Original subtitles

I'm the best in the west I'm the best in the west I'm

the best in the west

he started to influence

every player in the whole United States

they admired him and they adored him

and they tried to imitate him

and they couldn't imitate him

and he never had any show

display of ego and he wasn't a show off in any way

he never handled his horn like other horn players do

you know when they put it way up in the air and all

all that stuff when he's hitting a beautiful phrase

no he kept it right down here

where he liked it

and where he could hear it and loved it

and he'd forget about whoever was listening

or anything else and he was just big Spider Beck

a great musician with a soul

and that soul shown right there at the end of that horn

big Spider Bank

he played melodies that no one else had thought of

melodies that were spun from the mind of a quiet man

who poured all his feelings into an astonishing music

and he did it all in such a short time

Pix was born in Davenport Iowa

a small town on the western bank of the Mississippi

the first bideback arrived in the mid 1850s

from Germany

one of the thousands of European settlers

determined to make a good life for himself

within a generation

the Byler Back family had become prominent members

of an industrious community

Bismarck Biederbeck

was manager of the East Davenport Fuel Company

he built a comfortable house at 19

34 grand Avenue for his family

on March 10th 19

3 their youngest child

Bix was born

it was a musical home

Bix's mother was an accomplished pianist

a lover of classical music

his sister Mary Louise

remembers how early his interest in music

became apparent

he used to sit on the floor and push himself

with his heels in time with the music

this was before he could walk

and he'd push himself so far

that he'd get caught under chairs and things like that

the first thing he played in his whole life

was a song called Mister Dooley

when he was 2 years old

and he wasn't able to climb up on the stool

so he stood on the floor

and played with his hands over his head

we were so astonished my mother was so thrilled

well they were a German family

like all of ours

you had to be dressed nicely all the time

and that's the way the children were all brought up

Helen Bettendorff

was a friend of the Biederbecke family

this friend of mine George von Mar

remembers him as a a

a boy

maybe 6 7 years old

coming to his family's house

the family were playing poker

and Bix was always playing the piano

and they finally said get that child off that piano

we can't play poker while he's

trying to play the piano

he didn't conform like uh we all had to

when he was 7 the town paper did a feature on him

reporting that the musical

Wonder Child could play any selection he heard

many times

neighbors invited him over to play a serenade

they rewarded him with nickels

Bix was the envy of all the kids on the block

he always had a pocket full of change

he and the piano any piano became inseparable

his mother was delighted by his talent

but she wanted to make sure it was properly developed

so she sent him to a reputable music teacher

the uh

music teacher said

I don't think you better send him anymore

he said I can't teach him anything

he said whatever I uh

give him to play he'll play it the next time

he comes back with improvements

that was the end of piano lessons for him

once again VIX was left alone to play as he wanted

life in Davenport could be pretty dull

by far

the most exciting place to be was down by the river

here you waited for the boats to dock

to try to sneak aboard

to listen to the jazz bands

Bix couldn't resist the energy of jazz

the Levy became his hangout

up the river from New Orleans

the boats brought King Oliver

fake Marables group with Louis Armstrong on cornet

Louis made a big impression on Bix

sometimes Vicks went down to the levee alone

sometimes with other Davenport

kids

one was Fitz Putzie

we'd go down there in the evening

and sit there on the levee

and it was you know

it was a lot of fun to be with Bix

because of his enthusiasm

he could be he could get interested

and be enthused over hearing one note

that was a little unusual

Fritz stood out for his musical experience

he'd played cornet professionally

a six week job on a riverboat

when Bix heard that Fritz wanted to sell his cornet

he quickly made an offer he said

how much do you want for your cornet

and I said oh

I don't know Bex

uh oh possibly $35

well he said

Gee Fritz

I haven't got $35 he said

I can give you 15 right now

and maybe I can give you $8 a month so we made a deal

now that he owned his own instrument

he could play along to the one jazz record

that had made its way into the Biederbeck household

it was Tiger Rag

played by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band

mother and dad used to go to the movies

and leave us alone and he would

uh

um

we'd he'd sit there and play and play and play

he would put his ear in

as close as he could into the Victrola

play the horn down

so that he wouldn't bump it in the Victrola

and then just play along with it

whenever the Original Dixieland Jazz Band came out with

a new record as Bix used to put it

he took a lesson

he could copy each part of the five piece organization

and he

he had such a wonderful ear that he could do that

as often as he could Bix sat in with bands around town

he disappeared for hours missing meals

sometimes even classes

his parents disapproved

but Putzi and the Buckley Novelty Orchestra

were so impressed by his playing

that they invited him to join their band for a big job

the problem was to get the job

they all had to join the union

that meant passing the union exam

everyone in the band could read music

everyone except Bix

the day came to take the exam

when Bix got there why

he was pretty nervous

and he said look fellas

he said we still have an hour before we go to the union

he said can we have one rehearse

one more rehearsal

well we knew there was a piano up the YMCA

and so we went up there set up our music racks

went through this routine that we'd practiced

and then went to the union headquarters

and we were told to set up

and a fellow named Roy Kouts

incidentally was the man who was giving us our audition

so we went through about three numbers

and I thought it came off quite well

but then the blow that killed his face

when Mister Caunt said now I'd like to take you

fellows individually

and instead of

taking a piece that Bix might have been familiar with

and he might have struggled through it

one of the popular dance numbers of the day

he brought out an arrangement

I can remember this big long sheet of music

Bix not knowing what the piece was

why the piano

was playing an accompaniment to a cornet solo

and Bix was playing the piano part

so he didn't get very far

until Roy Kouts beat his baton on the

on the music rack and he said stop

he said young fellow

he said don't play

don't play the piano part

play your part well

of course this

this broke Bix up he couldn't

he couldn't read

and uh

he put his arm around Bix

because Bix was beginning to fall apart

and actually tears formed in his eyes

he felt so badly because he knew that he was gonna

he was the force that we needed to get this job

and he knew that if he couldn't make the union

we wouldn't get the job and this is what happened

of course so Roy Cut said

now young man

he said I

I think you should go home

and you should practice for six months

and then come back and try it again

his parents were relieved

they hoped the episode would cure Bix of his ambitions

but there was no way they or anything could stop him

his girlfriend Vera Korn

recalls the reaction they didn't understand it

hardly anyone did

when he would play in high school

we'd have an auditorium and

and a um

a little entertainment and sometimes he would play

and it it left everyone

well just kind of

a gas nobody really understood

what he was trying to say with his music

and I didn't either for that matter

but I liked it but um

it was so different and no one knew anything like it

nobody had ever heard anything like it

school meant less and less

he did try to please his parents

he loved his mother his first musical inspiration

and respected his father but music was first

his grades slipped he missed too many classes

failed too many subjects

in his junior year at Davenport High

