A Television Series
In 1984, British television broadcast a very successful series entitled “The Beiderbecke Affair”. The main characters are two teachers, one teaches woodwork and the other teaches English. The woodwork teacher likes to listen to jazz and wants to purchase some jazz records. From that point on, the plot thickens and I couldn’t tell from what I read whether this is a mystery, a sitcom (a la anglaise), a comedy, or all of the above. The series is described as having a background of white jazz – Bix Beiderbecke’s recordings are heard in the soundtrack. The series was so successful, that it spawned two sequels, the Beiderbecke Tapes in 1987 and the Beiderbecke Connection in 1988. The soundtrack of the last of the series is available as a CD (Play 010) entitled The A to Z of British TV Themes, Volume 3, The Beiderbecke Connection. Click here for another issue of the soundtrack.
Beiderbecke’s Brasserie
According to information on its web page, this brasserie located in Darlington, in the north-east of England “takes its name from Leon Bix Beiderbecke, the famous or infamous jazz musician who most of you will probably remember from the Beiderbecke Affair or the Beiderbecke Tapes.”The web page for the Brasserie provides a link to the Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Society.
Bix Restaurant
This restaurant/bar, located on Gold Street, near the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco, is managed by Doug “Bix” Biederbeck. It is a rather sophisticated place, styled in the art deco mode. There are no pictures of Bix, nor is there any mention of the Bix. The live music is modern jazz. The ca. mid-18th century building that houses the restaurant has been designated as a Historical Landmark and is located on a narrow alley in what used to be the Barbary Coast section of San Francisco. Doug tells me (e-mail message 4/22/00) that he has met people who remember Bix (THE Bix). Not long after Doug opened the restaurant in 1988, an old lady went to see him. She said she remembered sitting on Bix’s lap when Bix and the Jean Goldkette band were practicing at her family’s “summer home” in Michigan or a state near Michigan. Doug did not remember her exact name but thought that it was Hazel Horvath or Horworth. Doug’s memory is remarkable. Hazel Horvath was the daughter of Edith and Charlie Horvath who was the band manager and drummer for the Jean Goldkette orchestra. Hazel’s memories of sitting on Bix’s lap go back to the summer of 1926 when the Jean Goldkette Orchestra had a summer engagement in the Blue Lantern Inn, Hudson Lake, Indiana.
Bix’s
A dining establishment in Las Vegas, Nevada. There is no connection with Bix Beiderbecke.
Hotel-Restaurant Bei der Becke
Herman Bei der Becke is the owner of the hotel restaurant that bears his name. The hotel is located just outside of Osnabrück, a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. The origin of the town goes back to Charlemagne, the emperor of the Franks, who in 780 AD founded a missionary settlement. History was made in Osnabrück from 1643 to 1648 in connection with negotiations that led to the Peace of Westphalia which ended the Thirty-Year War. I am grateful to Richard M. Sudhalter for the gift of the postcard.
Bix Furniture Restoration
I know of several stores in the East that specialize in the restoration of antique furniture. They all use Bix Furniture Stripper, a product made by a company owned by Kirk Kraft, from Clear Lake, Iowa. I am guessing that Clear Lake being in Iowa, the company derives its name from Bix Beiderbecke. I would appreciate any information about this from anyone who knows. 01/11/01 Thanks to Les Hatklin who tells me, “The Bix Manufacturing Co., Inc. was founded in 1957 by Gerald L. Bixenman.” The corporate offices are located in Madison, TN. The company produces a whole variety of paint removers.
In A Mist.
This book is advertised by the publishers as “A classic novel in the Victorian style”. Anonymous, 186 pages, Blue Moon Books, Inc., 1994. I have not read this book nor do I intend to. On their web site, the publishers describe the book: “The teasing enigma of legendary jazz cornetist Bix Beiderbecke’s piano piece, “In A Mist”, is skillfully woven into this intensely erotic and psychological study.” I am grateful to David Jemelia for calling my attention to this book.
