Chattanooga Choo Choo
Chattanooga Choo Choo was a Glen Miller song featured in the 1941 movie 'Sun Valley Serenade', which starred amongst others Milton Berle and Joan Davis.
Released on the RCA Victor label, the record became the first to be certified a gold disc on February 10, 1942, for sales of 1,200,000.
The inspiration for the song was a small, wood-burning steam locomotive belonging to the Cincinnati Southern Railroad. From 1880, nearly all trains bound for America's South passed through the city of Chattanooga. Dubbed the 'Chattanooga Choo Choo' by a local newspaper reporter, it wasn't until Glenn Miller and the Glenn Miller Orchestra sang about it that the train became well-known.
Today, one of the original trains has pride of place in the Chattanooga Terminal Station. The station was saved from demolition in the 1970s, is now part of a 30 acre vacation complex including a Holiday Inn.