in desperation Bismarck Badebek

enrolled his wayward son at the Lake Forest Academy

a boarding school

known for its high academic and disciplinary standards

Bismarck hoped that the school would straighten him out

Bix did his best to fit in

he joined all the right activities baseball

football and of course the school orchestra

before long one fact of Lake Forest life

which Bismarck hadn't considered

was dominating Bix's time

Lake Forest was 35 miles north of Chicago

Chicago was now the first city of jazz

Bix regularly caught the night train to Chicago

and sat in with his favorite bands in speakeasies

prohibition had been enforced for three years

as a result there were speakeasies everywhere

at the Fryers Inn the

New Orleans Rhythm Kings played New Orleans jazz

in its best tradition

he also discovered the black bands

of Chicago's South Side

but

the school decided that his conduct was unacceptable

Vicks was asked to leave Lake Forest

just a year after his parents

had set their son on the straight and narrow

Vicks was happily jamming around Chicago

by October 1st, 1923

VIX had Learned enough to fake his music reading skills

and he won his musician's union card

That November at age 20

he joined his first professional band

called the Wolverines

Jazzy Blues

features Bix on his first recorded cornet solo

the vitality and insistent energy of the Wolverines

music startled everyone

especially other musicians

after cutting their first records

the Wolverines spent two months

playing gigs in smaller cities

across Ohio Illinois and Indiana

eventually they headed for Indianapolis

capital of Indiana

here Bix met Charlie Davis

a young piano player who was leader of his own group

when we heard VIX the first time

we were in trouble

we were in trouble for a second band for the um

I think it was the Butler junior prom

uh in 1924

so we thought Jeepers great

here's a here's a chance to get the second band

so we hired Bix and the boys

the Wolverines to play

they play in the small ballroom

at the Indianapolis Athletic Club

I'll never forget the evening

because started off pretty good

we took our boys in the big ballroom

we played Big Eddie sang couple of funny songs

played some sweet music

couple were dancing

very nice uh

polite applause everything's fine

and then the Wolverines started in the small ballroom

and from the first note they played

I don't think anybody ever came to hear our band

the rest of the evening and that was really

it was really kind kind of embarrassing

but our boys were right right with the crowd

watching these boys play

on sax in the Charlie Davis Band was Regan Carey

when he would play

he was all by himself

he didn't know anybody else was around

and he played to the best of his knowledge and ability

that course that he was doing

and then when he'd get through

he'd put his horn down on his knee

and sometimes think about it

for 16 bars or maybe a whole course

just think about what he done

and maybe what he should have done someplace else and

and didn't do

all the thing was special about Bix Beiderbecke

I would say he was a man that lived in a dream

Bix

when he was playing

it just seemed to me like he'd

his focus he'd focus on a spot

play that spot and where these

where these notes came from where

where they came from uh

if there was anybody that could compose

in the actual playing it was Bix

forty miles south of Indianapolis lay Bloomington

home of the university of Indiana

the Wolverines ever on

the lookout for new audiences turned up on campus

Composer

Hoagy Carmichael was studying law at the university

I was at the piano just messing around

and in walked Vic and I didn't see him and all

and we came to a break

you know how you come to a break when you're

you're playing a tune and there's a

there's a stop my bix took the break

and I didn't know he was even standing back there

and he hit four notes and I'm telling you

I jumped to to the ceiling

never heard anything as beautiful and wonderful

and it it struck me so deeply

that I went over and fell down on the divan

to get my breath now

can you believe that well

I was that much of a uh

alligator they call them alligators

people who love to uh

watch and hear people play

you know stand in front of the band

you know and clap their hands and carry on

well I was one of the worst

when I heard Bix hit those notes

then George Johnson my dear friend

suggested that I play a little piano for Bix

well I thought sure

I'll play some piano for Bix

I'll show him a thing or two and

and I did play a little and I think he liked it

but he certainly didn't jump up and down like a monkey

like I thought he might and then George said

the Bix wants you to play something for Ogie and uh

Bix

sat down and started to play one of his compositions

well I nearly passed out again

went over to the Divan

and lay down for a little bit to get my breath

that's how good it was and it was

I don't know which one of his compositions it was

but it was a great revelation to me

to find out he could play piano

as well as he could play a cornet

there were there were a few

few days when the Wolverine boys

including Bix were around in the Naples and they

they spent quite a lot of their time in the Indiana

of the Ohio theater with us

across the alley from the theater

is a little rehearsal room

and a kind of an old beat up piano back there

that Bix used to love to come play he played one tune

that I had never heard before

I never heard

I had never heard anybody play it since except I

I recorded it myself in my own mind

and he called it cloudy cloudy

and it is well named

because it is a kind of a cloudy piece

uh I wonder would you like to hear it

what

why don't I play it

uh

I remember he was a great man to play on the Black Keys

he was a black key man haha

but here here was cloudy if

if I can do it if I if I

can't do it

you will forgive me because it's a long time cloudy

VIX played Charlie Davis's piano

whenever he could get at it

it was his chance to explore

anyone listening could hear unusual phrases

something different with a touch of magic

when Bix played he talked to you right from the heart

and told you what he was thinking

the clouds can you hahaha

oh that's nice little tune

nice little tune

I don't know if they ever did anything with it

I never heard it before since that afternoon

played a couple of times

and that Bix

I always thought he was a kind of an unconscious genius

just

uh uh

kind of floated around you know

college students were nonconformist

jazz the music of their generation

broke all traditional rules

no wonder they found it irresistible

Hogie always on the lookout for the hottest jazz bands

to book for the university

grabbed at the Wolverines

James Register a student at the Bloomington campus

never missed a chance to hear the Wolverines

Bitch played 10 different dance jobs

I either attended dances where he played

or I would listen to him through the window

I remember several times I stood out in the rain

I never caught cold that way

and if I had it been worth it

it appeared to me and to other people listen to him

that every time he approached the making of a note

he formed the note as carefully

as if he was a painter

putting a piece of paint on a canvas that he thought

I'm sure was going to last for 1,000 years

hearing this band and hearing Bix

and I said Gee

maybe I should write a tune for them

so I sat down at the Book Nook piano

the hangout you know

sat there and I said what am I gonna

how am I gonna do it and I put my

I just kept working working

and finally a little strain came

a nice beautiful little melody

which was the verse to Riverboat Shuffle

that was a part of the verse

and finally it it all came

and I told the Wolverine boys that week

when they came down I said

I wrote a tune Wanna hear it

and they said of course

and then they listened to the tune and they said hey

we like that and they said well

we're going up to Jeanette Recording Company

in Richmond Indiana

and make a record of it I'd remembered that

they'd already made a couple of records at Richmond

and Great Records and so I said fine

that's great next thing I knew

about a week later when they were coming back

they had a pressing of the record

and they put it on for me to hear

and I'm telling you

it was a strange thing

I didn't jump up and down in the air like a monkey

I just listened and I

couldn't believe my ears