Bix, a Punk Rock Band from Lithuania
According to their website, BIX is one of the oldest and best-known bands in Lithuania. A group of art and music students got together in 1987 as an underground band. When liberation came, they participated in festivals in Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden and twice in the United States. The band started recording in 1991. The last record to date, Wor’s, was released in 1997. One of the songs (if things recorded by pun rock bands can be called songs) is entitled “BIX’n’ROLL” (“BIXING DANCE”).
A Photograph of a Band
The image on the left is a scan of a photograph purchased by Scott Black in an antique shop in Indiana. Scott told me (e-mail message May 4, 1999) that he knows that the cornet player is not Bix, but that when he saw the photograph, he “almost swooned”. Undoubtedly, the resemblance is uncanny. It might take a while to download the image, but it is worth waiting. I did not want to lose resolution. I am grateful to Scott Black for sending the scan.
Young Man With A Horn
The first mention in print of the title phrase that I could find is in the article by Otis Ferguson, “Young Man with a Horn” originally published in The New Republic in 1936 and reprinted in “Jam Session, An Anthology of Jazz” edited by Ralph J. Gleason, The Jazz Book Club, London, 1961. The “Young Man with a Horn” is, of course, Bix Beiderbecke. Two years later, the novel “Young Man with a Horn” was published by Dorothy Baker (Queens House, Larchmont, NY, 1938, 243 pages).
Finally, the motion picture with the same title was released in 1950, with Kirk Douglas starring as the Young Man with a Horn. In the preface to her book, Dorothy Baker writes: “The inspiration for the writing of this book has been the music, but not the life, of a great musician, Leon (Bix) Beiderbecke, who died in the year 1931. The characters and events of the story are entirely fictitious and do not refer to real musicians, living or dead, or to actual happenings.” There is some truth to this statement, but, in my opinion, it is quite deceitful. It is true that the background of Rick Martin, the hero of the novel, is totally different from Bix’s.
But, there are too many similarities between Rick Martin and Bix, as well as other parallelisms that I will list below, for me to accept that “the characters … do not refer to real musicians”. Both Rick and Bix play piano and trumpet/cornet. Rick Martin eventually joined Phil Morrison “who ran the best orchestra of the day”. Of course, Bix joined Paul Whiteman’s orchestra, the most successful “jazz” organization of the 1920’s. Phil Morrison’s orchestra featured a vocal trio and two arrangers; Paul Whiteman had the fabulous Rhythm Boys, the great Bill Challis and Ferde Grofe.
Both Rick Martin and Bix were gifted with a genius for music and both were particularly appreciated by their fellow musicians. Both died before the age of 30 from pneumonia and excessive consumption of alcohol. There are more resemblances. I quote from p. 172:
“Rick wasn’t the only good man in it (the band) either; there was a fiddler who made you think twice and a man who blew as good a trombone as you’ll hear anywhere in public.” Could the fiddler be Joe Venuti and the trombone player Bill Rank? Again, from p. 172: “But when that thin blond boy (Rick Martin) stood up in his place and tore off sixteen bars in his own free style, filling the blank that was allotted to him on the score, it was a surprise forever.” Didn’t Bill Challis’ arrangements give lots of opportunities for Bix to improvise? Didn’t George Johnson tell us that”Bix was a fountain of ideas that were spontaneous, as unexpected to himself as they were to us?”
Dorothy Baker writes in p. 105:
When are you good enough; how do you know when you’re right? He went into one of his fictions: some big-time-band leader, Paul Whiteman, like as not, was sitting right out there in the dim hall at one of the tables. Somebody had told him Rick was good and he’d better look him up. So he had, and now Rick was going to play a little something for him, and if he liked it he’d take him on. All Rick had to do was to play, and it had better be good because old Paul Whiteman didn’t come here just because he didn’t have anything else to do.
