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| Classic line-up. |
Overall, the Mills Brothers’ story is one of a steady climb to success, if with a side of tragedy. Even the tragedy followed from their success, if accidentally.
The four Mills Brothers - from oldest to youngest, John Jr., Herbert, Harry and Donald - were born between 1910 and 1915 and into a family that ultimately included nine children. Their parents raised them in Piqua, Ohio, a town north of Dayton, in what sounds like a comfortable and musical environment. Their mother, Ethel, sang light opera and their father, John Mills, Sr., both ran a barbershop and sang in a barbershop quartet called The Four Kings of Harmony. John Sr. taught his boys everything he knew, but he had no way of knowing how far they’d take it. And, in the end, him.
They learned music singing in a pair of church choirs growing up (Cyrene African Methodist Episcopal and Park Avenue Baptist) and put that knowledge into practice at impromptu performances in front of their father’s barbershop with a kazoo for accompaniment. They officially formed the act in 1925 and started working around Southwest Ohio playing house/lawn parties, at music halls and supper clubs. If their official career started anywhere, it would be Piqua’s May’s Opera House where they found work singing between Rin-Tin-Tin features. When the same venue hosted an amateur contest, the Mills Brothers signed on - and stumbled into what became their, for lack of a better word, gimmick:
“They entered an amateur contest at May's Opera House but while on stage Harry realized he had lost his kazoo. He improvised by cupping his hand over his mouth and mimicking the sound of trumpet. The brothers liked the idea and worked it into their act. John, the bass vocalist, would imitate the tuba. Harry, a baritone, imitated the trumpet, Herbert became the second trumpet, and Donald the trombone. John accompanied the four-part harmony on ukulele and then guitar. They practiced imitating orchestras they heard on the radio.”
The Rin-Tin-Tin gig opened its first door in 1928, when the Mills Brothers traveled to Cincinnati with the Harold Greenameyer’s orchestra for an audition at WLW Radio; the station manager passed on Greenameyer & Co., but hired the Mills Brothers. Though they quickly established a solid local following and brought the entire Mills family to a new city, the Mills Brothers didn't wait long for their next big break. When Duke Ellington and His Orchestra passed through Cincinnati, someone arranged to have them sing for him. Impressed by what he heard, Ellington referred them to his New York contact at Okeh Records, Tommy Rockwell, who quickly signed them. That took them to New York and one small step from the national stage.
The most famous Mills Brothers anecdote comes from their September 1930 audition for CBS Radio. A broadcast executive named William S. Paley was in the office on the day of their audition, but too busy to tune in. When a less senior executive named Ralph Wonders heard them, he bolted upstairs to urge Paley to turn on his office speaker to hear the next big thing. He relented and, just as quickly as Wonders went up the stairs, Paley went back down to sign the Mills Brothers to a three-year contract, thereby making them the first black artists to have a network radio show.
Recordings followed starting with their rendition of the Original Dixieland Jass Band’s “Tiger Rag.” The single became a nationwide hit, hitting No. 1 on what counted for the charts back then and selling over one million copies. Brunswick Records came calling after that and became the Mills Brothers’ label from 1930-34. They recorded a string of hits for Brunswick - e.g., “Nobody’s Sweetheart,” “Lazy River,” and what became their theme song, “Goodbye Blues” - but gave them up for Decca Records, where they would remain through most of the 1950s. One thing that didn’t change was how the labels promoted them:
“No musical instruments or mechanical devices used on this recording other than one guitar.”
Those same years saw the Mills Brothers collaborate with the biggest names of the era - e.g., Ella Fitzgerald on tracks like “Dedicated to You” and “Big Boy Blue,” or “The Song Is Ended” (and a half dozen more with Louis Armstrong. They co-starred with Rudy Vallee on The Fleischman’s Yeast Hour from 1930-31 and played Bing Crosby Entertains (sponsored by Woodbury Soap!) 27 times between 1933-35. The movies came calling as well, starting with an appearance in 1932’s The Big Broadcast, which also featured Crosby, Cab Calloway and the Bowell Sisters, and continuing in features like Twenty Million Sweethearts, Operator 13 (both in 1934) and Broadway Gondolier (1935).
The four Mills Brothers - from oldest to youngest, John Jr., Herbert, Harry and Donald - were born between 1910 and 1915 and into a family that ultimately included nine children. Their parents raised them in Piqua, Ohio, a town north of Dayton, in what sounds like a comfortable and musical environment. Their mother, Ethel, sang light opera and their father, John Mills, Sr., both ran a barbershop and sang in a barbershop quartet called The Four Kings of Harmony. John Sr. taught his boys everything he knew, but he had no way of knowing how far they’d take it. And, in the end, him.