that I was hearing a tune of my own

and it's the greatest feeling in the world

to feel accomplishment like that

and Bixby played a great chorus on it

so I got tears in my eyes

there's a still kind of a voice print in my mind of

of Bix's tone

and uh

it was not one tone but he had three or four tones

and one was the beautiful flowing tone

like a journeyman poet would say

from the well spring up in the mountains

through the rocks over the falls and into the delta

where he'd have his his climax

that was his solo tone then his grunt tone which

well we used to call it

he could play dirt dirt

that's what we used to name it

and that was a tone that uh

that's the one the girls liked they

they thought that was great

then he had his his leader tone

which I which I just explained to you

where he could without a baton

he could lead a big band

just by playing the melody the way he felt it

oh that was something

that was something you didn't need any papers

you need nothing but that

what do we play now the girl say

I wanna hear Sweet Sue they say

which one you wanna hear

and he

he he'd play it

he'd play it and the girl say

well that isn't with Sweet Sue

oh it is

oh you want the other one

alright they play another one too

girl say oh

Jeepers Creepers

now wait a minute here

wait a minute

Mister by the back

she got very hostile hostile I

I I like a nice person

which I I expect you to be a nice person

I requested Sweet Sue

and they played it again

said yeah not Sweet Sue

says well

big say I didn't know which one you meant ha

they could play Sweet Sue in 40 different ways

for Sunday

the Wolverines

music was often too advanced for the dancing public

but it appealed to other musicians

in four months they cut a dozen records

as their records spread across America

they came to be hailed as pioneers of white jazz

by September 1924 they'd hit the big time

they opened at New York city's Cinderella Ballroom

right on Broadway

critics applauded and variety dubbed them a torrid unit

second to none

other musicians came to hear the kid from Iowa

with the German name among them

jazz violinist Al Duffy

between sets downstairs the Slipper

Summertime I go upstairs

breathe the fresh air and the windows be wide open

the Cinderella Ball

I can hear the strains of at the Jazz Band Ball

Bix's notes fell all over Broadway

scattered here and there but great notes

rumors of the young

Cornet star reached the ears of Gene Goldkate

a big band leader in Detroit

Goldkate came to New York when he heard VIX he

offered him a job in his orchestra

after a few days of considering Goldkate's offer

VIX agreed

Bix arrived in Detroit

home base of Goldkette's orchestra

it was mid October 1924 Bix was 21 years old

the orchestra performed nightly

in the Graystone Ballroom

in downtown Detroit

VIX eagerly looked forward to joining them

the other members of the orchestra

were just as enthusiastic

about playing and recording with VIX

one was Paul Mertz the piano player

we had this recording date

in the very first number

we thought we would lead off with strength

and we had our new great

hero Big Spider

back taking a chorus and being featured in it the

strongly and not only that

we had several other numbers with him

the spots to take solos well

the first number came up and it was a

very very

very unsettling experience

we ran over the number Bix took his solo

Eddie King who was then

I guess you would turn

the biggest wig in the whole Victor organization

and who guided their policy

I don't know he says about this Bix

that's not the kind of jazz we like

I don't get it and uh Bix

the spots we had for him were taken out

he came to leave the Goldkate band

not of his own volition but he was eased out

Goldkate had to agree with the executives

though he recognized Bix's jazz talent

he advised him to learn more about music

then he'd take him back after seven weeks in Detroit

Bix was without work no more Wolverine no more Gold Cap

for a little while

Bix hung about playing one nighters with various bands

finally he went to see his old contacts at the Gennett

Recording Company

and talked them into letting him cut a record

this time under his own name

he sent invitations to his gold ket buddies to join him

Don Murray Tommy Dorsey

Paul Mertz and others we did four numbers

and the two in the morning

were the only one that survived

because by the afternoon the gin was taking hold toof

too hard and uh

it just too many bloopers

but the first two even with their imperfections and uh

limited recording of the days

did have a flavor to them

at first the other musicians

didn't even realize that Bix was composing on the spot

yet they couldn't help but follow his lead

after recording

Devonport Blues picks traveled to Iowa City

he enrolled as an unclassified

student at the university of Iowa

prepared to follow Gold Katz's advice

and get some formal training

yet once again his school days were short lived

when he asked permission to study music only

the college refused

they also objected to his playing on school nights

two weeks after enrolling Bix was out

in June Bix got a job at a resort in Michigan

Fred Burgen recalls that here

Bix first started working on his piano composition in

a mist

I know that he wrote a part of in the mist

while we're there

there was a small point right out from the Pavilion and

uh he liked to go out there as a

as the dawn was coming up

and there would be a mist on the lake

and there was a little sandpiper

who made his home there

and he would run around the point

and Vic seemed to enjoy the rhythm of the sandpiper

running around

he could get inspiration from almost anything

and particularly anything in nature

the end of the summer brought Brix an even better offer

an extended engagement at the Arcadia Ballroom

in Saint Louis

Bix joined sax player Frank Trumbauer and his orchestra

alongside clarinetist Pewee Russell

once a week he attended concerts at Odeon Hall

his favorite composers were Debussy

Stravinsky Ravel and an obscure American composer

Eastwood Lane

and once again he tried to get training

he approached Joe Gustav

the first trumpeter with the symphony

and asked to be taken on as a student

after he played for the musician

Gustav surprised Bix by saying

compared to you I'm a musician in a cage

you have a great god given gift

be proud of it don't try to change it

summer came and with it another resort job Hudson Lake

name musicians Eddie Condon

Benny Goodman Mezz

Mezz Row all came down from Chicago

to the little dance joint at Hudson Lake

they came to listen to Bix and went away to imitate him

his tone especially beguiled them

they couldn't capture it so they described it

Eddie Condon said it was like a girl saying yes

for Hoagy it was a mallet hitting a chime

to another musician the tone carried a teardrop

behind the main resort was a cottage bit

shared with Pee Wee Russell

the place was notorious for its unwashed dishes

and empty liquor bottles

finally Gene Goldkate

decided that Bix was ready to rejoin his band

they headed east to tour New England

they set up headquarters at the Hillcrest Inn

Massachusetts

Goldkett's new musical arranger

Bill Challis quickly saw how Bix could help him

with the orchestral arrangements

he knew how a the trumpet or a saxophone would sound

and he'd get it in the right register

and play it on the piano one finger

it came all out of them

maybe the second time would be different than the first

but it came out and we had to grab

I had to grab what he uh

what I thought was best

the Gold Cat guys took to the road

each night a different dance hall

quite often a battle of the bands with a rival unit

they played fast fresh and they packed them in

always the the

the musicians of the community would come

and they'd stand right up in front

and to hear this guy especially

they didn't want to hear Big Spider back

but they like the whole band

the band all the whole the

the whole band had a marvelous arrangements

and they played very very well

and of course with a guy like Bix in there

we uh

we were just moving right along

and we were at a very fine reputation

the band's reputation

reached all the way to New York City

they arrived at the Roseland Ballroom

on October 6th, 1926

a dozen white boys from the Midwest

ready to challenge the top black jazzmen of the famous

Fletcher Henderson Orchestra to a battle of music

