A Big Deal: The Way It Was, 1 February

1941---Glenn Miller, who is known for orienting his schedule otherwise around his regular fifteen-minute radio program, The Chesterfield Show, signs what is the most lucrative recording deal to date with RCA Victor: the bandleader's new deal guarantees him $750 per side/song.

Although Miller will become legend for his large volume of chart-topping hits, at the time he signs the new RCA deal a label mate continues holding the number one position on Billboard's Best Sellers in Stores survey: Artie Shaw and his Orchestra, whose "Frenesi" will hold that posiiton for three more weeks, until Miller's own "Song of the Volga Boatmen" knockes it out of that spot---for a single week.

Miller will not reach the number one spot on that survey again until 29 November, when he knocks Freddy Martin and his Orchestra's "Piano Concerto in B Flat" out of the top spot with the record that hogs number one for the rest of the year: "Chattanooga Choo-Choo."

Miller will have the second most number one hits on 1941's Best Sellers in Stores chart, with two, but that's way behind Jimmy Dorsey and his Orchestra's five. ("Amapoli," "My Sister and I," "Maria Elena," "Green Eyes," and "Blue Champagne.") Artie Shaw, Freddy Martin, and Sammy Kaye and his Orchestra will each have one record at the top of that chart, though Shaw will spend the second-most amount of time at the top behind Dorsey.

CHANNEL SURFING . . .

1949: POOR SUBSTITUTES FOR A PRISON---A year later, several families on The Daily Sentinel's list of poor families to help around the holidays have become unexpectedly well-to-do---and Lenore Case (Lee Allman), Mike Axford (Gilbert Shea), and Britt Reid (Jack McCarthy) suspect something a little more than gumption got them there . . . especially with the husbands/fathers in prison as confessed criminals when the windfalls land, on today's edition of The Green Hornet. (ABC.) Also starring: Mickey Tolan (as Kato).

1954: FIBBER'S BANK STATEMENT---It shows him (Jim Jordan) short $15, which makes him just a little short tempered---until he gets an unexpected surprise: a visitor whose wallet he recovered on a bus six years earlier, on today's edition of Fibber McGee & Molly. (NBC.) Also starring: Marian Jordan. (Warning: Poor audio quality.)

PREMIERING TODAY . . .

1895---John Ford (director: Screen Director's Playhouse), Cape Elizabeth, Maine.
1901---Clark Gable (as William Clark Gable; actor: So Proudly We Hail, Silver Theater), Cadiz, Ohio.
1904---S.J. Perelman (humourist: Information Please, The Railroad Hour), New York City.
1906---"The Incomparable" Hildegarde (so Walter Winchell designated her; born Hildegarde Loretta Sell; singer/pianist/hostess, Beat the Band, The Raleigh Room), Adell, Wisconsin.
1922---Renata Tebaldi (Metropolitan Opera soprano: The Bell Telephone Hour), Pesaro, Italy; Miriam Wolfe (actress: The Witch's Hour), Brooklyn.
1926---Stuart Whitman (actor: We Hold These Truths), San Francisco.