Category: Books/Magazines

From The Vaults: Billy Eckstine Assaulted, Drugged

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Am I the only one who gets a charge out of these old Downbeats? Here’s an article I just have to share from Feb. 11, 1965:

Bill Eckstine Misses Opening; Claims He Was Assaulted

Singer Bill Eckstine missed his scheduled opening at the Royal Box of the Hotel Americana in New York City Jan. 4 and speculation of foul play ran high. Eckstine reappeared the following day, however, and said he had been assaulted on the street the night of Jan. 3, hauled into a car, robbed of about $600 and a watch, and then drugged.

Eckstine said he was trying to hail a taxi on 125th St. and Fifth Ave. on Jan. 3 when he was approached by three men, who pulled up in a car and asked for his autograph. While he complied with the request, Eckstine said, one of the men hit him on the back of the neck and

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This Week on Ebay: Miles, Clifford, Trane

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We haven’t been very active selling on eBay lately: Just life getting in the way. However, this week we found some time to clean and post a bunch of items. It’s a mixed bag, but there are a few nice ones, including:

Miles Davis, Blue Haze, Prestige 7054. This is an original New York yellow label Prestige. It’s in VG+ condition, and sounds quite nice. We put a start price of $30 and it’s already received a bid, so we expect there to be some action.

We also put up a nice-sounding original copy of Clifford Brown, Jam Session, Emarcy 36002. This also has a start price of $30. It’s a great record, with a lot of positive energy. 

As you may have noticed on the Jazz Collector site, we’ve been going through some old Downbeat Magazines, looking for collectibles (we’re even giving one away). We’ve put a few up for sale in our eBay story, and we put a very interesting one up for auction yesterday. It is:

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Cole Porter’s Last Words

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I’ve been going through old Downbeat Magazines with the idea of getting rid of some of them, although I love to have these as collectibles because they are filled with interesting tidbits that you can’t find anywhere else. Here’s one from the Downbeat of November 19, 1964. It’s from a small article on the death of Cole Porter, who passed away on Oct. 15, 1964 at 71 years of age. The only people at his bedside when he died were two valets, who had worked for him for six years. His last words were spoken to a publicist about two hours before he died. They were, “Don’t leave me.” Sad. If you would like to purchase a copy of this magazine, I have one for sale at The Jazz Collector Store on eBay. You can just click the Items for Sale tab at the top of this page to find it.

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