I was discharged from the army in 1907, I would have
many jobs after including, a blacksmiths assistant,
A train ash pan cleaner, and a fireman.

At the time I studied law by correspondence, I would practice law
for 3 years.

My legal career ended after I got into a courthouse brawl...with my own client.

In 1930 I operated shell service station, I opened a restaurant on
the premises, serving chicken and other dishes.

I got into a shootout with my main competitor, he shot one of my
employee's and was convicted of murder, this decreased my
competition substantially.

My local popularity grew quickly, my states governor awarded
me an honorary military title.

I don't know anything about this person's background, but since you mentioned chicken dishes ... Colonel Sanders?

It is indeed the Colonel, aka harland sanders.

I sold kfc in 1964 for 2 million dollars, by the time
i died in 1980 it had 2 billion dollars in revenue.

You're up Arthur.

Thanks, Fedora. What a background ... Col. Sanders must have been quite a character!

I was born in Iowa but my family moved around a lot when I was young; from Iowa to Nebraska, to Missouri and then Colorado, where I went to high school.

By this time, I had made enough money from milking cows to buy my first musical instruments.

I joined the high-school football team, winning the Northern Colorado American Football Conference.

I dropped out of college to pursue a career in music, studying the Schillinger system with Joseph Schillinger.

I've been super busy lately, and will be for the next couple of weeks. I just dropped in when I had a free second and that was the name that popped to mind.

Wish I could say the same, Bill. I'm so tired of not being able to do anything.

I toured with several groups, which allowed me to be mentored by other professional musicians. However, I realized after a while that my future was not so much as an instrumentalist, but rather as an arranger and composer.

When I arrived in New York City, I sent for and married my college sweetheart. I played in the pit bands of Broadway shows, and also worked as a freelance musician in several recording sessions.

John Williams?

Not John.

Eventually, I compiled several arrangements and formed my own touring band. But after failing to distinguish itself from the many other bands of the time, it broke up.

Lawrence Welk

Not Lawrence.

Discouraged, I returned to New York. Realizing that I needed to develop a unique sound, I made the clarinet play a melodic line with a tenor saxophone holding the same note, while three other saxophones harmonized within a single octave.

This new format worked, and my re-formed band started attracting record-breaking crowds. One of our singles (my own composition) sold 115,000 copies in the first week! In fact, I was the best-selling recording artist for three consecutive years.

Me and my band appeared in two movies. One of those featured Jackie Gleason. But because I had an ailment that made laughter extremely painful, I had a difficult time watching Gleason more than once, because I would start laughing.

My Mom used to play a record that seems it might match that description. I can't remember the artist's name! I'll ask her and take a look at her records tomorrow.

Glenn Miller?

You got it, Laurie! Alton Glenn Miller (March 1, 1904 – disappeared December 15, 1944). Some of his hit recordings include: In The Mood, Pennsylvania 6-5000, Chatanooga Choo Choo, Moonlight Serenade, and (I’ve Got A Gal In) Kalamazoo.

These were my remaining clues:

Louis Armstrong thought enough of me to carry around my recordings. Jazz pianist George Shearing's quintet was also influenced by my style. And Frank Sinatra and Mel Tormé held my orchestra in high regard.

An amazing stat about me is that I scored more number-one records and top-10 hits than Elvis Presley and the Beatles did in their careers.

In 1942, at the peak of my civilian career, I decided to join the war effort by entertaining the troops, forsaking an income of $15,000 to $20,000 per week in civilian life (equivalent to $238,000 to $317,000 per week in 2020).

In summarizing my military career, General Jimmy Doolittle said, "next to a letter from home, that organization was the greatest morale builder in the European Theater of Operations.”

During a stay in England, my band and I were headquartered in a BBC Radio office in London. A bomb landed three blocks away, encouraging me to relocate to Bedford, England. The day after I departed London, a V-1 flying bomb demolished my former office, killing at least 70 of my former office mates.

I was due to fly from Bedford to Paris on December 15, 1944, to make arrangements to move my entire band there in the near future. However, my plane disappeared while flying over the English Channel.

My disappearance was not publicized until Christmas Eve 1944, when the Associated Press announced I would not be conducting the scheduled BBC-broadcast American Expedition Forces Christmas Show the following day.

I left behind my wife and two adopted children. I was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star, presented to my wife, Helen, in a ceremony held on March 24, 1945.

Your turn, Laurie.

Sorry to keep you waiting, Arthur. I'll let someone else take over, if you don't mind.

No problem, Laurie. Anybody else want to jump in?