Today in Music History: February 10, 1942
Glenn Miller received
the first ever gold record for the sale of 1.2 million copies of "Chattanooga Choo Choo". It was presented to him at the CBS Playhouse in New York
City. The composition was nominated for an Academy Award in 1941 for Best Song from a movie.
"Chattanooga Choo Choo" cover
Song by The Glenn Miller OrchestraSource: en.wikipedia.org |
Southern Railway Steam Locomotive 1940s |
Life on the Train
The song was written by the team of Mack Gordon and Harry Warren while traveling on the Southern Railway's Birmingham Special train. The song tells the story of traveling from New York City to Chattanooga. The inspiration for the song, however, was a small, wood-burning steam locomotive of the 2-6-0 type which belonged to the Cincinnati Southern Railway, which is now part of the Norfolk Southern Railway system. That train is now a museum artifact. From 1880, most trains bound for America's South passed through the southeastern Tennessee city of Chattanooga, often on to the super-hub of Atlanta. The Chattanooga Choo Choo did not refer to any particular train, though some have incorrectly asserted that it referred to Louisville and Nashville's Dixie Flyer or the Southern Railway's Crescent Limited.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Ride the rails, Feel the motion, Sense the power
The Sounds of a Vanishing Era
While this is a 9-minute presentation, it only takes
a couple of minutes for you to feel the passion
of the railroad in a bygone era.
"The time will come when people will travel in stages moved by steam engines from one city to another, almost as fast as birds can fly, 15 or 20 miles an hour.... A carriage will start from Washington in the morning, the passengers will breakfast at Baltimore, dine at Philadelphia, and sup in New York the same day.... Engines will drive boats 10 or 12 miles an hour, and there will be hundreds of steamers running on the Mississippi, as predicted years ago."
--Oliver Evans, 1800
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