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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
IT AIN'T NECESSARILY SO, April 11, 2009
This review is from: The Glenn Miller Conspiracy: The Never-Before-Told Story of His Life -- and Death (Paperback)
For those old enough to remember Glenn Miller, THE GLENN MILLER CONSPIRACY is like stepping back into the past. With familiar movie names like Marlene Dietrich, Broderick Crawford and David Niven as well as that of NBC /RCA head General David Sarnoff, the book is a literal who's who of the famous and the infamous, and calls into question the "official" death notice issued by the military regarding the death of band leader Miller.
The book purports that Miller died not in a plane crash, but was tortured to death while on a secret mission for Eisenhower. Author, Hunton Downs has managed to support some of his claims with documentation collected over 60 years of investigation into this matter. One could almost say he is obsessive in his belief that the true nature of Millers military service and the cause of his subsequent death were all part of a massive cover-up.
The allegation that Miller was fluent in German and made secret broadcasts, complete with band music, to Germany has pretty much been substantiated. Other documentation in the book appears to support Down's theory that Miller worked for the US Psychological Warfare Division. As for the statement that he was a SECRET envoy for Ike who was part of a plan to end the war more quickly and conveniently disappeared on the eve of the Battle of the Bulge, only to turn up dead in the doorway of a Paris brothel takes the reader into the "leap of faith" zone.
At lot of the information collected was supplied by individuals who "were there". Their recorded testimony was not obtained, however, until many of these people were in their 70's and 80's, and we all know what a tricky thing memory is (especially as we get older).
If you accept this book for what it really is, one man's theories and conjecture, it is not a bad read. Similar to Oliver Stone's version of the JFK assassination, Downs has come up with his version of Glenn Miller's demise. Both men have given us scenerios that are entertaining, but not necessarily true. 2 1/2 STARS
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21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Hoping to set the record straight -- at last, April 12, 2009
This review is from: The Glenn Miller Conspiracy: The Never-Before-Told Story of His Life -- and Death (Paperback)
The music popularized by Big Band director Alton Glenn Miller (1904-1944) is such a standard of American culture that it's difficult to believe the man responsible for it died at the age of just 40, and under dubious circumstances at that. Look him up in any print or online reference, and you'll no doubt discover one of two explanations for his death: (a) that his plane crashed as it attempted to cross the English Channel in bad weather (the "Twinwood" theory), or (b) that his plane was accidentally hit by friendly fire from British bombers returning home from assignment (the "Lancaster" theory). According to Hunton Downs, both of those scenarios were fabrications designed to disguise what really happened.
And what was that truth? That Major Miller was on a special mission for General Eisenhower: one that involved "psywar," psychological warfare. Miller's global popularity and ability to speak German gave him the edge to reach people through his "Musik fuer die Wehrmacht" radio programs. And instead of dropping to his death in chilly winter waters, Miller was actually murdered in Paris in the line of duty, on his way to fulfill his military orders. Why else would he be posthumously awarded a Bronze Star, a distinction for which combat is a requirement? And why did no government entity ever launch an official investigation into his death/disappearance? Perhaps because the authorities who needed to know the particulars, already did.
Downs, a journalist and retired Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army, has now spent more than half a century ferreting out documents, witnesses, and answers. He claims to be the first researcher to tackle this project (beginning soon after it happened) and he hopes to be the last, to be the one who has the satisfaction of uncovering the ultimate reality for the rest of us. While his interest in the subject borders on obsession, he is evidently not the only person for whom this event is a focus. And with the opening up of certain official American and British sources, as well as the ease of communication via the Internet, more information is being shared amongst the Miller researchers around the world. Here the author at times spends more space detailing the difficulties of his research than on the results, if any, that it eventually produced. The roadblocks are all part of the story.
That Downs is passionate about the topic, there is no doubt. But his zeal and eagerness to share every little tidbit of his knowledge gets in his way of his real message. His is almost a *Mitch* Miller approach to the subject, bouncing around like the infamous lyrical ball we used to see on the TV screen. He meanders from one aspect to another as he straddles the line between popular reportage and academic declaration. He employs a clumsy and inconsistent in-text citation style that clutters his stream of consciousness. And what may look like numbers for footnotes are really references to an appendix, where he includes 53 pages of copied primary sources that he accummulated over the years. While his bibliography is a lengthy one, it doesn't include all of the sources he mentions in the text. Overall, the result is a disjointed narrative interrupted by documentation. The text itself can be difficult to follow.
To get the most out of Downs' work, readers (even members of The Greatest Generation) should first familiarize or reacquaint themselves with the Glenn Miller story and/or with the basic details surrounding the Battle of the Bulge. Don't rely on memory alone to prepare you for these pages. The author doesn't spend much time supplying a full background biography of the musician. A book like George T. Simon's GLENN MILLER AND HIS ORCHESTRA does a great job at doing so. It explains in more detail the band's WWII service and even offers selections from Don Haynes' infamous diary, which Downs often refers to but never quotes directly. Downs also uses an alphabet soup of wartime shorthands and military names. The text and glossary don't define them all. So again, readers may want to brush up on WWII history beforehand and the Battle of the Bulge in particular, since Glenn Miller's disappearance coincided with the beginning of that initiative. The more information you have going into this book, the better.
Miller aficionados and conspiracy theorists alike will welcome this volume, as it will confirm certain facts and details for them. But some questions invariably remain. The biggest ones are: Why has this mystery been unsolved for so long? And what does this tale say about the believability of any of the Allied governments? Even if you've never before wondered about Glenn Miller's demise, you may find food for thought here.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not a smooth read, but possibly a great work., April 18, 2009
This review is from: The Glenn Miller Conspiracy: The Never-Before-Told Story of His Life -- and Death (Paperback)
I'll start out right from the beginning that I remember very little about WWII and Glen Miller. I heard about the story/book on Coast to Coast & heard the author speak for about 3 hours. So I was ready for the book & the basic concepts he forwards. The sentences are choppy, true. And it does help if you know about the Battle of the Bulge, true. And I really don't know (who does for sure) that this is true. But give the devil his due: he's researched this book as a life effort, tracking down people, documents, statements, probably at great cost in money, time & effort. I can't think of a reason that he'd outright fabricate, twist facts or lie. The author sounds honest and upfront. Get the book, read his (choppy~~~) thoughts, look at the banquet of documentation he has accrued & provides. Remember: we all know that the Government doesn't tell us everything (do we know who killed Kennedy?). Let's keep an open mind to what this author gives us & just ask yourself the simple question: is this at all possible, feasible? Didn't people know at the end of WWII that, most likely, the future decades would provide information that they didn't know when the war ended?? And isn't this a stellar example of such secrets?? After all, if a famous person today, someone beloved, was asked by the Government to be a go-between & the person ended up being tortured & left for dead, how much would we know of it? How much would they tell us? How much would we find out in 5 years from now? And, even if all the facts aren't correct, if the basic story is, that's what's important.
Sounds like Glen Miller deserved more than just our love & appreciation as an artist: he deserved the Bronze Star he was awarded. Sounds like he was a true hero, a giant of a man, a heart full of soul.
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