1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:00:12,971 --> 00:00:15,891 [smooth jazz music playing] 4 00:00:17,059 --> 00:00:19,311 [Orson Welles] I think it's time now to sweeten the air 5 00:00:19,394 --> 00:00:21,021 with a little entertainment. 6 00:00:21,104 --> 00:00:25,317 But not on the principle of escapism, but on the principle of affirmation. 7 00:00:25,400 --> 00:00:30,364 And there's scarcely a more affirmative artist in, uh, 8 00:00:30,447 --> 00:00:33,992 the musical world than my old friend whom I'm going to bring out now, 9 00:00:34,910 --> 00:00:39,623 on the theory that music hath charms to soothe the savage breast. 10 00:00:41,583 --> 00:00:43,168 And because he is, 11 00:00:43,836 --> 00:00:46,964 past all question, one of the greatest influences, 12 00:00:47,881 --> 00:00:50,509 uh, in American music 13 00:00:50,592 --> 00:00:53,512 and the greatest influence in jazz of all time. 14 00:00:54,263 --> 00:00:57,850 It's my… [sighs] …great pleasure to bring you my great friend, 15 00:00:58,684 --> 00:01:00,102 -Louis Armstrong. -[applause] 16 00:01:00,185 --> 00:01:02,479 [trumpet playing jazz melody] 17 00:01:14,157 --> 00:01:17,661 ["Black and Blue" playing] 18 00:01:43,562 --> 00:01:45,731 [Wynton Marsalis] The whole world embraced Louis Armstrong. 19 00:01:45,814 --> 00:01:49,860 He was bringing a gift, the gift of a presentness 20 00:01:49,943 --> 00:01:52,446 and a naturalness and a depth of insight. 21 00:01:52,529 --> 00:01:55,407 And the ability to act on those insights in the moment. 22 00:01:55,490 --> 00:01:57,701 And it was in a difficult form like music. 23 00:01:57,784 --> 00:02:02,831 And that type of electric virtuosity has not been seen before or since. 24 00:02:12,799 --> 00:02:13,842 [Archie Shepp] Without him, 25 00:02:13,926 --> 00:02:16,512 many things that happen today in jazz would not be possible. 26 00:02:16,595 --> 00:02:20,224 And I think that Mr. Armstrong has not gotten a good deal 27 00:02:20,307 --> 00:02:21,725 of the credit that's due to him. 28 00:02:32,653 --> 00:02:36,281 [Count Basie] He has been the number one man in his department. 29 00:02:36,365 --> 00:02:39,993 He is really the ambassador of the whole thing, 30 00:02:40,077 --> 00:02:41,995 so there will never be another one like this. 31 00:02:43,956 --> 00:02:45,582 [singing "Black and Blue"] 32 00:03:32,421 --> 00:03:34,590 [vocalizing] 33 00:03:37,301 --> 00:03:38,886 [singing continues] 34 00:03:42,014 --> 00:03:44,683 [Lucille Armstrong] Well, he was a very, very deep person. 35 00:03:44,766 --> 00:03:48,395 He was very much aware of world activities, 36 00:03:48,478 --> 00:03:49,855 what was happening everywhere. 37 00:03:49,938 --> 00:03:52,649 We would have our discussions at home. 38 00:03:52,733 --> 00:03:55,360 He had been asked by many reporters in interviews 39 00:03:55,444 --> 00:03:58,071 what did he think about a certain particular thing. 40 00:03:58,155 --> 00:04:01,033 And Louis would say, "Well, man, you know, I'm just a musician." 41 00:04:01,116 --> 00:04:02,910 He never would come out publicly 42 00:04:02,993 --> 00:04:08,707 because his, uh, theory was that "what I say carries a lot of weight." 43 00:04:08,790 --> 00:04:12,419 And he says, "And I just won't do it." But at home, he had his opinions. 44 00:04:12,503 --> 00:04:16,923 [singing continues] 45 00:04:30,395 --> 00:04:34,233 [Louis Armstrong] American people, they the most grandest people on Earth. 46 00:04:34,316 --> 00:04:37,319 And I'm from America, well, quite naturally… 47 00:04:37,402 --> 00:04:39,363 [stammers] …I don't have no fucking flag 48 00:04:39,446 --> 00:04:41,782 other than a Black flag. [laughs] 49 00:04:46,119 --> 00:04:48,580 [song ends] 50 00:04:48,664 --> 00:04:51,291 [audience cheering] 51 00:04:55,671 --> 00:04:56,922 [Armstrong] Thank you, folks. 52 00:05:02,261 --> 00:05:03,846 Thank you. 53 00:05:03,929 --> 00:05:07,349 ♪ Now I'll be glad when you're dead You rascal you ♪ 54 00:05:08,600 --> 00:05:11,562 ♪ I'll be glad when you're dead You rascal you ♪ 55 00:05:12,229 --> 00:05:14,606 ♪ Boy, when you're laying six feet deep ♪ 56 00:05:14,690 --> 00:05:16,733 ♪ No more fried chicken will you eat ♪ 57 00:05:16,817 --> 00:05:17,651 [laughs] 58 00:05:17,734 --> 00:05:18,735 ♪ Oh, you dog ♪ 59 00:05:18,819 --> 00:05:20,529 ♪ I know that'll break your heart ♪ 60 00:05:21,363 --> 00:05:23,991 [Marsalis] My father would say, "You have to check Pops out." 61 00:05:24,074 --> 00:05:25,576 I was going, "Man, I don't want Pops." 62 00:05:25,659 --> 00:05:27,786 In New Orleans, too, where so much what we call 63 00:05:27,870 --> 00:05:29,288 "Uncle Tomming" goes on. 64 00:05:29,371 --> 00:05:30,998 Playing Dixie, shuffling. 65 00:05:31,081 --> 00:05:33,834 In my time, I hated that with an unbelievable passion. 66 00:05:34,543 --> 00:05:37,004 When I was growing up, there was no way for me to even express 67 00:05:37,087 --> 00:05:40,674 the type of anger and hatred I had toward that type of behavior. 68 00:05:41,175 --> 00:05:43,302 So, I could not appreciate Armstrong. 69 00:05:43,802 --> 00:05:46,805 But when I left New Orleans, and I was in New York at that time, 70 00:05:46,889 --> 00:05:48,265 my father sent me a tape. 71 00:05:48,348 --> 00:05:50,851 He said, "Man, why don't you learn one of these Pops solos?" 72 00:05:50,934 --> 00:05:52,311 [upbeat jazz music playing] 73 00:06:05,991 --> 00:06:08,285 So I put it on and I started to work on it. 74 00:06:08,368 --> 00:06:10,537 Man, I could not play this solo at all. 75 00:06:11,038 --> 00:06:13,332 Just the endurance of-- of Louis Armstrong. 76 00:06:13,415 --> 00:06:15,709 He never stopped playing. He was always up around high B's. 77 00:06:15,792 --> 00:06:18,545 And when we got to the final chorus, I-- I called my father. 78 00:06:18,629 --> 00:06:21,757 I said, "Man, I didn't understand about Pops." 79 00:06:21,840 --> 00:06:23,842 He just started laughing. He said, "That's right." 80 00:06:43,946 --> 00:06:46,365 [Dan Morgenstern] Louis loved his home in Queens. 81 00:06:46,448 --> 00:06:49,868 Some people said that it wasn't palatial enough. 82 00:06:51,161 --> 00:06:53,080 And he didn't wanna move anywhere else. 83 00:06:54,748 --> 00:06:58,669 When tape came on the scene, Louis became enamored of that. 84 00:06:58,752 --> 00:07:02,256 And he used it most of all for conversations. 85 00:07:02,339 --> 00:07:05,133 He had friends come to the house, and he would tape it. 86 00:07:05,801 --> 00:07:10,848 [Steve Allen] Louis had a lot of what I would describe as archival materials. 87 00:07:10,931 --> 00:07:12,766 I mean, tapes and-- and things like that. 88 00:07:12,850 --> 00:07:16,061 [Lucille] He had his own study. It was taboo to everyone. 89 00:07:16,144 --> 00:07:18,856 That was his. He'd close that door and nobody bothered him. 90 00:07:18,939 --> 00:07:21,191 He had his tapes and everything of his was in there. 91 00:07:21,692 --> 00:07:25,195 [Marsalis] I've heard a lot of reel-to-reels of Pops just talking. 92 00:07:25,279 --> 00:07:26,697 Everyday life recordings. 93 00:07:27,239 --> 00:07:28,699 His humanity comes through. 94 00:07:32,160 --> 00:07:35,831 [Armstrong] I got tapes on my wall in my den. 95 00:07:36,415 --> 00:07:40,002 For 40 years, Lucille had one of them Tandbergs 96 00:07:40,085 --> 00:07:42,754 put up there with two tapes together. 97 00:07:42,838 --> 00:07:46,633 That really knocked me out because we couldn't afford no den 98 00:07:46,717 --> 00:07:48,093 in, uh, them early days. 99 00:07:48,177 --> 00:07:51,597 No, we've gotta sleep in that room. [laughs] 100 00:07:51,680 --> 00:07:53,473 -[interviewer 1] Now you got a den. -Now I got a den. 101 00:07:53,557 --> 00:07:57,811 I got all of my tapes around the walls and just pick out what I wanna hear. 102 00:07:58,770 --> 00:08:01,523 [Lucille] He was the busiest person, taking care of things when he was home. 103 00:08:01,607 --> 00:08:03,275 It was his relaxation. 104 00:08:04,067 --> 00:08:08,572 He would sit up in his study for hours and hours, 105 00:08:08,655 --> 00:08:09,948 indexing his tapes. 106 00:08:10,032 --> 00:08:13,243 [Fred Ware] And he has a hobby of cutting out pictures, 107 00:08:13,327 --> 00:08:18,415 you know, and paste them up on the ceiling in his den, all over the walls. 108 00:08:18,498 --> 00:08:20,918 [Lucille] I've got scrapbooks that Louis had 109 00:08:21,001 --> 00:08:24,087 that were made up when he first played the Palladium back in '32. 110 00:08:24,171 --> 00:08:28,509 Most of the pictures and the newspaper write-ups have gone yellow. 111 00:08:29,051 --> 00:08:30,594 [Ricky Riccardi] People asked all the time, 112 00:08:30,677 --> 00:08:32,179 "Why is he recording these tapes? 113 00:08:32,261 --> 00:08:35,307 Why is he writing down all of his thoughts?" 114 00:08:35,390 --> 00:08:36,517 And all this kind of stuff. 115 00:08:36,600 --> 00:08:39,852 He knew that one day they were gonna write about him in the history books. 116 00:08:39,937 --> 00:08:43,774 And so he wanted to make sure all sides of him-- good, bad, ugly-- 117 00:08:43,857 --> 00:08:47,569 were gonna be captured and preserved by himself. 118 00:08:47,653 --> 00:08:48,862 Not by anybody else. 119 00:08:54,993 --> 00:08:57,996 Hello, folks. This is old Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong. 120 00:08:58,080 --> 00:09:00,123 I just finished this concert here and, uh, 121 00:09:00,624 --> 00:09:03,627 I feel good 'cause, uh, I had a nice supper of Wiener schnitzels. 122 00:09:03,710 --> 00:09:05,796 Uh… [laughs] 123 00:09:06,296 --> 00:09:09,675 Glad to see you around and, uh, dig the concerts. 124 00:09:09,758 --> 00:09:12,970 We've been playing every night around the neighborhood cities. 125 00:09:13,053 --> 00:09:15,305 So, later. Goodbye. 126 00:09:17,140 --> 00:09:19,560 [singing "Mack the Knife"] 127 00:09:36,994 --> 00:09:40,205 [Edward Murrow] Louis Armstrong is the prime minister of the world of jazz. 128 00:09:40,289 --> 00:09:42,207 He and his trumpet are at the summit. 129 00:09:42,291 --> 00:09:44,751 His European concerts have broken all records. 130 00:09:44,835 --> 00:09:48,755 Satchmo is one of our more valuable items for export. 131 00:09:48,839 --> 00:09:51,967 His recordings are hot on both sides of the iron curtain. 132 00:09:52,593 --> 00:09:54,970 [song continues] 133 00:10:02,186 --> 00:10:05,272 [interviewer 2] Satchmo, you always draw an audience, don't you? 134 00:10:05,355 --> 00:10:08,609 Yeah, man. That shows you there's cats in all walks of life. 135 00:10:08,692 --> 00:10:09,943 [laughs] 136 00:10:16,658 --> 00:10:18,660 [Morgenstern] He broke so many barriers. 137 00:10:18,744 --> 00:10:22,998 He would be the first Black performer to open up a club, 138 00:10:23,081 --> 00:10:25,417 a ballroom, a radio station. 139 00:10:26,084 --> 00:10:33,008 He was the first Black movie performer to have his name above the title. 140 00:10:44,394 --> 00:10:46,980 [crowd cheering] 141 00:10:49,775 --> 00:10:51,193 [Murrow] Don't you ever get tired? 142 00:10:51,944 --> 00:10:55,239 [Armstrong] Well, daddy, I'm just a little beat from my youth. 143 00:10:55,322 --> 00:10:56,990 You had quite a session here tonight. 144 00:10:57,074 --> 00:11:02,037 Yeah, we just start playing it the same as we did in the tailgates in New Orleans. 145 00:11:02,120 --> 00:11:04,414 -Mm-hmm. -It's the same music. 146 00:11:04,498 --> 00:11:06,250 And it's, uh, universal, daddy. 147 00:11:09,002 --> 00:11:15,008 ♪ Yes, way down yonder in New Orleans ♪ 148 00:11:15,843 --> 00:11:19,555 ♪ Man, you should have made All those scenes ♪ 149 00:11:19,638 --> 00:11:21,348 [Nas] "Just saying 'Hello, folks' 150 00:11:21,431 --> 00:11:24,434 over a microphone sounds simple and innocent, doesn't it? 151 00:11:25,018 --> 00:11:27,437 But I remember when it wasn't so simple. 152 00:11:27,521 --> 00:11:31,775 Back in 1931, I was invited to play in my hometown, 153 00:11:31,859 --> 00:11:36,822 New Orleans, at a fancy nightclub, the Suburban Gardens." 154 00:11:43,287 --> 00:11:45,914 [Danny Barker] You spent a lot of time in New Orleans, in the South, 155 00:11:45,998 --> 00:11:47,416 looking for signs. 156 00:11:47,499 --> 00:11:51,044 You see a restroom that said, "White Gentlemen." 157 00:11:51,128 --> 00:11:53,005 This always was a put-down. 158 00:11:53,088 --> 00:11:56,133 So, you saw that flashing in your face all the time. 159 00:11:56,216 --> 00:11:57,718 [train horn blares] 160 00:11:57,801 --> 00:12:00,095 [George James] The only way Louis would agree to go to New Orleans 161 00:12:00,179 --> 00:12:02,181 was on his own private train. 162 00:12:02,806 --> 00:12:08,187 Which meant that we could have our private car, our cooks, 163 00:12:08,270 --> 00:12:10,689 chefs, porters and things like that. 164 00:12:10,772 --> 00:12:13,066 [Armstrong] In New Orleans, we're, quite naturally, 165 00:12:13,150 --> 00:12:15,277 the first band on the radio down there… 166 00:12:15,777 --> 00:12:17,362 [radio announcer] Fleischmann's Yeast presents 167 00:12:17,446 --> 00:12:19,156 another great half hour of entertainment, 168 00:12:19,239 --> 00:12:21,658 featuring music by Louis Armstrong and his orchestra. 169 00:12:21,742 --> 00:12:24,453 [Armstrong] And you never heard of no spade playing on no radio 170 00:12:24,536 --> 00:12:26,538 in those days. Just starting. 171 00:12:26,622 --> 00:12:29,499 The night we opened, there's all the white boys 172 00:12:29,583 --> 00:12:31,043 that I was raised with, you know. 173 00:12:31,126 --> 00:12:33,587 Sitting up there, sharp. [stammers] 174 00:12:33,670 --> 00:12:36,465 They done got rich. Maybe their fathers done left 'em the-- 175 00:12:36,548 --> 00:12:38,926 the produce places and different things 176 00:12:39,009 --> 00:12:41,053 that when we was kids we used to hang around. 177 00:12:41,136 --> 00:12:45,140 And after school, we'd go out in the lots and play cowboys and Indians 178 00:12:45,224 --> 00:12:47,309 with old broken slates and things like that. 179 00:12:47,392 --> 00:12:48,769 -You know what I mean? We-- -[Cavett] Mm-hmm. 180 00:12:48,852 --> 00:12:50,395 We was the Indians, of course. 181 00:12:50,479 --> 00:12:51,605 [audience laughs] 182 00:12:52,314 --> 00:12:55,442 [James] And at that time, there was no mixing of the races at all. 183 00:12:55,526 --> 00:12:57,528 The only way our people could hear the band 184 00:12:58,195 --> 00:13:00,989 was to come out and sit along the levee and hear-- 185 00:13:01,073 --> 00:13:03,325 and hear the music from the-- from a distance. 186 00:13:11,834 --> 00:13:15,254 [Armstrong] They had 50,000 Negroes on the levee to hear my music. 187 00:13:15,337 --> 00:13:17,673 See, and I had been away about nine or ten years 188 00:13:17,756 --> 00:13:19,675 and, uh, I done got northern-fied. 189 00:13:19,758 --> 00:13:22,803 I done forgot about a whole lot of that foolishness down there, you know? 190 00:13:22,886 --> 00:13:26,515 The night we're opening, and I'm charming, 191 00:13:26,598 --> 00:13:29,643 -and there's-- place pack and jam. -[audience laughs] 192 00:13:29,726 --> 00:13:35,274 But this night, they done brought this man up to-- "It's a big deal, now. 193 00:13:35,357 --> 00:13:37,276 You-- You bring on Louis Armstrong. 194 00:13:37,359 --> 00:13:40,195 He's a New Orleans boy and blah, blah, blah." 195 00:13:40,988 --> 00:13:44,825 But… [stammers] …a second before this cat had to go to that mic 196 00:13:44,908 --> 00:13:47,536 and bring me on, he walked away. 197 00:13:47,619 --> 00:13:52,666 Say, "I just can't introduce that nigger. Can't do it." 198 00:13:52,749 --> 00:13:56,378 They got me and told me what he says. I said, "Well, don't worry about it." 199 00:13:56,461 --> 00:13:58,714 You know? I said, "Give me that card, boys." 200 00:13:58,797 --> 00:14:01,300 And I walked to that mic. And when I went into… 201 00:14:02,885 --> 00:14:05,929 ♪ Pale moon shining ♪ 202 00:14:06,013 --> 00:14:09,349 Man, you thought the walls was coming in. 203 00:14:09,433 --> 00:14:14,771 ♪ Now the pale moon's shining ♪ 204 00:14:15,606 --> 00:14:18,525 ♪ On the fields below ♪ 205 00:14:20,611 --> 00:14:26,200 ♪ The folks are crooning soft and low ♪ 206 00:14:27,659 --> 00:14:30,704 ♪ You needn't tell me, boy ♪ 207 00:14:31,330 --> 00:14:34,750 ♪ Because I know, yes ♪ 208 00:14:35,959 --> 00:14:40,214 ♪ When it's sleepy time down South, yes ♪ 209 00:14:40,297 --> 00:14:42,716 [Armstrong] And this announcer's standing there. 210 00:14:42,799 --> 00:14:45,344 He said, "I didn't know this would happen in the South in New Orleans. 211 00:14:45,427 --> 00:14:46,803 Never happened before." 212 00:14:46,887 --> 00:14:49,640 So, they fired him and everything, and I took over myself. 213 00:14:49,723 --> 00:14:51,308 [audience laughing] 214 00:14:51,391 --> 00:14:53,519 [applause] 215 00:14:57,022 --> 00:15:03,737 ♪ Good evening, everybody ♪ 216 00:15:04,446 --> 00:15:07,199 [audience cheering, whistling] 217 00:15:09,826 --> 00:15:12,496 [Marsalis] It was particularly galling for him to go home 218 00:15:12,579 --> 00:15:15,791 after being lionized the way he was around the world 219 00:15:15,874 --> 00:15:18,001 and see the same type of prejudice. 220 00:15:18,085 --> 00:15:21,547 His feelings were perpetually hurt by the nation 221 00:15:21,630 --> 00:15:24,132 and the injustice that he knew when he was a boy. 222 00:15:25,676 --> 00:15:27,928 Pops grew up very hard. 223 00:15:28,011 --> 00:15:29,388 [interviewer 3] It's been said, Pops, 224 00:15:29,471 --> 00:15:32,015 that you were brought up in abject poverty. 225 00:15:32,099 --> 00:15:33,767 You didn't have money when you were a kid, though. 226 00:15:33,851 --> 00:15:37,396 [Armstrong] We always had money. I could shoot craps, sold newspapers, 227 00:15:37,479 --> 00:15:39,523 and I always hustled on the, uh-- 228 00:15:39,606 --> 00:15:42,401 with the quartet and a little guitar, just sit and go busking. 229 00:15:42,484 --> 00:15:44,361 And I always had a pocket full of money. 230 00:15:44,444 --> 00:15:48,115 You know, in 1915, you had five dollars, you had a whole lot of money. 