They learned music singing in a pair of church choirs growing up (Cyrene African Methodist Episcopal and Park Avenue Baptist) and put that knowledge into practice at impromptu performances in front of their father’s barbershop with a kazoo for accompaniment. They officially formed the act in 1925 and started working around Southwest Ohio playing house/lawn parties, at music halls and supper clubs. If their official career started anywhere, it would be Piqua’s May’s Opera House where they found work singing between Rin-Tin-Tin features. When the same venue hosted an amateur contest, the Mills Brothers signed on - and stumbled into what became their, for lack of a better word, gimmick:
“They entered an amateur contest at May's Opera House but while on stage Harry realized he had lost his kazoo. He improvised by cupping his hand over his mouth and mimicking the sound of trumpet. The brothers liked the idea and worked it into their act. John, the bass vocalist, would imitate the tuba. Harry, a baritone, imitated the trumpet, Herbert became the second trumpet, and Donald the trombone. John accompanied the four-part harmony on ukulele and then guitar. They practiced imitating orchestras they heard on the radio.”
The Rin-Tin-Tin gig opened its first door in 1928, when the Mills Brothers traveled to Cincinnati with the Harold Greenameyer’s orchestra for an audition at WLW Radio; the station manager passed on Greenameyer & Co., but hired the Mills Brothers. Though they quickly established a solid local following and brought the entire Mills family to a new city, the Mills Brothers didn't wait long for their next big break. When Duke Ellington and His Orchestra passed through Cincinnati, someone arranged to have them sing for him. Impressed by what he heard, Ellington referred them to his New York contact at Okeh Records, Tommy Rockwell, who quickly signed them. That took them to New York and one small step from the national stage.
The most famous Mills Brothers anecdote comes from their September 1930 audition for CBS Radio. A broadcast executive named William S. Paley was in the office on the day of their audition, but too busy to tune in. When a less senior executive named Ralph Wonders heard them, he bolted upstairs to urge Paley to turn on his office speaker to hear the next big thing. He relented and, just as quickly as Wonders went up the stairs, Paley went back down to sign the Mills Brothers to a three-year contract, thereby making them the first black artists to have a network radio show.
Recordings followed starting with their rendition of the Original Dixieland Jass Band’s “Tiger Rag.” The single became a nationwide hit, hitting No. 1 on what counted for the charts back then and selling over one million copies. Brunswick Records came calling after that and became the Mills Brothers’ label from 1930-34. They recorded a string of hits for Brunswick - e.g., “Nobody’s Sweetheart,” “Lazy River,” and what became their theme song, “Goodbye Blues” - but gave them up for Decca Records, where they would remain through most of the 1950s. One thing that didn’t change was how the labels promoted them:
“No musical instruments or mechanical devices used on this recording other than one guitar.”
Those same years saw the Mills Brothers collaborate with the biggest names of the era - e.g., Ella Fitzgerald on tracks like “Dedicated to You” and “Big Boy Blue,” or “The Song Is Ended” (and a half dozen more with Louis Armstrong. They co-starred with Rudy Vallee on The Fleischman’s Yeast Hour from 1930-31 and played Bing Crosby Entertains (sponsored by Woodbury Soap!) 27 times between 1933-35. The movies came calling as well, starting with an appearance in 1932’s The Big Broadcast, which also featured Crosby, Cab Calloway and the Bowell Sisters, and continuing in features like Twenty Million Sweethearts, Operator 13 (both in 1934) and Broadway Gondolier (1935).
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| With pops. |
All that noise they made in the States opened up invitations to play in Europe, where they would hit the heights and plumb the depths. The Mills Brothers first crossed the pond in 1934, in a tour that was capped with the first “command performance” by African-American performers before the King and Queen of England (Edward V and Mary, at that time); in the second part of an old three-part documentary (Part I and Part III; takes about an hour of your life), one of the Mills Brothers (think it was Donald) counted seeing his mother in the box-seat next to English royalty as one of his proudest memories. They returned to Europe again in 1935 only to see the oldest brother, John Jr., fall seriously ill while touring in France. They returned to the States to let him convalesce, but went back to England in 1936. The quick turn-around turned out to be too much for John Jr. - or at least that’s how the family saw it - who died from pneumonia in England in 1936. The Mills Brothers considered disbanding, but their mother called them together and convinced them John Jr. would have wanted them to go on. After coming up empty after a dozen-plus auditions, John Sr. stepped in to replace his son on bass vocals, while Norman Brown became the “one guitar” in the act. [Ed. - Wikipedia mentions a guitarist named Bernard Addison, but on other source mentions him and I’ve sat through a half dozen performances that featured Brown.]
There’s one last oddity in the Mills Brothers career - e.g., the fact they got lightly stranded in England when World War II broke out. The first boat they could book sailed to Australia, but they spent almost all of the next two years overseas, including some time in South America. The biggest mystery to me is how they kept recording through European tours and the war years. And yet it appears they did.
The war ended eventually, of course, and the Mills Brothers returned to a home country that had lost track of them after the Ink Spots’ rise. A succession of 78 rpms - the first and most notable being “I’ll Be Around” b/w their most famous number, “Paper Doll” - returned them to the spotlight and a career that just kept going. The Mills Brothers continued playing well into the 1980s; even John Sr. made it another 20 years before retiring in his mid-70s. Not even Harry going completely blind in the early 1970s slowed them down much (one of their sons helped him to his spot on stage, and few people noticed in performances). They band shrank and evolved with each passing - first, Harry in 1982, then Herbert in 1989 (who soldiered through multiple back surgeries). With the help of his son, John II, Donald carried on the legacy as far as he could until he, the last original member, passed in 1999.
