Q 01/05

In which city was Louis Armstrong born and raised?

A) Chicago

B) St. Louis

C) Memphis

D) New Orleans

Answer · why

D) New Orleans

New Orleans: he grew up in a neighbourhood so rough it was called the Battlefield, and the city later renamed its international airport after him.

Q 02/05

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

A) December 25, 1901

B) July 4, 1900

C) August 4, 1899

D) January 1, 1900

Answer · why

B) July 4, 1900

July 4, 1900: he believed it all his life, but a church record found in the 1980s put his birth at August 4, 1901, so his museum now celebrates both d...

Q 03/05

Which Jewish immigrant family employed the young Armstrong and helped him buy his first cornet?

A) The Streckfuses

B) The Karnoffskys

C) The Rosenthals

D) The Marables

Answer · why

B) The Karnoffskys

The Karnoffskys: they fed him at their table and encouraged his singing, and some sixty years later he wrote a memoir about the family from a hospital...

Q 04/05

What New Year's Eve stunt got the young Armstrong sent to the Colored Waif's Home?

A) Stole a pawn-shop cornet

B) Set off fireworks in church

C) Fired a gun into the air

D) Broke into a dance hall

Answer · why

C) Fired a gun into the air

Fired a gun into the air: the pistol was his stepfather's, and the home he was sent to gave him his first proper teacher, Peter Davis, who made him le...

Q 05/05

Where did Fate Marable's band play when it taught the young Armstrong to read written arrangements?

A) Harlem nightclubs

B) Travelling circuses

C) Atlantic ocean liners

D) Mississippi riverboats

Answer · why

D) Mississippi riverboats

Mississippi riverboats: it was the first band he had joined that played from written arrangements, so the teenager had to sharpen his reading fast to ...