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I can help with that last one. A dude on the net tells me that in the May 1937 edition of Fats Waller's own Groove Organ journal, Kim expressed concern at Thurston's insomnia. "It's all down to not being able to decide on a favourite colour", she said. "He says he likes yellow, and cyan, but he says that before he commits himself to one of those colours, he'd like to see what a mauvy-green-scarlet mix would look like. He's obsessed with this mauvy-green-scaret thing; it keeps him awake at night, it's like an obsession. I say to him, 'for heaven's sake, Thurston, play the trumpet or something and take your mind of it, but he can't. I'm getting worried abut it." Asked by Waller himself where the obsession came from ,and if Kim had any food on her, she said "no I haven't, actually, I thought you' be doing the hospitality. The colour issue is to with Lee, becuase he invented that orangey-cerrisse-brown paint that sells so well. It made Thurston want a piece of the home decoration market too"
I don't know if he's made up his mind in the intervening 70 years.
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