[78-L] Total Recall: Artie Shaw

[Cary Ginell]

Which is why I value the autographs Artie gave me a few years before he died, after I interviewed him at his house about Bix Beiderbecke for a radio show I was doing for Bix's 100th birthday. He was grudging about it, but not only signed an 8x10 glossy that I'd brought along, he also signed copies of his three books for me as well ("The Trouble With Cinderella," "The Best of Intentions," and "I Hate You...Drop Dead.") I was told by his secretary that I caught him at a particularly malleable moment and was lucky. He enjoyed talking about Bix so much with someone who was interested in what he had to say and wasn't a fawning moron, that he was OK with signing anything I put in front of him.

Cary Ginell

> To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
> From: dialjazz at verizon.net
> Date: Sun, 24 Jan 2010 19:43:57 -0500
> Subject: [78-L] Total Recall: Artie Shaw
> 
> 
> Re: "Artie spends his life being angry at someone or other," Dan said.
> 
> In 1998, the IAJRC held its annual Convention in Redondo Beach, Calif. 
> Artie Shaw was a guest speaker. He spoke for a bit more than an hour 
> and was quite impressive. Obviously, he had made this presentation 
> before. Immediately at the end of his presentation, I rushed up to the 
> podium and asked him to autograph the cover of the latest IAJRC 
> Journal, which had a photograph of Shaw’s 1950s group. Shaw refused, 
> saying he had not given an autograph since he left music back in the 
> Fifties and he wasn’t going to start again.  Others came up and asked 
> him the same thing. He refused all of them. Finally, he blurted out 
> angrily: “What are you—a bunch of savages? Do you also collect 
> toenails?”  To a guy standing next to me I said: “Well if he won’t give 
> autographs, ask for his toenails.”
> Geoffrey Wheeler
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