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