231 00:15:48,615 --> 00:15:51,285 And I didn't ever have to beg nobody for nothing all my life. 232 00:15:51,785 --> 00:15:54,079 Always a kid that had some get-up about him. 233 00:15:56,748 --> 00:15:59,877 [Armstrong] I was born in, uh-- in James Alley, they called it. 234 00:15:59,960 --> 00:16:04,506 It's… [stammers] …uh, back of town. That's the-- the real New Orleans. 235 00:16:07,342 --> 00:16:09,595 We have a photo of your mama I wanna show everybody. 236 00:16:09,678 --> 00:16:13,015 -Yeah. That's my mother there, Mayann. -[Douglas] How did she discipline you? 237 00:16:13,098 --> 00:16:15,142 What did she do when you did something wrong? 238 00:16:15,225 --> 00:16:17,060 [Armstrong] She had to whip the hell out of us both. 239 00:16:17,144 --> 00:16:18,145 [audience laughing] 240 00:16:18,228 --> 00:16:20,230 And, man, she hit me like a man. 241 00:16:20,314 --> 00:16:22,691 And then she married Willie Armstrong. 242 00:16:23,442 --> 00:16:27,446 I mean, I'm only going by what they tell me along that line. 243 00:16:27,988 --> 00:16:30,532 'Cause as long as I can remember, they wasn't together. 244 00:16:31,033 --> 00:16:33,911 We didn't have much money and things like that. 245 00:16:33,994 --> 00:16:36,955 But we lived and, uh, enjoyed good food. And-- 246 00:16:37,039 --> 00:16:38,540 -[Douglas] You had a lot of fun? -Yeah. 247 00:16:38,624 --> 00:16:41,752 My mother could take 15 cents and go to the Poydras Market 248 00:16:41,835 --> 00:16:43,837 and come back and cook a meal. 249 00:16:43,921 --> 00:16:46,256 And you had to lick your fingers, it was just so good. 250 00:16:46,340 --> 00:16:48,383 -You know what I mean? Yes, sir. -For 15 cents? 251 00:16:48,467 --> 00:16:50,219 In those days, you could take a newspaper, 252 00:16:50,302 --> 00:16:51,803 and I'd go to the fish market 253 00:16:51,887 --> 00:16:55,474 and buy a whole newspaper full of fish heads. 254 00:16:56,266 --> 00:16:58,227 Just plain, chopped-off fish heads 255 00:16:58,310 --> 00:17:00,646 that, uh, they wouldn't use, they put aside. 256 00:17:00,729 --> 00:17:03,106 [Douglas] Yeah. That'd be garbage for them, wouldn't it? 257 00:17:03,190 --> 00:17:05,901 Well, they just ain't got time to do what we did with-- 258 00:17:05,983 --> 00:17:07,861 -[Douglas] Yeah. -My mother would get them fish heads 259 00:17:07,944 --> 00:17:10,906 and cook 'em and put a lot of canned tomatoes in 'em 260 00:17:11,490 --> 00:17:14,451 and call it court bouillon and serve it on top of some rice. 261 00:17:14,535 --> 00:17:17,996 Boy, you talking about beautiful food. And delicious. 262 00:17:19,164 --> 00:17:23,001 And the next morning, I'd go to school with a cabbage sandwich. 263 00:17:23,085 --> 00:17:25,712 -Kids would be begging for a bite. -[audience laughs] 264 00:17:25,796 --> 00:17:27,923 -No kidding? -Absolutely. Yeah. 265 00:17:29,299 --> 00:17:31,218 [Jelly Roll Morton] New Orleans was a stomping ground. 266 00:17:31,301 --> 00:17:33,387 Well, they played every type of music. 267 00:17:33,470 --> 00:17:38,183 Everyone, no doubt, had a different style. They had every class. 268 00:17:38,267 --> 00:17:40,769 We had Spanish. We had coloreds. We had whites. 269 00:17:41,478 --> 00:17:44,147 [Armstrong] I was working for some Jewish people at seven years old. 270 00:17:44,231 --> 00:17:47,359 They had, uh, a rags-and-bones yard. 271 00:17:47,442 --> 00:17:49,444 And then we used to go down to the red-light district 272 00:17:49,528 --> 00:17:53,156 and deliver stone coal, five cents a water bucket. 273 00:17:53,949 --> 00:17:57,202 ♪ I've got those coal cart blues ♪ 274 00:17:57,786 --> 00:18:00,747 ♪ I'm really all confused ♪ 275 00:18:00,831 --> 00:18:04,293 ♪ I'm 'bout to lose my very mind ♪ 276 00:18:04,376 --> 00:18:08,589 ♪ It always worry, worry me all the time ♪ 277 00:18:08,672 --> 00:18:10,924 [Humphrey Lyttleton] The center of entertainment in New Orleans 278 00:18:11,008 --> 00:18:13,594 was Storyville, the notorious red-light district. 279 00:18:13,677 --> 00:18:17,472 [Nas] "The Negroes were only allowed to work in the red-light district. 280 00:18:17,556 --> 00:18:20,058 Most of the help was Negroes. 281 00:18:20,142 --> 00:18:23,228 They were paid good salaries and had a longtime job. 282 00:18:23,312 --> 00:18:26,899 The pay was swell no matter what your vocation was. 283 00:18:29,318 --> 00:18:32,404 No mixing at the guest tables at no time. 284 00:18:32,487 --> 00:18:37,242 As far as to buy a little trim, that was absolutely out of the question." 285 00:18:37,326 --> 00:18:39,995 [Armstrong] Down in the district, the red-light district. 286 00:18:40,078 --> 00:18:41,788 As you call them, "prostitutes," 287 00:18:41,872 --> 00:18:43,957 where they get five dollars for a job, 288 00:18:44,041 --> 00:18:46,835 the whores where I'm talking about, up in my neighborhood, 289 00:18:46,919 --> 00:18:49,338 they get, uh, 50 cents to a dollar. 290 00:18:50,631 --> 00:18:52,382 Well, quite naturally, 291 00:18:52,466 --> 00:18:56,136 they're standing there with nothing on but a-- a chemise. 292 00:18:56,220 --> 00:18:58,931 We'd call 'em teddies at the time, you know. [chuckles] 293 00:18:59,014 --> 00:19:03,227 So, there I'd be, a little boy, and put some coal on the grates, you know. 294 00:19:03,727 --> 00:19:07,105 Quite naturally, you gotta take a mug there right quick. 295 00:19:07,189 --> 00:19:09,691 If they'd seen me, they'd have slapped me down. 296 00:19:11,318 --> 00:19:12,903 Yeah, I actually did all that. 297 00:19:12,986 --> 00:19:16,240 [chuckles] But I-- I used to hear all that good music too. 298 00:19:19,201 --> 00:19:21,161 [Armstrong] That's how I got a chance to hear Bunk Johnson, 299 00:19:21,245 --> 00:19:23,997 Manuel Perez, and all the best bands and everything, you see? 300 00:19:24,081 --> 00:19:25,958 [interviewer 4] They were all in the red-light district? 301 00:19:26,041 --> 00:19:27,918 [Armstrong] Yeah, they-- Each corner had a band. 302 00:19:28,001 --> 00:19:29,586 Cabarets, they called them, see? 303 00:19:30,671 --> 00:19:33,131 And we'd dance. [laughs] 304 00:19:33,215 --> 00:19:34,967 And I'd be waving at 'em all. 305 00:19:35,050 --> 00:19:37,970 And when they'd go inside, we had to go to bed and sleep. [chuckles] 306 00:19:40,472 --> 00:19:44,977 [narrator] New Year's Eve, 1912. Louis and his pals were out on the street. 307 00:19:45,060 --> 00:19:47,855 And they were celebrating and making noise like everybody else. 308 00:19:47,938 --> 00:19:50,232 And somehow, Louis got hold of a .38 revolver. 309 00:19:50,858 --> 00:19:53,694 I found this pistol. Uh, got blanks in it. 310 00:19:53,777 --> 00:19:56,572 But the noise is what everybody give you. 311 00:19:56,655 --> 00:19:59,575 So when I look around, a little guy was shooting 312 00:19:59,658 --> 00:20:02,494 a little old six-shooter across the street. Uh, you know. 313 00:20:02,578 --> 00:20:04,288 [imitating gunshots] 314 00:20:04,371 --> 00:20:06,373 So, I was singing in a little quartet, you know, 315 00:20:06,456 --> 00:20:08,625 we used to go around and pass the hat, you know. 316 00:20:08,709 --> 00:20:11,879 And they called me Dipper at that time. Dippermouth, you know. 317 00:20:11,962 --> 00:20:13,213 They say, "Get him, Dipper." 318 00:20:13,297 --> 00:20:15,799 And I reached up there to grab the .38 and… 319 00:20:15,883 --> 00:20:18,343 [imitating gunshots] 320 00:20:18,427 --> 00:20:19,636 …and brighten it up 321 00:20:19,720 --> 00:20:23,140 until that detective was hugging me and-and I said, "Oh…" 322 00:20:25,225 --> 00:20:26,977 [Armstrong] In those days, the cops would whip your head 323 00:20:27,060 --> 00:20:29,897 and then ask you your name afterwards, you know? 324 00:20:29,980 --> 00:20:33,192 And, uh, you think that's something that's, uh, changed? 325 00:20:33,734 --> 00:20:36,862 Well, I haven't been down there in so long. I'm gonna go down and see. 326 00:20:36,945 --> 00:20:37,946 [both laugh] 327 00:20:38,530 --> 00:20:39,823 And I couldn't get away from him. 328 00:20:39,907 --> 00:20:41,825 He took me down to the juvenile court 329 00:20:41,909 --> 00:20:45,662 and, uh, then, the next day, they took me out to the orphanage. 330 00:20:45,746 --> 00:20:48,457 It-- It was called Colored Waif's Home for Boys. 331 00:20:49,625 --> 00:20:51,877 [interviewer 5] When was the first time in your life 332 00:20:51,960 --> 00:20:54,129 that you actually picked up a horn? 333 00:20:55,005 --> 00:20:58,217 [Armstrong] Oh, that was, uh, you know, when I went to the orphanage. 334 00:20:58,300 --> 00:21:00,219 I was about 13. 335 00:21:00,302 --> 00:21:04,681 This is the first horn that Louis Armstrong ever owned. 336 00:21:04,765 --> 00:21:09,895 We did not have much money, but we are proud of encouraging him. 337 00:21:10,646 --> 00:21:12,523 [Armstrong] The little brass band was very good, 338 00:21:12,606 --> 00:21:16,276 and Mr. Davis made the boys play a little of every kind of music. 339 00:21:16,360 --> 00:21:18,445 [host] When he first arrived at your home, 340 00:21:18,529 --> 00:21:20,822 could you tell right away he wanted to be a musician? 341 00:21:20,906 --> 00:21:22,616 -We could, yes. -How could you tell that? 342 00:21:22,699 --> 00:21:25,869 -Because he organized quartets, singing… -[host] Mm-hmm. 343 00:21:25,953 --> 00:21:29,289 …then he introduced dancing out there, tap dancing. 344 00:21:29,373 --> 00:21:32,417 The boys would clap and sing, and he'd sing and dance. 345 00:21:32,501 --> 00:21:34,002 Then when I did get him to play 346 00:21:34,086 --> 00:21:35,879 "When the Saints Go Marching In," 347 00:21:35,963 --> 00:21:37,339 "Put On Your Old Grey Bonnet," 348 00:21:37,422 --> 00:21:39,091 there was a high note to be out on 349 00:21:39,174 --> 00:21:41,552 -because it was at the end of the strain. -[host] Yeah. 350 00:21:41,635 --> 00:21:43,679 None of the other boys couldn't make it. 351 00:21:43,762 --> 00:21:45,347 -And I couldn't make it myself. -Mm-hmm. 352 00:21:45,430 --> 00:21:48,058 But he would blow the high C above the staff 353 00:21:48,141 --> 00:21:49,852 to let us know that's the end of the strain. 354 00:21:50,686 --> 00:21:53,021 [Armstrong] Every day I practiced faithfully 355 00:21:53,105 --> 00:21:54,815 on the lessons Mr. Davis gave me. 356 00:21:54,898 --> 00:22:00,487 I became so good on the cornet that one day Mr. Davis said to me, 357 00:22:00,571 --> 00:22:03,490 "Louis, I'm going to make you leader of the band." 358 00:22:03,574 --> 00:22:06,034 I jumped straight up into the air. 359 00:22:07,327 --> 00:22:09,621 [Bigard] You see, what people don't understand, in New Orleans, 360 00:22:09,705 --> 00:22:12,374 the majority of the musicians haven't had the opportunity 361 00:22:12,457 --> 00:22:14,001 of having a teacher. 362 00:22:14,084 --> 00:22:16,920 And they only pick up an instrument and just fool around with it 363 00:22:17,004 --> 00:22:20,924 until they begin to try to get some kind of tone or notes out of it. 364 00:22:21,508 --> 00:22:22,843 And that's how they started. 365 00:22:24,344 --> 00:22:26,597 [Armstrong] We had military training in the orphanage. 366 00:22:26,680 --> 00:22:28,390 And "Star-Spangled Banner," 367 00:22:28,473 --> 00:22:31,935 we was taught that that was our national anthem. 368 00:22:33,478 --> 00:22:36,231 And you're supposed to stand up and salute. 369 00:22:38,025 --> 00:22:41,486 And I was taught to play that tune 370 00:22:41,570 --> 00:22:45,407 with every spark I had in my soul. 371 00:22:45,490 --> 00:22:48,327 On our lands we was taught. 372 00:22:48,410 --> 00:22:53,290 And when we play it, that's the feeling I have. 373 00:22:53,373 --> 00:22:56,460 And then they hoist that flag. 374 00:22:56,960 --> 00:23:01,381 [vocalizing "The Star-Spangled Banner"] 375 00:23:01,465 --> 00:23:03,967 Note for note, I still remember. 376 00:23:05,802 --> 00:23:09,014 [continues vocalizing song] 377 00:23:12,768 --> 00:23:15,938 [interviewer 6] Do you have a happy feeling when you play that song? 378 00:23:16,021 --> 00:23:18,440 [Armstrong] I feel that I'm somebody. 379 00:23:18,524 --> 00:23:19,566 Yeah. 380 00:23:20,317 --> 00:23:22,611 When I finish playing "Star-Spangled Banner," 381 00:23:22,694 --> 00:23:29,284 I feel just as proud as anybody that-- that ever picked up a gun, 382 00:23:29,368 --> 00:23:33,914 shouldered a rifle, and said, "Forward march." 383 00:23:33,997 --> 00:23:36,333 [people cheering] 384 00:23:37,709 --> 00:23:41,630 [band plays "Star-Spangled Banner"] 385 00:23:41,713 --> 00:23:45,551 [Morgenstern] I was with James Baldwin, listening to Louis, 386 00:23:45,634 --> 00:23:47,427 and he played a great set. 387 00:23:47,511 --> 00:23:51,682 And then he ended with "The Star-Spangled Banner." 388 00:23:52,766 --> 00:23:55,352 And James turned to me, and he said, 389 00:23:55,435 --> 00:23:59,064 "You know, that's the first time I've liked that song." 390 00:24:01,984 --> 00:24:04,236 What he heard from Louis 391 00:24:04,319 --> 00:24:10,617 did away with all the stuff that was accumulated around it. 392 00:24:11,285 --> 00:24:16,123 And just in the purity that Louis brought to it 393 00:24:16,206 --> 00:24:18,584 made him appreciate it. 394 00:24:19,209 --> 00:24:23,046 [Riccardi] Everybody talks about Hendrix and "The Star-Spangled Banner." 395 00:24:23,130 --> 00:24:27,551 [guitar playing "Star-Spangled Banner"] 396 00:24:30,888 --> 00:24:34,016 But Armstrong was performing it as early as World War II. 397 00:24:34,099 --> 00:24:37,227 You know, right after Pearl Harbor, he started putting it in his repertoire. 398 00:24:37,311 --> 00:24:41,481 And he is going on stage and pouring his soul into that song. 399 00:24:41,565 --> 00:24:42,774 And there's pride, 400 00:24:42,858 --> 00:24:46,403 but there's also a tremendous amount of hurt every time you hear him play it. 401 00:24:46,486 --> 00:24:51,325 [Marsalis] Louis Armstrong was coming from a 40-year memory of what slavery was. 402 00:24:51,408 --> 00:24:54,620 He understood that there was a battle in this country, 403 00:24:54,703 --> 00:24:58,123 so he was trying to use his music to transform and reform 404 00:24:58,207 --> 00:25:01,251 and lead the country closer to its higher ideals. 405 00:25:01,877 --> 00:25:04,922 [trumpet playing "Star-Spangled Banner"] 406 00:25:13,722 --> 00:25:18,519 [interviewer 7] Who, if anybody, was the biggest influence on your early life? 407 00:25:18,602 --> 00:25:20,354 -What, in music? -[interviewer 7] In music. 408 00:25:20,437 --> 00:25:21,730 [Armstrong] King Oliver. 409 00:25:21,813 --> 00:25:25,067 'Cause I-- Outside of the Waif's Home… [stammers] …the orphanage. 410 00:25:25,150 --> 00:25:26,568 When I got out, he took me over. 411 00:25:26,652 --> 00:25:30,113 And he always told me, "Never play a lot of that jiujitsu music. 412 00:25:30,197 --> 00:25:32,324 Play the lead. You got a good tone, 413 00:25:32,407 --> 00:25:35,118 and you know how to phrase, and it says something." 414 00:25:36,578 --> 00:25:40,415 And I carried his cornet when he wasn't blowing and marching. 415 00:25:40,499 --> 00:25:43,001 And the police would have been running me out the parade. 416 00:25:43,085 --> 00:25:44,419 You know, I stayed with him on it. 417 00:25:44,503 --> 00:25:45,504 But that's my man. 418 00:25:45,587 --> 00:25:48,841 You play in that hot sun, you know, with that uniform on, 419 00:25:48,924 --> 00:25:51,885 and he put a hanky on his neck to keep the sun off his neck. 420 00:25:51,969 --> 00:25:53,512 And he was really blowing that horn. 421 00:25:53,595 --> 00:25:56,723 ["Snake Rag" playing] 422 00:26:00,143 --> 00:26:03,522 [radio reporter] When the authorities closed down sinful old Storyville, 423 00:26:03,605 --> 00:26:07,442 more than 200 musicians suddenly found themselves out of work. 424 00:26:07,526 --> 00:26:10,112 King Oliver had left town anyhow for Chicago, 425 00:26:10,195 --> 00:26:12,072 where they had heard that their kind of music, 426 00:26:12,155 --> 00:26:13,615 called jazz up north, 427 00:26:13,699 --> 00:26:15,075 was getting very popular. 428 00:26:15,576 --> 00:26:19,913 [Nas] "I have always been crazy over Joe Oliver and his playing. 429 00:26:19,997 --> 00:26:22,958 So when Joe sent for me to join him in Chicago, 430 00:26:23,041 --> 00:26:25,752 I was happy because I knew I'd feel at home 431 00:26:25,836 --> 00:26:27,045 and he'd see after me." 432 00:26:32,092 --> 00:26:33,260 [Barker] Chicago was about 433 00:26:33,343 --> 00:26:37,181 the second most popular section for Black people in the country. 434 00:26:37,264 --> 00:26:40,142 It was a great migration point where people went off 435 00:26:40,225 --> 00:26:43,228 from Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas. 436 00:26:43,312 --> 00:26:44,646 You could walk to Chicago, 437 00:26:44,730 --> 00:26:48,692 just keep walking if you had enough muscles in your legs. 438 00:26:49,776 --> 00:26:51,111 [Armstrong] I'd have gone back home 439 00:26:51,195 --> 00:26:53,947 if I knew I'd be pushed out into all them tall buildings. 440 00:26:54,531 --> 00:26:56,992 Finally, I went to the Lincoln Garden and, uh… 441 00:26:59,369 --> 00:27:00,621 played that music. 442 00:27:01,413 --> 00:27:06,543 I was so happy I did not know what to do. I had hit the big time. 443 00:27:06,627 --> 00:27:08,754 I was up north with the greats. 444 00:27:08,837 --> 00:27:11,840 I was playing with my idol, the king. 445 00:27:11,924 --> 00:27:16,762 All of my boyhood dreams had come true at last. 446 00:27:19,765 --> 00:27:23,644 [Lil Hardin] All along, I'd been hearing from all the musicians about Little Louis, 447 00:27:23,727 --> 00:27:25,812 and what a good trumpet player he was gonna be. 448 00:27:25,896 --> 00:27:29,316 So, when he brought Little Louis over to Dreamland to meet me, 449 00:27:29,399 --> 00:27:32,027 Little Louis was 226 pounds. [chuckles] 450 00:27:32,110 --> 00:27:33,820 So I said, "Little Louis? 451 00:27:33,904 --> 00:27:36,532 How come you call him Little Louis as big as he is?" 452 00:27:36,615 --> 00:27:39,284 I wasn't impressed at all. I was very disappointed. 453 00:27:39,368 --> 00:27:42,829 I probably would have never paid any attention to Louis's playing 454 00:27:42,913 --> 00:27:45,415 if King Oliver hadn't said to me one night 455 00:27:46,041 --> 00:27:48,126 that Louis could play better than he could. 