Paul Whiteman had heard Bix play with the Jean Goldkette Orchestra and made repeated offers to Bix to join the Paul Whiteman Orchestra. (In fact, at the invitation of Bix and Bill Challis, Paul conducted the Jean Goldkette Orchestra on August 8, 1927, in Atlantic City) Indeed, Bix’s music was the inspiration for the book, but, in my opinion, and as detailed above, Dorothy Baker did not stop at the music.
Dorothy Baker is not a gifted writer: the characters she invents are poorly constructed, the story is unsatisfactory, and the relationships between the characters are strained or unbelievable. However, I must admit to a certain morbid fascination with the book. It must be that I want to read as much as I can about Bix, and although certainly, Rick Martin is no Bix, the similarities are too pronounced for me to completely separate the real Bix from the fictional Rick. The 1950 film, based on the novel, was written by Carl Foreman, produced by Jerry Wald, and directed by Michael Curtiz. Many excellent actors and actresses starred in the film: Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall, Doris Day, Hoagy Carmichael, and Juano Hernandez Kirk Douglas plays Rick Martin. Harry James dubs Kirk Douglas on the trumpet. Two new characters were created for the movie: torch singer Jo Jordan (Doris Day) and piano player Smoke Willoughby (Hoagy Carmichael). In spite of all the talent, the film is pretty bad – part musical, part soap opera, part drama.
The music, of course, has nothing to do whatsoever with Bix. It is typical 1940’s popular/big band music. Two LPs with music from the film (not a “soundtrack” recording, but recordings of the music from the film, after the film was completed) were issued in 1950: a 10” LP by Doris Day, Columbia CL6106, and a 12′ LP by Harry James, Columbia ACL582. There is also a 1950 Capitol 10′ 78 by Ray Anthony “Theme from Young Man with A Horn”. Just a couple of weeks ago, on June 6, 1999, the songs on the two LPs (plus a bonus track) were reissued on a Sony/Columbia CD 65508: “Young Man with A Horn. Doris Day/Harry James. The songs included are:
- I May Be Wrong (But I Think You’re Wonderful)
- The Man I Love
- The Very Thought Of You
- Pretty Baby
- Melancholy Rhapsody
- Would I Love You
- Too Marvelous For Words
- Get Happy
- I Only Have Eyes For You
- Limehouse Blues
- With A Song In My Heart
- Lullaby Of Broadway
- Moanin’ Low
Not exactly Bix’s songs!
A Comic Strip With A Character Named Bix
This comic strip appeared in newspapers in 1979. Pheobe and the Pigeon People is an underground comic stip that appears in the Chicago area. I am grateful to Steve Mican for kindly sending the image.
Weet-Bix
This is the number-one-selling breakfast cereal in Australia. It is manufactured by Sanitarium Health Food Co., founded in 1898. The company also makes Fruity-Bix, Bran-Bix, and Lite-Bix. The Bix here has nothing to do with Bix Beiderbecke. It is an abbreviation for biscuit.
Bix Knife
I purchased this knife from a fellow who bought it in a flea market in Holland. The two-inch blade has the inscription “Paul A. Henckels, Solingen”.
Computer Companies
Several computer companies have the name Bix in their titles: Bix Global Interactive Community, Bix Computers, etc. One company, Independent Technologies, Inc., produces Bix block adapters for high-speed data connections. None of these companies has anything to do with Bix Beiderbecke. The b and the i are probably derived from bit and the x from exchange, as in information exchange.
A Jazz Album for Children
Langston Hughes produced “The First Album of Jazz for Children with documentary recordings from the Library of Folkways Records.” The title is The Story of Jazz. The artists covered are Jelly Roll Morton, Bunk Johnson, Scott Joplin, Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, Earl Hines, and Dizzy Gillespie.
Bix, Jack Webb, and Pete Kelly’s Blues
Jack Webb is a well-known television and film actor, producer, and director. He was a jazz enthusiast. According to Charlotte Younger, Jack Webb had a collection of 6000 jazz albums and practiced the cornet for hours. Jack Webb “wanted to produce and direct a motion picture on the life of Jazz Immortal Bix Beiderbecke.” (Time Magazine, March 15, 1954) He never did, but he directed, produced, and starred in the 1955 motion picture “Pete Kelly’s Blues” which takes place during the 1920’s. In the film, Jack Webb plays Pete Kelly, a cornet player and band leader of “Pete Kelly’s and His Big Seven” (really, Matty Matlock Dixielanders). Early in the film, there is a reference to Bix. Edmond O’Brien plays a mobster who is trying to muscle in and take over the band. The musicians in the band decide to resist O’Brien efforts, except for Lee Marvin, who plays Al Gannaway, a clarinetist, and chooses to quit the band. At that point, the following conversation between Al and Pete ensues.
Pete: “Where do you think you’ll go?”
Al: “East, maybe; thought I might try to catch up with a big outfit, Goldkette, somebody like that.”
Pete: “Paid up, got train fare?”
Al: “I’ll catch a bus out of St. Louis. I ought to be used to it by now. I bet I spent half my life in bus stations. Ain’t that the dangest thing? Sure wish you’d go along, Pete. You’d do good with someone like Goldkette.”
Pete: “Who’s playing horn there?”
Al: “Bix, I guess.”
Pete: “I’m safer here,
Al.” As an aside, there is an interesting question about the participation of Joe Venuti in the film.
According to the film credits, the band “features the talents” of Dick Cathcart (cornet), Moe Schneider (trombone), George Van Eps (guitar), Ray Sherman (piano), Matty Matlock (clarinet), Eddie Miller (saxophone), Nick Fatool (drums), and Jud De Naut (string bass). According to The Guide to Jazz in Film Bibliography, Joe Venuti also plays in the Big Seven band. This is in error.
The band consists of the eight musicians listed above and does not include Joe Venuti. However, I found a mention of Joe Venuti in the entry for the film in the Cinemania 97 CD. According to the information provided, Joe Venuti is an uncredited member of the Tuxedo Band. The problem left is the identification of the Tuxedo Band. As far as I can tell, there are three distinct bands in the film.
- Pete Kelly and His Big Seven.
- A band of black musicians who play at a funeral at the beginning of the movie.
- A small combo of black musicians accompanying Ella Fitzgerald.
None of these groups includes Joe Venuti. Can anybody shed some light on this puzzle?
Addendum 9/8/99: The Library of Congress has a website entitled “The Guide to Jazz in Film Bibliography” at http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/mopic/jazz/o-r.html In the review of “Pete Kelly’s Blues”, it is stated that the film “includes two numbers by Ella Fitzgerald, backed by Don Abney, Larry Bunker, and Joe Mondragon. Also features Perry Bodkin, Teddy Buckner, Dick Cathcart, Nick Fatool, Harper Goff, Thomas Jefferson, Matty Matlock, Eddie Miller, Jud de Naut, Moe Schneider, Ray Sherman, George Van Eps and Joe Venuti performing “Bye Bye Blackbird,” “Hardhearted Hannah,” “He Needs Me,” “I Never Knew,” “Oh, Didn’t He Ramble,” “Pete Kelly’s Blues,” “Sing Me a Rainbow,” “Somebody Loves Me” and “Sugar.” I highlight Joe Venuti. This is the second mention of Joe Venuti being present in the soundtrack of the film.
Joe Venuti is not present in the video portion of the film. A violinist is never seen playing with the band. Could Venuti be on the soundtrack? Is it possible that the videotape does not contain all of the footage included in the film version? I am going to watch the movie again and will listen carefully in search of aural evidence of the great Joe Venuti’s violin sound. I will report in due course.
Addendum, 12/28/99: Steve Cooper ( a Red Nichols expert who, with his band The Dixie Patrol, recreates the sound of Red Nichol’s 1950s Capitol recordings) writes: “I just saw an article about Pete Kelly’s Blues on the internet. The Tuxedo Band was in the TV Series of Pete Kelly’s Blues, not the film. However, on the TV soundtrack album, there is NO violin in the 4 Tuxedo Band tunes. So I guess Joe Venuti was not associated with the movie at all.” He adds on 12/29/99: “I’ve noticed lots of filmographies have erroneous information, so this is just “par for the course.”
Addendum, 11/26/02: Ray Sherman writes on 25 Nov 2002, “The Tuxedo Band is the “society band” at the rich girl’s party towards the middle of the picture. Venuti could be on the soundtrack for that scene.”
An Ancient Hamlet in England
Bix and Assendon are two hamlets located near Henley-on-Thames, about 18 miles from London Heathrow Airport. The name Bix is derived from the Anglo-Saxon name of the parish Byxe. The Domesday Book records the village Bix as Bix Brad and Bix Gibwen. Remains of a Roman villa are found nearby. A company that specializes in web page design and in photographs, Timeless Dimension, has a website with two photographs of interest. One is a photograph of an old church in Bix Bottom Valley, located one mile from the hamlet. The other is a photograph of the Bix Common Field entitled “On a Misty Evening”. Isn’t that an amazing coincidence of names? Bix and mist!! The photograph at right is the work of Mark Alliston and it is shown here through his courtesy.
Bix Trail
Many years ago Dirk Jellema, David Jellema’s uncle, owned two miles of lakefront on the shores of Lake Michigan. As the owner of that land, Dirk had the joyful task of naming some of the trails and roads that existed there. He named Bix Trail after Beiderbecke, Peppers Trail after his dog “Pepper” -and- after the Red Hot Peppers (incidentally, there is another trail named “Morton Trail”, but its sign is down). In Lost Valley, where the photograph at the left was taken, Dirk operated a restaurant. Dirk was a jazz lover. Therefore, it is not surprising that the “Jack Pine Savages” with Tom Pletcher played at the restaurant. David Jellema first heard Tom Pletcher there. It is also the place where David’s Uncle, Gordon Darrah, who was a record dealer and hosted a radio program in Western Michigan for years called “The Land of Jazz.”, gave him his first Bix tape. David refers to Lost Valley as “a magical place indeed…” The Jellema’s property in Lost Valley is only about three miles North of White Lake. The town of Montague is on one shore of White Lake, Whitehall on the other. In the summer of 1922, Bix had one of his earliest gigs there on White Lake.
I am grateful to David Jellema for sending the image of the Bix Trail sign. Most of the text above is taken from an e-mail message he sent to me on 8/20/99.
Victor Buono’s “New Gig”
Victor Buono, the movie and television actor, wrote a book of poetry about being fat. In 1972, he issued an LP, “Heavy!” (Dore Records LP-325) where he read some of this poetry. The last cut in the record is called “New Gig” where Buono mentions Bix. This is a poem about Satchmo going to heaven. It begins as follows:
As heaven’s portals opened wide
A brand new saint came marchin’ in
For one who recently had died
He wore a most aggressive grin
They handed him a golden horn
Just polished by a cherub’s wing
A gift from friends, Parker, Handy, Bix and King…
I am grateful to Joe Giordano for sending me an audio cassette copy of the album.
A Poem that Mentions Bix
James Merrill (1926-1995) was a novelist, playwright and poet. One of his poems begins as follows:
Bix to Buxtehude to Boulez,
The little white dog on the Victor label
Listens as long and hard as he is able.
It’s all in a day’s work, whatever plays.
A Mention of Bix in a Song
In 1957, Louis Prima issued a Capitol album entitled “The Wildest”. One of the songs in the album is entitled “Lip” and includes a vocal by Dorothy Keely Smith. The “Lip” is the name given to a trumpet player that is the center of the lyrics for the song. One of the lines in the lyrics goes as follows:
He’s got a tone that’s reminiscent of a boy named Bix
Other trumpet players mentioned in the song are Ziggy Elman, Harry James, and Louis Prima. I am sad to see Bix in such poor company. I am grateful to Joe Giordano for alerting me about the existence of this song.
