119 Facts About Louis Armstrong

1.

Louis Armstrong was among the most influential figures in jazz.

2.

Louis Armstrong's career spanned five decades and several eras in the history of jazz.

3.

Louis Armstrong earned a reputation at "cutting contests", and his fame reached band leader Fletcher Henderson.

4.

Louis Armstrong moved to New York City, where he became a featured and musically influential band soloist and recording artist.

5.

Louis Armstrong was one of the first popular African-American entertainers to "cross over" to wide popularity with white audiences.

6.

Louis Armstrong was able to access the upper echelons of American society at a time when this was difficult for black men.

7.

Louis Armstrong is believed to be born in New Orleans on August 4,1901, however it's been heavily debated.

8.

Less than a year and a half later, they had a daughter, Beatrice "Mama Lucy" Louis Armstrong, who was raised by Albert.

9.

Louis Armstrong was raised by his grandmother until the age of five when he was returned to his mother.

10.

Louis Armstrong spent his youth in poverty in a rough neighborhood known as The Battlefield, on the southern section of Rampart Street.

11.

At the age of 6, Louis Armstrong lived with his mother and sister and worked for the Karnoffskys, a family of Lithuanian Jews, at their home.

12.

Louis Armstrong would help their two sons, Morris and Alex, collect "rags and bones" and deliver coal.

13.

Louis Armstrong wore a Star of David until the end of his life in memory of this family who had raised him.

14.

Louis Armstrong's mother moved into a one-room house on Perdido Street with Armstrong, Lucy, and her common-law husband, Tom Lee, next door to her brother Ike and his two sons.

15.

Louis Armstrong joined a quartet of boys who sang in the streets for money.

16.

Louis Armstrong spent the night at New Orleans Juvenile Court, then was sentenced the next day to detention at the Colored Waif's Home.

17.

Louis Armstrong developed his cornet skills by playing in the band.

18.

On June 14,1914, Louis Armstrong was released into the custody of his father and his new stepmother, Gertrude.

19.

Louis Armstrong lived in this household with two stepbrothers for several months.

20.

Louis Armstrong found a job at a dance hall owned by Henry Ponce, who had connections to organized crime.

21.

Louis Armstrong met the six-foot tall drummer Black Benny, who became his guide and bodyguard.

22.

Louis Armstrong briefly studied shipping management at the local community college, but was forced to quit after being unable to afford the fees.

23.

Louis Armstrong heard the early sounds of jazz from bands that played in brothels and dance halls such as Pete Lala's, where King Oliver performed.

24.

Early in his career, Louis Armstrong played in brass bands and riverboats in New Orleans, first on an excursion boat in September 1918.

25.

Louis Armstrong traveled with the band of Fate Marable, which toured on the steamboat Sidney with the Streckfus Steamers line up and down the Mississippi River.

26.

Louis Armstrong described his time with Marable as "going to the University", since it gave him a wider experience working with written arrangements.

27.

Louis Armstrong became second trumpet for the Tuxedo Brass Band.

28.

Louis Armstrong became one of the first jazz musicians to be featured on extended trumpet solos, injecting his own personality and style.

29.

In 1922, Louis Armstrong moved to Chicago at the invitation of King Oliver, although Louis Armstrong would return to New Orleans periodically for the rest of his life.

30.

Louis Armstrong lived luxuriously in his own apartment with his first private bath.

31.

Louis Armstrong had to stand fifteen feet away from Oliver, in a far corner of the room.

32.

Lil Hardin, who Louis Armstrong would marry in 1924, urged Louis Armstrong to seek more prominent billing and develop his style apart from the influence of Oliver.

33.

At her suggestion, Louis Armstrong began to play classical music in church concerts to broaden his skills; and he began to dress more in more stylish attire to offset his girth.

34.

Shortly afterward, Louis Armstrong received an invitation to go to New York City to play with the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra, the top African-American band of the time.

35.

Louis Armstrong switched to the trumpet to blend in better with the other musicians in his section.

36.

Louis Armstrong adapted to the tightly controlled style of Henderson, playing trumpet and experimenting with the trombone.

37.

Louis Armstrong's act included singing and telling tales of New Orleans characters, especially preachers.

38.

In 1925, Louis Armstrong returned to Chicago largely at the insistence of Lil, who wanted to expand his career and his income.

39.

Louis Armstrong formed Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five and recorded the hits "Potato Head Blues" and "Muggles".

40.

Louis Armstrong played with Erskine Tate's Little Symphony, which played mostly at the Vendome Theatre.

41.

Louis Armstrong made a huge impact during the 1920s Harlem Renaissance.

42.

Hughes admired Louis Armstrong and acknowledged him as one of the most recognized musicians of the era.

43.