456 00:27:48,877 --> 00:27:50,921 He says, "But as long as I keep him with me, 457 00:27:51,004 --> 00:27:54,424 he won't be able to get ahead of me. I'll still be the king." 458 00:27:54,508 --> 00:27:56,802 After he told me that, I started listening. 459 00:27:56,885 --> 00:28:00,138 But when we got this recording date in Richmond, Indiana, for Gennett, 460 00:28:00,222 --> 00:28:01,932 in trying to get the balance, 461 00:28:02,432 --> 00:28:04,643 Joe and Louis stood right next to each other, 462 00:28:04,726 --> 00:28:05,936 as they always had, 463 00:28:06,019 --> 00:28:08,897 and you couldn't hear a note that Joe was playing 464 00:28:08,981 --> 00:28:11,108 and only could hear Louis. 465 00:28:11,191 --> 00:28:13,026 So he said, "Well, I gotta do something." 466 00:28:13,110 --> 00:28:17,072 So they put Louis about 15 feet away, over in the corner, from the band. 467 00:28:17,823 --> 00:28:21,785 And, uh, Louis was sitting in the co-- standing in the corner, looking so sad. 468 00:28:21,869 --> 00:28:24,705 You know, he thought it was bad for him to have to be separated from the band. 469 00:28:24,788 --> 00:28:26,707 And so, I-- I looked at him and smiled 470 00:28:26,790 --> 00:28:28,917 to reassure him that he was all right, you know. 471 00:28:29,501 --> 00:28:30,961 And then I said to myself, 472 00:28:31,044 --> 00:28:36,842 "Now, if, uh, they have to put him that far away in order to hear Joe, 473 00:28:36,925 --> 00:28:38,218 he's gotta be better." 474 00:28:38,302 --> 00:28:39,469 Then I was convinced. 475 00:28:43,932 --> 00:28:46,810 Then Louis and I started getting to be sweethearts. 476 00:28:46,894 --> 00:28:48,687 Then we decided to get married. 477 00:28:49,563 --> 00:28:53,442 I told him, I said, "Now, I don't want to be married to a second trumpet player." 478 00:28:53,525 --> 00:28:54,818 He says, "What are you talking about?" 479 00:28:54,902 --> 00:28:57,237 I said, "Well, I don't want to be married to second trumpet. 480 00:28:57,321 --> 00:28:58,530 I want you to play first." 481 00:28:58,614 --> 00:29:00,782 He said, "Well, I can't play first. Joe's playing first." 482 00:29:00,866 --> 00:29:02,534 I said, "Well, that's why you gotta quit." 483 00:29:02,618 --> 00:29:04,119 He said, "I can't quit Mr. Joe. 484 00:29:04,203 --> 00:29:06,580 Mr. Joe sent for me, and I can't quit him." 485 00:29:06,663 --> 00:29:09,041 I said, "Well, it's Mr. Joe or me." [chuckles] 486 00:29:12,419 --> 00:29:16,131 [Armstrong] I listened very carefully when Lil told me 487 00:29:16,215 --> 00:29:18,634 to always play the lead. 488 00:29:18,717 --> 00:29:21,803 [Doc Cheatham] He played 30 or 50 high notes, high C's, 489 00:29:21,887 --> 00:29:23,847 on this one tune they were playing. 490 00:29:23,931 --> 00:29:27,309 And the next day, everybody on the street was talking about it. 491 00:29:31,897 --> 00:29:34,107 [Lil Hardin] People would come to two or three shows 492 00:29:34,191 --> 00:29:35,984 waiting for him to miss it one day. [chuckles] 493 00:29:36,068 --> 00:29:37,110 So, he said to me, 494 00:29:37,194 --> 00:29:39,404 "Do you know people are coming to the show four or five times 495 00:29:39,488 --> 00:29:40,948 to hear me miss that F?" 496 00:29:41,031 --> 00:29:43,367 I said, "Yeah? Well, make some G's at home." 497 00:29:43,992 --> 00:29:47,120 So, he started blowing around the house. [imitating trumpet] 498 00:29:47,204 --> 00:29:49,039 I said, "Oh, my God. Why did I say that?" 499 00:29:52,626 --> 00:29:55,379 [announcer] He never misses hitting that high note, does he, folks? 500 00:29:55,462 --> 00:29:57,422 [Riccardi] Armstrong extends the range of the horn, 501 00:29:57,506 --> 00:30:00,050 ending every show with hundreds of high C's. 502 00:30:00,133 --> 00:30:03,929 Just from that, more and more musicians start playing higher notes. 503 00:30:04,012 --> 00:30:06,932 He really perfects the art of improvisation. 504 00:30:07,015 --> 00:30:08,517 He shows the world what it could be. 505 00:30:09,685 --> 00:30:11,854 [Lucille] Tommy Rockwell had heard him, 506 00:30:11,937 --> 00:30:17,359 so it was he who suggested that he form an, uh, recording outfit. 507 00:30:17,442 --> 00:30:21,697 And as a result, it was called, uh, Louis Armstrong's Hot Five. 508 00:30:21,780 --> 00:30:23,615 ["Gut Bucket Blues" playing] 509 00:30:27,744 --> 00:30:29,872 [musician] Oh, do that thing, Papa Dip. 510 00:30:30,581 --> 00:30:32,457 [interviewer 8] You didn't work in clubs with the-- 511 00:30:32,541 --> 00:30:36,003 [Armstrong] No, we never did, uh, think about nothing like that. 512 00:30:36,086 --> 00:30:40,507 Uh, we just, uh, make up them things and, uh, scat. [stammering] Yeah. 513 00:30:40,591 --> 00:30:41,967 [interviewer 8] Wait. "Make up them things." 514 00:30:42,050 --> 00:30:43,468 -What do you mean? -Make up those tunes. 515 00:30:43,552 --> 00:30:45,554 -[interviewer 8] Just in the studio? -Yeah, sure. 516 00:30:45,637 --> 00:30:47,222 ♪ Say, don't you know it ♪ 517 00:30:47,306 --> 00:30:49,016 [scatting] 518 00:30:49,099 --> 00:30:51,435 [Cavett] There's a rumor that you invented scat. Is that true? 519 00:30:51,518 --> 00:30:56,064 [Armstrong] Well, they claim when we was recording "Heebie Jeebies," 520 00:30:56,148 --> 00:30:58,150 we get down to this part for the second chorus, 521 00:30:58,233 --> 00:30:59,526 and I drop the paper. 522 00:30:59,610 --> 00:31:02,237 President in the control booth, he says, "Keep on singing." 523 00:31:02,321 --> 00:31:03,155 -See? -[Cavett] Yeah. 524 00:31:03,238 --> 00:31:06,116 Well, that, uh, brought back memories of when I was a kid, 525 00:31:06,200 --> 00:31:07,659 going around in the quartet. 526 00:31:07,743 --> 00:31:09,912 You know, Rampart Street in New Orleans. 527 00:31:10,412 --> 00:31:12,748 Whenever we'd get to a part we didn't know the words, 528 00:31:12,831 --> 00:31:15,667 we'd go to scatting and blowing like a trumpet, 529 00:31:15,751 --> 00:31:16,752 or something like that. 530 00:31:16,835 --> 00:31:19,129 -[Cavett] Mm-hmm. -And it came to me just like that. 531 00:31:19,213 --> 00:31:22,007 [Armstrong scatting] 532 00:31:24,885 --> 00:31:27,095 [Marsalis] When he's scatting, the notes he's picking, 533 00:31:27,179 --> 00:31:29,389 and how sophisticated the melodies he's creating-- 534 00:31:29,473 --> 00:31:31,350 Louis Armstrong is never out of tune. 535 00:31:31,433 --> 00:31:34,019 He could do with his voice what he could do with his horn. 536 00:31:34,102 --> 00:31:36,313 [Stanley Crouch] When people sang in those days, 537 00:31:36,396 --> 00:31:38,941 they often sang in a very corny manner like… 538 00:31:39,024 --> 00:31:40,567 ♪ And I love you ♪ 539 00:31:41,068 --> 00:31:42,736 ♪ And you and me ♪ 540 00:31:42,819 --> 00:31:44,321 ♪ And the baby makes three ♪ 541 00:31:44,404 --> 00:31:46,823 -♪ Dinah ♪ -[vocalizing] 542 00:31:46,907 --> 00:31:50,953 -♪ Is there anyone finer ♪ -[vocalizing] 543 00:31:51,036 --> 00:31:54,957 -♪ In the state of Carolina? ♪ -[vocalizing] 544 00:31:55,040 --> 00:31:57,459 ♪ If there is and you know her Know her ♪ 545 00:31:57,543 --> 00:31:58,794 [harmonizing] 546 00:31:58,877 --> 00:32:01,004 [Marsalis] But Armstrong came in with another kind of thing 547 00:32:01,088 --> 00:32:02,631 where he had that kind of… 548 00:32:02,714 --> 00:32:04,466 [vocalizing] 549 00:32:04,550 --> 00:32:06,718 …you know. [vocalizing] 550 00:32:06,802 --> 00:32:08,554 ♪ Oh, Dinah ♪ 551 00:32:08,637 --> 00:32:11,890 ♪ Is there anyone finer In the state of Carolina? ♪ 552 00:32:11,974 --> 00:32:14,601 ♪ If there is and you know Show me ♪ 553 00:32:14,685 --> 00:32:16,854 ♪ Dinah With her Dixie eyes blazin' ♪ 554 00:32:16,937 --> 00:32:18,605 ♪ How I love to sit and gaze ♪ 555 00:32:18,689 --> 00:32:20,524 ♪ Into the eyes of Dinah Lee ♪ 556 00:32:20,607 --> 00:32:21,984 ♪ Babe, every night ♪ 557 00:32:22,067 --> 00:32:23,861 ♪ When I shake with fright, oh ♪ 558 00:32:23,944 --> 00:32:25,946 ♪ 'Cause my Dinah might Change her mind ♪ 559 00:32:26,029 --> 00:32:28,115 [scatting] 560 00:32:28,198 --> 00:32:31,243 [Riccardi] Armstrong completely changes the way people sing. 561 00:32:31,326 --> 00:32:33,912 I'm talking soul singing. I'm talking Ray Charles. 562 00:32:33,996 --> 00:32:36,373 I'm talking Sam Cooke. I'm talking James Brown. 563 00:32:36,456 --> 00:32:40,169 I'm talking hip-hop. I'm talking funk. I'm talking pop music. 564 00:32:40,252 --> 00:32:42,254 I'm talking rock and roll. I'm talking the Beatles. 565 00:32:42,337 --> 00:32:45,507 [chuckles] Anybody who has basically uttered a sound 566 00:32:45,591 --> 00:32:49,720 on American pop radio in the last 90 years, 567 00:32:49,803 --> 00:32:52,431 it's because of Louis Armstrong's innovations. 568 00:32:52,514 --> 00:32:54,391 [trumpet playing jazz melody] 569 00:32:56,810 --> 00:32:57,936 [trumpet plays high note] 570 00:33:08,739 --> 00:33:10,449 [Leonard Feather] I met Louis on records. 571 00:33:10,532 --> 00:33:13,535 That "West End Blues" was a very, very moving experience, 572 00:33:13,619 --> 00:33:16,121 and it actually made a jazz fan out of me 573 00:33:16,205 --> 00:33:19,666 and ultimately found the direction for my whole career, 574 00:33:19,750 --> 00:33:21,460 as it did for so many people. 575 00:33:22,127 --> 00:33:23,921 "West End Blues" was a miniature masterpiece. 576 00:33:29,843 --> 00:33:34,264 [Artie Shaw] I would say that jazz almost stems from Louis Armstrong. 577 00:33:34,348 --> 00:33:35,849 People are accustomed to saying, 578 00:33:35,933 --> 00:33:38,393 and I've heard it said a lot, that he was a genius. 579 00:33:38,477 --> 00:33:41,396 Uh, but very few people talk about why he was a genius 580 00:33:41,480 --> 00:33:44,608 and what it was that his particular form of genius did. 581 00:33:49,613 --> 00:33:52,491 I could say now that what he was really doing 582 00:33:53,033 --> 00:33:55,869 was playing music for which there was no accounting 583 00:33:55,953 --> 00:33:57,829 in his immediate environment. 584 00:33:57,913 --> 00:34:01,625 [Shepp] Louis Armstrong is the first important soloist 585 00:34:01,708 --> 00:34:06,380 because he is the first to break away from Western harmony 586 00:34:07,172 --> 00:34:10,175 and to reintroduce the melodic 587 00:34:10,259 --> 00:34:13,929 and rhythmic developments of-- of African music. 588 00:34:19,976 --> 00:34:20,978 Stop it! Stop it! 589 00:34:21,061 --> 00:34:23,438 You are playing notes between flat and natural. 590 00:34:23,522 --> 00:34:27,484 It's like discovering, uh, a secret scale just made for this type of music. 591 00:34:27,568 --> 00:34:31,822 The so-called jazz scale is used only melodically. 592 00:34:31,905 --> 00:34:33,156 That is, in the tune. 593 00:34:33,239 --> 00:34:37,786 In the harmony underneath, we still use our old unflatted notes 594 00:34:38,954 --> 00:34:41,415 against the flatted note in the tune. 595 00:34:41,498 --> 00:34:43,708 So that causes a dissonance to happen. 596 00:34:43,792 --> 00:34:45,668 Jazz pianists are always using this dissonance. 597 00:34:45,752 --> 00:34:47,129 I'm sure it sounds familiar to you. 598 00:34:47,212 --> 00:34:49,505 -[plays piano] -And there's a reason for it. 599 00:34:49,590 --> 00:34:53,010 It's because they are looking for a note that isn't actually there, 600 00:34:53,510 --> 00:34:56,054 but which lies somewhere between the two. 601 00:34:56,554 --> 00:34:58,307 This is called a quarter tone. 602 00:34:59,057 --> 00:35:03,604 The quarter tone comes to us from Africa, which is, after all, the cradle of jazz 603 00:35:04,188 --> 00:35:06,857 and where quarter tones are everyday stuff. 604 00:35:06,940 --> 00:35:08,734 Now, ladies and gentlemen, 605 00:35:08,817 --> 00:35:11,361 we gonna take a little trip through the jungles this time, 606 00:35:11,862 --> 00:35:13,572 and we want y'all to travel with us. 607 00:35:14,198 --> 00:35:16,658 That tiger's running so fast. 608 00:35:16,742 --> 00:35:20,287 Gonna take a few choruses to catch him, so I want y'all to count with me. 609 00:35:20,370 --> 00:35:21,371 Yes, sir. 610 00:35:21,455 --> 00:35:24,208 Because this son-of-a-trumpet is gonna get away from you this time. 611 00:35:24,291 --> 00:35:26,251 Lay it out there, boys. I'm ready. 612 00:35:31,131 --> 00:35:34,593 [Lyttleton] At this time in his career, Louis was having problems with managers, 613 00:35:34,676 --> 00:35:37,471 and, inevitably, the gangsters took a hand in his affairs. 614 00:35:39,765 --> 00:35:41,767 There were certain interests in New York 615 00:35:41,850 --> 00:35:43,644 who thought the trumpet king belonged there. 616 00:35:46,230 --> 00:35:49,191 [Armstrong] The gangster which was the toughest man in, uh-- 617 00:35:49,274 --> 00:35:51,818 in Chicago at that time, Frankie Foster, 618 00:35:51,902 --> 00:35:54,154 he said, "You know you're going to New York tomorrow?" 619 00:35:54,238 --> 00:35:56,657 I told him, "I didn't know nothing about that. 620 00:35:56,740 --> 00:35:58,242 Nobody told me nothing about it." 621 00:35:58,325 --> 00:36:00,244 I said, "Excuse me a minute. I'm going back on the stand." 622 00:36:00,327 --> 00:36:01,954 He said, "You're going to New York tomorrow." 623 00:36:02,037 --> 00:36:04,665 -That's when he pulled that .45. -[acquaintance] Mmm. 624 00:36:05,165 --> 00:36:08,001 [Armstrong] I said, "Well, maybe I am going to New York." 625 00:36:08,085 --> 00:36:10,712 [acquaintances laugh] 626 00:36:10,796 --> 00:36:13,757 [Feather] The whole business end of music at that time 627 00:36:13,841 --> 00:36:15,759 was controlled by white people. 628 00:36:15,843 --> 00:36:17,010 They were not all crooks. 629 00:36:17,094 --> 00:36:18,804 They were not all manipulating Black people, 630 00:36:18,887 --> 00:36:20,806 but, uh, quite a few of them were. 631 00:36:20,889 --> 00:36:23,183 It was very difficult for a Black musician 632 00:36:23,267 --> 00:36:26,436 not to be very bitter about the entire system at that time. 633 00:36:26,520 --> 00:36:29,106 But Louis was one of those few, rare people 634 00:36:29,189 --> 00:36:31,275 that never gave the impression of being bitter, 635 00:36:31,358 --> 00:36:32,943 whether it was under the surface or not. 636 00:36:33,026 --> 00:36:36,989 [Armstrong] Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Mr. Armstrong. 637 00:36:37,781 --> 00:36:41,076 And we're gonna swing one of the good old good ones for you. 638 00:36:41,159 --> 00:36:44,037 Beautiful number, "I Cover the Waterfront." 639 00:36:44,121 --> 00:36:46,456 "I Cover the Waterfront," I like it. 640 00:36:46,540 --> 00:36:48,542 [mumbles] 641 00:36:48,625 --> 00:36:49,626 One, two. 642 00:36:49,710 --> 00:36:52,713 [band playing "I Cover The Waterfront"] 643 00:37:02,639 --> 00:37:05,267 [singing] 644 00:37:16,153 --> 00:37:19,531 [Armstrong] In 1932, first time I went to Europe. 645 00:37:20,616 --> 00:37:22,618 We used to travel by boats. 646 00:37:22,701 --> 00:37:24,995 Johnny Collins was my manager then. 647 00:37:25,495 --> 00:37:27,664 [interviewer 9] Didn't they give you the name of Satchmo over here? 648 00:37:27,748 --> 00:37:29,416 Yeah. Given by, uh, Fuzzy Brooks. 649 00:37:29,917 --> 00:37:32,836 Uh, he was the editor of the Melody Maker at that time. 650 00:37:33,629 --> 00:37:37,257 When I arrived in Plymouth, England, on the ship, 651 00:37:37,341 --> 00:37:39,718 and then somebody's going up there, "Hello, Satchmo." 652 00:37:40,260 --> 00:37:43,889 When I went all through Europe and everything with different cats, 653 00:37:43,972 --> 00:37:46,433 you know, trying to be managing things, 654 00:37:46,517 --> 00:37:48,936 I said, "These are the people I don't want to be bothered with. 655 00:37:49,019 --> 00:37:51,522 They're doing everything but protecting their trumpet." 656 00:37:51,605 --> 00:37:53,273 See, I had a manager who would-- 657 00:37:53,357 --> 00:37:55,776 who would grab all the money out the box office. 658 00:37:55,859 --> 00:37:57,653 You know, that frantic stuff, you know. 659 00:37:57,736 --> 00:37:59,613 I say, "Well, that ain't what I wanna do." 660 00:37:59,696 --> 00:38:02,866 [Briggs] Around about that time that Louis Armstrong found out 661 00:38:02,950 --> 00:38:08,997 that his managing director, Mr. Collins, was making, uh, £20,000 a week for him, 662 00:38:09,081 --> 00:38:13,252 and Louis was getting about-- say, about £100 a week. 663 00:38:13,335 --> 00:38:16,129 And he asked for more money, 664 00:38:16,213 --> 00:38:20,342 and Mr. Collins, uh, he used some beautiful adjectives. 665 00:38:20,425 --> 00:38:23,887 [Armstrong] I said, "Listen, cocksucker, you might be my manager 666 00:38:23,971 --> 00:38:25,806 and you might be the biggest shit, 667 00:38:26,306 --> 00:38:29,142 and… [stammers] …and book me in the biggest places in the world, 668 00:38:29,226 --> 00:38:32,229 but when I get out on that fucking stage with that horn and get in trouble, 669 00:38:32,312 --> 00:38:33,480 you can't save me." 670 00:38:33,564 --> 00:38:35,774 He said, "Take that nigger off the boat." 671 00:38:35,858 --> 00:38:38,235 Got to brawling, goddamn it. 672 00:38:38,318 --> 00:38:39,653 Shit. 673 00:38:39,736 --> 00:38:41,446 [muttering] 674 00:38:41,530 --> 00:38:43,532 They gonna have this shit under control. 675 00:38:44,283 --> 00:38:46,159 And there's a big bottle of wine. 676 00:38:46,243 --> 00:38:47,786 All I had to do was take it like that. 677 00:38:47,870 --> 00:38:50,205 And the bald-headed motherfucker had his head down. 678 00:38:50,289 --> 00:38:54,626 And said, "I gotta just tap it like a pansy and kill the motherfucker." 679 00:38:55,377 --> 00:38:57,129 See, but the first thing I thought, 680 00:38:57,212 --> 00:38:59,131 all of them Black cocksuckers in Harlem who'd say, 681 00:38:59,214 --> 00:39:01,425 "I knew he would blow his top someday." 682 00:39:01,508 --> 00:39:03,844 I don't know why… [indistinct] "Fuck it. I got this shit." 683 00:39:03,927 --> 00:39:05,929 "Go on and eat your meal, man." [mumbles] 684 00:39:06,013 --> 00:39:08,182 Not that I hadn't been called a nigger before. 