Bix Butterbox
The TV Guide of November 5, 1967, carries the following description:
SMOTHERS BROTHERS Guests: Ricardo Montalban, Diahann Caroll, First Edition. Diahann narrates a biographical look at jazz trumpeter Bix Butterbox (Tom). Nelson Riddle.
Bix, the Dinosaur
James Gurney is the author of several children’s books about Dinotopia, a fictional island where humans and dinosaurs coexist peacefully. The heroes of the books are Will and Arthur Denison who shipwrecked on the island in 1862. The first dinosaur they met was Bix, a protoceratops who is Ambassador and Translator. Bix guided Will and Arthur in their various voyages in their discovery of the island. A plush toy inspired by the Bix character in the books is shown on the left. Bix, the Dinosaur, has its website.
Bix Beiderbark, the Dalmatian
Tom Roberts, a native of Pittsburgh, PA, is a jazz pianist. He currently plays and is a musical director with Leon Redbone. He has played with several traditional jazz groups such as Eddie Bayard’s Steamboat Stompers on the Steamboat “Natchez”, The Crescent City Rhythm Kings, and The Silver Leaf Jazz Band. Tom has eleven CDs to his credit and has just released his second solo CD on Stomp Off Records. I will cite just a few of the musicians that he has recorded with: Vince Giordano, John Gill, Chris Tyle, and Dan Levinson. Tom owns a Dalmatian that he named Bix Beiderbark. The image on the right is from the cover of Tom’s 1997 CD of Jazz Piano Solos and shows Tom and the Dalmatian.
Robot-Bix
Alain Serres (writer) and Sophie Dutertre (illustrator) have published, in France, a children’s book titled “Krocobill et Robot-Bix.” According to the book notes in Fnac (a popular store in Europe that sells books, records, and videos), Krocobill is a small child who is fascinated by Robot-Bix, a television hero. One day, Krocobill’s grandmother gives him a toy Robot-Bix. Krocobill takes the robot to school, hoping that Pierrot and Geneviève, two of his classmates, will no longer dare bother him. But things do not happen as expected. Krocobill becomes courageous, not because of the robot, but to save him from his cruel classmates. It is a touching story for children four and older.
A Short Story That Mentions Bix
“Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine” was edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch in Eugene, Oregon. The Fall 1988 issue, entitled “Horror” contains short stories, essays, and articles. One of the short stories is “The Night I Saw Bix Beiderbecke Playing on the Corner of Fifth Avenue and 53rd” by Ron Goulart.
Some information about Ms. Rusch can be found at http://www.greenmanreview.com/rusch.html I quote:
Few people have had as diverse an impact on science fiction and fantasy as Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Winner of the John W. Campbell Award in 1990 for best new writer, Rusch made her mark with powerfully emotional short stories. In 1989 she shared a World Fantasy Award with her husband and collaborator, Dean Wesley Smith, for their work on Pulphouse: A Hardback Magazine. From 1991-1997 she edited The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, for which she won the Hugo Award for best editor in 1994.
The short story deals with black magic, sorcerers, demons and runes (I had to look it up; letters of the earliest Germanic alphabet used by Scandinavians and Anglo-Saxons from about the 3rd century), and holes in the fabric of time. According to the story, a sorcerer can write a number of runes on a piece of parchment and slip it to his intended victim. If the individual has the piece of parchment in his possession by a given time, a demon will home in and destroy him. The only way he can save himself is by passing the parchment to someone else. The story relates how this fellow is first given the parchment and then passes it on before the deadline. As he returns home, the text reads:
When I was approaching 51st Street, I began hearing music from a couple of blocks ahead. The tune was “Singing the Blues”. The fellow on cornet had a round plump face, slicked hair and a small mustache. He wore a wrinkled tuxedo and was paying attention to nothing but his music. Seated in a camp chair was a lean blond man playing a banjo. His case was open on the damp sidewalk, a scatter of small coins and a single dollar bill resting on the faded purplish plush. The drummer was tall and thin, playing a single snare while standing in a hunch. I recognized the horn player while I was still several yards from him. It was Bix Beiderbecke, the legendary jazz musician who’d died back in the early 1930’s sometime. I’d seen his picture in histories, heard his records. I was tempted to stop and listen, but I didn’t. It seem wiser tot keep moving. One of them called something after me. I don’t know, though, what he said.
