Friend Ted:
Well, chum, still in Chi, doing alright and have my notices to prove it like one critic that I hardly know at all that works on a throwaway that they distribute at hotels etc. but is far the best writer on the nite life and he goes on to say I am the smoothest and most urbane singer of sophisticated melodies this town has seen in many a moon, and it was not a case of me taking an ad to get the write-up as the 1st I knew of it was when somebody showed it to me. “What is he your cousin?” said one of the light-weights in the band as he ignore the band and just gave them a menton in passing and devoted all his write-up to me. I only menton this now because I have in mind an idea that I want to discuss with you in this letter.
Well, chum, this is the idea I have been taking under consideraton and the pro’s & con’s ever since around the beginning of Sept. but more so lately owing to a conversaton I had with another chap recently. You would not know the name if I told you but his name is Charley Goas. Charley is a man around 40 odd yrs of age and a mind like a steel trap and knows all the angles. He is still alive today but use to be a big accountaint for Capone or one of the big mobs out here like Capone or perhaps it was Bugs Moran or Deeny O’bannon or Collosimo. I never asked him that as he was not a mob guy himself but just did their accountaincy for them and I would not know that only I happen to ask somebody what he did and they told me. I think he owns a piece of the room where I sing in now but I am not suppose to know that and do not pipe. Well he took a liking to me and drops in every nite and we struck up an aquantainceship and I guess he more or less considers me like a kid bro. as he often gives me advice like on more than 1 occason he saw me looking at a mouse and when I looked at him he smiled and without me saying anything he said to me, “That’s for you, eh? O.K. sonny boy if you want to end up on crutches.” So that shows how he took an interest in me and I apprisiate it and therefore when he offered me some other advise I also took it or am starting to take it by giving you this idea I have in my mind.
This is the set-up. Charley was telling me one nite how it looked like a sure thing there was going to be a war. Next day, they declare war, and there was a rumor around that the room would fold because business stank but I happen to know that Charley told the backers they shouldnt be silly. They were ahead enough so they could take a few bad nites and if business didnt pick up why then fold but dont fold until they saw if business was going to stay stinking or perhaps get better. Charley was right. We kept open and business is better than ever.
So all during this I got a chance to talk to Charley about the war and he got to remenissing about in the last war. I do not know for a fact if he was in the army or navy as with Charley you leave Charley do the talking and never ask questions. However he asked me what my plans were and I said I did not give it much tho’t as I did not think we would be in it and time enough when we got in. “Don’t be silly,” said Charley. “We will be in it before the horses stop running at Hialeah.” This came as rather a surprise to me but before I had the opportunity to discuss it with him he said pick your spots now and do not be a sucker and get drafted. Then they can put you where they want to but if you pick yr. spot now you can stay in it and he said “Not this bunch of plumbers but do you have a contact with a guy with a good band” and I said “yes” and mentoned you as one of my eldest friends and he said he heard of you and said flattering things about you on the air and said he never met you but caught you & the band somewhere and got the impresson you have a wonderful personality and I agreed with him extremely. Well he said I was a fool if I did not make some kind of a propositon with you like get you to join the navy. Wait a minute now and read it all before you think I am going wacky. He said if a jig band by the name of Jim Europe (probably his professional name) during 1917 could be a big success in Paris why not a fellow like you, a name band known from coast to coast on the air and by records. He said there was this jig name Jim Europe had a band and they just about ran Paris in the war and after it until somebody took a shot at Mr. Europe and that ended him. All those Parisienns went for the band too which is a handy thing in a war. Acc. to Charley they even made this jig a lieutenant in the U.S.A. and he was a regular officer with a snappy uniform and white guys had to salute him owing to him being an officer. Well if they did that they ought to do it for you. He said take for instant Sousa, John Phillips Sousa and I remember him, the march king. My old lady used to never tire of Sousa on the phonograph until in desperaton I broke the damn records and my old man belted me for it as he also use to listen to them altho he did not know a note of music but was a son of a bitch for finding the nearest bar if you pardon the gag. Well Sousa had this big corny band all brass and what did they do but make him a kind of an admiral. Stars & Stripes For-ever and Shine Little Glow-worm was the kind of stuff he played so you can write your own ticket with your repretory. He didnt play good but played loud and so my 1st suggeston is get more brass and gradually expand the size of the band and if I were you I would give the boot to that rum-pot you have now and get yourself a real press agent that could get yr. picture in the Life magazine and maybe it would be a good idea to get navy uniforms and also get up a few routines like Waring use to have. Drills, only learn to march instead of those routines with cocktail shakers etc. that Waring use to have. All this is my idea not Charley’s as he only contributed the original tho’t and I put my brain to work on what you could do if I called yr. attenton to it.
