Paul Mertz on "Remembering Bix" by Ralph Berton. (uploaded Sep 24, 2005).
Following the publication of Leonard Feather's review of Berton's book in the April 7, 1974 issue of the Los Angeles Times, Paul Mertz sent a letter to the editor. Mertz commented on several aspects of Feather's review.
1. Feather wrote "Berton brings a picture which, though fictionalized to a degree, offers a perceptive insight into the Jazz Age from the perspective of Beiderbecke, Berton and others similarly alienated." Mertz comments on the phrase "fictionalized to a degree." He writes, "That phrase is a pregnant one, best assessed by those of us who personally knew and associated with him." "Fictionality tends to thrive when reminiscences must surmount a 40-year interim, and it surely does in this book." "The purport of the title of the work is misleading. More apropos (sic) would have been, "A Hagiography of the Berton family"; and, possibly, subtitle, "Its help in the transfiguration of Bix." "Also, sporadically, there is "speculative" analysis of the Beiderbecke character from womb to tomb."
Paul Mertz also wrote a review of Berton's book and sent copies to several of his friends. Here it is, in its totality through the courtesy of Tom Pletcher.
"Ralph Berton's book on Bix Beiderbecke compares favorably to that of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Both books are based on pipedreams.
Mr. Berton has talent as a writer, but shows inability to do any honest research into his subject. Mr. Berton, aside from possibly three interviews (and one of these claims he was misquoted!), relies on books that can be found at the nearest public library.
Perhaps this book should have been retitled to deal solely with the sexual activities of the Berton family? There can be no explanation as to why Mr. Berton has sought to drag down the name of Bix Beiderbecke to that low level. It is sensationalism, alone, that Mr. Berton offers rather than a factual view of Bix's life. Does Mr. Berton need a buck that badly?
What I can determine is that Mr. Berton has only a passing knowledge, at best, of what Bix Beiderbecke was doing during his professional career, and absolutely no knowledge of what Bix was doing in his adolescent years.
Where does one start to identify the mistakes? When an author is clearly in doubt as to his facts in his book, as Mr. Berton is, an attempt to try and list the mistakes would take more time that I care to devote. For the record, I was less than half-way through the book and had stopped counting the mistakes at twenty-five.
Mr. Berton would have the reader believe that as a youth of 13 years, (though, by his own admission, many thought that he looked eleven years old), he palled around with Bix, who was then 21. The constant reminders to the reader of how he amazed Bix by his vast knowledge of a variety of subjects, became increasingly hard to swallow.
Particularly intriguing was Mr. Berton's account of Bix's passing in Queens General Hospital. Yes, it was sad to read the account. Sad because it never happened that way! Bix died in his rooming house. A simple bit of research could easily have established this fact.
There are many injustices toward the Beiderbecke family, including the incorrect spelling of Bix's father's name. Any information about the family would have been easy to come by for there are many Beiderbeckes still living, including Bix's sister Mary, and they could have supplied correct information. But again, that would mean doing a bit of research, and that would only get in the way of prefabrications.
Mr. Berton focuses the book in the summer of 1924 and the days that the Wolverine Orchestra spent at Gary, Indiana. It is understandable how, at that tender age, he was confused on how his brother, Vic Berton, could have been the drummer then with the band, while they still retained their own drummer, Victor Moore. Mr. Berton solves that mystery by alternating the two on drums. Amazing! Even goes so far as to identify a photo (# 6, sandwiched between pages 240 & 241) incorrectly to support his "theory." The man identified as Vic Moore (#2) is Min Leibrook. Give a closer look. Where was Vic Moore? On vacation during the Gary engagement. Who said so? Vic Moore, himself. (By the way, on the opposite page, that is Sylvester "Hody [sic]" Ahola with the trumpet, not Howdy Quicksell, as identified. Howdy played the banjo.)
Mr. Berton falls repeatedly into the traps that have snared all past mythical accounts on Bix's life. This is due to his heavy reliance on books that have previously been proven incorrect in their attempts to deal with Bix. Some of his mistakes are so unforgivable that it reduces his stature to that of a neophyte in the realm of the Beiderbecke world.
It is obvious that any effort toward true research would have caused Mr. Berton's pipedreams to burst, and like Walter Mitty, he preferred to live in a dream world -not the world of reality. Too bad, for Bix deserves so much better than having a purple accounting of his life as written by Mr. Berton."
I am grateful to Tom Pletcher for sendding me the copy of Mertz's review of Berton's book.
Albert