trombones Speagle Wilcox recalls the event

we had all the musicians that you can imagine out there

they weren't on the dance floor

but they were all lined up

mass of them

and so we were on the bandstand and down the

down the ways there was the other band

and it was Futcher Henderson

so it came the time for the performance

and the Futcher Henderson Band opened up

I don't remember the number

but it was very hot it was a hot tune

they were really they were about to nail us

and they got through and they got a lot of applause

and then you can almost just

it was very quiet and it was our turn

so

everyone was waiting

for what the band was gonna sound like

and guess what we were going to

what we came up with

hard to believe

but we came up with Valencia of all tunes

a 6 8 tune you

know 6

8 time and

and uh

there was

a lot of smiles came up out there in the audience

you know what's this great band from the west doing

you know playing that

well we played it good

and we finished anyway

and we got a tremendous round of applause

and then for our next tune

My Pretty Girl Stop

and we just got an awful lot of applause on it

I mean we had proven that we were pretty good

we actually creamed them

when the whole thing was over

that was the finish of the road trip

went back to Detroit

and we opened in the in the Graystone

and that was a nice big beautiful ball world

they had a lot of customers

amazing thing about is being in a big section of

brass section in the band

they would have their parts all written for them

and at the rehearsal

they would go through it two or three times

and Bix would just listen

about the fourth time

he would pick up the cornet and play with them

and his ability to pick out the odd notes

like the six and nines and seconds and all that

made it so wonderful

that the music would just seem to bloom or explode

it was just that fullness that he gave to the band

and he didn't have any notes in front of him at all

it all came right out of his head

that's the guy we're talking about

he just made that band oh

he just picked this right up

picked this right up

we got better that's all

and maybe you wouldn't play very long at a time

that you just

a few bars that's all it needed

you know just to to make it snap out

we always had two bands

we were known as the Victor Band

but that was the idea we had continuous music

our good old days

Joe Vernuti did you imagine playing a straight solo

something else

something else

in order to offer variety and keep his ballroom packed

gold Katz

hired a black band

to play alternate sets with Victor Band

the black group was Mckinney's Cotton Pickers

their banjo player Dave Wilborn

the the members of the McKinley

Scott Biggers had a great respect for Biggs

he never was a an outgoing person

but uh

they respected his ability

they they

they uh

liked the fact that he that he caught

caught on quickly to the style and uh

he was friendly to us as far as we were concerned

when he'd come down in the rehearsal room

and sit and talk with us and

and a lot of times

he'd come over and sit in with the band

ask us if he could sit in with the band

home for the Victor boys was the Billinghurst Hotel

just down the street from the Graystone

in off hours a different music drifted from the windows

of the hotel

this is the funny thing about it

at that time I don't know whether pics introduced it

or whether he picked it up

but the idea was this

you either turn out all the lights except

one

and that you'd put in either a red bulb or a blue bulb

to give atmosphere see

and then we'd put on Debussy Ravel or Stravinsky

and Vicks would you say no wait

wait listen listen

and he certainly got a bunch of converts

and Max speak easy

that was our rallying place most of the time

because it was just very convenient

the musicians around Detroit

who admired the Graystone outfit

they would come up there so they could say oh

I was talking big squares die

everybody wanted to buy him a drink

Goldkate managed a string of dance orchestras

throughout the Midwest

to meet a hefty payroll he had to send them on the road

in the spring of 1927

they traveled halfway across America

as popular as they were

the fees they collected could not cover expenses

and the boys began to wonder

how much longer

Goldkett could afford to keep the band together

by August 1927 the end was in sight

the last engagement before the band broke up

was at Atlantic City

we're driving down there and we got there around

around 1:00 there's nothing much more to do

the band didn't start to play for about two days

he said supposing I uh I

get us a date he says

I know a girl here

and she plays piano over at the woolworth's

I think it was

we set it up then he wanted to go to some club

there was some club with band

band is good he said

he said I know the guys and so forth

we went up there and of course uh

he's got the gin bottle with him too

so uh

we're sitting down there and of course

with the horn the two girls and all

he's not paying much attention

except we're having a couple of drinks

and the guys want him to come up on the bandstand

and play

which he does he goes up there for quite a while

and I guess up there

they were giving him a couple drinks also

by the time he got back to the table

he was a little bit uh

under the weather

but uh

he had done his share of playing up there

and they they liked him

I think he was a very fine gentle person

I I can't say that

you know if

if he were under the influence that time

he could be as a

he could be really biting sarcastic

the the influence thing you've got to forget about

so maybe a lot of people run into him in that situation

they returned to New York

Clementine was their last recording

Paul Whiteman heard that the band was breaking up

and made a bid for the top talent Whiteman

the biggest name in show business

was always scouting for the best

and he wanted Bix to add spark to his own

commercial orchestra

instead

Bix opted to join a smaller and more innovative unit

headed by Adrian Rolini

they opened the brand new Club New Yorker

and closed it three weeks later

the club had become another musician's hangout

no dance crowds no business

so Pix accepted white man's invitation after all

he joined up with the orchestra in Indianapolis

at the Indiana Theatre it was October 1927

Vicks was 24 years old

the orchestra leader was only too pleased

to welcome Bix into the fold

at that time Whitman was Whitman

and you received an offer from Whitman

that was just about as far as you could get

and very few

refused him because of that

he had exposure to all fine recordings

and he had contracts with recording companies

which most jazz bands didn't have

they just made them by the seat of their pants

you know joining Whitman meant Bix had reached the top

he telephoned his family in Davenport

with the news of his achievement

certain they'd finally approve

his father was cool

he could not feel comfortable with the way of life

his son had chosen

it was a world away from respectable

middle class Davenport

The White Man Orchestra was a musical kaleidoscope

its symphonic sounds appealed to bigs

its ranks included the best in the business Bing

Crosby lead singer with the Rhythm Boys

was one of White Man's stars

Violinist Mattie Melnick

recalls getting together for a rehearsal

in the morning

we would be called maybe at 9:00 or sometimes 10:00

and um Bing was a kind of a naughty boy in those days

he was drinking a little bit

and he was very young

and staying out late and everything

and if we had a 9:00 call

he very seldom got there at 9:00

10:00 call he'd get there a quarter to 12

and a lot of us would do that

but after Bix got in the band and

and VIX used to come out maybe at 9:00 on time

or a few minutes late but he'd have his trumpet

and somebody was playing the piano

maybe like Arroyo Bargie or Lenny Hayton

who played very well he would start to play

and of course we all listened

because even then we realized something was going on

that we had not heard you know

this was a special talent and

being used to start coming early

because like the rest of us

he wanted to hear Vic's play

now it's getting kind of cold

getting kind of hot but listen

I forgot since he wasn't taught

he's been the talk of Dixie land

now as far as I was concerned with them

I would make the arrangement

say you got 16 bars here you got 32 bars here

