Queen of Bebop by Elaine M. Hayes

Author:Elaine M. Hayes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2017-05-23T04:00:00+00:00

10

“They Say You Can’t Teach New Tricks to Old Dogs—So Get New Dogs!”

I’m nervous. Old Baby. I’m awfully nervous. I’ve never been a bridesmaid before,” trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie joked with reporters gathered at Chicago’s City Hall.1 Vaughan had just returned from her tour of Europe, culminating in her appearances at the World’s Fair in Brussels, and now, on Thursday, September 4, 1958, she was getting married. Two days earlier, on Tuesday, she and Clyde B. Atkins became engaged. Wednesday the couple went to City Hall for a marriage license, but they needed blood tests first. Vaughan and Atkins then rushed to a lab, and as the happy couple waited for their test results, they celebrated through the night at a nearby South Side club. Thursday morning a tired yet excited Vaughan married Atkins. It was a simple ceremony. Judge Fred “Duke” Slater presided. Atkins’s half-brother Carl Irvin was best man, and, of course, Gillespie was maid of honor. Vaughan’s parents were not there, nor were Modina Davis, Johnnie Garry, or any other close friends. Art Talmadge, the Chicago-based vice president of Mercury Records, was the only guest. He presented Vaughan with a single orchid.

“After I got divorced from George, I never thought I would get married again,” Vaughan said as she fielded questions from reporters after the ceremony. “But here I am.”2 When asked about her whirlwind romance and suggestions that the wedding might be impetuous, she explained that she first met Atkins a year earlier in Atlantic City and that they hung out whenever she played in Chicago. “He used to catch all my shows when I came to town, and we sort of eyed each other when I was singing,” she said. “I dug him and he dug me, so we just decided to jump the broom.”3 Then a white photographer asked Vaughan to gaze at Atkins, grin, and roll her eyes. This angered the usually polite Vaughan, and, her patience waning, she snapped: “I’m no comedian. You’d better get your picture.”4

An impromptu reception at the Archway Supper Club followed. According to the press, as news of Vaughan’s marriage spread, she fielded phone calls from friends and fellow musicians. “I just heard about it,” vocalist Dinah Washington reportedly said. “Congratulations . . . or should I say ‘condolences’?” Washington was on her fifth marriage.5 She and Vaughan used to commiserate about men, and vocalist Joe Williams remembered their joke: “They say you can’t teach new tricks to old dogs—so get new dogs!”6

“You’re going to love him,” Vaughan insisted when she phoned Modina Davis with the news. “Well, but who is he?” asked Davis.7 Vaughan’s pianist Ronnell Bright remembered Atkins from his childhood in Chicago. They lived blocks apart and attended the same elementary and high schools. But no one knew what Atkins did for a living. Atkins told the New York Amsterdam News that he worked for Down Beat, but he did not. The New York Times and Variety reported that Atkins owned a fleet of cabs in Chicago.

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