685 00:39:08,682 --> 00:39:10,559 [Trummy Young] He fired Collins. He got rid of him. 686 00:39:10,642 --> 00:39:12,144 But Collins had a contract on him. 687 00:39:12,227 --> 00:39:15,189 So, Louis remembered that he had worked for Joe Glaser, 688 00:39:15,272 --> 00:39:18,901 and that Joe Glaser was tied in with some pretty rough boys around Chicago. 689 00:39:18,984 --> 00:39:23,071 So Louis got in touch with Joe, and he told Joe, he said, 690 00:39:23,155 --> 00:39:25,699 "I'm having a lot of trouble with this guy managing me." 691 00:39:25,782 --> 00:39:26,950 He said, "I'm kind of scared." 692 00:39:27,034 --> 00:39:29,161 He said, "I don't know what he's gonna try to do to me." 693 00:39:29,244 --> 00:39:32,164 He says, um, "But I want you for my manager." 694 00:39:34,583 --> 00:39:37,794 [Armstrong] The toughest guy in the honky-tonk that runs the gambling, 695 00:39:37,878 --> 00:39:40,005 he knew I was getting ready to come up north, 696 00:39:40,506 --> 00:39:42,549 and, uh, this is the pep talk he gave me. 697 00:39:42,633 --> 00:39:46,637 He said, "Look here, son. I like the way you blow that quail." 698 00:39:47,221 --> 00:39:48,263 Talking about my cornet. 699 00:39:48,347 --> 00:39:50,349 I knew what he was talking about. I said, "Yeah." 700 00:39:50,432 --> 00:39:52,809 He said, "Now, you go up north 701 00:39:53,685 --> 00:39:59,274 and always have a white man behind you to say, 'That's my nigger.'" 702 00:39:59,358 --> 00:40:01,443 And that's the way he put it to me. 703 00:40:01,527 --> 00:40:03,570 Now, you can figure that out yourself. 704 00:40:04,404 --> 00:40:05,656 That was the talk. 705 00:40:06,156 --> 00:40:09,243 And Joe Glaser came right in the scene. 706 00:40:09,910 --> 00:40:11,662 -What did the-- -We were just like that. 707 00:40:11,745 --> 00:40:17,000 Because he knew I wanted to blow my horn, and he saw to that. 708 00:40:17,084 --> 00:40:18,377 I said, "This is my man." 709 00:40:18,460 --> 00:40:20,546 I said, "You tend to business, Daddy Glaser. 710 00:40:20,629 --> 00:40:22,798 And I'll blow the horn. And that's where it is." 711 00:40:22,881 --> 00:40:25,217 And it's-- it's been over twenty-some years 712 00:40:25,801 --> 00:40:28,387 and, uh, we ain't even signed a contract. [laughs] 713 00:40:29,346 --> 00:40:30,722 [Slim Thompson] Joe Glaser's a nigga. 714 00:40:31,682 --> 00:40:33,809 Joe Glaser loves Negroes. 715 00:40:33,892 --> 00:40:35,394 [Armstrong] He was raised with niggas. 716 00:40:35,477 --> 00:40:38,647 -He went to school with them. -[Thompson] That's right. That's right. 717 00:40:38,730 --> 00:40:42,484 [Jack Bradley] You know, I always felt there was a weird relationship 718 00:40:42,568 --> 00:40:44,778 between Joe Glaser and Louis. 719 00:40:44,862 --> 00:40:47,155 And I felt Louis was exploited. 720 00:40:47,239 --> 00:40:49,992 Louis believes that he never would've made it without Joe Glaser. 721 00:40:50,075 --> 00:40:51,326 [Ray Nance] I think he wouldn't have. 722 00:40:51,410 --> 00:40:54,037 -[Bradley] That's possible? -[Nance] Quite possible. 723 00:40:54,121 --> 00:40:57,082 You got to have good management. I don't care how great you are. 724 00:40:57,165 --> 00:41:01,753 Good management goes hand in hand with success and talent. 725 00:41:01,837 --> 00:41:04,047 [Bradley] He never wanted anything to do with business, right? 726 00:41:04,131 --> 00:41:06,592 He never even hired the guys in his band. 727 00:41:06,675 --> 00:41:09,178 He just wanted to concentrate on that horn. 728 00:41:09,261 --> 00:41:10,804 ["Struttin' With Some Barbecue" playing] 729 00:41:23,775 --> 00:41:25,694 [Young] Glaser-- On the strength of being with Louis-- 730 00:41:25,777 --> 00:41:27,196 Louis used to tell us stories 731 00:41:27,279 --> 00:41:29,865 about they used to ride the bus down South with Glaser, 732 00:41:29,948 --> 00:41:32,659 and Glaser didn't-- None of them hardly had enough to eat with. 733 00:41:32,743 --> 00:41:36,121 But on the strength of that, Louis started getting real popular. 734 00:41:36,205 --> 00:41:39,082 Glaser started getting good PR for Louis. 735 00:41:42,461 --> 00:41:47,341 [Chuck Cecil] By 1935, there were probably some who hadn't heard of Louis Armstrong, 736 00:41:47,424 --> 00:41:50,135 and perhaps even those few were erased that year 737 00:41:50,219 --> 00:41:52,721 when he recorded "La Cucaracha," 738 00:41:52,804 --> 00:41:55,641 "Red Sails in the Sunset," "On Treasure Island." 739 00:41:57,142 --> 00:41:58,727 [Feather] In the summer of 1936, 740 00:41:58,810 --> 00:42:01,355 he said to me, "We're going on a tour of one-night stands. 741 00:42:01,438 --> 00:42:05,150 Why don't you ride along in the bus so you can see what it's like?" 742 00:42:05,234 --> 00:42:08,862 It was a very exhausting trip for musicians in those days. 743 00:42:08,946 --> 00:42:11,281 There were no air-conditioned buses at that time. 744 00:42:11,365 --> 00:42:13,158 [Charlie Holmes] Now, we've traveled 800 miles. 745 00:42:13,242 --> 00:42:15,702 You know, you get up, you can't hardly stand up. 746 00:42:15,786 --> 00:42:19,039 You'd think he would take it easy the first few sets or something like that. 747 00:42:19,122 --> 00:42:23,043 No, you'd get in there and that first number, boy. 748 00:42:23,126 --> 00:42:24,461 Pow, pow, pow. 749 00:42:24,545 --> 00:42:26,922 There was no letup. He was there to entertain the people. 750 00:42:27,005 --> 00:42:29,216 And believe me, that's what he believed in. 751 00:42:29,716 --> 00:42:33,053 No other leader I know would've put up with what he had to go through. 752 00:42:33,136 --> 00:42:36,139 [Morgenstern] Louis became attached to laxatives. 753 00:42:36,223 --> 00:42:38,559 When you traveled on the band bus with him, 754 00:42:38,642 --> 00:42:42,229 and you didn't know too much about laxatives, 755 00:42:42,855 --> 00:42:46,942 he would find a way for you to, uh, imbibe some of it. [chuckles] 756 00:42:47,025 --> 00:42:51,363 When I first got to know him, it was Pluto Water. 757 00:42:51,446 --> 00:42:55,993 But then come Swiss Kriss, which he really got to like. 758 00:42:56,827 --> 00:42:59,746 [ad narrator] Enjoy the fun of eager living. 759 00:43:00,247 --> 00:43:05,419 That radiant, refreshed feeling that comes from everyday regularity. 760 00:43:05,502 --> 00:43:11,717 Don't think for once that Swiss Kriss wasn't in the rudimentals of my life. 761 00:43:14,428 --> 00:43:16,096 But I always did believe in herbs. 762 00:43:16,180 --> 00:43:18,265 -My mother always-- -[David Frost] Believed in? 763 00:43:18,348 --> 00:43:19,349 -Herbs. -[Frost] Herbs. 764 00:43:19,433 --> 00:43:22,186 How do you say it? "Herbs"? "Erbs"? 765 00:43:22,269 --> 00:43:24,146 No, I-- I say-- I say, "Hoibs." 766 00:43:24,229 --> 00:43:25,689 -Well. Okay. -[audience laughs] 767 00:43:25,772 --> 00:43:26,857 -Well, I'll say "herbs." -Herbs. 768 00:43:26,940 --> 00:43:28,775 -You know what I'm talking about. -Herbs. Right. 769 00:43:28,859 --> 00:43:30,777 -They make you trot. -Pardon? 770 00:43:30,861 --> 00:43:32,237 -Anyway. [laughing] -[laughs] 771 00:43:32,321 --> 00:43:35,282 [Armstrong] Have some and just leave it all behind you, daddy. 772 00:43:35,365 --> 00:43:36,867 [audience laughs] 773 00:43:36,950 --> 00:43:39,620 [Morgenstern] He believed that the laxatives 774 00:43:39,703 --> 00:43:43,540 were of primary, uh, significance to your health. 775 00:43:44,291 --> 00:43:45,751 [Young] His doctor traveled with him. 776 00:43:45,834 --> 00:43:49,171 Dr. Schiff told us, "Don't try to emulate this guy at home 777 00:43:49,254 --> 00:43:52,883 because you'd die, probably tomorrow." 778 00:43:52,966 --> 00:43:56,970 Louis was perhaps the strongest guy I ever worked around 779 00:43:57,054 --> 00:44:00,807 because he-- he didn't try to live carefully or anything like this. 780 00:44:00,891 --> 00:44:03,977 He lived the way he wanted to live, and to heck with it. 781 00:44:04,061 --> 00:44:05,479 That's how he lived, you know. 782 00:44:09,775 --> 00:44:11,443 [newscaster] At five o'clock in the morning, 783 00:44:11,527 --> 00:44:13,403 Louis Armstrong had to be rushed to the hospital. 784 00:44:15,197 --> 00:44:19,743 [Young] Louis had a case history of-- of a bad heart for a long time. 785 00:44:19,826 --> 00:44:22,120 We did a thing over in Spoleto, Italy, 786 00:44:23,121 --> 00:44:25,666 and, um, he had a pretty bad heart attack over there. 787 00:44:26,583 --> 00:44:28,794 [Armstrong] In, uh, Spoleto, Italy, 788 00:44:29,378 --> 00:44:32,840 they sent to Rome to get this, uh, special nurse in. 789 00:44:32,923 --> 00:44:34,633 -She was here fast. -[person laughs] 790 00:44:34,716 --> 00:44:36,593 [person] Oh, yeah. She was good-looking too. 791 00:44:36,677 --> 00:44:39,263 [Armstrong] Well, I ain't went with that. I'm trying to get well now. 792 00:44:39,346 --> 00:44:40,347 [both laugh] 793 00:44:40,430 --> 00:44:43,350 When she said, "Uh-huh, Satchmo, eh?" [chuckles] 794 00:44:43,433 --> 00:44:46,478 -She come with this thermometer, you know? -[person] Uh-huh. 795 00:44:47,062 --> 00:44:48,730 [Armstrong] I said, "What you gonna do with that?" 796 00:44:48,814 --> 00:44:50,065 -She said… -[acquaintances laughing] 797 00:44:50,148 --> 00:44:51,441 [Armstrong] And this thermometer… 798 00:44:51,525 --> 00:44:52,818 I said, "Okay. Ah." 799 00:44:52,901 --> 00:44:53,986 "Ah, what?" 800 00:44:54,069 --> 00:44:55,070 [exclaims] 801 00:44:55,571 --> 00:44:57,739 Like, "Ah, y'all trying to kill me." 802 00:44:58,782 --> 00:45:01,577 Now here is one of the miracles of show business, 803 00:45:01,660 --> 00:45:06,456 because when Louis Armstrong was with us in Spoleto, Italy, 804 00:45:06,540 --> 00:45:09,126 certainly Bob Precht and I never thought to see him alive again 805 00:45:09,209 --> 00:45:12,421 because, as you know, he was desperately sick over there. 806 00:45:12,504 --> 00:45:17,301 On the verge of dying, recovered and is now back playing his horn. 807 00:45:17,801 --> 00:45:22,639 ♪ Nah, I ain't gonna give nobody None of my jelly roll ♪ 808 00:45:22,723 --> 00:45:23,974 [Armstrong scats] 809 00:45:24,933 --> 00:45:28,562 ♪ Give you none of it To save your soul ♪ 810 00:45:29,521 --> 00:45:32,149 [scatting] 811 00:45:39,239 --> 00:45:44,870 ♪ Ain't gonna give nobody None of my jelly roll, jelly roll ♪ 812 00:45:47,915 --> 00:45:51,001 [person] You see, the other day I met a man from, uh, Zanzibar 813 00:45:52,127 --> 00:45:56,006 who was telling me quite a lot about racial prejudice. 814 00:45:56,089 --> 00:45:58,383 -[Armstrong] Where? -[person] In, uh, East Africa. 815 00:45:58,884 --> 00:46:00,844 [Armstrong] What, Africa? You get it all over the world. 816 00:46:00,928 --> 00:46:02,721 Right here, you get prejudice. Are you kidding? 817 00:46:03,931 --> 00:46:05,933 -[person] They were-- -[Armstrong] All over the world. 818 00:46:06,016 --> 00:46:07,726 -Not only in Africa. -[person] Many places. 819 00:46:07,809 --> 00:46:09,770 -Right here, you get prejudice. -[person] Here? 820 00:46:09,853 --> 00:46:11,522 [Armstrong] Yeah, everywhere. 821 00:46:11,605 --> 00:46:14,942 -[person] How is it here? -[Armstrong] Well, essence of it all over. 822 00:46:15,651 --> 00:46:17,778 [person] Have you any, uh, examples of it here? 823 00:46:17,861 --> 00:46:19,947 [Armstrong] Well, you can see a whole lot of example-- 824 00:46:20,030 --> 00:46:22,282 I can go out there right now, within an hour's time 825 00:46:22,366 --> 00:46:25,661 and see five situations where there's, uh, race prejudice. 826 00:46:26,870 --> 00:46:29,039 [Feather] The discrimination was unbelievable. 827 00:46:29,122 --> 00:46:32,084 I think you had to be part of it, 828 00:46:32,167 --> 00:46:33,669 or to be very close to it, 829 00:46:33,752 --> 00:46:37,339 to get any idea of what it was like to be Black in those days. 830 00:46:37,422 --> 00:46:39,174 It seemed, on the surface, 831 00:46:39,258 --> 00:46:43,720 that, uh, a lot of Black musicians and Black people were accepting it 832 00:46:43,804 --> 00:46:46,390 or were trying to live with it as best they could. 833 00:46:46,473 --> 00:46:50,644 But the resentment, you know, understandably, was tremendous. 834 00:46:51,144 --> 00:46:53,564 And the conditions for living-- 835 00:46:53,647 --> 00:46:57,025 I mean, just for finding a place to stay overnight, you know, 836 00:46:57,109 --> 00:46:59,736 uh, finding a place to go get something to eat-- 837 00:46:59,820 --> 00:47:03,115 Everything presented its difficulties because everything was segregated. 838 00:47:03,198 --> 00:47:05,033 And I'm talking about even in New York. 839 00:47:05,117 --> 00:47:09,162 [Barker] But it was tragic, what you had to go with this discrimination. 840 00:47:09,246 --> 00:47:10,789 And you had to be tough. 841 00:47:10,873 --> 00:47:13,292 'Cause discrimination, in a sneaky sort of way, 842 00:47:13,375 --> 00:47:17,171 killed a whole lot of musicians because they couldn't understand the code. 843 00:47:19,173 --> 00:47:23,886 [Nas] "Do you know I played 99 million hotels I couldn't stay at? 844 00:47:23,969 --> 00:47:27,347 When I was coming along, a Black man had hell. 845 00:47:28,056 --> 00:47:32,895 On the road, he couldn't find no place to eat, sleep, or use the toilet. 846 00:47:33,395 --> 00:47:37,191 Service station cats see a bus of colored bandsmen drive up, 847 00:47:37,274 --> 00:47:39,651 and they would sprint to lock their restroom doors. 848 00:47:40,861 --> 00:47:42,821 One time in Dallas, Texas, 849 00:47:42,905 --> 00:47:46,617 some ofay stops me as I enter this hotel where I'm blowing the show-- 850 00:47:46,700 --> 00:47:49,203 me in a goddamn tuxedo, now-- 851 00:47:49,286 --> 00:47:52,331 and tells me I gotta come around to the back door." 852 00:47:55,000 --> 00:47:57,419 [James] In Memphis, at the bus station, 853 00:47:57,503 --> 00:48:00,339 they claimed that the bus needed some work done on it 854 00:48:00,422 --> 00:48:02,508 and they were gonna take it back to have it overhauled. 855 00:48:02,591 --> 00:48:06,053 At that particular time, all the guys in Louis's band were young 856 00:48:06,136 --> 00:48:08,931 and just about as obstinate a bunch of people 857 00:48:09,014 --> 00:48:11,642 as you ever met in your life if they thought they were right. 858 00:48:11,725 --> 00:48:13,727 When nobody would give up the bus, 859 00:48:13,810 --> 00:48:17,940 then they sent for the police and arrested us for inciting a riot. 860 00:48:18,023 --> 00:48:20,776 With the intention of burning up all of our baggage and everything, 861 00:48:20,859 --> 00:48:22,277 luggage and everything, 862 00:48:22,361 --> 00:48:24,154 and putting us in the hoosegow, which they did. 863 00:48:24,238 --> 00:48:26,073 They arrested us all. 864 00:48:26,156 --> 00:48:29,284 [Shaw] He was playing in Los Angeles one time. I don't remember where. 865 00:48:29,368 --> 00:48:33,580 And I, along with some other friends, drove out to hear him play. 866 00:48:34,081 --> 00:48:37,292 And, uh, we got to this place, we were put-- given a table, 867 00:48:37,376 --> 00:48:38,752 and Louis saw me. 868 00:48:38,836 --> 00:48:40,671 He was in the middle of a radio broadcast. 869 00:48:40,754 --> 00:48:42,798 And, uh, then the broadcast was over, 870 00:48:42,881 --> 00:48:44,758 and he disappeared in back. 871 00:48:44,842 --> 00:48:45,968 And I waited. 872 00:48:46,510 --> 00:48:49,012 I thought he'd come over and have a drink, 873 00:48:49,096 --> 00:48:51,098 or a Coca-Cola or a cup of coffee or something. 874 00:48:51,181 --> 00:48:53,725 And he never showed up. I waited about ten minutes. 875 00:48:53,809 --> 00:48:56,395 And finally, I thought, "Well, what's wrong?" I went backstage. 876 00:48:56,478 --> 00:48:58,772 He was back there with his little typewriter. 877 00:48:58,856 --> 00:49:00,899 He was always writing these marvelous letters he wrote. 878 00:49:00,983 --> 00:49:03,610 And I said, "Hi, Pops." He said, "Hey, Artie. How you been?" 879 00:49:03,694 --> 00:49:06,238 I said, "I thought I understood you to indicate 880 00:49:06,321 --> 00:49:07,739 that you'd come over to the table." 881 00:49:07,823 --> 00:49:09,950 He looked at me. He said, "Man, I can't come to your table." 882 00:49:10,033 --> 00:49:12,536 And I said, "Why?" He said, "Oh, they don't allow me to sit-- 883 00:49:12,619 --> 00:49:14,663 Well, I can't sit at the tables out there." 884 00:49:15,247 --> 00:49:17,249 Well, I looked at him in total astonishment. 885 00:49:17,332 --> 00:49:21,170 My first reaction was, "Well, why the hell are you playing these places?" 886 00:49:21,253 --> 00:49:24,715 My next reaction was the practical one of, you play where you gotta play. 887 00:49:25,215 --> 00:49:28,552 And, uh, Louis was not in a what we now call civil rights fight. 888 00:49:28,635 --> 00:49:32,723 Louis was in a-- a-- in an individual, uh, fight to survive. 889 00:49:32,806 --> 00:49:36,351 I guess his own inner dignity was able to make him prevail 890 00:49:36,435 --> 00:49:39,313 over all these awful conditions he must have worked with. 891 00:49:40,314 --> 00:49:42,816 [Nas] "As time went on and I made a reputation, 892 00:49:43,483 --> 00:49:45,152 I had to put it in my contracts 893 00:49:45,235 --> 00:49:48,071 that I would not play no place I couldn't stay at. 894 00:49:48,572 --> 00:49:54,036 I was the first Negro in the business to crack them big, white hotels. 895 00:49:54,119 --> 00:49:56,663 Oh, yeah. I pioneered, Pops." 896 00:49:56,747 --> 00:49:59,124 ["Rockin' Chair" playing] 897 00:50:02,669 --> 00:50:05,547 [Bigard] People got tired of that situation, 898 00:50:05,631 --> 00:50:10,010 you know, that, uh-- the separate this and the separate that. 899 00:50:10,093 --> 00:50:13,096 If a man is able and capable enough 900 00:50:13,889 --> 00:50:19,019 and could put the-- the things together, what a leader wants, he's-- 901 00:50:19,102 --> 00:50:21,396 and he wants to hire 'em, he'd hire 'em. 902 00:50:25,150 --> 00:50:29,238 ♪ Old rockin' chair's got me ♪ 903 00:50:29,321 --> 00:50:31,573 ♪ Old rockin' chair got you, father ♪ 904 00:50:31,657 --> 00:50:34,076 [Robbins] What a marvelous, democratic thing music is. 905 00:50:34,159 --> 00:50:36,203 [Armstrong] That's right. We went everywhere together. 