Everyone knows that Artie Shaw was the “King of the Clarinet,” he was an infamous lover, and a brave soldier. Few know anything beyond that! Here are some snippets of the unknown Artie Shaw:
- From 1984 until 1996, Artie was an Honorary Vice-President of the swimming federation, FINA.
- When given the opportunity to write a tell-all book about his famous ex-wives and make a six-figure payday advance, he rejected the offer.
- Technically he was only married 6 times, not eight, because two were annulled.
- He survived the usually-fatal blood disease, granulocytopenia, in 1939
- Artie loved to play chess.
- He was a friend of authors Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, and Sinclair Lewis
- In 1972, Artie Shaw and his spouse Evelyn Keyes were in the thriller “Across 110th Street.”
- Artie was nationally-ranked as a precision marksman and he was also a top level fly fisherman
- For the last years of Artie’s life, he suffered with diabetes.
- Artie loved luxury cars and sports cars, this included Lexus and Mercedes
- He had a pet dog named Chester Chaucer, an English sheepdog.
- Artie’s home was filled with over 15,000 volumes in his private library.