[Dixielandjazz] Nick LaRocca telegram

[Bill Haesler]

Dear Mr (Jimmy) LaRocca and DJML friends,
A friend here in Sydney, Denis King (moderator for the Australian Dance
Bands list) has sent me a photograph of a 1919 telegram sent by Nick
LaRocca, leader of the Original Dixieland Jazz band which raises a few
intriguing historical questions!

                        NEW YORK NY 430PM FEB 25 1919
GUS MUELLER
            2042 ROUSSEAU ST  NEWORLEANS LA
KINDLY WIRE ME IF YOU WILL ACCEPT SHIELDS PROPOSITION IN
DIXIELAND JAZZ BAND
                    DJ LAROCCA
                                        257 WEST 85 STREET
                                                    355 PM

Based on the now definitive 'The Story of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band'
by H. O. Brun (Louisiana State University Press. 1960) in February 1919 the
ODJB was preparing for a tour of England, had just lost its pianist Harry
Ragas to "influenza" (18 Feb) and, after numerous auditions, had finally
replaced him with J Russel Robinson. Larry Shields had just married his
sweetheart Clara and was intending to use the tour as a honeymoon. The band
(with Larry and his wife) sailed out of New York on 22 March 1919, a month
later than originally intended.
So where did Larry's old friend in New Orleans, clarinettist Gus Mueller,
fit in to all this a month earlier?
What can be inferred from the telegram?
That the newly married Shields was considering not going to England with the
band? 
Because of the above events at this time Nick LaRocca was even thinking
about cancelling the trip, but the William Morris agency squashed this by
threatening an injunction if he did so.
What more, if anything, is known about this telegram?
Regards,
Bill