The original quartet was made up of John Mills Jr. (guitar, bass and vocals) and siblings Herbert (tenor vocalist), Harry (baritone vocalist) and Donald (lead tenor vocalist). They were all born one year apart.
Raised in Piqua
The four brothers (and three sisters) were raised in a musical household. Their parents were both singers, and their father also ran a barbershop.
As the boys got older, they began singing in the choir of the Cyrene African Methodist Episcopal Church and in the Park Avenue Baptist Church in Piqua. After lessons at the Spring Street Grammar School, they gathered in front of their father’s barbershop or on the corner to perform.
The youngest brother, Donald, talked about growing up in Piqua with a musical family.
“Mother and father were singers and we had three sisters who also sang, but they never went into the business,” he once said. “We studied music and harmony in school, but most of our harmony was taught by our parents.”
The group made its debut in 1925 at May’s Opera House in Piqua. Wearing borrowed stage clothes, they opened for a movie starring Rin Tin Tin, the German Shepherd who became an international movie star.
At May’s Opera House, the singers earned $4 a night and tips.
The Mills brothers maintained their home in Piqua until 1928, when the family moved to Bellefontaine.
A big break
The quartet got their big break later during the 1920s when they auditioned to perform on radio station WLW in Cincinnati.
They were calling themselves Four Boys and a Guitar at that time.
Duke Ellington and his Orchestra were playing in Cincinnati that day, and when Ellington and his manager heard them, they moved to make some calls and sign them to a contract.
Soon after, they left for New York, where they auditioned for CBS Radio.
When they signed a three-year contract with CBS for their own radio show, the Mills Brothers became the first Black group to have their own network radio show.
The 15-minute show aired twice-weekly.
“Tiger Rag,” the Mills Brothers’ first recording for Brunswick Records, hit No. 1 on the charts. Numerous other hits followed, including “Goodbye Blues,” “Nobody’s Sweetheart,” “Lazy Bones” and “Shoe Shine Boy.”
The singers made their film debut alongside Cab Calloway and Bing Crosby in Paramount’s “The Big Broadcast” (1932). Other film appearances followed.
Success and touring the world
Over the course of their long career, the Mills Brothers completed 37 world tours.
In 1934, they became the first Black performers to give a command performance before British royalty. They performed at the Regal Theatre for a special audience: King George V and Queen Mary.
Between 1933 and 1935, the brothers made 27 appearances on Bing Crosby’s CBS radio show, and they repeatedly recorded with Louis Armstrong.
In the late 1930s the group toured Europe just as World War II was starting, and they stayed overseas until 1941.
Back in the United States, the brothers recorded “I’ll be Around” in 1943. Donald Mills chose “Paper Doll” as the B-side of the record. “Paper Doll,” went on to sell six million copies and became the group’s biggest hit.
By 1947, they were pulling down $5,000 a week for stage appearances plus another $1,750 on the Kraft Music Hall radio show.
The Mills Brothers’ 50th anniversary in show business was celebrated in 1976 with a tribute at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, hosted by Bing Crosby.
Line-up changes through the years
With a career spanning eight decades, the group had to adapt their lineup over time.
In the 1920s, it was John Jr., Herbert, Harry and Donald Mills. When John Jr. died at age 25 in 1936, his father, John Sr., stepped in to fill the gap.
In 1957, the group became a trio of Herbert, Donald and Harry after father John Sr. retired.
Herbert, Harry and Donald continued performing on the oldies circuit until Harry’s death in 1982.
Herbert and Donald continued until Herbert’s death in 1989.
Donald and his son, John, then toured together through the 1990s.
Honored by Hometown
In a 1999 Dayton Daily News interview, longtime Piqua resident and and then-president of the Piqua Chamber of Commerce Dave Vollette talked about the popularity of the group.
“If you grew up in the ‘30s and ‘40s, the Mills Brothers would have been like the Beatles ...They were the most famous recording stars of their time,” he said.
The final surviving member, Donald Mills, along with his son John, returned to Piqua to perform several times through the 1990s. They were on hand for the dedication of a monument in the town’s public square that honors the Mills Brothers and their achievements.
The monument is made of jet-black granite and includes an etched portrait of the four original Mills Brothers and their father.
Credit: BILL GARLOW
Credit: BILL GARLOW
The monument also bears the titles of five of the brothers’ best-known songs, “Glow Worm,” “Tiger Rag,” “Paper Doll,” “Goodbye, Blues” and “You Always Hurt the One You Love.”
Breaking racial barriers
The group is remembered not only for its distinctive harmonies and velvety vocal texture but also for having broken through racial barriers in music, radio, film and society.
Daniel Clemons, president of the Mills Brothers Society and a biographer of the group, once said that although the brothers were among the first Black entertainers to gain wide acceptance from non-Black audiences, they often had to deal with racial discrimination, including being turned away from hotels as they toured in the 1930s.
“In their own quiet and unassuming fashion, they were able to overcome it,” Clemson said. “They paved the way for Black artists that followed.”
Legacy
In 1998 the Recording Academy recognized the Mills family’s contributions to music when it presented the sole surviving member, Donald, with a Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Credit: RICHARD DREW
Credit: RICHARD DREW
Reportedly, the group has a catalog of more than 2,000 recorded songs and garnered at least three dozen gold records.
The Mills Brothers Scholarship, founded in 1991, has helped several Piqua-area students pursue careers in music.
The fund provides financial support to students who have completed a year in college and are pursuing careers in music education or the performing arts.
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