Celebrities Project: Louis Armstrong

I finished my study of Louis Armstrong last week, when I finally finished reading the informative, yet tedious, book Louis Armstrong: An Extravagant Life by Laurence Bergreen. but I haven't had a chance to write because we have been at the Weber. In some ways, I struggled with learning about Louis Armstrong, simply because I couldn't really relate to much of his life or his interests outside of music. I was surprised to discover how much I seek to relate to these celebrities when I have been learning about them, which must indicate something about how I learn or what type of connections I find meaningful. One thing that I really did admire about Louis is that he was an extremely generous person. It is easy to tell that gift giving was his "love language," since he loved to gift expensive items and money to the people that he cared about.

Some interesting things that I learned:

• Louis always pronounced himself as it is spelled ("Lou-is") not "Louie." He also went by the nicknames "Satchelmouth" and its abbreviated form "Satchmo." The names referred to when he use to hold coins in the side of his mouth while playing, to ensure that no one would steal the money that was being given to him while he played.

• Outside of music, Louis was passionate about laxatives and marijuana. He was such a fan of the laxative Swiss Kriss that he would give cellophane-wrapped packets to everyone he met: journalists, diplomats, fellow musicians, etc. In fact, you can purchase Swiss Kriss in the gift shop of the Louis Armstrong House Museum.
• Louis Armstrong had four wives, not to mention numerous affairs on the side. It also appears that he fathered an illegitimate daughter, news which was just made public about four years ago.
• One of the most influential moments in Louis Armstrong's life was when he was sent to a juvenile detention center as a young boy. During Mardi Gras, he decided to take his stepfather's gun and shoot it off in the air during the celebrations. When authorities caught Louis with the gun in his possession, he was placed in jail and then moved to the detention center.  As a poor black boy in New Orleans, he wasn't given a chance to be proven innocent. However, this time in the center really changed his life and helped introduce him to more formal instruction in music.
• One of the main reasons that Louis Armstrong would stop and sing during his musical numbers was simply out of necessity: he needed to give his embouchure a break from all of the tension and pressure that it sustained during trumpet playing!
• Louis Armstrong even created an album of Disney songs: Disney Songs the Satchmo Way

It was easy to segue into Louis Armstrong performances this month, since I saw his appearances in the film High Society during last month (when I focused on Grace Kelly). The other shows that I watched were Hello Dolly (1969), The Glenn Miller Story (1954), A Song is Born (1948), and The Five Pennies (1959). In several of these movies, I didn't really feel like I got a great sense of Louis Armstrong as a performer, since his appearances were short (and he really just seems to serve a more secondary, even caricatured, role as a black entertainer in order to support the white leading actors). But I do think that his energy, personality, and love of music are apparent in this rendition of Danny Kaye and Louis Armstrong singing "Oh When the Saints Go Marchin' In" from The Five Pennies:

Another sweet scene from The Five Pennies is when Louis Armstrong, Danny Kaye, and the child actress Susan Gordon perform a trio medley. The person who posted this video mentioned how these people are all very different and from different backgrounds, but they are brought together by music.

This month I also watched Louis Armstrong: The Portrait Collection, which included some televised performances of Louis Armstrong and Velma Middleton. Their interactions are entertaining (such as in the performance of "That's My Desire"). One of my favorite television performances, though, is when Louis Armstrong and Frank Sinatra sing "The Birth of the Blues" together. Frank's singing is actually rather bland here, I think (and really is only kept lively through Louis's trumpet playing), but the thing that I live is that Frank is genuinely jamming when Louis starts singing at about 1:16:

I read that Louis Armstrong never made great friendships with the wealthy white entertainers within Hollywood, but they did seem to respect and greatly admire his musicianship and showmanship. And I feel the same way: although I don't feel like I have a great connection with Louis Armstrong's personal history, I really respect the way that he could move his audiences. His rendition of What a Wonderful World is such a inspiring, heartfelt song.