[End of story]
Evidently, Mr. Goulart knows quite a bit about Bix: his total concentration in music, his disregard for personal grooming, his most important recording, and the fact that in his later years, he had a mustache. How many jazz fans, let alone normal people, would know all of these things?
Abstract Art: Bix #2 and Bix # 10
The exhibition of abstract drawings at Kenise Barnes Fine Art in Larchmont, New York, in February 2001, included two drawings by Andra Samelson. In his review for the February 4, 2001, issue of the New York Times, William Zimmer writes:
Andra Samelson’s two large ink drawings each contain a novel half-organic, half-geometric shape. But the ink Ms. Samelson uses isn’t a special kind for artists. Rather she uses Bic pens with blue ink. This is obvious in the cross-hatching, which gives a sense of volume to the shapes and helps make them ingratiating; any viewer can identify with the process. Most of the pieces in the exhibition are untitled or have a general series name with numbers added for individual works. Ms. Samelson causes a bit of delight when a viewer notices that her contributions are titled “Bix #2” and “Bix #10”. The early, insouciant-sounding jazz trumpeter Bix Beiderbecke is brought to mind by this play on the name of her trusty implement.
A Bix Toy Soldier
Blenheim, a toy soldier manufacturer in Wales, was commissioned to make a set of toy soldiers for a special celebration in Iowa. The Iowa set shown here consists of Buffalo Bill Cody, Bix Beiderbecke, Marilyn Monroe, an Iowa Highway Patrolman, and Herbert Hoover, all prominent Iowans except Marilyn. Does anyone know why Marilyn was included in the Iowa Set? I am guessing that the name of the Blenheim Toy Soldier Manufacturing Company comes from Winston Churchill’s interest in toy soldiers. From an early age, Churchill played with toy soldiers. At one point, he had a collection of about fifteen hundred Napoleonic-era troops. A collection of toy soldiers is on display at Blenheim Palace, Churchill’s birthplace and the home of the Dukes of Marlborough. Two close-up views (in black and white) of the Bix toy are displayed in p. 590 of “Bix: The Leon Bix Beiderbecke Story” by Philip Evans and Linda Evans. According to the caption to the photographs in the book, “The arms will move the cornet to his lips”.
The inscription at the bottom of the tiny (less than three inches) statue reads: “Made in Wales for G. J. Alingh.” I thank Brad Kay for pointing out that the above image was posted on eBay. If the person who auctioned the set finds my posting of the image offensive, I will remove it immediately.
A Caricature of Bix
Randall Enos is an illustrator of magazines, newspapers, books, record and CD covers, posters, and animated films. To see some of his portraits/caricatures, click here. Randall loves Bix and introduced the caricature in the 1992 Illustrators Society show. The caricature was subsequently published in the annual Illustrators Society Annual. The image is included in Randall’s website. See the image on the right. I am grateful to Randall for permitting me to post the image here.
A Painting of Bix
Lino Patruno kindly sent me a photo of a painting of Bix by Salvatore Lembo, an Italian painter from Vallo della Lucania. We see Lino standing next to the painting and holding a cornet.
