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15 October 2014
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A 大象传媒 Engineer in Bedford

by Neal Wreford

Contributed by听
Neal Wreford
People in story:听
Cyril Drake
Background to story:听
Civilian
Article ID:听
A3415727
Contributed on:听
16 December 2004

The following story was contributed by the author to 大象传媒 3 Counties Radio to mark the 60th anniversay of the disapearance of Glenn Miller.

I was one of the 大象传媒 Engineers at the Co-Partners Hall and Corn Exchange in Bedford, the two studios in the town where Glenn Miller played.

The Co-Partners Hall has now been demolished, but at the time it was simply a recreational hall, owned by the Gas Board, which they let out to the 大象传媒.

We fitted it out with microphones, and ran cables into it with amplifiers especially for the Glenn Miller Band.

We had various other studios in Bedford because the Symphony Orchestra was based there, and the 大象传媒 Chorus used St Pauls Church.

When the full string section played with the Glenn Miller band, they only used the Corn Exchange because of their size, but the Miller band itself used the Co-Partners Hall,

Most of the performances were sent down a landline and recorded up in London, and most were broadcast on AFN (American Forces Network)

We worked closely with AFN, although their sound balancer, Teddy Gower was actually a 大象传媒 man. He had an American Producer called Paul Dudley, and various other Americans used to come in and produce the sessions..

Actually one of the announcers was Broderick Crawford who because very famous later as a film actor. Another one was Paul Dubob who was quite big on the American Networks.

At the Corn Exchange, the public were allowed in to listen, but not at the Co-Partners Hall, because once the band was in there, there was no room left.

Glenn Miller used to come into the control room to sit and listen to the band and make various comments and criticise.

He was rather austere as far as his relationship with the band was concerned. I always thought he was a bit on the military side, and acted as a military major would, but I always got on with him well, and he always got on well with the staff as far as I can remember.

He was very approachable. Various people used to make suggestions to him about the arrangements. When Ray Mckinley would do an arrangement for the band, Glenn would offer some constructive suggestions and Ray would would often change them.

I had no idea he would become so big. You have to remember you had all these bands that were big in the States like Benny Goodman that were being recorded over here.

When we heard the Miller sound, we didn't think of it as something that would become so historic and something that would last up until today, we just though of them as another band.

When he disappeared there was a complete shutdown in information. We knew he had gone to Paris and we expected to hear that he'd arrived there, but nothing happened. There was this blanket of silence for several days, and even then it was two or three weeks before whispers reached us that his plane had been lost.

Ray Mckinley took the band over, and everything came under his control.

The band were in absolute disbelief, There were some weird thoughts that he'd gone back to the states, and wild rumours circulated for ages.

Some thought he'd gone somewhere else and soon he let us know when he got to Paris and they'd all go over there and carry on.

There was still that feeling he'd appear again, but I think his plane did come down in the sea and was lost.

We will never know.

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