906 00:50:36,286 --> 00:50:39,665 and, uh, we never had a hard word or nothing. 907 00:50:39,748 --> 00:50:41,875 We didn't worry about, you know, color. 908 00:50:41,959 --> 00:50:43,919 ♪ …gin, son ♪ 909 00:50:44,002 --> 00:50:47,381 ♪ You know you don't drink gin, father ♪ 910 00:50:47,464 --> 00:50:50,300 [Armstrong] I mean, in the early days, we did this. 911 00:50:50,384 --> 00:50:52,135 When those things wasn't happening, 912 00:50:52,219 --> 00:50:56,306 Jack and I was busting those down barriers. [laughs] 913 00:50:56,390 --> 00:50:59,351 Hitting the South there, and just going all over. 914 00:50:59,434 --> 00:51:00,435 [Robbins chuckles] 915 00:51:00,519 --> 00:51:02,688 Some guy asked me, 916 00:51:02,771 --> 00:51:04,773 he said, "Man, you're gonna take Jack Teagarden?" 917 00:51:04,857 --> 00:51:07,609 I said "Now, who am I to tell a white man he can't go down South?" 918 00:51:07,693 --> 00:51:09,194 [all laughing] 919 00:51:09,278 --> 00:51:14,074 And it's all through New Orleans, Texas… [mumbles, laughs] 920 00:51:14,157 --> 00:51:16,368 [Robbins] I guess, more than all of the laws, 921 00:51:16,451 --> 00:51:21,081 music has had more to do with better race relations through the years. 922 00:51:21,164 --> 00:51:23,125 -Hasn't it, Pops? -[Armstrong] It's done a lot. 923 00:51:23,208 --> 00:51:26,503 You remember that white boy, he's a sailor or something, 924 00:51:27,004 --> 00:51:29,798 uh, on one of these battleships a-at Pearl Harbor? 925 00:51:30,299 --> 00:51:31,884 And he caught my show. 926 00:51:31,967 --> 00:51:35,596 And come to find out, he has damn near every record I made 927 00:51:35,679 --> 00:51:38,557 from-- from-- from childhood, even his parents. 928 00:51:38,640 --> 00:51:41,852 But still and all, he expressed himself. 929 00:51:41,935 --> 00:51:45,480 He come up, and he shook my hand after the whole show was over, didn't he? 930 00:51:46,064 --> 00:51:50,235 And he said, "You know, I don't like Negroes." 931 00:51:50,319 --> 00:51:53,530 Right to my fucking face, that motherfucker told me. 932 00:51:53,614 --> 00:51:57,492 And so I said, "Well, I admire your goddamn sincerity." 933 00:51:58,327 --> 00:52:00,078 He said, "I don't like Negroes, 934 00:52:00,162 --> 00:52:02,331 but you one son of a bitch I'm crazy about, baby." 935 00:52:02,414 --> 00:52:03,415 Didn't he? 936 00:52:03,498 --> 00:52:06,084 There, now, you take the majority of white people. 937 00:52:06,168 --> 00:52:09,796 There's, uh, two-thirds of them don't like niggers. 938 00:52:09,880 --> 00:52:15,260 But they always got one nigger that they just crazy about, goddamn it. 939 00:52:17,054 --> 00:52:18,055 Ain't that a bitch? 940 00:52:23,560 --> 00:52:25,687 [Marsalis] Pops, he faced a lot of challenges, 941 00:52:25,771 --> 00:52:28,649 and he always faced them with style 942 00:52:28,732 --> 00:52:32,778 and maintained his sanity and his joy and his embrace of life. 943 00:52:32,861 --> 00:52:36,823 And it was not a simpleminded happiness. It was a transcendent joy. 944 00:52:40,494 --> 00:52:44,331 He had a blessing inside of him that he was acutely aware of. 945 00:52:46,124 --> 00:52:50,212 [Dizzy Gillespie] I remember when I was a neighbor of Louis Armstrong. 946 00:52:50,754 --> 00:52:54,466 We lived within one block of one another 947 00:52:54,550 --> 00:52:58,095 in Corona, Queens, New York, for 15 years. 948 00:52:58,178 --> 00:53:00,681 I went over to his house to wish him a happy birthday… 949 00:53:02,975 --> 00:53:04,977 and to bring him a little present. 950 00:53:05,060 --> 00:53:11,567 And I wound up getting a present myself and also a present for my wife, Lorraine. 951 00:53:12,651 --> 00:53:14,403 [Lucille] If you had a hard-luck story 952 00:53:14,486 --> 00:53:17,197 and you needed something, and you came to Louis, you got it. 953 00:53:17,281 --> 00:53:18,407 This is a throwback. 954 00:53:18,490 --> 00:53:21,743 It's been instilled in him in the old days of-- in New Orleans, 955 00:53:21,827 --> 00:53:23,161 when Louis was a youth coming up. 956 00:53:23,245 --> 00:53:25,038 It was a way of life down there. 957 00:53:25,122 --> 00:53:26,456 They were all poor, 958 00:53:26,957 --> 00:53:29,209 and the one that had a little more than the other 959 00:53:29,793 --> 00:53:32,754 saw to it that the one that has less had a little bit. 960 00:53:32,838 --> 00:53:34,214 So he never outgrew it. 961 00:53:34,298 --> 00:53:36,133 He liked to get to know the people. 962 00:53:36,216 --> 00:53:38,760 That's where it was at with Louis, and I think everyone knows that. 963 00:53:38,844 --> 00:53:41,805 You can see Louis-- see that, uh, in all the years 964 00:53:42,389 --> 00:53:44,433 and with all of the success that Louis has had, 965 00:53:45,142 --> 00:53:48,520 Louis still remained the man in the street himself. 966 00:53:50,814 --> 00:53:53,859 [Armstrong] Royal Theatre was in a poor Negro neighborhood. 967 00:53:54,484 --> 00:53:56,570 Real poor people, I'm telling you. 968 00:53:57,196 --> 00:53:59,323 Until we arrived in town, 969 00:53:59,406 --> 00:54:02,951 it was actually colder-- 970 00:54:03,035 --> 00:54:08,415 I'm telling you, it was colder than a well digger's-- Well, you know the rest. 971 00:54:08,498 --> 00:54:14,379 And when I heard about those poor people who couldn't afford to buy hard coal, 972 00:54:14,463 --> 00:54:16,006 I bought it for them. 973 00:54:16,507 --> 00:54:20,677 I went to the coal yard, ordered a ton of coal, 974 00:54:20,761 --> 00:54:25,224 and had the company to deliver it to the lobby of the Royal Theatre. 975 00:54:25,974 --> 00:54:31,271 And had all the folks who needed coal to help themselves, 976 00:54:31,355 --> 00:54:33,315 which made them very happy. 977 00:54:33,398 --> 00:54:38,070 Of course, it all made me stick out my chest with pride. 978 00:54:39,404 --> 00:54:43,033 [Barker] To be in his presence, to see the power that he had-- 979 00:54:43,116 --> 00:54:44,660 See, you'd go in his dressing room, 980 00:54:44,743 --> 00:54:49,081 he'd be sitting up, in his underwear, with a towel around his lap 981 00:54:49,164 --> 00:54:52,918 and one around his shoulders and had a white handkerchief on his head. 982 00:54:53,001 --> 00:54:56,129 And he put that grease around his lips. 983 00:54:56,213 --> 00:54:58,465 Looked like a minstrel man, you know, with the white. 984 00:54:58,549 --> 00:55:01,134 And laughing. Natural, see, the way he is. 985 00:55:01,218 --> 00:55:05,931 And in the room, you'll see maybe two nuns, a streetwalker. 986 00:55:06,014 --> 00:55:09,184 You see maybe a guy that's come out of penitentiary. 987 00:55:09,268 --> 00:55:11,645 You see a rabbi. You see a priest. 988 00:55:12,271 --> 00:55:16,275 All of the-- All of the different levels of society in a dressing room. 989 00:55:16,358 --> 00:55:18,110 And he's talking to all of 'em. 990 00:55:20,362 --> 00:55:21,822 [person] I'd like you to meet my son. 991 00:55:21,905 --> 00:55:24,992 [Barker] First time we see important-looking whites 992 00:55:25,075 --> 00:55:29,329 be so, like, uh, putty in the presence of a-- a figure 993 00:55:29,413 --> 00:55:33,458 who had opened up the world of music to new heights, you know? 994 00:55:35,085 --> 00:55:36,962 ♪ Now you know I don't lie much ♪ 995 00:55:38,463 --> 00:55:41,300 [scatting] 996 00:55:45,721 --> 00:55:49,933 ♪ Fellas she can't get The fellas she ain't met ♪ 997 00:55:51,268 --> 00:55:53,478 [vocalizes] 998 00:55:53,562 --> 00:55:56,231 [person] Louis, you had, obviously, a very eventful life. 999 00:55:56,315 --> 00:55:58,525 Ever since I've known you, they've been making a film on you. 1000 00:55:58,609 --> 00:56:01,236 [Armstrong] They make a whole lot of films now. You know? 1001 00:56:01,320 --> 00:56:03,989 Well, now I hear they're finally gonna do a film on you. 1002 00:56:04,072 --> 00:56:06,408 Yeah. Glad they can't come up to me and say, 1003 00:56:06,491 --> 00:56:09,453 "You must be a movie star. I can tell by the film on your teeth." 1004 00:56:09,536 --> 00:56:10,954 [all laugh] 1005 00:56:12,206 --> 00:56:14,416 [Nas] "Hollywood fascinates me. 1006 00:56:14,499 --> 00:56:17,336 Everywhere I go, there's a warm greeting for me. 1007 00:56:17,419 --> 00:56:22,633 But you still have some small-minded prop men, carpenters, callboys. 1008 00:56:22,716 --> 00:56:26,970 One of the moments that dragged me the most happened in 1952 1009 00:56:27,554 --> 00:56:29,473 during the making of Glory Alley." 1010 00:56:34,269 --> 00:56:39,107 ♪ Glory Alley, Glory Alley ♪ 1011 00:56:39,900 --> 00:56:44,738 ♪ Hear that trumpet moan in Glory Alley ♪ 1012 00:56:45,364 --> 00:56:48,116 [Armstrong] And this ofay, he wasn't nothing but a callboy. 1013 00:56:48,200 --> 00:56:53,247 He called, uh… [indistinct] …the extras, uh-- the extras and different things. 1014 00:56:53,330 --> 00:56:55,040 Then he'll come to the stars' dressing room, 1015 00:56:55,123 --> 00:56:57,000 let them know when they want them for the camera. 1016 00:56:57,084 --> 00:56:59,461 And he was hanging around on the set all the time. 1017 00:56:59,545 --> 00:57:00,796 -You know what I mean? -[person] Yeah. 1018 00:57:00,879 --> 00:57:02,756 [Armstrong] So now, he'll come up, 1019 00:57:02,840 --> 00:57:06,009 "Mr. Gilbert Roland, Ms. Caron," and everything. 1020 00:57:06,093 --> 00:57:08,637 And then he'll come to my dressing room with a whole lot of bullshit. 1021 00:57:08,720 --> 00:57:10,931 -[knocking] -"Satchmo, you better come on out there, 1022 00:57:11,014 --> 00:57:14,184 or they'll, uh-- uh, they'll send in Harry James." 1023 00:57:14,268 --> 00:57:15,978 I said, "Listen, you cocksucker. 1024 00:57:16,061 --> 00:57:18,438 If they wanted Harry James, they'd have had him in front." 1025 00:57:18,522 --> 00:57:21,233 I said, "The first place, he ain't gonna play what I played out there." 1026 00:57:21,316 --> 00:57:23,193 He said, "Why?" I said, "'Cause he can't." 1027 00:57:23,277 --> 00:57:25,946 Just had to be a nasty son of a bitch with him. 1028 00:57:26,029 --> 00:57:30,033 And I said, "You take it-- You tell MGM to shove that picture up their ass." 1029 00:57:30,117 --> 00:57:31,410 Then he left me alone. 1030 00:57:31,493 --> 00:57:33,537 I said, "I don't-- I ain't a movie star nohow." 1031 00:57:33,620 --> 00:57:36,290 I said, "Why you hand me that shit? 'Cause I'm colored?" 1032 00:57:36,373 --> 00:57:39,793 I didn't appreciate it. I'm just showing you what I go through for no reason. 1033 00:57:39,877 --> 00:57:43,380 You take the smallest fucking peckerwood, 1034 00:57:43,463 --> 00:57:45,924 hand you that shit, and the big bosses appreciate you. 1035 00:57:46,008 --> 00:57:47,843 [Morgenstern] He made as many as 30 films. 1036 00:57:47,926 --> 00:57:52,264 The Glenn Miller Story, the way he's cast in that is very positive. 1037 00:57:52,347 --> 00:57:56,852 ♪ Yes, Basin Street is the street ♪ 1038 00:57:58,437 --> 00:58:00,898 ♪ Where the folks really meet ♪ 1039 00:58:00,981 --> 00:58:02,566 [gasps] Who is he? 1040 00:58:03,442 --> 00:58:05,986 Who? Louis Armstrong. 1041 00:58:06,069 --> 00:58:11,450 [Morgenstern] A Song Was Born, what Louis does there is just performing. 1042 00:58:12,951 --> 00:58:16,205 ♪ They took a reet jungle beat Brought it to Basin Street ♪ 1043 00:58:16,288 --> 00:58:19,041 ♪ And that's how jazz was born ♪ 1044 00:58:19,124 --> 00:58:22,127 [Morgenstern] In High Society, he is Louis Armstrong. 1045 00:58:22,211 --> 00:58:24,254 [singing "Now You Has Jazz"] 1046 00:58:24,338 --> 00:58:26,507 [trumpet playing] 1047 00:58:28,133 --> 00:58:30,886 [Morgenstern] Hello, Dolly! Of course, it's the last one. 1048 00:58:30,969 --> 00:58:34,556 -♪ Well, hello, Dolly ♪ -Look who's here. 1049 00:58:35,307 --> 00:58:38,143 -♪ This is Louis, Dolly ♪ -Hello, Louis. 1050 00:58:38,769 --> 00:58:41,605 ♪ It's so nice to have you back ♪ 1051 00:58:41,688 --> 00:58:43,357 ♪ Where you belong ♪ 1052 00:58:43,440 --> 00:58:45,651 [Armstrong] They didn't write a whole lot of parts, 1053 00:58:45,734 --> 00:58:47,236 you know, character parts-- 1054 00:58:47,319 --> 00:58:51,823 They just let me be myself in pictures. That's what made it awful nice. 1055 00:58:51,907 --> 00:58:56,036 We all can't be, uh, Reinhardts and things like that. 1056 00:58:56,537 --> 00:58:58,163 So they just tell me, "Be yourself." 1057 00:58:59,122 --> 00:59:02,459 All my days were happiness 'cause I'm born with nothing, 1058 00:59:03,085 --> 00:59:04,670 come here with nothing. 1059 00:59:04,753 --> 00:59:06,755 And I come through the world, 1060 00:59:06,839 --> 00:59:10,884 whatever nothing I had, I enjoyed playing the music. 1061 00:59:10,968 --> 00:59:14,221 And what little, uh, advancement or whatever it was, 1062 00:59:14,304 --> 00:59:16,682 it was more than I had at all times. 1063 00:59:16,765 --> 00:59:20,519 And right now, it's still more than I had. 1064 00:59:20,602 --> 00:59:23,647 And the fans are still happy with Satchmo. 1065 00:59:23,730 --> 00:59:27,943 And I wouldn't give a damn if they had ten trillion dollars. 1066 00:59:28,026 --> 00:59:32,447 They can't be no happier than Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong and Lucille. 1067 00:59:32,531 --> 00:59:38,078 We never want an estate where servants be falling all over each other. 1068 00:59:38,161 --> 00:59:41,874 They're working for colored people. And then-- We don't wanna go through that. 1069 00:59:41,957 --> 00:59:44,459 And I want to live the life that I come through 1070 00:59:44,543 --> 00:59:51,008 with what Mayann, my mother, taught me… enjoy the rudimentals. 1071 00:59:51,091 --> 00:59:52,342 To hell with the rest of it. 1072 00:59:52,426 --> 00:59:53,802 [audience applauding, chattering] 1073 00:59:53,886 --> 00:59:55,888 ["I'm Confessin' That I Love You" playing] 1074 00:59:58,515 --> 01:00:01,727 ♪ I'm confessin' that I love you ♪ 1075 01:00:04,897 --> 01:00:08,775 ♪ Tell me, do you love me too? ♪ 1076 01:00:11,111 --> 01:00:15,407 ♪ I'm confessin' that I need you ♪ 1077 01:00:16,408 --> 01:00:18,160 ♪ Honest, I do ♪ 1078 01:00:18,660 --> 01:00:22,456 ♪ Oh, baby, need you every moment ♪ 1079 01:00:22,539 --> 01:00:23,665 Oh, yeah? 1080 01:00:23,749 --> 01:00:25,626 [Mike Douglas] Lucille, how did he propose? I mean-- 1081 01:00:25,709 --> 01:00:27,503 -What did he say to you? -[Lucille] Well, actually-- 1082 01:00:27,586 --> 01:00:31,298 -[Douglas] How long did you know him? -[Lucille] Uh, about two years. 1083 01:00:31,882 --> 01:00:33,592 -[Douglas] Two years? -[Lucille] Oh, yes. 1084 01:00:33,675 --> 01:00:35,969 Well, it wasn't love at first sight then, was it, Louis? 1085 01:00:36,053 --> 01:00:37,638 Mmm, plenty love going on then. 1086 01:00:37,721 --> 01:00:38,805 [audience laughing] 1087 01:00:39,389 --> 01:00:41,141 But not at first sight. I see. 1088 01:00:41,225 --> 01:00:43,268 Well, you know, I'm Louis's fourth wife. 1089 01:00:43,352 --> 01:00:44,394 -Oh, I see. -Uh-huh. 1090 01:00:44,478 --> 01:00:48,273 And, uh, he was separated from his third wife. 1091 01:00:48,357 --> 01:00:50,776 And so the-- We couldn't marry. 1092 01:00:51,360 --> 01:00:53,612 And he kept saying, "Well, you just stick around, 1093 01:00:53,695 --> 01:00:55,489 -you know, wait for Pops." -[Armstrong] Mmm. 1094 01:00:55,572 --> 01:00:57,407 "And, uh, I'll get a divorce." You know. 1095 01:00:57,491 --> 01:00:59,368 And he's taking care of-- This woman's getting alimony. 1096 01:00:59,451 --> 01:01:01,662 -She's not about to give him up. -Yeah. 1097 01:01:01,745 --> 01:01:03,872 -[Lucille] And I just laughed. -[audience laughs] 1098 01:01:04,623 --> 01:01:07,000 He just tells me, "Now, you just stay put, you know. 1099 01:01:07,084 --> 01:01:09,628 And one of these days, um, I'll… 1100 01:01:09,711 --> 01:01:11,713 She'll give me a divorce, and we'll marry." 1101 01:01:11,797 --> 01:01:15,050 -[Armstrong] Yeah. -And I'm young. But how long do you wait? 1102 01:01:15,551 --> 01:01:18,512 So I was seen on the scene with the young boys, 1103 01:01:18,595 --> 01:01:19,972 and Louis got tired of that. 1104 01:01:20,055 --> 01:01:21,682 And he says, "Look, I can't hold you down. 1105 01:01:21,765 --> 01:01:22,975 I guess I better marry you." 1106 01:01:23,058 --> 01:01:24,643 -[Armstrong] You right. -"I'll get the divorce." 1107 01:01:26,061 --> 01:01:29,523 [Armstrong] ♪ Am I guessin' that you love me, babe ♪ 1108 01:01:29,606 --> 01:01:31,525 ♪ Oh, yeah ♪ 1109 01:01:32,985 --> 01:01:37,614 ♪ Dreaming dreams of you in vain, vain ♪ 1110 01:01:40,117 --> 01:01:44,413 ♪ I'm confessin' that I love you ♪ 1111 01:01:47,249 --> 01:01:48,625 -Chops. -[Lucille laughs] 1112 01:01:48,709 --> 01:01:52,254 ♪ Over again ♪ 1113 01:01:52,337 --> 01:01:53,755 [audience cheering] 1114 01:01:58,218 --> 01:02:03,932 [interviewer 1] Well, what has been, uh, to you, the most encouraging things? 1115 01:02:04,516 --> 01:02:08,187 [Armstrong] My fourth wife, she fixed a nice home, 1116 01:02:08,687 --> 01:02:12,482 not elaborate, just s-someplace where you settle down. 1117 01:02:12,566 --> 01:02:14,443 Uh, your castle. 1118 01:02:14,526 --> 01:02:18,530 It's such a pleasure to go home. That's why I canceled the road tour. 1119 01:02:22,075 --> 01:02:27,414 [Armstrong stammers] 3456 107th Street. 1120 01:02:27,497 --> 01:02:29,750 -[interviewer 2] 107th? -[Armstrong] Yeah. Street. 1121 01:02:30,334 --> 01:02:33,629 Corona, New York. The Queens. 1122 01:02:33,712 --> 01:02:37,299 It should be Long Island, but, uh, New York for many. 1123 01:02:38,675 --> 01:02:40,427 [Lucille] We would stay at my apartment, 1124 01:02:40,511 --> 01:02:44,890 but my mother had to get out of her bedroom and sleep in my small room 1125 01:02:44,973 --> 01:02:46,642 so Louis and I could have the large bedroom 1126 01:02:46,725 --> 01:02:49,061 for the few days of-- that we went home. 1127 01:02:49,144 --> 01:02:51,230 So I decided to buy a house. 1128 01:02:51,813 --> 01:02:54,191 And I told Louis, "Let's get a house." 1129 01:02:54,274 --> 01:02:56,985 And he said, "What do you want a house for? 1130 01:02:57,069 --> 01:03:00,322 We'll be traveling. I-I'll get a hotel room." 1131 01:03:00,405 --> 01:03:03,742 And I wasn't about to be cooped up in a hotel room. 1132 01:03:03,825 --> 01:03:07,412 And after being married to Louis for a few months, 1133 01:03:07,496 --> 01:03:13,001 I found that it wasn't very easy to argue with Louis. 