The sound of jazz, along with musicians such as Louis Armstrong, helped shape Hughes as a writer.

44.

Louis Armstrong's popularity brought together many black and white audiences.

45.

Louis Armstrong returned to New York in 1929, where he played in the pit orchestra for the musical Hot Chocolates, an all-black revue written by Andy Razaf and pianist Fats Waller.

46.

Louis Armstrong made a cameo appearance as a vocalist, regularly stealing the show with his rendition of "Ain't Misbehavin'".

47.

Louis Armstrong started to work at Connie's Inn in Harlem, chief rival to the Cotton Club, a venue for elaborately staged floor shows, and a front for gangster Dutch Schultz.

48.

Louis Armstrong had considerable success with vocal recordings, including versions of songs composed by his old friend Hoagy Carmichael.

49.

Louis Armstrong's radical re-working of Sidney Arodin and Carmichael's "Lazy River" encapsulated his groundbreaking approach to melody and phrasing.

50.

Louis Armstrong moved to Los Angeles in 1930 to seek new opportunities.

51.

Louis Armstrong played at the New Cotton Club in Los Angeles with Lionel Hampton on drums.

52.

In 1931, Louis Armstrong appeared in his first movie, Ex-Flame, and was convicted of marijuana possession but received a suspended sentence.

53.

Louis Armstrong returned to Chicago in late 1931 and played in bands more in the Guy Lombardo vein and he recorded more standards.

54.

Louis Armstrong sponsored a local baseball team known as Armstrong's Secret Nine and had a cigar named after him.

55.

Louis Armstrong hired Joe Glaser as his new manager, a tough mob-connected wheeler-dealer, who began to straighten out his legal mess, mob troubles and debts.

56.

Louis Armstrong began to experience problems with his fingers and lips, aggravated by his unorthodox playing style.

57.

Louis Armstrong appeared in movies again, including Crosby's 1936 hit Pennies from Heaven.

58.

In 1937, Louis Armstrong substituted for Rudy Vallee on the CBS radio network and became the first African American to host a sponsored, national broadcast.

59.

Louis Armstrong was featured as a guest artist with Lionel Hampton's band at the famed second Cavalcade of Jazz concert held at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles, produced by Leon Hefflin Sr.

60.

Louis Armstrong was the first jazz musician to appear on the cover of Time magazine, on February 21,1949.

61.

Over 30 years, Louis Armstrong played more than 300 performances a year, making many recordings and appearing in over thirty films.

62.

Louis Armstrong continued an intense international touring schedule, but in 1959 he suffered a heart attack in Italy and had to rest.

63.

Louis Armstrong toured well into his 60s, even visiting part of the Communist Bloc in 1965.

64.

Louis Armstrong toured Africa, Europe, and Asia under the sponsorship of the US State Department with great success, earning the nickname "Ambassador Satch" and inspiring Dave Brubeck to compose his jazz musical The Real Ambassadors.

65.

Louis Armstrong did not perform publicly in 1969 and spent most of the year recuperating at home.

66.

Louis Armstrong embarked on another world tour, but a heart attack forced him to take a break for two months.

67.

Louis Armstrong made his last recorded trumpet performances on his 1968 album Disney Songs the Satchmo Way.

68.

Many broadcast announcers, fans, and acquaintances called him "Louie" and in a videotaped interview from 1983 Lucille Louis Armstrong calls her late husband "Louie" as well.

69.

That said, Louis Armstrong was registered as "Lewie" for the 1920 US Census.

70.

Louis Armstrong returned to Gretna on several occasions to visit her.

71.

Louis Armstrong found the courage to look for her home to see her away from work.

72.

Clarence Louis Armstrong was mentally disabled as a result of a head injury at an early age, and Louis Armstrong spent the rest of his life taking care of him.

73.

Louis Armstrong had divorced her first husband a few years earlier.

74.

Louis Armstrong then married Lucille Wilson, a singer at the Cotton Club in New York, in October 1942.

75.

Louis Armstrong's autobiography vexed some biographers and historians because he had a habit of telling tales, particularly about his early childhood when he was less scrutinized, and his embellishments lack consistency.

76.

Louis Armstrong was beloved by an American public that usually offered little access beyond their public celebrity to even the greatest African American performers, and he was able to live a private life of access and privilege afforded to few other African Americans during that era.

77.

Louis Armstrong generally remained politically neutral, which at times alienated him from members of the black community who expected him to use his prominence within white America to become more outspoken during the civil rights movement.

78.

The trumpet is notoriously hard on the lips, and Louis Armstrong suffered from lip damage over most of his life.

79.

Also in 1959, Louis Armstrong was hospitalized for pneumonia while on tour in Italy.

80.

