.... Bargy's account in Evans and Evans. Bear with me. You must be sick and tired of my analyses It's my training as a research scientist. Once I start investigating a subject, I do it exhaustively.
Roy Bargy, "The Leon Beiderbecke Story." (5/9/59): Bix had a breakdown at the hotel where Whiteman and some of us were staying, after the evening performance.
Let's remove the qualifier "where Whiteman and some of us were staying" This is what is left.
Bix had a breakdown at the hotel, after the evening performance.
My interpretation: Bix was at the performance, and, afterwards, had a breakdown in the hotel. If my interpretation is correct, then Bargy's statement in Evans and Evans is compatible with Margulis' recollection of Bix passing out during the concert.
Joe M, the expert about jazz in Cleveland, has been bothered by the very different accounts of Bix's breakdown in Sudhalter and Evans and Evans and Evans. In Part 111 of his jazz in Cleveland series, Joe writes, "So, was there one Beiderbecke breakdown in Cleveland or two? It is certainly possible that Evans found some additional information after his first report of a January 1929 breakdown, but it is puzzling that the descriptions of the two breakdowns were completely different.
If my interpretation of Bargy's statement in Evans and Evans is correct, then the only discrepancy left has to do with Sudhalter and Evans' account of Bargy's report of Bix's breakdown on Jan 20, 1929. Bargy, according toSudhalter and Evans' accountt, said that "he [Bix] was unable to make our evening performance." I don't know what to make of this, two different recollections on the part of Bargy? A faulty account in Sudhalter and Evans? Whatever, but it looks more and more, to me anyway, that there was only one breakdown in Cleveland, and that it took place on Nov 30, 1928. I have doubts that Bix was in Cleveland on Jan 20, 1929.