1134 01:03:13,794 --> 01:03:15,504 If he made his mind up about something, 1135 01:03:15,587 --> 01:03:18,924 he was very, very positive that you couldn't change his mind. 1136 01:03:19,007 --> 01:03:21,260 And so he kept not wanting this house. 1137 01:03:21,343 --> 01:03:23,804 And I'm a very stubborn person myself. 1138 01:03:23,887 --> 01:03:26,932 And so I said, "This guy doesn't know what the house is all about." 1139 01:03:27,766 --> 01:03:30,060 I bought the house myself and didn't tell him. 1140 01:03:30,644 --> 01:03:33,355 I had had the house eight months before I told Louis. 1141 01:03:34,356 --> 01:03:36,358 Eight whole months. 1142 01:03:36,441 --> 01:03:40,028 Meanwhile, my mother's writing me about what's happening, 1143 01:03:40,112 --> 01:03:43,031 and they're planting flowers and this, that and the other. 1144 01:03:43,657 --> 01:03:46,618 So finally, I tell him, two weeks before we were to go back to New York. 1145 01:03:46,702 --> 01:03:49,621 And I told him, I said, "Pops, I got something to tell you." 1146 01:03:50,414 --> 01:03:52,541 So he said, "Well, what have you done now?" 1147 01:03:52,624 --> 01:03:53,959 I said, "I haven't done anything-- 1148 01:03:54,042 --> 01:03:56,670 I don't think you're going to be unhappy about what I've done. 1149 01:03:56,753 --> 01:04:00,924 But, uh, I wanna-- Uh, I have to tell you that we've moved." 1150 01:04:01,008 --> 01:04:03,302 And he said, "We've what?" He said, "We've moved?" 1151 01:04:03,385 --> 01:04:05,387 He said, "That's all right. You got a larger apartment?" 1152 01:04:05,470 --> 01:04:07,139 I said, "No, I bought a house." 1153 01:04:07,222 --> 01:04:11,393 So he looked at me like I was, you know, like I was a cow with seven horns. 1154 01:04:12,060 --> 01:04:15,564 Now he said, "How did you pay for it? You didn't ask me for any money." 1155 01:04:15,647 --> 01:04:19,151 I said, "You have to remember, I have been working for 13 years. 1156 01:04:19,234 --> 01:04:20,944 I have a little money saved up. 1157 01:04:21,028 --> 01:04:24,656 And so, when I approached you about a house and you were so down on it, 1158 01:04:24,740 --> 01:04:28,160 I didn't ask you. I just took my money, and I put the down payment on the house, 1159 01:04:28,243 --> 01:04:29,953 and I've been keeping the payments up." 1160 01:04:30,037 --> 01:04:31,538 I said, "Now that you know about the house, 1161 01:04:31,622 --> 01:04:34,374 you can take the payments over." [chuckling] 1162 01:04:34,458 --> 01:04:36,877 But I've never been able to move Louis from that place. 1163 01:04:36,960 --> 01:04:39,463 Once he got in that place, he loved it. 1164 01:04:39,546 --> 01:04:41,965 [singing "Blueberry Hill"] 1165 01:04:58,941 --> 01:05:01,818 [interviewer 3] Mrs. Armstrong, do you always go with Louis wherever he goes? 1166 01:05:01,902 --> 01:05:02,778 [Lucille] Yes, I do… 1167 01:05:02,861 --> 01:05:04,446 [interviewer 3] It's your job to look after him? 1168 01:05:04,530 --> 01:05:08,492 [Lucille] That's part of my marital vow to take care of the husband. 1169 01:05:08,575 --> 01:05:13,330 -[interviewer 3] Yes. -And, uh, while I, uh-- We travel a lot. 1170 01:05:13,413 --> 01:05:16,333 We try to maintain a home life wherever we go. 1171 01:05:16,416 --> 01:05:17,918 So we were constantly together. 1172 01:05:18,001 --> 01:05:21,880 There was-- There wasn't that-- that, uh, separation, 1173 01:05:21,964 --> 01:05:25,384 as most musicians and wives have. 1174 01:05:26,426 --> 01:05:27,678 But then, I was fortunate 1175 01:05:27,761 --> 01:05:30,138 for the simple reason that Louis wanted me with him. 1176 01:05:31,181 --> 01:05:34,101 And secondly, he could afford to keep me with him. 1177 01:05:34,184 --> 01:05:36,603 And the other chaps couldn't afford to take their families. 1178 01:05:37,396 --> 01:05:39,147 [interviewer 4] Did it get boring at any time, 1179 01:05:39,231 --> 01:05:42,317 -listening to Louis night after night? -[Lucille] You gotta be kidding. 1180 01:05:42,401 --> 01:05:44,570 -[interviewer 4] Really? -[Lucille] How could anyone be bored 1181 01:05:44,653 --> 01:05:46,071 with those beautiful notes? 1182 01:05:46,655 --> 01:05:50,450 [Armstrong] Yeah, I had a audience with the pope. 1183 01:05:51,076 --> 01:05:52,995 [interviewer 5] You had an audience with the pope? 1184 01:05:53,078 --> 01:05:54,204 [Armstrong chatters] 1185 01:05:54,288 --> 01:05:56,039 And I remember that morning, 1186 01:05:56,123 --> 01:05:59,042 there was 10,000 people there waiting just to see him. 1187 01:05:59,710 --> 01:06:01,879 And my wife, she's dressed for the occasion, 1188 01:06:01,962 --> 01:06:06,175 had on a outfit with a black veil. 1189 01:06:06,258 --> 01:06:07,968 And-- And I'm sharp. 1190 01:06:09,052 --> 01:06:11,638 So he asked me, "Have you any children?" 1191 01:06:12,514 --> 01:06:16,101 I said, "Well, no, daddy. But we still wailing." 1192 01:06:16,185 --> 01:06:18,562 -And, uh-- -[audience laughs] 1193 01:06:18,645 --> 01:06:20,772 ["Jeepers Creepers" playing] 1194 01:06:26,820 --> 01:06:29,615 [singing] 1195 01:06:37,706 --> 01:06:39,833 [interviewer 6] Now, let's talk about pot. 1196 01:06:39,917 --> 01:06:42,002 [Armstrong] Yeah. 1197 01:06:42,085 --> 01:06:44,421 [John Daly] I'm only sorry you couldn't be here with us longer. 1198 01:06:44,505 --> 01:06:45,797 I wish you could have gotten higher. 1199 01:06:45,881 --> 01:06:48,050 But why don't you go and say hello to the folks on the panel? 1200 01:06:48,133 --> 01:06:49,927 Well, I'm getting higher next time round. 1201 01:06:50,010 --> 01:06:51,803 [panel members laugh] 1202 01:06:51,887 --> 01:06:55,682 [Armstrong] Mary… wouna. 1203 01:06:55,766 --> 01:07:02,064 [chuckles] Honey, you sure was good and I enjoyed you very much. 1204 01:07:03,357 --> 01:07:06,693 Marijuana is more of a medicine than dope. 1205 01:07:09,738 --> 01:07:12,908 [Morgenstern] Why did he do it? Well, because it relaxes you. 1206 01:07:13,534 --> 01:07:15,994 It does something to your hearing. 1207 01:07:16,078 --> 01:07:19,623 And if you're a musician, it does something to your playing. 1208 01:07:23,418 --> 01:07:26,421 [Nas] "I have to go through the whole world with this horn, 1209 01:07:26,505 --> 01:07:27,965 making millions happy, 1210 01:07:28,048 --> 01:07:32,928 and at the same time ducking and dodging cops, dicks, so forth. 1211 01:07:33,846 --> 01:07:37,140 Why? 'Cause they say it's against the law. 1212 01:07:37,224 --> 01:07:40,477 I'm not so particular about having a permit to carry a gun. 1213 01:07:41,103 --> 01:07:45,190 All I want is a permit to carry that good shit." 1214 01:07:45,274 --> 01:07:48,777 [Armstrong] On the West Coast, California, in 1931, 1215 01:07:49,319 --> 01:07:53,448 when I got busted, it was during our intermission. 1216 01:07:53,532 --> 01:07:57,286 Two big, healthy dicks-- detectives, that is-- 1217 01:07:57,369 --> 01:08:01,623 come from behind a car, man, and say to us, 1218 01:08:02,499 --> 01:08:04,710 "We'll take the roach, boys." 1219 01:08:04,793 --> 01:08:10,424 I spent nine days in the downtown Los Angeles city jail. 1220 01:08:10,507 --> 01:08:13,844 And when all of those prisoners looked up 1221 01:08:13,927 --> 01:08:20,267 and saw me walk in with this great big deputy sheriff, 1222 01:08:20,350 --> 01:08:24,770 they all en masse started, "Hey, Louis Armstrong!" 1223 01:08:25,354 --> 01:08:28,317 The judge gave me a suspended sentence, 1224 01:08:28,399 --> 01:08:33,404 and I went to work that night, wailed just like nothing happened. 1225 01:08:35,698 --> 01:08:36,700 [song ends] 1226 01:08:36,783 --> 01:08:38,911 [audience cheering] 1227 01:08:40,328 --> 01:08:42,788 [playing "St. Louis Blues"] 1228 01:09:08,982 --> 01:09:10,734 [Bernstein] Ladies and gentlemen, 1229 01:09:10,817 --> 01:09:12,653 Louis Armstrong has told me 1230 01:09:12,736 --> 01:09:17,032 that his most honored ambition is being fulfilled tonight 1231 01:09:17,115 --> 01:09:19,576 in playing with the New York Philharmonic. 1232 01:09:20,160 --> 01:09:23,412 I should say that it is rather we, 1233 01:09:23,497 --> 01:09:26,166 on the longer-haired side of the fence, 1234 01:09:26,250 --> 01:09:30,962 who are honored in that when we play "The Saint Louis Blues," 1235 01:09:31,046 --> 01:09:35,008 we are only doing a blown-up imitation of what he does. 1236 01:09:35,591 --> 01:09:38,386 -And what he does is real and true… -[audience cheering] 1237 01:09:38,470 --> 01:09:41,765 …and honest and simple, and even noble. 1238 01:09:49,481 --> 01:09:53,902 [Lucille] I never shall forget the first time we went to Africa in 1956. 1239 01:09:57,781 --> 01:09:59,199 [Nas] "My God, darling. 1240 01:10:00,075 --> 01:10:03,287 I had no idea I would be so thrillingly received 1241 01:10:03,370 --> 01:10:07,791 by my brothers and sisters in my homeland, Africa." 1242 01:10:09,251 --> 01:10:13,672 [interviewer 7] This is, though, a tour to make friends and influence people. 1243 01:10:13,755 --> 01:10:16,758 [Armstrong] Well, I guess that's the idea when they did it. 1244 01:10:16,842 --> 01:10:20,637 But all-- We want to get out there and blow for them cats. They're all fans. 1245 01:10:20,721 --> 01:10:22,723 [fans cheering] 1246 01:10:22,806 --> 01:10:25,809 Yeah, we got off the plane and… [indistinct] 1247 01:10:25,893 --> 01:10:29,646 ♪ All for you Lord, for you, Louis ♪ 1248 01:10:29,730 --> 01:10:32,983 ["All For You, Louis" playing] 1249 01:10:39,323 --> 01:10:40,532 ♪ La la la ♪ 1250 01:10:40,616 --> 01:10:44,161 [audience cheering] 1251 01:10:44,244 --> 01:10:48,290 [Lucille] The attendance was so fantastic that there wasn't a place to hold it 1252 01:10:48,373 --> 01:10:51,043 except the polo grounds, which was just a big stadium. 1253 01:10:52,044 --> 01:10:54,046 [band playing upbeat jazz song] 1254 01:11:09,770 --> 01:11:12,397 And then one of the chiefs said to Louis, "Hello, Satchmo." 1255 01:11:12,481 --> 01:11:13,607 And Louis told me, he said, 1256 01:11:13,690 --> 01:11:15,943 "See that, Moms? They even got my records in the bush." 1257 01:11:16,026 --> 01:11:18,320 You know, everybody knows Pops. 1258 01:11:18,403 --> 01:11:20,864 -[playing traditional Ghanaian music] -[cheering] 1259 01:11:27,788 --> 01:11:30,290 -[Armstrong] I had a wonderful time. -[Murrow] I take it you did. 1260 01:11:30,374 --> 01:11:32,584 [Armstrong] Yeah, they had about nine tribes down there. 1261 01:11:32,668 --> 01:11:36,004 That's-- That come from miles away just to dance with us. 1262 01:11:36,713 --> 01:11:39,800 And in one of those tribes, they had a chick swinging there, 1263 01:11:39,883 --> 01:11:40,884 looked just my mother. 1264 01:11:40,968 --> 01:11:43,595 Man, I made the cameraman call her over here 1265 01:11:43,679 --> 01:11:46,640 and let her put a couple of Wiggle Waggle Woos on there for me. 1266 01:11:46,723 --> 01:11:48,475 [both laughing] 1267 01:11:49,059 --> 01:11:51,353 ["King of the Zulus" playing] 1268 01:11:53,438 --> 01:11:54,690 [Armstrong] Here's a song we did 1269 01:11:54,773 --> 01:11:57,484 that was all about one of the big events of the year 1270 01:11:57,568 --> 01:11:58,819 in my hometown, 1271 01:11:58,902 --> 01:12:01,363 the Zulu Parade in Mardi Gras week. 1272 01:12:02,197 --> 01:12:07,077 But it wasn't until 1949, 23 years after I made this record, 1273 01:12:07,160 --> 01:12:11,331 that they elected Satchmo to be the king of the Zulus. [laughs] 1274 01:12:18,755 --> 01:12:20,174 [Feather] I got to New Orleans, 1275 01:12:20,257 --> 01:12:22,926 and it was like everybody was crazy in that city. 1276 01:12:23,010 --> 01:12:24,344 Everybody was packing the streets, 1277 01:12:24,428 --> 01:12:26,388 and there were all kinds of racial paradoxes, 1278 01:12:26,471 --> 01:12:29,600 like the Zulus were prepared to present Louis that night 1279 01:12:29,683 --> 01:12:32,352 in a concert at Booker T. Washington Auditorium. 1280 01:12:32,436 --> 01:12:35,439 [radio host] Armstrong's All Star Band has played 45 minutes 1281 01:12:35,522 --> 01:12:40,652 of New Orleans's own Dixieland music to an enthusiastic capacity crowd. 1282 01:12:41,320 --> 01:12:42,905 [Feather] I went to the concert, and I saw 1283 01:12:42,988 --> 01:12:45,908 Black spectators seated on the left and the center aisles, 1284 01:12:45,991 --> 01:12:47,868 while the whites were over on the right aisle. 1285 01:12:47,951 --> 01:12:50,454 But on the stage, I saw Louis and Jack Teagarden 1286 01:12:50,537 --> 01:12:51,872 with their arms around each other, 1287 01:12:51,955 --> 01:12:55,209 ra-radiating interracial brotherhood, singing a duet. 1288 01:12:55,709 --> 01:12:58,170 And I saw white officials shaking hands with Louis on stage, 1289 01:12:58,253 --> 01:13:01,298 and congratulating him, and paying tribute to his talent. 1290 01:13:01,381 --> 01:13:02,883 I saw Louis bursting with pride 1291 01:13:02,966 --> 01:13:05,802 when the mayor of New Orleans gave him the keys to the city. 1292 01:13:05,886 --> 01:13:07,554 That was the week he made the cover of Time. 1293 01:13:07,638 --> 01:13:10,015 It was on every white newsstand in town. 1294 01:13:10,098 --> 01:13:12,100 [DeLesseps Morrison] On behalf of the people of New Orleans, 1295 01:13:12,184 --> 01:13:15,354 the city with a colorful past and a promising future, 1296 01:13:15,437 --> 01:13:17,481 we want to present you the key to the city. 1297 01:13:17,564 --> 01:13:19,983 -[Armstrong] Aw. -[Morrison] To Louis Armstrong. 1298 01:13:20,067 --> 01:13:22,110 [Armstrong] Thank you very much, Mayor. 1299 01:13:22,194 --> 01:13:24,947 This is really a treat. This is the thrill of my life. 1300 01:13:25,030 --> 01:13:27,199 [Feather] But I also knew that there were hundreds of places 1301 01:13:27,282 --> 01:13:29,576 to which those keys would never admit him. 1302 01:13:33,372 --> 01:13:35,541 [Alexis] When he was king, everybody was getting out. 1303 01:13:35,624 --> 01:13:40,838 People that didn't get out on Carnival, they going out to see Louis Armstrong, 1304 01:13:40,921 --> 01:13:42,047 king of the Zulu. 1305 01:13:42,756 --> 01:13:44,299 And there was so many people. 1306 01:13:44,383 --> 01:13:46,385 Everything got held up, you know what I mean? 1307 01:13:46,468 --> 01:13:48,053 It was stopping everything, 1308 01:13:48,136 --> 01:13:50,180 and he just had to get off the float, you know. 1309 01:13:50,264 --> 01:13:52,724 'Cause sooner or later, man, he might have got hurt up there. 1310 01:13:52,808 --> 01:13:53,809 You understand me? 1311 01:13:53,892 --> 01:13:58,647 [Marsalis] Rex was the biggest parade of all the white parades. 1312 01:13:58,730 --> 01:14:01,191 And by white, I mean it was what it was. It was segregated. 1313 01:14:01,275 --> 01:14:04,486 But Zulu was like the height of everything. 1314 01:14:04,570 --> 01:14:07,865 So, for Pops, he wanted to be the king of Zulu his entire life. 1315 01:14:07,948 --> 01:14:11,076 The king of Zulu would dress up in blackface. 1316 01:14:11,743 --> 01:14:12,995 That's what he did. 1317 01:14:13,078 --> 01:14:16,707 So Louis Armstrong did it, and it became, you know, a crime. 1318 01:14:18,792 --> 01:14:21,378 -[Armstrong] That was a great thing then… -[acquaintance] Yeah. 1319 01:14:21,461 --> 01:14:25,090 …'cause what's going on now with all these marches and organizations, 1320 01:14:25,174 --> 01:14:28,594 they won't let it happen no more now, you know, all that makeup. 1321 01:14:29,553 --> 01:14:31,263 [Crouch] First thing about blackface is 1322 01:14:31,346 --> 01:14:34,057 we have to understand that it comes out of minstrelsy. 1323 01:14:34,141 --> 01:14:37,394 Minstrelsy was not invented to elevate Negroes. 1324 01:14:38,103 --> 01:14:44,735 Minstrelsy was invented to get jobs for white guys who were imitating Negroes. 1325 01:14:46,236 --> 01:14:50,240 Now, what it became, ironically, 1326 01:14:50,324 --> 01:14:57,289 was the first mass popular phenomenon in American culture. 1327 01:15:03,504 --> 01:15:05,797 [Marsalis] You have to know what the tradition is. 1328 01:15:06,507 --> 01:15:09,134 So it's people everywhere who don't know what that tradition is. 1329 01:15:09,218 --> 01:15:12,054 All they're seeing is a blackface minstrel, 1330 01:15:12,137 --> 01:15:13,931 but he wasn't looking at it like that. 1331 01:15:14,014 --> 01:15:16,600 You had a lot of traditions and things that you had 1332 01:15:16,683 --> 01:15:20,395 that were-- were viable and good and meaningful. 1333 01:15:21,104 --> 01:15:24,274 And then, during the movement, we threw all of that stuff out. 1334 01:15:24,358 --> 01:15:26,902 Dancing a certain way, cheesing, Tomming. 1335 01:15:27,694 --> 01:15:30,280 And, uh, we didn't want to be a part of any of that. 1336 01:15:35,285 --> 01:15:36,954 [James Baldwin] "And after the funeral, 1337 01:15:37,037 --> 01:15:39,623 with just Sonny and me alone in the empty kitchen, 1338 01:15:40,374 --> 01:15:43,544 I tried to find out something about him. 1339 01:15:44,294 --> 01:15:45,546 'What do you want to do?' 1340 01:15:46,171 --> 01:15:48,632 'I want to play jazz,' he said. 1341 01:15:49,132 --> 01:15:51,844 'You mean-- like Louis Armstrong?' 1342 01:15:52,469 --> 01:15:54,388 His face closed as though I'd struck him. 1343 01:15:54,972 --> 01:15:58,767 'No, I'm not talking about none of that old-time, down-home crap.'" 1344 01:15:59,476 --> 01:16:04,106 [Frost] Pops, how much do you think you've lost out of-- 1345 01:16:04,606 --> 01:16:07,067 not your own life and certainly not your own pride, 1346 01:16:07,150 --> 01:16:10,529 but out of commercial life by being born Black in a white country? 1347 01:16:10,612 --> 01:16:13,073 No, I don't look at it that way. 1348 01:16:13,740 --> 01:16:17,494 Your color don't mean shit to me if you're a dumb son of a bitch. 1349 01:16:18,203 --> 01:16:19,204 -You understand? -Mm-hmm. 1350 01:16:19,288 --> 01:16:22,708 Right, so, are you a man or mouse? It's up to you. 1351 01:16:23,208 --> 01:16:26,795 [Amiri Baraka] A lot of young people resented the way 1352 01:16:26,879 --> 01:16:30,632 they thought Armstrong was too submissive to the United States. 