and it's after the first or second

course and uh

it would be a cinch you know

you just wait and you knew when to come in

and he came in beautifully

you know he listened to the arrangement

if I had a break there for him

he would come right in after it

and just fill up the thing

the way I would have loved to do it

the way I would love to have written it out

he took a load off my mind in the talk of Dixie Land

and you you look at him and you wonder

where did this come out of

you know what I mean but he just had it

and the time I knew him

he was like a boy you know

he had kind of a short haircut and

and he looked like a kid out of high school

you know and

and uh

didn't charm that I found was he didn't say much

so I never really found out much about him

the only thing that poured out of him

was that great music

you know and when he sat on the stand

you know I didn't think to turn around

and look at a great legend

because he wasn't a great legend

he's a great legend now

Chicago the hotbed of jazz

next up for the Paul Whiteman Orchestra

a city jumping with dance halls

cabarets speakeasies

most of them gangster owned

you could dance till dawn to the best in music

Kid O'ree Johnny Dawes

Jimmy Noone King Oliver

Louis Armstrong were all in town

playing on the South Side

the white musicians played in clubs on the North Side

after hours they'd meet to jam and exchange ideas

trumpet player DOC Cheatham was part of the scene

I had noticed that we all

after a while

we go and hear the same thing all the time

jazz was beginning to hit a brick wall

you go to one place you hear the same style

you go to the next place you hear the same style

come to my place where I'm playing the same style

so it got to the place where I was kind of

worried about it and all of a sudden

we started hearing the recording of this guy

big spider bag

which opened up many roads for us to keep going

because he brought forwards so much

melody and harmony in his solo work

that it kinda kind of

opened all of our eyes to the fact that

something we need to do need to learn to play

from Monday on be sitting up in the balcony

and he get up to take a course and see

it just it just stood out

so from the rest of that band

you know it's a large band

you know about 35 pieces

something like that but he

when he stand up take his course

the tone it just flow through

and it just I don't know what it was

I can't explain that tone just

Stacy was equally enthralled by Bix on piano

of course I was a jitterbug over Bix

he was my idol I wanted to play like that

I wanted to think like that

you know

but we always wanted to just see what

what a man looked like that could play like that

very alert he had to be alert to have all that talent

pleasant quiet

very nice to everyone

and we all chased around

tried to learn how to play like Bix

every one of us every one of us

jazz was the music of the night

and after the finish of the show

usually around 1 or 2 in the morning

Bix headed for the speakeasies

he found his favorite music at late night

impromptu jam sessions on the South Side

Bessie Smith's singing captivated Bix

he couldn't get enough of it

the story goes that one night

he turned out his pockets

and put all his money on the table

just to keep her singing

he was lost to the world

listening jamming and drinking

it didn't matter where the money came from

as long as the music and the booze kept flowing

wherever VIX went he was known for his generosity

when Jean Krupa and a group of guys were out of work

VIX bought meals for everyone

as Krupa used to say if you couldn't get along with VIX

you couldn't get along with anyone

on other nights Bix turned

up at the Sunset Cafe to jam with Louis Armstrong

Louis remembers come out on the South Side

after they finish their show at the Chicago Theater

and Dixie come out there and sit in with us

by that time you know

it's outstanding tone everything like that

but in those days

there wasn't any final notes come out of horn

I don't care who was blowing it

to me he was superior all the time

I've heard a lot of cats trying to play like pigs and

you know I'm playing like them

yet they tried to take it from me

he was a born genius

but they crowded him too much with love

we went out because dear Louis

and we knew Bix was in town

was in the Savoy Ballroom

Louis went over

and stepped down from the edge of the platform

with his horn

Louis took the mouthpiece out of his horn

and handed to Bix and Bix put his mouthpiece in

and

played three courses of Little Coquette with the band

and uh

it's difficult to tell whether Louis was crying

or whether he wasn't because he always mopped his face

but I think he was crying

he said something wonderful to me say afterwards that

that had them both just beaming

hanging on to each other

but it was a very gracious

I don't I never seen Louis do it for us before

a sense he undoubtedly has

but he he respected Vicks

the orchestra was based in New York City

when the Paramount Theater opened its doors on Broadway

Whitman knew it was the place for him

the theater headlined the Paul Whitman Orchestra

for an extended engagement

nothing but the best for the king of jazz

to get a break from the best selling songs

Vicks contracted his own deals

he assembled a small Dixieland group

and called it Vicks and his gang

one of their best recordings is sorry

it's a favorite of Eston Spurrier

a trumpet player from Bix's hometown

and you find the way that he drives his band

and it's like a 4 x 20 mule team

getting sent down a hill with a mule driver just listen

in an instinctive way

I think he approved of some of the things he did

and it made him very happy

that's when he was happy when he was writing in a mess

to himself

see

he was happy cause he knew something good was happening

he didn't express it say oh

listen to this you know

nothing like that or ego

didn't get into it

he didn't have that big ego

he had talent

Whitman's publisher Jack Robbins

took notice

he had also heard about Bix's composing skills

and was intrigued by in a mist

always looking for another hit like Rhapsody in Blue

Robbins asked arranger Bill Challis

to commit Bix's composition to paper

putting it down was was difficult because uh

he didn't play it the same

way every time

and

Robins had told him he would have to put it down

and then learn to play it

that way

he couldn't just improvise each time he put it down

for almost four months they worked together

at Bill Challis's apartment on Riverside Drive

VIX played the number off

every few bars Bill would stop him to catch up

then when VIX started again

it would be totally different

I was the one that had to say look

which one are you gonna use now

this one or that one and we had to set on that

we had to get together and set that

and that's the one I would write down

he'd have to learn that that was the way we did it

he knew pretty much what he was doing what he wanted

in the fall of 1928

Paul Whiteman planned his biggest tour ever

the tour premiered at Carnegie Hall in New York City

there was an addition to the program that night

a special performance of in the mist

at Center Stage

VIX played all alone with the spotlight on him

one of the musicians recalls the occasion

but I have never heard such applause in my whole life

I don't think he intended to

to bowl over an audience in Carnegie Hall

in the first place

so I think he was a little astounded

cause I remember he got up as soon as he couldn't

and wanted to get back to the man stand

and Paul wouldn't let him go back

and the audience wouldn't either

we worked seven days a week

we went in buses and in trains

there was no diner on the trains that we rode on

we would get in the train at 6 o'clock in the morning

and we'd start to make a trip that's 500 miles

the trains were not fast

and it was really a brutal ride

we would arrive about five in the afternoon

many miles from New York you know

and now we had to check in some little hotel

which was terrible hot shave

try to get a little dinner

and be ready to play at 8:00 in the ballroom

people loved dancing every town had its own ballroom

and when the bands came they danced

you know we used to play poker

especially after we're on the Pullman

we're on one night at a transit tour

a lot of us would play poker for something to do

you had to do something or you'd go out of your mind

because you're traveling and playing

