He grew up in abject poverty in the slums of New Orleans.
When he was twelve, he ended up in the Colored Waifs Home for Boys
where he learned to play the cornet.
Later he became a world famous musician and a singer
who kicked the Beatles off the number one Billboard spot with “Hello Dolly.”
We are talking about Louis Armstrong, the maestro of Jazz.
Next on Marking History!
Here is an historical marker for Louis “ Satchmo” Armstrong.
His marker and statue are located here in his native city of New Orleans, Louisiana.
Louis was born on August 4, 1901 in the red-light district of New Orleans.
His neighborhood was so poor that it was nicknamed “The Battlefield.”
He quit school in fifth grade to become a street urchin, hauling coal and selling newspapers.
When he was twelve, young Louis fired a blank gun in the air during a New Year's Eve celebration
and was arrested on the spot.
In a defining moment for him and the world of Jazz,
he was sent to the Colored Waif's Home for Boys reform school.
There, Louis received musical instruction on the cornet and fell in love with music.
In 1914, the home released him, and he immediately began dreaming of a life making music.
Armstrong began earning a reputation as a fine blues player.
One of the greatest cornet players in town, Joe "King" Oliver, began acting as a mentor to the young Armstrong,
showing him pointers on the horn and occasionally using him as a sub.
Beginning in 1919, Louis spent his next three summers playing on Mississippi riverboats
with a band led by Fate Marable.
It was on the riverboat that Louis honed his sight-reading skills working with written arrangements.
And eventually had his first encounters with other jazz legends.
Louis left New Orleans for Chicago in 1922 to play with his mentor, King Oliver and the Creole Jazz Band.
He was soon taking Chicago by storm with both his remarkably fiery playing
and the dazzling two-cornet breaks that he shared with Oliver.
Soon after, OKeh Race Records decided to let Armstrong make his first records with a band under his own name
Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five.
From 1925 to 1928, Armstrong made more than 60 records with the Hot Five and, later, the Hot Seven.
Today, these are generally regarded as the most important and influential recordings in jazz history.
On these records, Armstrong's virtuoso brilliance helped transform jazz from ensemble music to a soloist's art.
In 1926 he also began singing on these recordings, popularizing "scat singing"
with his hugely popular vocal on "Heebie Jeebies."
By the early 1930s, Armstrong had switched from cornet to trumpet
and shortened his nickname from satchel mouth to “Satchmo.”
During this period, Armstrong set a number of African-American "firsts."
In 1936, he became the first African-American jazz musician to write an autobiography.
That same year, he became the first African-American to get featured billing in a major Hollywood movie
with his role in Pennies from Heaven, starring his friend Bing Crosby.
"Fleischmann's Yeast presents Harlem."
Additionally, he became the first black entertainer to host a nationally sponsored radio show
when he stepped in for Rudy Vallee while Rudy was out of the country.
In the 1950s the civil rights movement was growing
with protests, marches and speeches from African Americans wanting equal rights.
During this time Louis Armstrong was viewed by many as an Uncle Tom
because of his ever-smiling demeanor and his refusal to comment on politics and racial issues.
“Units of the National Guard have been and are now being mobilized"
But that all changed in 1957, when Armstrong saw the Little Rock Central High School
integration crisis on television.
Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus sent in the National Guard to prevent the Little Rock Nine
nine African-American students from entering the public school.
When Armstrong saw this, he blew his top to the press, telling a reporter
that President Dwight D. Eisenhower had "no guts" for letting Faubus run the country.
The controversy soon blew over after Eisenhower sent 1,000 U.S. Army troops to desegregate the schools in Little Rock.
Louis Armstrong was still a popular attraction around the world in 1963,
but hadn't made a record in two years.
In December of that year, he was called into the studio to record the title number
for a Broadway show that hadn't opened yet. You may have heard of it!
The record quickly climbed to the top of the pop music charts.
At age 62 Louis hit the No. 1 slot in May 1964,
knocking the Beatles off the top at the height of Beatlemania!
By the end of Armstrong's career in the 1960s, his influence had spread to popular music in general.
His music transcended his skin color in a racially divided America.
Louis Armstrong died on July 6, 1971 at his home in New York City.
Like his most enduring song, Armstrong left behind a "wonderful world" of American entertainment.
Against all odds, he reached the top of that world, in the process changing it profoundly, and forever.
If history can be taught with stories
they can never be forgotten.
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