1353 01:16:30,716 --> 01:16:33,468 If you coming up in the '50s and '60s, 1354 01:16:33,552 --> 01:16:34,928 there's a different aesthetic, 1355 01:16:35,012 --> 01:16:38,098 a different kind of attitude, political attitude, in the street. 1356 01:16:38,182 --> 01:16:41,935 And they didn't understand Louis because Louis was always affable, 1357 01:16:42,019 --> 01:16:42,895 always smiling. 1358 01:16:42,978 --> 01:16:45,022 [singing "Now You Has Jazz"] 1359 01:16:46,773 --> 01:16:47,774 Yay! 1360 01:16:47,858 --> 01:16:51,737 ♪ Keeps that Georgia on my mind ♪ 1361 01:16:51,820 --> 01:16:53,572 ♪ Yeah ♪ 1362 01:16:53,655 --> 01:16:55,365 ♪ Mmm ♪ 1363 01:16:55,449 --> 01:16:56,992 -[person laughing] -[audience cheering] 1364 01:16:57,075 --> 01:17:00,621 [Miles Davis] They don't realize that Louis was doing that 1365 01:17:00,704 --> 01:17:02,664 when he was around his friends. 1366 01:17:03,457 --> 01:17:05,959 -He was acting the same way. -[person] That's right. 1367 01:17:06,043 --> 01:17:08,212 [Davis] But when you do it in front of white folks 1368 01:17:08,295 --> 01:17:11,840 and try to make them enjoy what you feel-- 1369 01:17:11,924 --> 01:17:13,342 -That's what he was doing. -[person] Right! 1370 01:17:13,425 --> 01:17:15,010 -[Davis] They call him Uncle Tom. -[person] Yes. 1371 01:17:15,093 --> 01:17:20,641 ♪ Oh, you can bend her legs Bend her arms and bathe her too ♪ 1372 01:17:22,809 --> 01:17:24,728 ♪ Let's fly down or drive down To New Orleans ♪ 1373 01:17:24,811 --> 01:17:27,606 [Thompson] First time you misplace words and do that shit, 1374 01:17:27,689 --> 01:17:29,942 they gonna say you Uncle Tomming. And goddamn it-- 1375 01:17:30,025 --> 01:17:33,612 And every fucking nationality comedian stays right in this category. 1376 01:17:33,695 --> 01:17:35,489 Look at the Jew, doesn't he use his dialect? 1377 01:17:35,572 --> 01:17:37,449 [Armstrong] I ain't supposed to be no comedian. 1378 01:17:37,533 --> 01:17:38,951 That's just everyday life, you know. 1379 01:17:39,034 --> 01:17:41,370 [Thompson] "Suppose" my ass. You are a natural comedian. 1380 01:17:41,453 --> 01:17:42,955 [Armstrong] Yeah, well, that's all right. 1381 01:17:43,038 --> 01:17:46,124 [Marsalis] A lot of his film roles, the early ones, I never liked those. 1382 01:17:46,208 --> 01:17:49,837 For my generation to see him singing to horses and stuff, 1383 01:17:49,920 --> 01:17:53,298 or the kind of way Black people acted in films, 1384 01:17:53,382 --> 01:17:54,842 it's not just Louis Armstrong. 1385 01:17:54,925 --> 01:17:57,052 [Armstrong] ♪ Gosh all, git up ♪ 1386 01:17:57,135 --> 01:17:59,513 ♪ How'd they get so lit up? ♪ 1387 01:17:59,596 --> 01:18:02,140 -♪ Gosh all, git up ♪ -[horse whinnies] 1388 01:18:02,224 --> 01:18:04,643 ♪ How'd they get that size? ♪ 1389 01:18:04,726 --> 01:18:07,354 [Armstrong] Archie got his nose broke for fighting a nigga 1390 01:18:07,437 --> 01:18:10,023 'cause he didn't like the way he talked about me. 1391 01:18:10,107 --> 01:18:12,901 This smug motherfucker said, "Louis Armstrong, 1392 01:18:12,985 --> 01:18:14,403 Uncle Tom nigga." 1393 01:18:14,486 --> 01:18:17,573 When the fuck have I "Uncle Tommed" in my life? 1394 01:18:17,656 --> 01:18:19,449 [Thompson] I tell ya. All you have to do is 1395 01:18:19,533 --> 01:18:22,744 break up your face and mug, and a nigga say you're Uncle Tom. 1396 01:18:22,828 --> 01:18:26,081 -[Armstrong] I'm blowing this horn… -[Thompson] A man got expressions. 1397 01:18:27,749 --> 01:18:30,252 [Ossie Davis] Most of the fellas I grew up with, myself included, 1398 01:18:30,335 --> 01:18:32,171 we used to laugh at Louis Armstrong. 1399 01:18:33,005 --> 01:18:34,464 We knew he could play the horn, 1400 01:18:34,548 --> 01:18:37,426 but that didn't save him from our malice and our ridicule. 1401 01:18:38,010 --> 01:18:40,679 Everywhere we'd look, there would be old Louis. 1402 01:18:41,346 --> 01:18:46,727 Sweat popping, eyes bugging, mouth wide open, grinning, 1403 01:18:46,810 --> 01:18:49,271 oh, my Lord, from ear to ear. 1404 01:18:50,522 --> 01:18:52,191 "Ooftah," we called it. 1405 01:18:52,858 --> 01:18:57,529 Mopping his brow, ducking his head, doing his thing for the white man. 1406 01:18:57,613 --> 01:18:59,907 Oh, yeah. 1407 01:19:02,326 --> 01:19:08,040 It wasn't until 1966, when we were working together 1408 01:19:08,123 --> 01:19:12,461 on a picture in New York with Sammy Davis Jr., Cicely Tyson, 1409 01:19:13,212 --> 01:19:14,755 that I got to know Louis better. 1410 01:19:16,465 --> 01:19:18,842 One day, we'd broken for lunch, 1411 01:19:18,926 --> 01:19:20,677 and I decided to stay inside. 1412 01:19:21,178 --> 01:19:23,347 It was quiet, so I thought everybody had gone. 1413 01:19:23,430 --> 01:19:26,642 I went back on the set to lie down on the bed, 1414 01:19:28,810 --> 01:19:34,191 and there was Louis by the door, sitting in a chair, 1415 01:19:34,274 --> 01:19:38,362 staring up and out into space 1416 01:19:39,947 --> 01:19:41,615 with the saddest, 1417 01:19:41,698 --> 01:19:45,160 most heartbreaking expression I've ever seen on a man's face. 1418 01:19:47,996 --> 01:19:49,915 I just stared at him for a moment. 1419 01:19:51,333 --> 01:19:54,837 And then when I tried to turn and sneak away, 1420 01:19:56,213 --> 01:19:57,673 the noise snapped Louis out of it. 1421 01:19:57,756 --> 01:20:00,217 And all of a sudden, there was that professional grin again, 1422 01:20:00,300 --> 01:20:01,301 mouth wide open. 1423 01:20:01,385 --> 01:20:03,303 He whipped out his handkerchief, mopped his brow. 1424 01:20:03,387 --> 01:20:04,972 [imitating Armstrong] "Hey, Pops, 1425 01:20:05,055 --> 01:20:08,433 look like you cats trying to starve old Louis to death, yeah." 1426 01:20:08,517 --> 01:20:09,643 [chuckles] 1427 01:20:09,726 --> 01:20:12,145 [normal voice] I put on my face and grinned right back. 1428 01:20:15,482 --> 01:20:16,650 But it wasn't funny. 1429 01:20:18,569 --> 01:20:19,570 Not anymore. 1430 01:20:22,364 --> 01:20:25,659 What I saw in that look shook me. 1431 01:20:27,661 --> 01:20:28,912 It was my father. 1432 01:20:29,872 --> 01:20:31,123 My uncle. 1433 01:20:31,874 --> 01:20:34,793 Myself, down through the generations, 1434 01:20:35,794 --> 01:20:37,921 doing exactly what Louis had had to do, 1435 01:20:38,755 --> 01:20:39,882 for the same reason, 1436 01:20:41,383 --> 01:20:42,384 to survive. 1437 01:20:43,510 --> 01:20:45,262 I never laughed at Louis after that, 1438 01:20:47,389 --> 01:20:52,728 for beneath that gravel voice and that shuffle, 1439 01:20:55,105 --> 01:21:01,486 under all that mouth with more teeth than a piano had keys, 1440 01:21:04,156 --> 01:21:08,160 was a horn that could kill a man. 1441 01:21:09,077 --> 01:21:13,207 That horn is where Louis had kept his manhood hid all those years. 1442 01:21:13,832 --> 01:21:16,043 Enough for him, enough for all of us. 1443 01:21:17,711 --> 01:21:20,881 ["Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child" playing] 1444 01:21:25,052 --> 01:21:27,221 [trumpet playing melody] 1445 01:21:30,974 --> 01:21:33,727 [singers vocalizing] 1446 01:21:39,441 --> 01:21:41,944 [interviewer 1] I understand you're somewhat of a politician. 1447 01:21:42,027 --> 01:21:43,820 Do you know anything about politics? 1448 01:21:43,904 --> 01:21:45,906 [chuckling] No. No. 1449 01:21:45,989 --> 01:21:49,952 Uh, politics, uh… [indistinct] I don't think you could print that-- 1450 01:21:50,911 --> 01:21:55,165 that are African golfers, and stuff like that. [laughs] 1451 01:21:55,249 --> 01:21:59,545 [Baraka] We confuse what we perceived as the social demeanor 1452 01:22:00,379 --> 01:22:02,923 in that context of lynching-- 1453 01:22:03,423 --> 01:22:06,176 You understand? Overt segregation. 1454 01:22:06,260 --> 01:22:09,596 And we thought that Louis was submitting to that. 1455 01:22:09,680 --> 01:22:13,725 ♪ Sometimes I feel ♪ 1456 01:22:14,685 --> 01:22:16,603 ♪ Like a motherless child ♪ 1457 01:22:16,687 --> 01:22:21,108 [Baraka] You know, Louis's expression was musical and artistic 1458 01:22:21,191 --> 01:22:22,526 and transcended that. 1459 01:22:22,609 --> 01:22:25,362 When it was possible for Louis to speak, he spoke. 1460 01:22:31,368 --> 01:22:33,203 [Morgenstern] Louis was very sensitive 1461 01:22:33,287 --> 01:22:38,584 when people did something that he felt-- I guess the word would be "unethical." 1462 01:22:39,585 --> 01:22:43,130 [interviewer 2] What about you? Do you think the colored students will show up? 1463 01:22:43,213 --> 01:22:45,215 If I got anything to do with it, they won't show up. 1464 01:22:45,299 --> 01:22:48,552 Well, I think it's a breaking point of the school integration. 1465 01:22:48,635 --> 01:22:51,263 I don't feel that they should have a right to go to school. 1466 01:22:51,346 --> 01:22:54,349 [Danny Kaye] ♪ Oh, when the saints ♪ 1467 01:22:54,433 --> 01:22:56,226 [Armstrong] ♪ When the saints ♪ 1468 01:22:56,977 --> 01:22:59,229 [Kaye] ♪ Go marching in ♪ 1469 01:22:59,313 --> 01:23:01,815 [Armstrong] ♪ Go marching in ♪ 1470 01:23:01,899 --> 01:23:06,820 -[Kaye] ♪ When the saints go marching in ♪ -[Armstrong] ♪ Yeah ♪ 1471 01:23:06,904 --> 01:23:08,822 ♪ Oh, yeah ♪ 1472 01:23:09,323 --> 01:23:14,786 -[Kaye] ♪ I want to be in that number ♪ -[Armstrong scatting] 1473 01:23:14,870 --> 01:23:16,830 [Armstrong] ♪ Oh, yeah ♪ 1474 01:23:17,581 --> 01:23:23,545 [Kaye] ♪ When the saints come marching in ♪ 1475 01:23:25,672 --> 01:23:28,133 -[Kaye] ♪ When the saints ♪ -[Armstrong] ♪ Oh, when the saints ♪ 1476 01:23:28,217 --> 01:23:30,844 -[Kaye] ♪ Go marching in ♪ -[Armstrong] ♪ Are marching in ♪ 1477 01:23:30,928 --> 01:23:34,223 ♪ Who's gonna play on the day That the saints go marching in? ♪ 1478 01:23:34,306 --> 01:23:37,976 ♪ Well, man The mostest and the greatest ♪ 1479 01:23:38,060 --> 01:23:40,270 [both] ♪ From the oldest to the latest ♪ 1480 01:23:40,354 --> 01:23:42,606 ♪ Gonna play in the band In the big bandstand ♪ 1481 01:23:42,689 --> 01:23:44,066 ♪ When the saints go marching in ♪ 1482 01:23:44,149 --> 01:23:46,777 -Now, Louis, how about Brahms? -[Armstrong] Oh, he ain't no bum. 1483 01:23:46,860 --> 01:23:48,278 [reporter] Little Rock, Arkansas. 1484 01:23:48,362 --> 01:23:49,821 The white population are determined 1485 01:23:49,905 --> 01:23:53,325 to prevent colored students from going to the school their own children attend. 1486 01:23:53,408 --> 01:23:55,994 [Armstrong] ♪ And Mozart composed With all he had ♪ 1487 01:23:56,078 --> 01:23:58,622 [Kaye] ♪ With symphonies And operas and all that jazz ♪ 1488 01:23:58,705 --> 01:24:01,959 [reporter] Later, the Central High School of Little Rock storm center was sealed off 1489 01:24:02,042 --> 01:24:03,085 by orders of the governor, 1490 01:24:03,168 --> 01:24:05,170 who called out the state National Guard. 1491 01:24:05,754 --> 01:24:08,966 [Kaye] ♪ Oh, when the saints Go marching in ♪ 1492 01:24:09,049 --> 01:24:10,217 [Armstrong] ♪ Oh, when the saints ♪ 1493 01:24:10,300 --> 01:24:13,053 [reporter] Colored youngsters arrived under safe conduct by the guards, 1494 01:24:13,136 --> 01:24:15,764 but no sooner had they arrived than they were off again. 1495 01:24:15,848 --> 01:24:18,308 Arkansas had evidently decided to make its own laws 1496 01:24:18,392 --> 01:24:19,560 on the subject of integration. 1497 01:24:19,643 --> 01:24:24,398 [Armstrong, Kaye] ♪ Go marching in ♪ 1498 01:24:25,774 --> 01:24:27,818 [interviewer 3] What are you gonna tell the Russians 1499 01:24:27,901 --> 01:24:30,320 when they ask you about the Little Rock incident? 1500 01:24:30,404 --> 01:24:32,739 It all depends what time they send me over there. 1501 01:24:32,823 --> 01:24:36,034 I don't think they should send me unless they straighten that mess down South. 1502 01:24:36,118 --> 01:24:37,911 [protesters chanting] Two, four, six, eight! 1503 01:24:37,995 --> 01:24:39,997 We don't want to integrate! 1504 01:24:42,416 --> 01:24:47,546 They've been ignoring the Constitution. Al-Although they're taught it in school. 1505 01:24:47,629 --> 01:24:49,923 But when they go home, their parents tell them different. 1506 01:24:50,007 --> 01:24:51,508 Say, "You don't have to abide by it 1507 01:24:51,592 --> 01:24:54,011 because we've been getting away with it a hundred years. 1508 01:24:54,094 --> 01:24:57,806 So, uh, nobody tells on each other, so don't bother with it." 1509 01:24:57,890 --> 01:25:02,019 So, if they ask me what's happening, uh, if I go now, I can't tell a lie. 1510 01:25:02,102 --> 01:25:05,522 That's one thing. There's no worth lying the way I feel about it. 1511 01:25:06,023 --> 01:25:07,774 -[interviewer 3] Thank you, Louis. -Okay. 1512 01:25:08,317 --> 01:25:09,610 Now I'll say this to you. 1513 01:25:09,693 --> 01:25:12,988 I'll never open the public schools in Little Rock 1514 01:25:13,071 --> 01:25:15,657 on an integrated basis until the people say so. 1515 01:25:15,741 --> 01:25:17,576 [audience cheering] 1516 01:25:17,659 --> 01:25:19,703 [Marsalis] You know, there's a certain type of naivete 1517 01:25:19,786 --> 01:25:21,038 that a country like this has, 1518 01:25:21,121 --> 01:25:24,750 in those who are super patriotic and they don't see anything. 1519 01:25:25,459 --> 01:25:27,085 It's just, "Everything we do is great." 1520 01:25:27,169 --> 01:25:31,173 And then those who are not patriotic at all and see that we don't do anything. 1521 01:25:31,757 --> 01:25:34,092 Louis Armstrong was not in either camp. 1522 01:25:34,593 --> 01:25:37,888 And I dare say that he was actually more in the forefront of civil rights 1523 01:25:37,971 --> 01:25:39,640 in terms of making statements 1524 01:25:40,140 --> 01:25:43,227 than a lot of the so-called modern musicians of that time were. 1525 01:25:43,310 --> 01:25:46,146 And even when he said what he said about Eisenhower in the '50s. 1526 01:25:46,230 --> 01:25:48,273 Yeah, he was upset about segregation. 1527 01:25:48,941 --> 01:25:51,360 [Larry Lubenow] Well, he said that as far as he was concerned, 1528 01:25:51,443 --> 01:25:53,487 Ike and the government could go to hell, 1529 01:25:54,071 --> 01:25:57,950 and he sang his version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" to me 1530 01:25:58,033 --> 01:26:00,285 with very dirty, uh, lyrics. 1531 01:26:00,369 --> 01:26:05,457 "Oh, say, can you mothers-- MFs see by the MF early light." 1532 01:26:06,124 --> 01:26:07,334 He was very mad. 1533 01:26:08,210 --> 01:26:10,420 [Ernie Anderson] Then he said a number of things, 1534 01:26:10,963 --> 01:26:15,843 one of which was, "As for Orval Faubus, he's just an ignorant plowboy." 1535 01:26:15,926 --> 01:26:17,678 [Armstrong] Well, I think it's a damn shame 1536 01:26:17,761 --> 01:26:21,473 for people to be so deceitful and two-faced. 1537 01:26:21,557 --> 01:26:23,433 I mean, that, uh-- that governor. 1538 01:26:23,517 --> 01:26:24,935 I mean, I bet you right now, 1539 01:26:25,018 --> 01:26:27,896 he's got an old colored mammy there nursing his baby. 1540 01:26:27,980 --> 01:26:32,109 The nation alone, I mean, is misguided, cold-blooded. 1541 01:26:32,192 --> 01:26:33,819 Shame just to keep it up. 1542 01:26:33,902 --> 01:26:34,903 They can't stand it. 1543 01:26:34,987 --> 01:26:36,989 I mean, how can they rest well at night 1544 01:26:37,072 --> 01:26:39,074 thinking they have to go through that tomorrow? 1545 01:26:39,157 --> 01:26:42,160 The kids, uh, they're only doing what their parents told 'em. 1546 01:26:43,161 --> 01:26:44,496 They wouldn't do it if-- 1547 01:26:45,497 --> 01:26:48,333 I mean, the colored people who, at the end of the day, 1548 01:26:48,417 --> 01:26:52,171 they-- I don't know why, but, uh, when they throw their… [indistinct] 1549 01:26:52,254 --> 01:26:54,548 We throw our heart in it and everything, 1550 01:26:54,631 --> 01:26:56,884 because we're just doing it for our country. 1551 01:26:57,718 --> 01:27:01,054 [Morgenstern] Everybody was astonished when Louis did it publicly, 1552 01:27:01,138 --> 01:27:05,392 but privately he had expressed stuff like that all his life. 1553 01:27:05,475 --> 01:27:10,856 You know, he was very conscious of what we now call civil rights. 1554 01:27:10,939 --> 01:27:14,067 [Lucille] He blew up. He put it on the line. 1555 01:27:14,151 --> 01:27:17,821 You know, and, of course, he had very, very, very, very bad comments 1556 01:27:17,905 --> 01:27:21,074 from our political leaders about making this particular statement. 1557 01:27:21,158 --> 01:27:24,161 That-- You know, they interviewed Adam Clayton Powell. 1558 01:27:24,244 --> 01:27:25,996 They interviewed Sammy Davis. 1559 01:27:26,079 --> 01:27:27,539 They put Pops down 1560 01:27:28,040 --> 01:27:30,876 because they said he was a musician, he didn't know what he was talking about. 1561 01:27:30,959 --> 01:27:32,836 Louis was that kind of person. 1562 01:27:32,920 --> 01:27:34,213 He-- Either he said nothing, 1563 01:27:34,296 --> 01:27:35,339 and when he got angry, 1564 01:27:35,422 --> 01:27:38,217 he said what was in his heart and his mind. 1565 01:27:38,300 --> 01:27:41,803 [Al Cobette] It seems that the White House was waiting for 1566 01:27:41,887 --> 01:27:44,097 some big name to speak out, 1567 01:27:44,181 --> 01:27:46,308 and Louis made his statement today, 1568 01:27:46,391 --> 01:27:48,727 and the troops were in Little Rock the next morning. 1569 01:27:48,810 --> 01:27:52,898 [Lucille] After he'd made the statement, he sent Eisenhower a wire saying that 1570 01:27:52,981 --> 01:27:56,151 "If you will go in with the troops, I'll go with you." 1571 01:27:57,277 --> 01:27:59,947 [interviewer 4] That's little known, you know, uh… [stammers] 1572 01:28:00,030 --> 01:28:01,949 [Lucille] Oh, you know, it's a funny thing. 1573 01:28:02,032 --> 01:28:05,452 Nobody really stopped to really dig Pops, and it's an unfortunate thing. 1574 01:28:05,536 --> 01:28:08,080 He felt it deeply. He really did. 1575 01:28:08,580 --> 01:28:10,582 [interviewer 4] A prophet is without honor in his own country. 