and that's all you did

Vicks had a habit of getting up and he'd sit in

if one of the fellows might get sleepy and go to bed

and there'd be just six of us there

fix would sit down and play for a while

and invariably

he'd walk out with about 50 or 60 dollars

you'd deal him a card and he'd go to pick it up

and he didn't trust anybody

he'd pull it up like that

he'd drop it it'd fall on the floor

it would be an ace you know

and that would scare everybody to death right there

we finally had to give up

because Big's head is all broken

about two or three weeks

to keep his musicians in line

Paul Whiteman enforced certain rules

if anyone missed a concert

they paid a fine

one morning the musicians had to board the train

especially early Bix

the last one down at the station took the wrong train

now the conductor came around to pick up his ticket

and of course he was irritated at every

everyone and everything at that time of the morning

with a slight hangover you know

and he said to the conductor

the white man band and the next coach

Mister Glassby has my ticket

so the conductor came back in about five or six minutes

he said there's no wiping band on this train

and big said there must be

there's gotta be

and the

conductor finally convinced him that there weren't

anyone on that on the uh train that could uh

give him a half his ticket

and so pics paid him $7 and something for the ticket

which took him to the next stop

which was a couple hours drive or on the train

and somehow or other

he remembered the town we were playing in

so he hired a plane he rented a plane

now not too many guys who were gonna work for somebody

like people well enough

and they're gonna cut into their pay

they're just gonna let it go

so I don't make it but not Vicks

he's gonna charter a plane and get there for the date

which he does he finds the plane

and he gets up there

and it just turns out that he's up there 2

3 hours before they're gonna make the noon session

so he figures well I got 2

3 hours I didn't get much sleep last night

he said I'll go up and just take a cat nap

so he goes up and he gets in bed and of course

he conks off and sleeps right through the concert

he's in town but uh nobody wakes him up

nobody else knows he's there

and he just sleeps right through it

I think

that's one of the funniest things that ever happened

to Vicks it cost him $107 to to make it to this uh

where the concert was being played

a different town each day a relentless schedule wake up

board the train arrive

rehearse perform

sometimes perform twice a day little time to eat

sleep and relax

I remember we played Davenport Island 1 one night

and Bix

didn't take a drink for two days before we got there

and one or two days after we left there

Mick's right back on the nips again

you know playing and drinking

unfortunately that was one of his faults

many others had that fault

and I guess one of the reasons

I tried to analyze they were doing that

is that the work was so hard

that you almost had to drink

the road stretched on and on

the ever changing landscape of Middle America

its highways its telegraph wires

its small towns

after a while it all looked the same

the same tunes over and over

the routine interrupted here and there by a solo

there was little privacy

no break from each other's company

after six weeks on the road

they'd covered almost 20 states

the boys had become like a family

they called White Man Pops

and Bix would later say

that White Man was more like a father to him

than his own father

he had a great sense of humor

for one thing very dry

but an excellent sense of humor

and he was a very intelligent guy

he read a lot and he knew what was going on

but if somebody said something

which could have been funny

he could have had his mind on something else and uh

you know he could probably turn around

what is it what's going on

you know and it would seem funny coming from him

it seem like this guy doesn't know what it's all about

so they'll ape him and uh

and imitate him the boys sometimes

some of them would would take advantage of Bix

when he was drinking or something like that

and uh

I think I recall the time that he

he always used to have a big

English bag that used to carry

uh all of his things in

and one time some one of the boys put a big

heavy iron bar in there and big said

my heavens this thing is getting so heavy

not realizing that he put it on the bottom

and all of his

put his laundry on top of it and everything else

and things like that which I thought was not nice

they thought maybe that was a good joke

because he wasn't aware of what was going on

at the time

and I think maybe that helped their ego or something

I don't know

there were some that resented him

well I would say

I think mostly jealousy of his playing or his ability

the latitude that Paul gave him

but Paul gave him this latitude

because he did recognize the talent of Bakes

Whitman once said VIX

plays more in three notes

than most people play in an entire chorus

but many of the legit

type players didn't like to be upstaged

the orchestra was a collection of temperamental

individuals all competing for the spotlight

I've had a lot of guys say that

why don't you give that part to me

I could have played it just as well

and

they couldn't make me believe that

so I gave it to the one

that I thought could play it best

after eight weeks on the road

the orchestra had traveled a staggering 12,000 miles

everywhere white men packed them in

he gave people what they wanted

familiar numbers sweet sounds whatever sold

and so Bix never a good or fast reader

was often buried in the complex arrangements

for routine melodies

he was given the third or fourth trumpet part

the least important one

his turn to shine came in the solos

but the solos were getting fewer and fewer

white man's commercialism was taking over

whatever number it would be

uh he'd be sitting around there waiting for his part

maybe take a drink who

who knows it's only natural

any guys have take have done that

and he didn't get to play the things he loved

with the White Men Band

because we were a symphonic band

we played the same thing every night

and it got to be tiresome

you know we played the Rhapsody

I must have played the Rhapsody 10,000 times in my life

cause I was in the White Man Band for 10 years

and we played it every day somewhere

so it got so

you could play the Rhapsody in blue

and sleep at the same time

I remember many times I'd be up there

and I'd be so sleepy and I'm still playing

my eyes would close you know

and many was like

now you can imagine if you had a stomach full of liquor

what what was going on

another tune

which was a regular feature of the White Man program

was Gypsy

audiences loved it

and I can't remember him having ever been a ladies man

ever can't look back on that

he was always with the boys someplace and

it was the time I was there with him too

you know we had a couple hours off between

and the Biltmore especially

we go right around the corner of the place

have a few drinks

the first thing you know that the couple hours are gone

you know

that's what killed you most of the time

playing theaters and this

the time in between that you had

what are you gonna do in between these shows

well you always had it

someplace where you could have a drink

or bite to eat or something

on December the orchestra returned to New York

fix was not well

a bad cold turned into pneumonia

and he had to be hospitalized for two weeks

but he didn't stay away for long

in mid January he made sure he was back with the band

they opened at Cleveland's Palace Theatre

at the Palace Theatre they perform four times a day

more performances than usual

Bix tried to keep up the pace

on the second day

he was unable to make the evening performance

his health had not recovered

this time he had a total physical breakdown

he decided to go home to Davenport for peace and quiet

Bix had not been home for some time

but he had kept in touch

by sending his parents a copy of every record he'd made

one day he chanced upon the entire collection

in their original mailing boxes

they'd never been opened

Eston Spurrier

remembers the effect the discovery had on Bix

Bix was a a a

he was a family boy and he admired and liked his family

it was a little hard for him to understand that

here he was at the Pinnacle of success in his field

