Playhouse Theatre

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The Glenn Miller Story, starring James Stewart and June Allyson, had just finished its engagement at the Playhouse Theatre in St. Petersburg when the two stars, paired for what would be their third celluloid romp as a married couple, arrived in town.

It was March 22, 1954. Stewart, Allyson, director Tony Mann and a small crew took over Al Lang Field to capture two short scenes for Paramount’s Strategic Air Command. In the story, Stewart’s character, former bomber pilot “Dutch” Holland, has just signed a contract to play baseball with the St. Louis Cardinals.

August Busch, owner of the real-life Cardinals, agreed to let the film company shoot the movie’s opening scene, using his players, during actual spring training in St. Petersburg.

Arrangements had already been made for much of the film – a typical post-war melodrama about the fighting men of the USAF – to be shot at MacDill Air Force Base in south Tampa.