60 Fun Facts About Louis Armstrong

In which city was Louis Armstrong born and raised?

He grew up in a rough neighbourhood called the Battlefield on Rampart Street.

What birthday did Armstrong himself often claim, though records suggest August 4, 1901?

His mother was about 16 when she gave birth at home; his father soon abandoned the family.

Which family of Lithuanian Jews employed the young Armstrong and advanced him money for his first cornet?

He wore a Star of David all his life partly in their memory, and wrote a memoir about them in 1969.

What did Armstrong do on New Year's Eve 1912 that got him sent to the Colored Waif's Home?

He fired a blank; the home was run like a military camp, but its band gave him his first real teacher, Peter Davis.

Whose steamboat orchestra did Armstrong call 'going to the University' for making him sight-read?

They toured the Mississippi on the steamer Sidney for the Streckfus line.

Whose place did Armstrong take in Kid Ory's band in 1918 when his mentor moved north?

He also became second trumpet in the Tuxedo Brass Band.

To which city did Armstrong move in 1922 to join his mentor's Creole Jazz Band?

He played second cornet at the black-only Lincoln Gardens and had his first private bath.

How many high Cs in a row could Armstrong reportedly play?

His reputation drew challenges to 'cutting contests' from other musicians.

For which label did Armstrong make his first studio recordings, with the Creole Jazz Band, in April 1923?

The studio was in remote Richmond, Indiana; Armstrong played so loud he had to stand 15 feet behind Oliver.

Why did Armstrong have to stand 15 feet from the bandleader in the corner of the Gennett studio?

The band played straight into a large funnel; electrical recording did not arrive until 1926.

Which Creole Jazz Band pianist became Armstrong's second wife in 1924?

She had him play classical music in church concerts and dress better 'to offset his girth'.

Whose orchestra, the top African-American band of the day, did Armstrong join in New York in 1924?

He switched from cornet to trumpet to blend with the section, and Ellington's band came to Roseland to watch him.

Which billing did Lil give Armstrong in publicity back in the Midwest in 1925, much to his chagrin?

For a time he worked in the Lil Hardin Armstrong Band, employed by his wife.

What was 'Muggles', the title of a Hot Five hit, slang for?

Armstrong smoked it for much of his life and called it 'a thousand times better than whiskey'.

How many records did the Hot Five produce in the twelve months from November 1925?

Kid Ory, Johnny Dodds, Johnny St. Cyr and Lil Armstrong made up the rest, usually with no drummer.

On which 1926 Hot Five recording did Armstrong famously scat, supposedly after dropping the sheet music?

He thought the take would be discarded; instead it made the Hot Five the most famous jazz band in America.

With which pianist did Armstrong record the 1928 duet 'Weather Bird' and the landmark 'West End Blues'?

His trumpet introduction to 'West End Blues' is among the most influential improvisations in jazz.

Which two musicians were added to the Hot Five to make it the Hot Seven in 1927?

Baby Dodds on drums and Pete Briggs on tuba; John Thomas replaced Kid Ory on trombone.

In which 1929 Waller-Razaf revue did Armstrong steal the show singing 'Ain't Misbehavin''?

He was in the pit orchestra and made a cameo as a vocalist; the record became his biggest seller yet.

Which Hoagy Carmichael song did Armstrong turn into one of its most successful recordings ever in 1931?

His radical rework of Carmichael's 'Lazy River' the same year showed the same approach to melody and phrasing.

Which younger white singer's style owed the most to Armstrong's vocal innovations?

Crosby's 'Just One More Chance' of 1931 shows the debt plainly.

What was Armstrong's first film, made in Los Angeles in 1931?

The same year he was convicted of marijuana possession and given a suspended sentence.

What was the name of the hometown baseball team he sponsored?

He also had a cigar named after him during his 1931 hero's return to the city.

Which mob-connected manager cleaned up Armstrong's legal and money mess from the mid-1930s?

Glaser was Jewish and gave Armstrong the Star of David he wore until his death.

In 1937 Armstrong became the first African American to do what on network radio?

He was substituting for Rudy Vallee on CBS.

In which New York borough did Armstrong settle permanently in 1943 with his fourth wife Lucille?

The house is now the Louis Armstrong House Museum.

What was the six-piece group Armstrong's manager formed for him in August 1947 called?

Earl Hines, Jack Teagarden and Barney Bigard were among its shifting membership.

Which French song did Louis Armstrong hear Suzy Delair sing in Nice in 1948, then record in English?

He cut it in New York in 1950 with Sy Oliver's orchestra.

Armstrong was the first jazz musician on the cover of Time magazine in 1949, pictured in what role?

He presided over the Zulu krewe's parade that year.

Roughly how many performances a year did Armstrong give over three decades?

