There are so many unusual, interesting, and new things you can find – if you just look around a little bit. And libraries are all about mysteries! So, we are looking at a real-life small mystery each week and bringing some library resources to help add some clarity and some thought.

You have probably heard of Glenn Miller, and you probably know some of his songs – even if you don’t know connect the two.

Glenn Miller was a famous musician, who joined the army during WWII. He performed all over the place, playing for troops. And then one night he went missing. So, what happened?

Check out this article excerpt, and read the whole thing here.

75 years ago, Glenn Miller vanished on a flight over the English Channel

“Alton Glenn Miller was a musical giant of his day, with a status like that of the Beatles for a later generation. (Some of his wartime radio broadcasts were made in the Abbey Road studios, later made famous by the Beatles, Spragg said.)

And his loss was akin to the sudden deaths of John Lennon, Michael Jackson or Prince.

His music was embraced by the youthful cohort of the late 1930s and early ’40s — the kids who packed dance halls, fed jukeboxes and then went off to World II.

Miller, 40, setting aside a lucrative civilian music career, went with them, joining the Army in 1942.

He formed a 50-piece Army Air Force Band, took it to England in the summer of 1944 and gave hundreds of performances, according to author Jeffrey C. Benton. He was often joined by other stars of the time, including Bing Crosby and Dinah Shore.

The band was a sensation, playing in packed airplane hangars, hospitals and on airstrips across England, according to Butcher, the historian.

“Next to a letter from home, [that] organization was the greatest morale builder in the” European theater of operations, the American general James Doolittle said.

Miller, speaking in phonetic German, also did broadcasts aimed at listeners in Germany. And some American planes were decorated with the titles of Miller’s tunes. “In the Mood” became a popular subject of aircraft nose art.

Miller had performed his last radio broadcast on Dec. 12, according to an Associated Press report at the time. He was supposed to do a BBC concert on Christmas. His wife had received several letters from him on Dec. 23, in which he said flights had been grounded by heavy fog.

He had told his brother, Herb, in a Dec. 12 letter: “Barring a nosedive into the Channel, I’ll be in Paris in a few days,” according to an article Spragg wrote last month in Smithsonian Magazine.”

“Based in England, Miller was going to France to arrange for his Army Air Force band’s move to Paris, now that the allies had shoved the Germans back during World War II.

A missing-aircrew report was filed for the plane on Dec. 16 when it did not radio its arrival, Spragg said. But military officials did not know that Miller was aboard and considered the report routine. “Nobody connects it with Miller,” he said.

Plus, the report was eclipsed by the gigantic German attack the same day that began the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium and France.

It was only when Miller failed to meet his band in Paris a few days later that people realized he might be missing.”

Now you can explore this mystery in some library programming. Here are a few suggestions to help you get started:

• Explore some videos of Miller’s music. Which ones are your favorites? How many of the songs did you already know? How does the music make you feel?
• Find some videos or other training materials to help you learn some swing dancing.
• What kind of plane was Miller flying? What other kinds of planes were frequently flying during this time?
• Spend some time with weather prediction material. What kinds of factors can you imagine for good weather predictions?