I am not trying to tell you how to run yr. band as you do alright without me and once in a while when I tho’t to myself Ted ought to do this or that I refrained from telling you as it is your band not mine. However this war stuff is an angle you may not of thought of.
I am only scratching the surface with these suggestons and have many more that are on the same order but better and these randam notes now are just suggestons or hints but ought to get yr. mind running in that directon. We could do big things and at the same time be patriotic doing it. As I understand it we ought to figure on just the regular pay which is of course naturlly way below scale as when you are working for Uncle Sam he never heard of scale but would pay $30 a month to the ones with the rank of private and only cigarette money to a leader like yourself but of course I guess it would be understood with the army or navy that you could do jobs and records and of course a big patriotic band would get all the cream if you start soon enough. I have a slogan “put your band on the bandwagon” before the others get hep. I say we all the time because I take for granted you would get me a pardon out of this joint Chicago if you decide I have a good idea. If you wanted to put me on the pay-roll now I could give this joint notice just by saying why dont you guys go take a flying etc. and take a powder out of here that day and be in N.Y. the next. A wire will do the trick Ted boy. I will level with you. I get an honest yard here and was only saying that for laughs when I told you I got $150 the way we all exagerate in this business. You could go on working while I talk to the Army and Navy guys and whichever offers us the best proposition you can be sure I will take that one. Then when war is declared we are in uniform and ready to go that nite. Maybe by that time you would consider me such a good mgr. that you would have me for your peace-time mgr. even before we get in the war. I would find out in advance (from Charley) when we are getting in the war and would book you into some big Bway spot in time so that nite when war is declared we would be there in our uniforms. Think of the flash, as they use to say in vaudeville days. The 1st Swing Band in Uniform! It would be plastered all over the papers and with the right handling I see you shaking hands with the President at the White House, him congratulating you for being the 1st band in kahki, altho I hope the navy gives us the better proposition as for a band the navy has better toggery.
Well think it over Ted because Charley says the time is getting short. Charley says before the hay-burners stop running at Hialeah. John Phillips Sousa was an old man so they had to make him an admiral but admiral sounds too old for you so if we decide the navy offers us the better propositon you could be a Commander. I could be a Leutenant Commander. One thing I will add to the informaton above which is this. I am only kidding about telling these Chicago guys where to head in and this is why. It is because Charley says during the last war they had anywhere from 10 to 50,000 sailors in Chi. believe it or not. They had a training camp here for sailors and that was as close as they got to getting their head shot off. If they got their head shot off it would be in a crap game amongst themselves or in a riding academy on the South Side. I am more in favor of the navy but of course will take the better propositon. “So get the band aboard the bandwagon” Ted and I am ready the moment you give the downbeat. Charley said a band like this no doubt would be booked for liberty bond engagements when they start selling liberty bonds to the people. I tho’t of an angle there and asked Charley “Suppose we are booked into a town to sell these liberty bonds for the government do we get our percent. of the gross” but Charley said not with Mr. Whiskers at the gate, nobody cuts in on Mr. Whiskers. But it just shows I was looking out for our interest. Also Charley may be wrong. He can be. He thinks his wife doesnt like me and boy he is so wrong.
Well Commander, avast and belay and all that sort of thing.
Your pal
Joey
P.S.: I also want to warn you Vallee was in the navy in the last war and may have a good in there so we have to work fast so he wont crab our act.