He also appeared in more than 30 films.

How did Armstrong dismiss bebop?

Asked in Australia if he could play it, he said 'I just play music'.

Which 1964 record knocked the Beatles from No. 1 and made Armstrong the oldest person to top the Hot 100?

He was 62 years, nine months and five days old; the Beatles had held No. 1 for 14 straight weeks.

Which Grammy did Armstrong win for his 1964 chart-topper?

He received a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award in 1972.

What nickname did Armstrong earn from his State Department-sponsored tours of Africa, Europe and Asia?

The tours inspired Dave Brubeck's jazz musical The Real Ambassadors.

Which late recording topped the British charts for a month in 1968?

His heart and kidney trouble had already stopped him touring.

On which 1968 album did Armstrong make his last recorded trumpet performances?

He spent most of 1969 recuperating at home, the year his manager Joe Glaser died.

How did Armstrong pronounce his own first name, according to home tapes at his museum?

He was registered as 'Lewie' in the 1920 census; friends called him 'Pops'.

How many times did Armstrong marry?

Daisy Parker, Lil Hardin, Alpha Smith and Lucille Wilson, a Cotton Club singer he wed in 1942.

What did Armstrong's 1919 marriage to Daisy Parker bring into his life that he cared for until he died?

Clarence was his cousin Flora's son, disabled by a childhood head injury.

What is 'Satchmo' short for?

One story has the boy stuffing coins in his mouth so bigger kids could not steal them.

How did Armstrong acquire the nickname that Terry Teachout chose as the title of his 2010 biography?

Musicians and close friends usually called him by it.

In 1957 Armstrong called which president 'two-faced' with 'no guts' over Little Rock?

He cancelled a State Department tour of the USSR, saying 'the government can go to hell'; the FBI opened a file on him.

How did Armstrong sum up his religion when asked?

He was baptised Catholic in New Orleans and met Popes Pius XII and Paul VI.

Which herbal laxative did Armstrong evangelise, even handing packets to the British royals?

He published diet plans under the title Lose Weight the Satchmo Way.

How did Armstrong habitually sign his letters?

He kept a lifelong bond with New Orleans cooking, and typed constantly on the road about music, food and his bowel movements.

For how long did a lip ulceration force Armstrong to stop playing during his 1930s European tour?

He favoured narrow mouthpieces that dug into his lip, and cut scar tissue off with a razor blade.

Which Armstrong recording is included on the Voyager Golden Record?

The record is a sample of Earth's sounds carried by the two Voyager probes.

With which singer did Armstrong record three duet albums, including a Porgy and Bess, in the late 1950s?

The Oscar Peterson Trio backed the first two, with Buddy Rich then Louie Bellson on drums.

Whom did Armstrong tell that his scat style came 'from the Jews rockin', an Orthodox chanting style?

He also once sang out 'I done forgot the words' mid-recording on 'I'm a Ding Dong Daddy from Dumas'.

Which Duke Ellington collaboration did Armstrong and the All-Stars record in 1961?

Ellington sat in on piano for many of his own compositions.

How many songs did Armstrong compose, including 'Potato Head Blues' and 'Swing That Music'?

'Gully Low Blues' is another of his that became a standard.

Which fraternal organisation did Armstrong say he belonged to, contrary to claims that he was a Freemason?

The Prince Hall lodge he was supposedly a member of never existed.

In which 1956 musical, starring Grace Kelly and Frank Sinatra, did Armstrong play the bandleader-narrator?

It became his most familiar screen role, sharing the bill with the biggest crooner of the era.

In Gene Kelly's 1969 film of a Jerry Herman musical, Armstrong sang the title song with which actress?

His cameo as bandleader Louis revisited the song that had been his biggest-selling record five years earlier.

Where in Queens was Armstrong laid to rest after his death in July 1971?

He died of a heart attack in his sleep at home in Corona, still hoping to get back on the road.

Armstrong played himself in the 1947 film New Orleans opposite which singer?

The film dramatised the closing of Storyville and the musicians' exodus north to Chicago.

In which country was Armstrong touring when he suffered a heart attack in 1959?

He was ordered to rest but went on performing around 300 nights a year through the 1960s.

Which trombonist and singer duetted "Rockin' Chair" with Armstrong at his 1947 Town Hall concert?

The success of that small-group show helped push Joe Glaser to break up the big band three months later.

Which cornetist claimed to have taught the eleven-year-old Armstrong to play by ear at a honky tonk?

The lessons supposedly happened at Dago Tony's, though Armstrong's first formal teacher was Peter Davis at the Waif's Home.

In the 1959 film The Five Pennies, Armstrong duetted "When the Saints Go Marching In" with which comedian?

His partner impersonated him mid-song, a gag audiences loved.