since. In just for years, Miller’s big band scored an impressive 16 No. 1 records and 69 Top 10 hits, including “Chattanooga Choo Choo,” “In the Mood” and “Moonlight Serenade.”
