[JPL] Aubrey Mayhew

[Jazz Promo Services]

Mayhew bebops his way into Parker estate
 
Aubrey Mayhew has led an American life that includes running with Johnny
Paycheck, buying the infamous Texas Book Depository in Dallas and winding up
with the rights to the Charlie Parker songbook.
Mayhew met Parker in 1953 when he was running the WCOP Jamboree in Boston.
"Charlie used to play a jazz club there," Mayhew said in a recent interview
from Nashville. "[New York disc jockey] Symphony Sid got fired, so we hired
him in Boston to do our midnight show. Sid would bring jazz artists to
Boston, but he was slick. He'd bring them up on a bus and pay them $20 to
play in a club he was running. He would also play them on our station.
"I went over to the club one night and Parker was sitting at the table. I
asked him how much he was getting paid for the taping. He said he wasn't
getting paid anything. So I jumped on Sid about that, went to Parker and
said, 'Don't you tape anything for anybody unless you get paid.' I offered
him $1,000 for the taping we did that night. That bonded us together."
After Parker died in 1955, his widow Doris contacted Mayhew. In 1959, Mayhew
joined the Parker estate as a music adviser and by 1961 Doris Parker and
Mayhew launched the Charlie Parker Records imprint. The Parker Records
roster included saxophonist Cecil Payne, bop pianist Duke Jordan, drummer
Cozy Cole (of Louis Armstrong's All-Stars) and several Parker sides.
After the label stopped issuing product in 1965, Doris assigned all the
rights to Mayhew.
"And I've owned all the Charlie Parker rights ever since," Mayhew said.
Dave Hoekstra


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ne

FEBRUARY 21, 2009
Which Is the Real JFK 'Sniper Perch'?
By ANN ZIMMERMAN

A decades-long dispute over who owns the authentic "sniper's perch" -- the
window where Lee Harvey Oswald propped his rifle to take his fatal shots at
President John F. Kennedy -- lands Monday in a Dallas court.

The dispute centers on the origins of windows removed at separate times from
the sixth floor of the Dallas's School Book Depository, where Mr. Oswald set
up his ambush of the presidential motorcade. The two men who now own the
windows each claim theirs is the genuine item.

Over the decades, both men have tried to sell their windows, but their
attempts to profit have been spoiled by their competing claims. Experts at
the Sixth Floor Museum have never given an independent verification.

Caruth Byrd, one of the owners, filed a 2007 suit in the Texas state
District Court, leading to Monday's hearing. Neither Mr. Byrd nor his
attorneys could be reached for comment Friday.

The defendant and owner of the second window, Aubrey Mayhew, 81 years old,
of Nashville, Tenn., said he couldn't afford a lawyer, but would attend the
hearing anyway. "I have the real window and I obtained it fairly," he said.

The history of the sniper's perch is as murky as the conspiracy theories
that persist around Kennedy's assassination.

Mr. Byrd is the son of the late Col. D. Harold Byrd, a wealthy oilman who
owned Dallas real estate, including the building he leased to the Texas
School Book Depository. Six weeks after the assassination in November 1963,
saying he feared vandalism from souvenir hunters, Col. Byrd instructed an
employee to remove the eight-pane window where Mr. Oswald fired his shots.
Col. Byrd framed the window and hung it in his Dallas mansion.

In 1970, Mr. Mayhew, a Nashville music producer and Kennedy memorabilia
collector, bought the building from Mr. Byrd. But Mr. Mayhew's plans to turn
it into a museum were thwarted by Dallas officials upset at the idea someone
would profit from the assassination.

After three years, Mr. Mayhew defaulted on the mortgage and the building was
returned to Mr. Byrd.

Before that happened, though, Mr. Mayhew said he had learned from the owner
of the school book business that Mr. Byrd's handyman removed the wrong
window. He pried the window frame from the southwest corner -- not the
southeast corner, where Mr. Oswald fired his rifle. Mr. Mayhew claims he had
his own carpenter remove the double-window casement from the southeast
corner, giving him ownership of the historical item.

Caruth Byrd, an East Texas businessman and Hollywood producer, inherited the
window after his father's death in 1986 and kept it in a Dallas vault. The
building was eventually sold to Dallas County, which in 1987 leased out
space for the Sixth Floor Museum, now one of the city's biggest tourist
attractions.

In 1995, Caruth Byrd loaned his window to the Sixth Floor Museum, where it
was displayed. Two years ago, Mr. Byrd put it up for sale on eBay, which
drew offers as high as $3 million.

The sale, however, was thwarted by the competing claim -- and eBay offering
-- of Mr. Mayhew. Mr. Byrd filed suit to settle the matter. The suit also
asked the court to award Mr. Mayhew's window to Mr. Byrd, claiming Mr.
Mayhew had no right to remove it.

Experts at the Sixth Floor Museum have admitted in the past to having doubts
about the authenticity of Mr. Byrd's window. Historians who have studied it
noted certain features, such as a glob of paint on the glass, don't match
photos of the window taken moments after the assassination.

Mr. Mayhew has never allowed his window to be examined publicly.

Museum officials confirm only that the original windows are, indeed, missing
from both corners of the building's sixth floor.

Write to Ann Zimmerman at ann.zimmerman at wsj.com

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