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“Orchestra Wives” was a musical filmed in 1942 starring Ann Rutherford and George Montgomery and featuring the Glen Miller Orchestra. It was the second, and last, film that Miller made, both with songs written by Mack Gordon and Harry Warren. The first was called “Sun Valley Serenade.”

Soon after making this film Miller joined the Army and attempted to “modernize” military music. His addition of swing rhythms to Sousa marches outraged military music traditionalists. Miller was lost in an airplane crash over the English Channel in 1944, on his way to entertain the troops in France.

This clip features saxophonist Tex Beneke, singing group The Modernaires and the dancing Nicholas Brothers. The Nicholas Brothers called their athletic dance style “flash dancing.” They are a precursor to the 1990’s break dancers. The “no hands splits,” which they do several of in this routine, are considered physically impossible by present day dancers. Gregory Hines has said that if their biography was ever filmed, their dance numbers would have to be computer generated because no one could duplicate them.

This is Ellington’s orchestra in 1943. The singer/violinist is Ray “Floorshow” Nance. Nance played cornet and doubled on violin for Ellington. He sang and sometimes tap danced as well. Taft Jordan sings the answering lines and takes a short trumpet break, using a standard mute. Joe, “Tricky Sam” Nanton plays a trombone solo. He uses his voice to make the instrument “grow” and making judicious use of the plunger mute to give it a vocal quality. Ellington’s brass section was known for using ordinary household toilet and sink plungers to modify the sound of their instruments. You can see a line of them at one point in the video. Ben Webster takes the final break on tenor saxophone.

At the height of his career, Cab Calloway’s big band alternated with Duke Ellington’s as the house band at New York’s Cotton Club. One group would be out touring the country while the other held down the Cotton Club and it’s weekly radio broadcast. Calloway had taken voice lessons as a child, although his parents had hoped he would become a lawyer like his father. He was famous for his scat singing, which he claimed to have learned from Louis Armstrong. This song, “Minnie the Moocher” is his best known work. A short film starring Betty Boop was built around the song. In 1980 Calloway appeared, singing “Minnie the Moocher” in the film “The Blues Brothers.”