and his chosen field

and that the family couldn't go along with it

Bix remained in Davenport for a month

meanwhile

Whitman had replaced him with a young cornetist

named Andy Sechrist a dependable addition to the band

but he was no bix

Whitman was delighted to have Bix back on the job

he'd signed a special contract

with the Old Gold Cigarette company

for a weekly radio series

and was performing nightly at the Amsterdam Theater

a rough schedule new tunes every week

it was 1929 now

radio was the way to bring music to the masses

and New York the center of broadcasting

had become the new capital of jazz

young musicians came to listen and to learn

one was the clarinetist Artie Shaw

Bix

certainly made a sound that had not been heard before

that's an interesting thing to do

anything that you can do in life

that has not been done before

is very interesting to be different

to be original without setting out to be

you know

like scratching the left ear with the right hand

uh to be different is in itself very

very difficult I mean

because almost everything's been done

so most of the trumpet players tried to imitate him

Red Nichols

supreme example of somebody who tried to copy Bix

but the trouble is you know

he didn't have the sound

the sound was what it was with Bix

and you could hear the best of that sound in the

after hours clubs right till dawn

he was so popular and admired and worshipped was really

the word worshipped was um

by young people who would come around after a concert

or after a

a show in a theater where we played four or five shows

was always a gang hanging around there

they wanted to meet him talk to him

and he was very happy too

because they were Kindred spirits

and they would always take him to a place

where there's a piano and a drum

etcetera and there's liquor

right and he would sit up all night playing

so he was an idol to them

they pastored him that's what it is

when you become famous overnight for a long time you

you you got to

you got to go with the crowd

you got to go with the demand of the public

demand of the musicians

no privacy at all no privacy at all

I always say his friends did him harm

they didn't say well

why don't you go on and get some sleep tonight

and take sweet and never would say no

and that's what hurt him

and I just talked to him as a man here

but I have your mind sometimes

that it didn't mean no harm

but you got to think for yourself man

and

the boy didn't have a chance to even live his own life

musicians continued to come and hear Bix

as often as they could

one of them was drummer Herb Weil

I caught him several times with White Man

and he got to be in a sort of a stupor

where he'd sit on the bandstand perfectly straight

and the first trumpet player

would whisper something to him every now and then

for instance

if he had eight bars coming up in an arrangement

he'd nudge or pull his sleeve and tell him

you got eight bars coming up right here

picks up pick up the horn

play the 8 bars

put his horn down and go right back into a stupor again

all day long he had a hangover and

and he it was crabby

all the while I knew him as crap

it wasn't to me

not to me but to the other people

because the other people in the band were

laughing at him

he thought people were ridiculing him

that's what that's what was the matter

well I've

I've stood on a

on a street corner with a white man band

someplace where we were all standing together

and Bix would walk by and he wouldn't even look at it

and after Bix had walked by

he turned his head and he said what you looking at

he was sensitive cause that went with a drink

you know but he was a sweet guy inside of him

he really was

The White Men Orchestra left New York

for another cross country tour

they headed for the West Coast

to make a feature film for Universal Studios

the band arrived in Los Angeles to a gala welcome

Hollywood style

but universal couldn't get its act together

for two and a half months

the studio kept reworking the script

while the boys collected a salary of $200 a week

except for their weekly old gold broadcast

they had nothing to do but hang around

Vicks had looked forward to California sunshine

hoping for a bit of a vacation

but he and others

could not resist the lure of Hollywood's parties

the drinking got heavier than ever

finally

Whitman's patience with the studio's delays ran out

he told the boys to pack

they were heading back to New York

and I said why don't we go to the station and see Bixby

I heard that they were leaving

Bixby arrived and he was walking with a cane

which we were sorry to see

and he came up and gave us the usual big greeting

the big smile and everything

but I could see that he was not too anxious to talk

I think he was a little embarrassed because of the cane

and he was still having a problem

so um

he said fellas

Gee I'd sure glad to see you

and I'm awful nice of you to come down to the station

and all but he said

I think I better get on the train

I think I think that the time is running out

but I'll wear a smile'cause in a little while

at the end of the road

I remember once or twice rooming with him

and as I got up

he had a bottle of gin the side of

on the floor on the side of the table

and before he got out of bed to even brush his teeth

he took a big swig of that gin

you can imagine what that tasted like

like at 5:30 in the morning

you know and you can imagine the

the trauma he was in

that he had to have that before he could get up

on Friday September 13th

Whitman recorded another take of

waiting at the end of the road for Columbia

when big showed up he looked terrible

even so he got through his eight bar solo

while they were recording the next number

Bix collapsed

he could not finish the session

and returned to his hotel room

at the studio Andy Seckers took over for him

Roy Meyer and the others returned to the hotel later

and as we walked in the clerk behind the desk said

you better go up and see Bix

she said yeah

where is he says he's in the room

saw himself there go take a look at him

so we walked up to see the

the room we opened the door

Victor laying there in his pajamas and old

starry eyed and everything and and

and the minute we started to talk to him

he jumped up and started hitting the wall

snakes

yeah you take a sack at the wall

but the the I'm

I'm imagine a snake is up in there

and so

Paul and I went up to the hotel room where he was

it was a

it was a very cheap hotel and here he was in bed

he was just absolutely out

he had been drinking and

and he was a shaving all the bed like that then

I give an imitation just what it looked like

yes just like that violent

now that's all I saw of his

of his DTS so I guess that's

imagine what all DTS look like

cause I never saw one before

you look up there and and hit at the wall just

just as if it was a snake crawling on that wall

I don't think he uh

realized how bad he was and so

Paul made arrangements to send him back to Davenport

and to recoup and hoping that he would straighten out

and and

get his health back and and come join the band

which never happened again

his parents reluctantly

decided that Vicks needed institutional care

and his brother took him to the Keeley Institute

well known for its treatment of alcoholics

one letter from the institute to his parents read

considering the extremely bad condition

in which we received Mr Byderbeck

he's making good progress

the letter urged his parents to write often

and encouragingly

after five weeks Vicks left Keeley

under doctor's orders

to abstain totally for the rest of his life

he stayed home for seven months

sometimes Vicks looked up old friends

among them his girlfriend from high school days Vera

someone told him I was here

so he called and said he'd like very much to come over

and we went out for a little ride

he he was a little sad that night

that was the the

the evening that he said

um I said

where do you go from here

and he said I wish I knew

uh he was playing for Paul Whiteman then

and I said well

you've reached the peak and he said

that's just it I have

and where do you go from there there isn't any place

it was back in New York on April 23rd, 1930

27 years old and determined to stay on the wagon

but it was a different New York

the 1929 stock market crash

had knocked the bottom out of the economy

by 1930 unemployment rose

hit 12 million The Great

Depression changed everything

