But did you know the plane that Glenn was on when something happened which could prove to stay an eternal mystery (at least one connection to the letter...) was a single-engined AAF C-64 Norseman... not equipped with a de-icing mechanism that all planes crossing the British Channel should have had (and apparently, every other plane did have...)?
Rumors and stories about that fateful foggy December 15th morning are legion - so whatever really happened to Glenn Miller? Did he really die of a heart attack in a Paris whorehouse, which just couldn't have been made public at the time (not even today...?) since Glenn and his band had such a great responsibility for the spirit of the American Forces? And he was a married man with two adopted children...
Or was he involved in some shady smuggling deals a certain Colonel so-and-so, who was with him on the plane, did pull off...? The plane, according to some "sources", indeed reached France, and Glenn was seen in Paris by a couple of people who are "absolutely sure it was him"...
Or... or... Or maybe the rudders just froze over, the pilot couldn't keep her up anymore and they all found their fast and untimely grave in the ice-cold, dark waters of the Channel - as banal as it may be. No mystery, just awful and cruel bad luck. But as all true legends, and he had been one even in his lifetime, he died young (hey, come on, what's 38?!) and reached eternity not only for his soul but also in the world he left behind. His legend lives on. What other popular music of 60 years ago has survived in the public consciousness and is constantly reissued?
He was a man who had to make music. He had
it in his head. He heard a sound. He gave it to us. Maybe he wasn't that friendly
to many of the men and women who performed his music - and they too are "Glenn
Miller", mind you -, but in the end, the music is all that matters. And it
still does.