What a Wonderful World by Ricky Riccardi

Author:Ricky Riccardi [Riccardi, Ricky]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-37923-8
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2011-06-20T16:00:00+00:00

Armstrong’s arrival in Buenos Aires was greeted with the usual chaos. “The famous trumpet player and his wife—here on a goodwill tour—had to be spirited away from the theater in a police car early today when screaming admirers swamped them and trampled over their automobile,” the Associated Press reported. “Armstrong, who doesn’t speak Spanish, drove around with the police for half an hour trying to make officers understand where he is staying. His tour manager said Armstrong was struck on the head, back and shoulders and is afraid he will be hit in the ‘chops.’ ”5 Armstrong humorously recounted the story in 1970. “They were so enthusiastic, when I’d go to the theater every night, they’d all come around, ‘Let me touch your lips, touch your lips!’ I’d say, ‘Honey, I can’t go for that!’ Nobody knows the volume they’re going to touch your lips in a crowd like that,” he said. “So I wouldn’t take that chance so I sent Mr. Joe Glaser, my manager, a wire. I said, ‘Send me one of Yogi Berra’s catcher’s masks right away!’ I put it on and when I got out of the car among all the people, I said, ‘How do! How do!’ ” The sight of Armstrong in a catcher’s mask was, needless to say, an unprecedented photo op; a spread appeared in the November 25 issue of Life magazine, even as Life en Español showed the trumpeter on its cover.

Armstrong now recalled “I Get Ideas” to the All Stars’ live repertoire, Armstrong bellowing “Adios, muchachos” as he concluded his vocals, a nod to the Argentine tango on which the piece is based. Broadcasts from Buenos Aires find the All Stars in spectacular form, with Armstrong pushing himself even harder than usual on numbers like “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” “Tiger Rag,” and “On the Sunny Side of the Street.”

When Armstrong returned to the United States, his career was still suffering from the backlash against his Little Rock remarks. According to one newspaper item, “Louis Armstrong’s engagement at the Copacabana has proven a great disappointment to all concerned. Apparently Satchmo, who rated Page One headlines when he rapped the President of the United States, isn’t quite as effective as a supper club draw.”6 Columnist Jim Bishop used Armstrong’s disappointing Copacabana showing as ammunition to fire at will:

Armstrong, who has delighted millions of people with his jollity, his sandpapered throat, and his jazz, did le business poor. People did not want to see him. He is scheduled to star on an upcoming TV show. For one, I will not look … I was in Europe when this mess began. It was a big story here. It was bigger over there. Mr. Louis Armstrong’s picture was plastered on the front pages in England, in France, in Italy, in Germany. He must have made a big hit in Russia because this was an American Negro telling the President off with scorn … When I returned from Europe, I was impressed with the enormity of damage Armstrong had done to the United States.

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