1576 01:28:10,666 --> 01:28:12,543 -[Lucille] That's it. -[interviewer 4] Mmm. 1577 01:28:12,626 --> 01:28:14,211 [Armstrong] ♪ Yes ♪ 1578 01:28:14,294 --> 01:28:15,754 -[director] Great. -[Armstrong laughs] 1579 01:28:15,838 --> 01:28:18,465 [director] We're gonna do this once more. Louis, and say… 1580 01:28:18,549 --> 01:28:20,926 ♪ Set man free ♪ 1581 01:28:21,009 --> 01:28:22,469 -[Armstrong] Me too? -[director] We-- No. 1582 01:28:22,553 --> 01:28:23,595 When they get through… 1583 01:28:23,679 --> 01:28:25,138 ♪ Set man free ♪ 1584 01:28:25,222 --> 01:28:30,102 [Armstrong] ♪ They say I look like God ♪ 1585 01:28:30,185 --> 01:28:34,314 [singers] ♪ In the image of God Created he them ♪ 1586 01:28:34,398 --> 01:28:37,734 [Armstrong] ♪ Could God be Black? ♪ 1587 01:28:37,818 --> 01:28:40,195 ♪ My God ♪ 1588 01:28:40,279 --> 01:28:45,367 [Morgenstern] The Real Ambassadors. It was meant to be a stage show. 1589 01:28:45,450 --> 01:28:49,454 And, uh, unfortunately, it never made it to Broadway. 1590 01:28:50,247 --> 01:28:52,416 The tale of it was 1591 01:28:52,499 --> 01:28:57,462 that jazz represented America in a very special way 1592 01:28:57,546 --> 01:29:02,134 and that jazz musicians were the real ambassadors, 1593 01:29:02,217 --> 01:29:05,137 not politicians or speech makers. 1594 01:29:05,220 --> 01:29:07,931 [Armstrong] ♪ Can it be? ♪ 1595 01:29:08,015 --> 01:29:09,558 [chorus] ♪ Hallelujah ♪ 1596 01:29:09,641 --> 01:29:12,269 [Marsalis] He brought the same thing to every song he sang, 1597 01:29:12,352 --> 01:29:13,687 understanding the human condition. 1598 01:29:13,770 --> 01:29:16,190 Any kind of lyrics, he could just imbue with that. 1599 01:29:16,690 --> 01:29:19,443 That understanding, it's like a-- It's a spiritual thing. 1600 01:29:19,526 --> 01:29:21,904 It's a depth and an insight. 1601 01:29:21,987 --> 01:29:26,575 [Armstrong] ♪ He's watching all the Earth ♪ 1602 01:29:27,159 --> 01:29:31,288 [host] The simple emotional impact of jazz has cut through all kinds of barriers. 1603 01:29:31,371 --> 01:29:33,999 Louis Armstrong has become an extraordinary kind of… 1604 01:29:34,082 --> 01:29:35,751 roaming ambassador of goodwill. 1605 01:29:35,834 --> 01:29:37,878 Well, you might say he's America's ambassador with a horn. 1606 01:29:38,462 --> 01:29:41,715 [Armstrong] ♪ I'm the real ambassador ♪ 1607 01:29:42,508 --> 01:29:47,346 ♪ It is evident I was sent By government to take your place ♪ 1608 01:29:47,429 --> 01:29:49,348 ♪ All I do is play the blues ♪ 1609 01:29:49,431 --> 01:29:51,308 [Armstrong] See, Jack, I think you're wrong 1610 01:29:51,391 --> 01:29:53,101 about me being the ambassador. 1611 01:29:53,185 --> 01:29:56,104 I think jazz is the ambassador. 1612 01:29:56,188 --> 01:30:00,734 Well, I might be the courier that takes the message over there. 1613 01:30:00,817 --> 01:30:03,654 But it's jazz that does the talking. 1614 01:30:03,737 --> 01:30:07,658 My horn and me have traveled from Sweden to Spain, 1615 01:30:07,741 --> 01:30:10,118 and when I played Berlin, 1616 01:30:10,202 --> 01:30:13,997 a lot of them cats jumped the iron fence to hear old Satchmo. [laughs] 1617 01:30:14,873 --> 01:30:18,669 Ah, which proves that music is stronger than nations. 1618 01:30:18,752 --> 01:30:20,754 I don't know much about politics, 1619 01:30:20,838 --> 01:30:23,090 but I know these people in foreign countries 1620 01:30:23,173 --> 01:30:26,510 hear all kinds of things about America, 1621 01:30:26,593 --> 01:30:28,929 some good, some bad. 1622 01:30:29,012 --> 01:30:31,723 I'm pretty sure what comes out of this horn 1623 01:30:31,807 --> 01:30:34,434 makes them feel better about us. 1624 01:30:35,394 --> 01:30:40,566 One thing is sure, they know a trumpet ain't no cannon. [laughs] 1625 01:30:41,066 --> 01:30:44,862 [John F. Kennedy] It ought to be possible for American consumers of any color 1626 01:30:45,571 --> 01:30:49,825 to receive equal service in places of public accommodation, 1627 01:30:50,325 --> 01:30:54,580 such as hotels and restaurants and theaters and retail stores, 1628 01:30:55,330 --> 01:30:59,376 without being forced to resort to demonstrations in the street. 1629 01:30:59,459 --> 01:31:01,253 [interviewer 5] When you return to the United States, 1630 01:31:01,336 --> 01:31:05,048 do you intend to take a more active part in civil rights? 1631 01:31:05,132 --> 01:31:10,470 They have, uh, other people, politicians, who take care of things like that. 1632 01:31:10,554 --> 01:31:16,768 And so the best I can do is, uh, put a little, uh, something in their till. 1633 01:31:16,852 --> 01:31:18,145 And that's my part. 1634 01:31:18,812 --> 01:31:20,397 -That's the best I can do. -[interviewer 5] Uh… 1635 01:31:20,480 --> 01:31:22,608 Because, uh, I love everybody. 1636 01:31:22,691 --> 01:31:25,235 I mean, uh, the white people, 1637 01:31:25,319 --> 01:31:28,405 they're my greatest fans all through the South. 1638 01:31:28,488 --> 01:31:32,409 We stay in the best hotels, and they give us the best courtesies, 1639 01:31:32,492 --> 01:31:38,165 and, uh, my biggest audience is people all over the United States. 1640 01:31:38,665 --> 01:31:41,251 So I can't abuse e-either one. 1641 01:31:42,085 --> 01:31:47,716 So I don't ignore the-- the-- the march and the-- the-- whatever it is. 1642 01:31:47,799 --> 01:31:52,095 I just do my little part by putting a little money in my part. 1643 01:31:52,804 --> 01:31:55,265 Which some of them don't do, but I do. 1644 01:31:55,349 --> 01:31:57,643 -You understand Pops? That's right. -[interviewer 5] Mmm. 1645 01:31:59,520 --> 01:32:03,440 [Nas] "For me, if I'd be out somewhere marching with a sign 1646 01:32:03,524 --> 01:32:05,776 and some cat hits me in my chops, 1647 01:32:05,859 --> 01:32:06,944 I'm finished. 1648 01:32:07,027 --> 01:32:10,072 A trumpet man gets hit in the chops, and he's through. 1649 01:32:10,614 --> 01:32:13,784 If my people don't dig me the way that I am, I'm sorry. 1650 01:32:14,451 --> 01:32:17,996 If they don't go along with me giving my dough instead of marching… 1651 01:32:19,164 --> 01:32:21,375 Well, every cat's entitled to his opinion. 1652 01:32:22,084 --> 01:32:25,796 But that's the way I figure I can help out and still keep working. 1653 01:32:25,879 --> 01:32:29,633 If they let me alone on this score, I'll do my part in my way. 1654 01:32:29,716 --> 01:32:33,554 Pops, I come out of a part of the South where it ain't no way in the world 1655 01:32:33,637 --> 01:32:35,556 you can forget you're colored. 1656 01:32:35,639 --> 01:32:38,267 My own mother went through hell down there. 1657 01:32:38,350 --> 01:32:40,519 My grandma used to have tears in her eyes 1658 01:32:40,602 --> 01:32:43,689 when she'd talk about the lynchings and all that crap. 1659 01:32:43,772 --> 01:32:48,026 Even myself, I've seen things that would make my flesh crawl. 1660 01:32:48,735 --> 01:32:53,115 But it wasn't a damn thing I could do about it and keep on breathing." 1661 01:32:53,699 --> 01:32:56,994 [interviewer 6] Louis, how much weight have you lost? You're skinny as a rail. 1662 01:32:57,494 --> 01:32:59,663 [Armstrong] Well, uh, I don't know, 1663 01:32:59,746 --> 01:33:03,250 around 40, 45 pounds, like that, in a couple of months. 1664 01:33:03,333 --> 01:33:05,794 Just took it easy, you know, and-- 1665 01:33:05,878 --> 01:33:07,671 What'd you do about the wardrobe? 1666 01:33:07,754 --> 01:33:10,299 Well, I just got rid of it. I mean, it was a pleasure. 1667 01:33:10,382 --> 01:33:12,467 Y-You can't take them up but once. 1668 01:33:12,551 --> 01:33:15,012 So, I took it up once, and it was still too big. 1669 01:33:15,095 --> 01:33:16,096 So that was it. 1670 01:33:17,973 --> 01:33:19,725 [interviewer 7] Mr. Armstrong, everybody calls you Louis, 1671 01:33:19,808 --> 01:33:21,268 -and I hope I can. -[Armstrong] Yes. 1672 01:33:21,351 --> 01:33:24,146 [interviewer 7] You've been very sick the last couple of years. How you feeling? 1673 01:33:24,229 --> 01:33:28,317 [Armstrong] Well, I feel fine now, you know, and like the old saying, uh… 1674 01:33:28,400 --> 01:33:29,776 "I've left it all behind me." 1675 01:33:29,860 --> 01:33:32,070 [interviewer 7] You went into the intensive care unit twice. 1676 01:33:32,154 --> 01:33:33,363 [Armstrong] Twice, yeah, yeah. 1677 01:33:33,447 --> 01:33:35,657 [interviewer 7] Did you think your life was coming to an end? 1678 01:33:35,741 --> 01:33:38,660 A man going into intensive care twice, 1679 01:33:38,744 --> 01:33:40,704 you know, he's looking right at Gabriel, 1680 01:33:40,787 --> 01:33:41,788 and he's calling me. 1681 01:33:41,872 --> 01:33:43,832 He wants to blow a duet with me. 1682 01:33:43,916 --> 01:33:45,167 [both laughing] 1683 01:33:45,250 --> 01:33:48,420 But I said, "No, daddy, your-- your union card ain't straight. 1684 01:33:48,504 --> 01:33:49,630 I better wait." 1685 01:33:49,713 --> 01:33:51,340 [both laughing] 1686 01:33:51,965 --> 01:33:54,718 [Armstrong] When I was in the Beth Israel Hospital, 1687 01:33:54,801 --> 01:33:58,430 boy, I got boxes and boxes of mail 1688 01:33:58,514 --> 01:34:01,016 from everywhere over the waters. 1689 01:34:01,099 --> 01:34:05,854 "Come on, Satch, get out of that bed and come blow. We're waiting for you." 1690 01:34:06,772 --> 01:34:09,733 [Tomasso] Hello, Louis. This is Enrico. 1691 01:34:10,526 --> 01:34:16,156 I hope you are getting better, and we are all praying for you. 1692 01:34:16,240 --> 01:34:19,034 [interviewer 8] How many more years do you think you'll be blowing that horn? 1693 01:34:19,117 --> 01:34:21,078 [Armstrong] Well, I'll be blowing all my life. 1694 01:34:21,161 --> 01:34:23,205 I mean, that's the way it'll be, you know. 1695 01:34:23,288 --> 01:34:28,627 And I-- Even if I'll be teaching some kids or something, I'll always be around music. 1696 01:34:28,710 --> 01:34:32,089 Satchmo, you've been everywhere and done just about everything. 1697 01:34:32,172 --> 01:34:34,883 Is there anything you haven't done that you'd like to do? 1698 01:34:34,967 --> 01:34:38,720 Yeah, keep living. [chuckles] I ain't finished yet. 1699 01:34:42,015 --> 01:34:44,184 [Armstrong] ♪ I see trees of green ♪ 1700 01:34:44,268 --> 01:34:45,435 [audience applauding] 1701 01:34:46,937 --> 01:34:49,147 ♪ Red roses too ♪ 1702 01:34:50,148 --> 01:34:55,988 ♪ I see them bloom for me and you ♪ 1703 01:34:56,655 --> 01:35:00,325 ♪ And I think to myself ♪ 1704 01:35:02,077 --> 01:35:06,456 ♪ What a wonderful world ♪ 1705 01:35:10,377 --> 01:35:14,131 ♪ I see skies of blue ♪ 1706 01:35:14,214 --> 01:35:18,468 There's a zillion people who dug that tune the way I did it when I felt it 1707 01:35:19,178 --> 01:35:23,557 because, uh, there's so much in "Wonderful World" 1708 01:35:23,640 --> 01:35:29,188 that brings me back to my neighborhood where I live in Corona, uh, New York. 1709 01:35:29,771 --> 01:35:32,774 Lucille and I, ever since we married, 1710 01:35:32,858 --> 01:35:35,986 we've been right there in that block. 1711 01:35:36,069 --> 01:35:39,823 And everybody keeps their little homes up like we do. 1712 01:35:39,907 --> 01:35:41,992 And it's just like one big family. 1713 01:35:42,075 --> 01:35:45,579 I saw three generations come up in them blocks. 1714 01:35:45,662 --> 01:35:46,872 So that's why I can say, 1715 01:35:46,955 --> 01:35:52,336 ♪ I hear babies cry and ♪ 1716 01:35:52,419 --> 01:35:55,923 ♪ I've watched them grow ♪ 1717 01:35:56,006 --> 01:36:01,970 ♪ They'll learn much more Than I'll ever know ♪ 1718 01:36:02,721 --> 01:36:05,766 ♪ And I think to myself ♪ 1719 01:36:07,809 --> 01:36:12,523 ♪ What a wonderful world ♪ 1720 01:36:15,359 --> 01:36:22,366 ♪ Yes, I think to myself ♪ 1721 01:36:23,659 --> 01:36:30,666 ♪ What a wonderful world ♪ 1722 01:36:33,752 --> 01:36:38,882 My doctor came to hear me blow, and he was perfectly satisfied. 1723 01:36:38,966 --> 01:36:42,261 He examined me thoroughly 1724 01:36:42,344 --> 01:36:46,932 to see if my blowing affected the old ticker, you know. 1725 01:36:47,015 --> 01:36:52,563 And the beats were perfectly normal. 1726 01:36:52,646 --> 01:36:55,774 Yeah. 1727 01:36:55,858 --> 01:36:59,653 [singer] ♪ Happy birthday to you ♪ 1728 01:37:00,153 --> 01:37:04,449 ♪ Happy birthday, dear Louis ♪ 1729 01:37:05,075 --> 01:37:10,372 ♪ Happy birthday to you ♪ 1730 01:37:10,455 --> 01:37:14,126 This is seven-- seventy steps. 1731 01:37:15,252 --> 01:37:17,379 And ten more steps, I'll be in heaven. 1732 01:37:17,462 --> 01:37:19,298 [host laughing] 1733 01:37:20,132 --> 01:37:21,967 [Lucille] It had been my opinion 1734 01:37:22,050 --> 01:37:24,803 that Louis was gonna drop dead on stage one day. 1735 01:37:25,387 --> 01:37:28,348 I didn't feel bad about that because if he had to go, I think, 1736 01:37:28,432 --> 01:37:30,767 "What better way to go than doing the thing you love to do?" 1737 01:37:39,276 --> 01:37:44,239 [Feather] A lot of us would be very happy to have accomplished 1738 01:37:44,323 --> 01:37:46,867 to the extent that he did what we originally set out to do. 1739 01:37:47,659 --> 01:37:50,746 He had all the material things that he needed, but more importantly, 1740 01:37:50,829 --> 01:37:54,499 he had the respect and the love of millions of people. 1741 01:37:54,583 --> 01:37:57,836 I mean, literally millions, all over the world. 1742 01:37:58,420 --> 01:38:00,214 What more could any man ask for? 1743 01:38:01,215 --> 01:38:06,512 [Lucille] The night Louis passed, I had no idea, this man-- 1744 01:38:06,595 --> 01:38:08,680 He disappointed-- He was doing so well. 1745 01:38:08,764 --> 01:38:10,307 It was a shock to me. 1746 01:38:10,390 --> 01:38:12,518 And he was telling me, he says, "You know, I feel good." 1747 01:38:12,601 --> 01:38:14,478 He says, "You know, I've got to get back to work." 1748 01:38:14,561 --> 01:38:20,692 So that's the mood Louis was in on the 5th of July of 1971. 1749 01:38:31,620 --> 01:38:33,622 [Ella Fitzgerald singing "April in Paris"] 1750 01:38:58,981 --> 01:39:01,900 [trumpet playing] 1751 01:39:06,321 --> 01:39:09,199 [reporter] Music kept Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong rolling 1752 01:39:09,283 --> 01:39:10,742 for 71 years, 1753 01:39:10,826 --> 01:39:14,454 until this morning when he died in his sleep in his home in New York. 1754 01:39:14,538 --> 01:39:18,000 He had been battling heart and kidney ailments for years. 1755 01:39:18,083 --> 01:39:20,878 [Walter Cronkite] We aren't saying goodbye to Louis tonight, 1756 01:39:20,961 --> 01:39:23,255 for a man's music does not die with him. 1757 01:39:23,338 --> 01:39:24,965 Certainly not this man's. 1758 01:39:25,048 --> 01:39:27,926 While we can only guess how Beethoven played the piano 1759 01:39:28,010 --> 01:39:30,512 or Mozart conducted an orchestra, 1760 01:39:30,596 --> 01:39:34,641 the sounds of Louis singing, playing, or just plain talking 1761 01:39:34,725 --> 01:39:37,311 will live as long as there is anyone to listen. 1762 01:39:38,187 --> 01:39:41,690 [interviewee 1] Well, he was a great artist and a very sweet man. 1763 01:39:42,524 --> 01:39:45,527 [interviewee 2] Down-to-earth, a lovely neighbor, 1764 01:39:46,945 --> 01:39:50,073 he was a regular, and he just loved to be around people. 1765 01:39:50,157 --> 01:39:54,411 He was more of a friend instead of celebrity in the neighborhood. 1766 01:40:03,045 --> 01:40:05,130 [interviewer 9] Bobby Hackett, learn anything from him? 1767 01:40:05,923 --> 01:40:08,634 [Hackett] To me, Pops was truly an immortal man. 1768 01:40:09,218 --> 01:40:11,887 And the truth of the matter is that he will never die. 1769 01:40:12,471 --> 01:40:16,183 I think what he left will always be heard all over the world and enjoyed, 1770 01:40:16,934 --> 01:40:21,021 and a very gentle reminder to everybody to love thy neighbor 1771 01:40:21,104 --> 01:40:23,023 and cut out the nonsense. 1772 01:40:23,607 --> 01:40:25,359 [Marsalis] He was a man that was beloved 1773 01:40:25,442 --> 01:40:28,320 with a certain depth and intensity that you cannot fathom. 1774 01:40:28,820 --> 01:40:30,948 It was 'cause of how he touched people. 1775 01:40:31,031 --> 01:40:33,659 [song continues] 1776 01:40:40,707 --> 01:40:42,960 [trumpet playing] 1777 01:40:47,589 --> 01:40:49,716 [song ends] 1778 01:40:49,800 --> 01:40:55,138 [Armstrong] Well, folks, that was my life, and I enjoyed all of it. 1779 01:40:55,722 --> 01:40:56,807 Yes, I did. 1780 01:40:57,432 --> 01:40:59,518 I don't feel ashamed at all. 1781 01:41:00,310 --> 01:41:06,233 My life has always been an open book, so I have nothing to hide. 1782 01:41:07,025 --> 01:41:10,612 Bye-bye. Love aplenty. 1783 01:41:11,530 --> 01:41:17,578 Soul foodly, "Satchmo" Louis Armstrong. 1784 01:41:22,040 --> 01:41:24,334 [Armstrong] This is one number I like to do, folks, 1785 01:41:24,418 --> 01:41:28,338 and it tells you a whole lot about my life. 1786 01:41:28,422 --> 01:41:30,340 -I can't tell it all, you know. -[crowd laughs] 1787 01:41:30,424 --> 01:41:33,385 But let's give you a good synopsis. [laughs] 1788 01:41:33,468 --> 01:41:35,387 [piano playing "Boy From New Orleans"] 1789 01:41:47,816 --> 01:41:54,031 ♪ When I was born long ago ♪ 1790 01:41:56,950 --> 01:42:01,997 ♪ July the 4th, 19-0-0 ♪ 1791 01:42:04,458 --> 01:42:11,089 ♪ It was back of town in James Alley ♪ 1792 01:42:13,175 --> 01:42:18,889 ♪ A boy from New Orleans ♪ 1793 01:42:20,516 --> 01:42:27,231 ♪ When I was only five or so ♪ 1794 01:42:29,691 --> 01:42:34,905 ♪ Down Rampart Street I used to go ♪ 1795 01:42:36,949 --> 01:42:43,330 ♪ That's when I heard The great King Oliver ♪ 1796 01:42:45,374 --> 01:42:51,255 ♪ Blowing jazz from New Orleans ♪ 1797 01:42:52,881 --> 01:42:56,677 Now folks, all these years… 1798 01:42:59,221 --> 01:43:00,973 I've had a ball. 1799 01:43:04,476 --> 01:43:08,313 Oh, thank you, Lord. [chuckles] 1800 01:43:09,940 --> 01:43:12,526 And I thank you all. [stammers] 1801 01:43:14,611 --> 01:43:18,240 ♪ You are very kind ♪ 1802 01:43:19,783 --> 01:43:23,537 ♪ To old Satchmo, yes ♪ 1803 01:43:24,496 --> 01:43:27,249 -Nice looking boy, ain't he? [chuckles] -[audience laughs] 1804 01:43:27,332 --> 01:43:34,339 ♪ A boy from New Orleans ♪ 1805 01:43:36,216 --> 01:43:41,471 [scats] 1806 01:43:41,555 --> 01:43:46,894 [audience cheering, applauding]