the social scene

the music scene

people needed distraction

and more and more they turned to radio

we continue the program with the s t

a R Movie Club requests

one from Ida Wilcox of Pittsburgh

another from Hattie McCloud of Montreal

all asking for popular songs

and radio that is

commercial sponsorship of radio programming

dictated the form of music

the change affected Vicks more than ever

the individuality just went out

right out the window with radio

they didn't particularly care that Bix

was gonna play this course

they seldom wanted any improvising at all

Bix you know

he was a different type of guy

and uh

what he'd want to know is tell me when I come in

had he been able to uh

read and Mark his parts

like Andy Secrets and the other guys

he'd have worked in fact

there were few other places to work

the dance halls were closing

the recording industry was in a slump

radio had taken over

meanwhile

Paul Whiteman had finally filmed The King of jazz

he too

was working almost exclusively in radio

Whitman like everyone else

was affected by the depression

he had to cut his orchestra back to 18 members

and Biggs was a luxury he could no longer afford

so Bix was alone in New York looking for work

like a lot of other jazz musicians

he used to go around sit in here and sit in there

if the fellas had some work for him

then they would get in touch with him

but it's it was very true too

that there wasn't much work around for Vicks

it's just too bad that it had to be that way

but uh

he didn't get back in the band

no he hadn't been drinking

given it up he figured I'm not gonna

I'm never gonna drink anymore

and it just so happened that uh

he was with a couple of guys

and they took a couple of drinks

and it started to drink again

so here

here he was

he couldn't help himself

he tried to stay on the wagon

sometimes he managed sometimes he didn't

too many speakeasies in downtown Manhattan

he finally secured work

a weekly radio spot on the Camel Pleasure Hour

the producer of the program who hired him

was an old fan

Vicks was pleased with the job

it was another chance to establish his reliability

he was determined to make a go of it

he set up a permanent residence in room 6

0 5 in the 44th Street Hotel in downtown Manhattan

everyone knew it and everyone came to visit

they banged on his door at all hours

they all wanted him to play

and so he played

as I stayed in his room that afternoon

a parade of people in there all

all the time one right after the other

uh

and I I had the feeling that

that many of them offered him drinks

and he he was not a guy could say no

he always

whether he wanted it or not I

I presume by that time he couldn't

probably could have gotten along without it

but he wouldn't say no

he didn't impress me as being very well

he uh

I couldn't detect anything other than uh

his face didn't appear it looked strained

to me it looked like he was under some kind of a strain

and I think it was probably his health

which he refused to admit

and he was just burying that himself I think

the job at the pleasure hour continued

but by now there were problems

Roy Meyer recalls he was playing all right

but he was kind of stumbling

kinda uncertain and uh

sometimes Vicki get all rattled up uh

uh playing a

a course on a concert and

and a lot

a lot means anything and everything is focused on you

and you get stumble or something

and Liam Mcconville wouldn't get up

but he start playing it

he missed as many rehearsals as he made

and sometimes he forgot his horn

toward the end of the October 8th Camel Hour broadcast

Vic stood up to take an eight bar solo

in the middle of the solo he blacked out

Leo Mcconville came to the rescue

within a few days

the show found a permanent replacement

Vicks went back to Davenport

for four and a/2 months

he rested at home in a world that was no longer

his world

in late February of 1931 he returned to New York

back to Room 6 0 5 of the 44th Street Hotel

as soon as the gang heard he was back in town

they came around

from dusk to dawn they bothered him

they weren't really his friends

they were the kind of people who wanted to say

they were there that they'd heard him play

sometimes

they carried them off for a late night on the town

they never left him alone

and the playing never stopped

in one of his letters home

the son

who could never fulfill his parents'expectations

seemed eager to gain their approval

dear folks

you probably will tear this up before you read it

because you must be disgusted with me

but I'll take a chance and write anyway you can

believe me or not but I was sick

I had that yearly attack of tonsillitis

and it was terrible lying here thinking of you

I had to cancel three dates

and you can tell Uncle Tol

that the only reason I'm writing this now

is because of Christian Science

because I would have died

if I hadn't talked myself out of it with

with the worry et cetera

if I'd known that it was so rough for dad to send

that I I wouldn't have asked for it

another thing I'm sorry about is

I'm not sending mom anything for her birthday

but March 1st was my sickest day

I swear this was not from drinking

I'm all right now and I

and I booked several jobs

college parties with my band

doing club dates radio etcetera

that's all I have to say and

I'll do my best to send you the money that you

so kindly and timely

sent me as soon as I can

also the income money

much love

VIX

yes

have you heard the candlelight program

the gang still kept coming around

if they weren't partying in Vix's room

there was always a party uptown

they dragged him along expecting him to play

in midsummer he moved away from downtown Manhattan

he found a quiet apartment in the borough of Queens

few people saw him

occasionally he played at college dances

he spent most of his time playing the piano

and composing

there is mum and dad I hope you're all well

now about my future wife

born in New York never been out

you should hear her accent

sounds like Aunt Blanche

red headed blue eyes

sometime that summer

Vic spent an evening with Hoagy Carmichael

I heard he had a girlfriend and I got a hold of him

I said

bring the girlfriend over and have dinner with me

and which he did

he came and I offered him a drink and he refused it

I'll have you know well

I had one because I wanted it

and I played a little piano

but I didn't ask him to play because I

I knew how he was that I didn't want him to think that

I invite him over to hear him play

dear folks

by now you have Alice's picture

what do you think of her

we're together constantly

I dragged her to one of those photoshops on Broadway

and for a buck we had that made and enlarged

the little sweetheart framed it

packed it sent it to you when she knew you wanted it

Bix's letter never finished

the story goes that in midsummer Vicks

though running a high fever

played a date with some fellows he had promised to play

so he played

he caught pneumonia and died a few days later

on August 6th, 1931

though he abstained from drinking

it was too late the damage had been done

he was 28 years old

the doctor's verdict was lobar pneumonia

with swelling of the brain

but perhaps

it would be more accurate to say that Bix died

of everything

my brother called

he was in New York and went

went to get him and bring him home

we didn't even know he'd been sick and he had pneumonia

I had a terrible feeling of regret

when I finally found out what happened to Bix

our boys and our band

uh we had plenty of money

Jeepers Creepers

we had nothing but money

and we could have come over and grabbed Bix and uh

put him among friends and cured him of his

of his habits and let him regain his health

and we didn't do it we let him get away and uh

that's one of the things I when uh

when uh

I'm ever asked about Big Spider Bay

I feel that uh

I committed a horrible sin of omission

omission

we could have

we could have had a different ending for that boy

it's pretty hard to uh

change history much isn't it

so

but anyway I

I still wish that we'd done something for him

we could have

para ser

just couldn't believe it that a man that young

but they say

they've always said that geniuses like that

they don't last too long some reason or another

they just they come and make their presence known

and upset everybody and then they will cut out

he's a legend you just gotta think

think oh

think music think legend think the name