The Internet doesn’t have a lot on the Mills Brothers, so most of this comes from Wikipedia with some corroboration from the documentary and one more source. The documentary gives the best sense of their personalities - e.g., Harry had the charisma and did most of the talking, Herbert was the quiet, self-contained (“intricate”) one, who had to be tricked into taking a solo, while Donald was the happy-go-lucky peacekeeper of the family. The audio/mixing on that documentary…isn’t good, but it does show a number of performances, some older ones (as well as “Paper Doll” in a movie), and some more recent. They were never a flamboyant act, or even particularly active, which pairs nicely with the smooth, sweet tone of their sound, but the harmonies remained immaculate well into the 1970s.
About the Sampler
Much like their stage presence, the Mills Brothers’ catalog is quiet, peaceful and pretty. If there’s a “rockin’” number anywhere I haven’t heard it; it’s the epitome of the “sweet” side of jazz. That doesn’t leave anything to do but note the rest of the songs that made the 25-song sample. In the order I have them: “Rockin’ Chair,” “Lazy Bones,” “Some of These Days,” “Moanin’ for You” (which, in any other era, would have a little oomph), the playful “Sixty Seconds Got Together,” the barbershop classic, “Sweet Adeline,” “Nagasaki,” “Sweeter than Sugar,” “What’s the Reason (I’m Not Pleasin’ You),” “Don’t Be Afraid to Tell Your Mother,” “Rhythm Save the World,” a late hit from their later years (1950s) with a backing band, “The Glow Worm,” “Sweet Sue Just You,” “Lulu’s Back in Town,” "Sleepy Head,” “Someday (You’ll Want Me to Want You),” and, finally, their closest swing at third gear, “Swing Is the Thing.”
For what it’s worth, the variety is there, but subtle. It takes paying attention to draw it out of background noise. It’s not the cutting edge of anything, but it’s very pleasant soothing background noise.
Till the next one….and I’ll get to those Ink Spots before too long.
There’s one last oddity in the Mills Brothers career - e.g., the fact they got lightly stranded in England when World War II broke out. The first boat they could book sailed to Australia, but they spent almost all of the next two years overseas, including some time in South America. The biggest mystery to me is how they kept recording through European tours and the war years. And yet it appears they did.
The war ended eventually, of course, and the Mills Brothers returned to a home country that had lost track of them after the Ink Spots’ rise. A succession of 78 rpms - the first and most notable being “I’ll Be Around” b/w their most famous number, “Paper Doll” - returned them to the spotlight and a career that just kept going. The Mills Brothers continued playing well into the 1980s; even John Sr. made it another 20 years before retiring in his mid-70s. Not even Harry going completely blind in the early 1970s slowed them down much (one of their sons helped him to his spot on stage, and few people noticed in performances). They band shrank and evolved with each passing - first, Harry in 1982, then Herbert in 1989 (who soldiered through multiple back surgeries). With the help of his son, John II, Donald carried on the legacy as far as he could until he, the last original member, passed in 1999.
The Internet doesn’t have a lot on the Mills Brothers, so most of this comes from Wikipedia with some corroboration from the documentary and one more source. The documentary gives the best sense of their personalities - e.g., Harry had the charisma and did most of the talking, Herbert was the quiet, self-contained (“intricate”) one, who had to be tricked into taking a solo, while Donald was the happy-go-lucky peacekeeper of the family. The audio/mixing on that documentary…isn’t good, but it does show a number of performances, some older ones (as well as “Paper Doll” in a movie), and some more recent. They were never a flamboyant act, or even particularly active, which pairs nicely with the smooth, sweet tone of their sound, but the harmonies remained immaculate well into the 1970s.
About the Sampler
Much like their stage presence, the Mills Brothers’ catalog is quiet, peaceful and pretty. If there’s a “rockin’” number anywhere I haven’t heard it; it’s the epitome of the “sweet” side of jazz. That doesn’t leave anything to do but note the rest of the songs that made the 25-song sample. In the order I have them: “Rockin’ Chair,” “Lazy Bones,” “Some of These Days,” “Moanin’ for You” (which, in any other era, would have a little oomph), the playful “Sixty Seconds Got Together,” the barbershop classic, “Sweet Adeline,” “Nagasaki,” “Sweeter than Sugar,” “What’s the Reason (I’m Not Pleasin’ You),” “Don’t Be Afraid to Tell Your Mother,” “Rhythm Save the World,” a late hit from their later years (1950s) with a backing band, “The Glow Worm,” “Sweet Sue Just You,” “Lulu’s Back in Town,” "Sleepy Head,” “Someday (You’ll Want Me to Want You),” and, finally, their closest swing at third gear, “Swing Is the Thing.”
For what it’s worth, the variety is there, but subtle. It takes paying attention to draw it out of background noise. It’s not the cutting edge of anything, but it’s very pleasant soothing background noise.
Till the next one….and I’ll get to those Ink Spots before too long.
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