Louis Armstrong scooped the coins off the street and stuck them into his mouth to prevent bigger children from stealing them.

81.

Louis Armstrong celebrated his heritage as an African American man from a poor New Orleans neighborhood and tried to avoid what he called "putting on airs".

82.

Many younger black musicians criticized Louis Armstrong for playing in front of segregated audiences and for not taking a stronger stand in the American civil rights movement.

83.

Louis Armstrong wore the Star of David in honor of the Karnoffsky family who took him in as a child and lent him money to buy his first cornet.

84.

Louis Armstrong was baptized a Catholic in the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in New Orleans, and he met Pope Pius XII and Pope Paul VI.

85.

Louis Armstrong used laxatives to control his weight, a practice he advocated both to acquaintances and in the diet plans he published under the title Lose Weight the Satchmo Way.

86.

Louis Armstrong appeared in humorous, risque, cards that he had printed to send to friends.

87.

Louis Armstrong was a heavy marijuana smoker for much of his life and spent nine days in jail in 1930 after being arrested outside a club for drug possession.

88.

Louis Armstrong described marijuana as "a thousand times better than whiskey".

89.

Louis Armstrong did state in his autobiography that he was a member of the Knights of Pythias, which although real, is not a Masonic group.

90.

The solo that Louis Armstrong plays during the song "Potato Head Blues" has long been considered his best solo of that series.

91.

Louis Armstrong was virtually the first to create significant variations based on the chord harmonies of the songs instead of merely on the melodies.

92.

Louis Armstrong's playing technique, honed by constant practice, extended the range, tone and capabilities of the trumpet.

93.

Louis Armstrong was one of the first artists to use recordings of his performances to improve himself.

94.

Louis Armstrong had a large collection of recordings, including reel-to-reel tapes, which he took on the road with him in a trunk during his later career.

95.

Louis Armstrong enjoyed listening to his own recordings, and comparing his performances musically.

96.

Louis Armstrong did, thinking the track would be discarded, but that was the version that was pressed to disc, sold, and became an unexpected hit.

97.

Long before this Louis Armstrong was playing around with his vocals, shortening and lengthening phrases, interjecting improvisations, using his voice as creatively as his trumpet.

98.

Crosby admired and copied Louis Armstrong, as is evident on many of his early recordings, notably "Just One More Chance".

99.

In 1968, Louis Armstrong scored one last popular hit in the UK with "What a Wonderful World", which topped the British charts for a month.

100.

Louis Armstrong appeared on the October 28,1970, Johnny Cash Show, where he sang Nat King Cole's hit "Ramblin' Rose" and joined Cash to re-create his performance backing Jimmie Rodgers on "Blue Yodel No 9".

101.

Louis Armstrong enjoyed many types of music, from blues to the arrangements of Guy Lombardo, to Latin American folksongs, to classical symphonies and opera.

102.

Louis Armstrong incorporated influences from all these sources into his performances, sometimes to the bewilderment of fans who wanted him to stay in convenient narrow categories.

103.

Louis Armstrong was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an early influence.

104.

Louis Armstrong appeared in more than a dozen Hollywood films, usually playing a bandleader or musician.

105.

Louis Armstrong appears throughout the film, sings the title song, and performs the duet "Now You Has Jazz" with Crosby.

106.

Louis Armstrong had a part in the film alongside James Stewart in The Glenn Miller Story.

107.

In 1937, Louis Armstrong was the first African American to host a nationally broadcast radio show.

108.

Louis Armstrong was heard on such radio programs as The Story of Swing and This Is Jazz, and he made television appearances, especially in the 1950s and 1960s, including appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

109.

Against his doctor's advice, Louis Armstrong played a two-week engagement in March 1971 at the Waldorf-Astoria's Empire Room.

110.

Still hoping to get back on the road, Louis Armstrong died of a heart attack in his sleep on July 6,1971.

111.

Louis Armstrong was residing in Corona, Queens, New York City, at the time of his death.

112.

Louis Armstrong was interred in Flushing Cemetery, Flushing, in Queens, New York City.

113.

Louis Armstrong was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1972 by the Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

114.

Recordings of Louis Armstrong were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, which is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least 25 years old, and that have "qualitative or historical significance".

115.

In 1999 Louis Armstrong was nominated for inclusion in the American Film Institute's 100 Years.

116.

Louis Armstrong was a masterful accompanist and ensemble player in addition to his extraordinary skills as a soloist.

117.

Holiday said that she always wanted Bessie Smith's "big" sound and Louis Armstrong's feeling in her singing.

118.

The entrance to the airport's former terminal building houses a statue depicting Louis Armstrong playing his cornet.

119.

The house where Louis Armstrong lived for almost 28 years was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1977 and is a museum.