[Dixielandjazz] Bird and Camarillo State Hospital

[Stephen Barbone]

NOT OKOM-LONG POST-DELETE IF YOU ARE NOT A BIRD WATCHER.

Listmates:

Bill Haesler is right, I posted the question about whether Bird was in
jail or not, for several reasons. One of which was to disprove the
theory that he was called Yardbird because of his "jail' time. Logical
as that may sound, it is pure bunk. Parker was never convicted of
anything as far as I know and did not serve any jail time other than a
short stay with the police in California, long after he was "nick" named
Bird. The following is from reliable sources, too varied to list.

He had a mental breakdown after recording in July 1946. For those
interested in his early work, that record is a haunting classic. Before
the record date he had been ingesting bennies for several days. He was
really wired at the session (several days in a row of bennies will do
that to you) and a young doctor at the session, who knew of his heroin
addiction, thought he was going through withdrawal and wrongly gave him
a stimulant which really lit him up. He went back to his hotel

That evening he fell asleep in his hotel room with a lit cigarette in
his hand and set the room on fire. He woke, panicked and ran into the
lobby with no pants on. The cops came took him away, kept him in
detention a day or two and a judge committed him to Camarillo because at
the time Bird was pretty much incoherent. Yes, the breakdown was
probably induced by drugs and/or drug withdrawal. When given a shot of
morphine at the hospital he immediately became rational. (morphine and
heroin are almost identical drugs)

Now, for Camarillo State Hospital, here is some of its' history via
google. Once again Bill Haesler is correct in his assessment of what
Camarillo was: (It was not a jail)

"Back in 1936, the state built the Camarillo hospital in what was then a
rural area separated from the nearest towns. Foothills, wide grassy
areas and rock formations isolated the facility, whose
Spanish-style buildings included a labyrinth of rooms, hallways,
stairwells, courtyards, patios and a bell tower.

The Camarillo hospital earned a certain amount of fame in 1947 when
famous jazz musician Charlie Parker was committed there for a
seven-month stay after he suffered a nervous breakdown. After his stay,
Parker wrote "Relaxin' at Camarillo."

The Eagles' 1976 hit "Hotel California" -- with the famed lyrics, "You
can check out any time you like, but you can never leave" -- is thought
by some to have been inspired by the Camarillo
hospital.

The 1950s were defining years for the hospital. New ideas of"modern"
psychiatry came into use in Camarillo. More drugs and behavior
modification techniques were used to control the behavior of mentally
ill patients, who had previously often been placed in restraints or
underwent shock treatment.

The Receiving and Treatment Center was completed in 1952, the first of
its size to be built in California. Also in the 1950s, children were
separated from the adults in one of the first children's units in state
institutions, and the hospital became known for its dynamic treatment of
autistic youths, This was the era to treat patients actively. It was a
decade of great change," she said.

In its heyday in the 1950s, more than 7,000 people lived at the
Camarillo hospital. It was a city within a city. In 1967, the hospital
added developmentally disabled patients to its wards. Staff members
taught them skills, helped them work in the vocation department and
treated them like family, she said.

Despite the successes at Camarillo, the cost to taxpayers and the
government of housing and treating people in large facilities was
skyrocketing. Fiscally conservative politicians and liberal advocates of
self-determination sought other solutions, such as having patients
transferred to group homes.

The Camarillo hospital officially closed June 30, 1997. To the few
employees who remained, the closure felt like the death of a close
relative. Many of the hospital's former employees, found other state
jobs, but 238 were laid off. More than 100 retired. Many of the patients
were moved to other institutions in the Southland.

Now the old hospital will be devoted to teaching people for the future,
but its past also provided powerful lessons to former employees, who
gained an education in humanity working with society's less fortunate
and those who could not care for themselves."

When he got out of Camarillo in 1947 he was a like a new man. 50 pounds
heavier, bright eyed and bushy tailed. Played wonderfully, for about two
years, before his drug dependence returned and little by little his fate
was sealed.

Any more interest? Write me off line and I will provide Howard McGhee's
(bop trumpet on the record date) version of just how wired Bird was, and
the session background. It is an extraordinary story.

I also agree that drugs of choice, from booze to bennies and worse, in
no way affect the contributions of artists, or the art except that most
seem to perform better when sober. However they are an integral part of
Jazz History and should be understood in that context, not covered up.
Especially among those of us on the list who are vitally interested in
"Jazz" as either jazz musos or fans.

About Parker? He was unable to break the grip of heroin. He frequently
counseled those around him not to follow his example, citing its evils.
However, many followed thinking that it was the stimulants that made him
so great. (Deja Vu, Timothy Leary?) Totally wrong, it was the practice
and his highly focused love for the music. He died young because of his
inability to get clean.

I speak as one who knew him and many of his NYC circle of friends from
1949 till his death in 1955. He was to us a very special human being. He
was also very cognizant of the entire spectrum of jazz music, as shown
by his frequent quotes of "trad" players, e.g. the quote of Picou's High
Society on "KoKo" (Cherokee) and his quote of Louis Armstrong's "West
End Blues" on  "Visa".  How lucky I was to have been in the right place
at the right time.

Sorry it's such a long post but then, I warned you at the beginning.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone