[Dixielandjazz] Armstrong "grandson"

[Norman Vickers]

Listmates:  may I interject a couple of ideas in this Armstrong "grandson"
controversy.
I attended the previous  three  Satchmo Summerfests in New Orleans.  ( They
were lively, interesting and informative.)
Mr. Cogswell ( I hope I spelled it correctly) archivist for the Louis
Armstrong Museum in Queens was one of the speakers.  Armstrong was married 3
( or was it 4) times and there were no offspring by those marriages.

The long letter from Armstrong to his agent Joe Glaser has already been
alluded to.  Louis instructed Glaser to pay a mistress ( whose name was
deleted from my edition of "Louis Armstrong in His Own Words") for child
support.

In a private conversation I asked Mr. Cogswell whether Armstrong, having no
children by his wives, had ever had any studies done for infertility.  Mr.
Cogswell replied, in effect, that he'd asked Armstrong's previous physician
the same question but got a non-committal answer.  Knowing Armstrong's
performance schedule, I would expect that he did not have any studies done.
There are many causes for infertility in the male.  One common cause of
infertility in both men and women is gonorrhea, for which there was no
effective treatment until the advent of penicillin in 1943. So, at that
time, Armstrong's paternity would only be a matter of speculation.

DNA testing, now available, might be the only way ( as was done with the
Thomas Jefferson family) to prove or disprove that claim now.  I doubt there
is sufficient interest to do so.

Thanks.  Best I can do for this controversy.

Norman Vickers
Brian Harvey, Mark Bauer and Paul Edgerton, among others, wrote:
__________________
 "Brian Harvey" <brer.rabbit at tiscali.co.uk>

A good friend who is a jazz historian writes.....

It is well-known that Louis screwed around so it is clearly possible he
could have had "issue" but there is absolutely no credence to this
preposterous claim as far as I know. The Louis Armstrong "industry" would
surely have made the most of it had it been true.
____________________

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Mark Bauer <jazz_trombone at axint.net>
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Sachmo's great grandson Herb

You're welcome. No it's not un usual. The father of this "granchild"
should still be alive. He was born around the early 1950's I believe.
Birth documents should verify that, unless Satchmo didn't put his name
on the birth certificate.

Edgerton, Paul A wrote:

> Thanks, Mark.
>
> I've heard of the existence of an Armstrong offspring, so that's no big
> stretch. On the other hand, it's not unusual for people to lie about their
> heritage to gain a perceived advantage. Since I know nothing else about
> either the writer nor her subject, I would need further verification that
> Herb is who he claims to be.
>
> I thought it was funny that any writer could refer to Satchmo's "bass
> voice."
>
> -- PE
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