A Xylography (Wood Engraving) of Bix
Frasconi, Antonio (b Buenos Aires, 28 April 1919). Uruguayan printmaker and illustrator of Argentine birth. The son of Italian parents who settled in Montevideo when he was two weeks old, he first exhibited drawings in 1939 at the Ateneo in Montevideo and studied printmaking with various artists, while also working as a political caricaturist in the weekly publications Marcha, La Línea Maginot. His diverse influences included German Expressionism, José Guadalupe Posada, the Taller de Gráfica Popular and woodcuts by Japanese artists such as Katsushika Hokusai and Kitagawa Utamaro. (Grove Dictionary of Art). At age 26 he moved to the USA. His work is found in several museums around the country. In an interview by Robert Berlind published in the Spring 1994 issue of the “Art Journal” Frasconi was asked:
R.B: What were you focused on as a young man in Uruguay?
A.F: We always had an admiration for anything that came from the United States in the late twenties, thirties, and forties. Everything that came from up there was great. And everything really was great. The writing: John Dos Passos, Theodore Dreiser, Faulkner, Richard Wright. The movies were absolutely the greatest thing. The music! When this American music came into being in the thirties for us it was an explosion.
R.B: Jazz?
A.F: Yeah. Mainly early jazz. The greatest soloists–Ellington, King Oliver, my God, Bix Biederbeck [sic]. Every side of culture except painting.
The following is an image of a xylography of Bix created by Frasconi in 1976.
I thank Leo Masliah for sending me a scan of the image.
A Poem About Frank Trumbauer
“HE WOULD NEVER USE ONE WORD WHERE NONE WOULD DO” by Philip Levine
If you said “Nice day,” he would look up
at the three clouds riding overhead,
nod at each, and go back to doing what-
ever he was doing or not doing.
If you asked for a smoke or a light,
he’d hand you whatever he found
in his pockets: a jackknife, a hankie —
usually unsoiled — a dollar bill,
a subway token. Once he gave me
half the sandwich he was eating
at the little outdoor restaurant on La Guardia Place. I remember
a single sparrow was perched on the back
of his chair, and when he held out
a piece of bread on his open palm,
the bird snatched it up and went back to
its place without even a thank you,
one hard eye staring at my bad eye
as though I were next. That was in May
of ’97, spring had come late,
but the sun warmed both of us for hours
while silence prevailed, if you can call
the blaring of taxi horns and the trucks
fighting for parking and the kids on skates
streaming past silence. My friend Frankie
was such a comfort to me that year,
the year of the crisis. He would turn up
his great dark head just going gray
until his eyes met mine, and that was all
I needed to go on talking nonsense
as he sat patiently waiting me out,
the bird staring over his shoulder.
“Silence is silver,” my Zaydee had said,
getting it wrong and right, just as he said
“Water is thicker than blood,” thinking
this made him a real American.
Frankie was already American,
being half German, half Indian.
Fact is, silence is the perfect water:
unlike rain it falls from no clouds
to wash our minds, to ease our tired eyes,
to give heart to the thin blades of grass
fighting through the concrete for even air
dirtied by our endless stream of words.
Philip Levine was awaarded the 1995 Pultzer Prize for his Collecton “The Simple Truth.” His poem in this issue will appear in his book “The Mercy” to be published this spring. Copyright © 1999 by The Atlantic Monthly Company. All rights reserved. The Atlantic Monthly; January 1999; “He Would Never Use One Word Where None Would Do”; Volume 283, No. 1, page 81. I thank Paul Means for kindly sending me a copy of the poem.
The Bix Produce Company
According to their website, http://www.bixproduce.com:
Bix provides the finest quality bulk and pre-cut fruits and vegetables, dairy, and related food items to food service operators including restaurants, hotels, educational institutions, and country clubs located in the Twin Cities metro area, greater Minnesota, and Western Wisconsin
The company was founded in 1930 by the Bix family. Recently, on Dec. 2, 2004 – Goldsmith Agio Helms announced it has completed the sale of its client Bix Produce Company (“Bix” or the “Company”). Hans Eekhoff kindly sent me an image of the company’s products, Bix Pure Ground Ginger