Glenn Miller be mentored by other professional musicians. In the beginning, he was the main trombone soloist of the band. But when Jack Teagarden joined Pollack's band in 1928, Miller found that his solos were cut drastically. He realized that his future was in arranging and composing. He had a songbook published in Chicago in 1928 entitled "Glenn Miller's 125 Jazz Breaks for Trombone" by the Melrose Brothers. During his time with Pollack, he wrote several arrangements. He wrote his first composition, "Room 1411", with Benny Goodman, and it was released as a 78 by Brunswick Records under the name Benny Goodman's
Glenn Miller included Marion Hutton, Skip Nelson, Ray Eberle and to a smaller extent, Kay Starr, Ernie Caceres, Dorothy Claire and Jack Lathrop. Pat Friday ghost-sang with the Miller band in their two films, "Sun Valley Serenade" and "Orchestra Wives" with Lynn Bari lip synching. Miller and his band appeared in two Twentieth Century Fox films. In 1941's "Sun Valley Serenade", they were major members of the cast, which also featured comedian Milton Berle, and Dorothy Dandridge with the Nicholas Brothers in the show-stopping song and dance number, Chattanooga Choo Choo. The Miller band returned to Hollywood to film 1942's "Orchestra Wives",