Phil Evans and  Bruce Foxman

In their "Acknowledgments" section of the seminal Bix Beiderbecke biography "Bix, Man and Legend," Richard M. Sudhalter and Philip R. Evans wrote,

"The authors would like to thank the following persons without whose assistance-and seemingly inexhaustible patience in the face of prolonged and detailed questioning-this book would never have come about."

Then follows a long list of names. One of the names is that of Bruce Foxman, a Bix aficionado.

Bruce Foxman is also mentioned in the Foreword to "Bix, The Leon Bix Beiderbecke Story" by Philip R. and Linda K. Evans:

"When I started, John Steiner offered his knowledge and encouragement. John also conducted many interviews that my time and distance would not have otherwise permitted. Warren Scholl was always  a telephone call or a letter away. There were others such as "Woody Backensto, Bruce Foxman and a host of correspondents that willingly and lovingly gave their time and assistance."

When Bruce was ready to go to college in 1960, he chose Iowa State University in Ames, IA in part because of its vicinity to Davenport. While in Ames, Bruce would go periodically to Iowa City and to Davenport to research local newspapers and interview people who knew Bix personally. Bruce corresponded regularly with Phil Evans and gave him answers to questions posed about Bix. This relation turned out to be quite fruitful, and most of what Bruce uncovered in Davenport was
eventually incorporated in "Man and Legend."

The person named "Bob" in Bruce's letter is Robert Mantler, Bixophile and collector. In the 1960s, Bob and Phil were planning on writing a biography of Bix.

I thank Bruce for his generosity in providing scans of the letters and permission to upload the scans to the Bixography website. Uploaded  Dec 7. 2012.

Letter of Bruce to Phil. This is a .doc file. Uploaded June 13, 2012

http://bixbeiderbecke.com/foxmanlettertoevans.doc

Letters of  Robert Mantler and Phil Evans to Bruce Foxman. This is a .pdf file.
Uploaded  Dec 7, 2012.

http://bixbeiderbecke.com/LettersEvansToFoxman.pdf