When he pulled up in a taxi, in 1943, to 34-56 107th Street, Louis Armstrong was a tad incredulous about his new digs, which his wife had bought and furnished while he completed his latest tour. The famed trumpeter was so skeptical that he asked the cabbie how much he made per hour and told him to wait, for Armstrong wasnt sure if he wanted to stay put in the modest, two-story brick house nestled in Corona. Yet, once he got inside and greeted his wife Lucille, Armstrong was won over, and invited the cabbie in to have breakfast with him and his wife. He lived in there for nearly 30 years, until he passed away in his sleep in 1971.
"He could have had a huge estate with a swimming pool in the shape of a trumpet," said Mike Cogswell, director of the Louis Armstrong Archives at Queens College, about the merrimaking musician who made millions but chose to live in a blue-collar community of Queens, even when he had the opportunity to buy a house in the suburbs next to his favorite baseball player, Jackie Robinson. Pops, as he is reverently referred to by those who knew him, fell in love with the neighborhood, and, according to Cogswell, some of the older residents remember the man with the big smile for his warmth and generosity and his occasional trumpet sessions on his stoop.
Phoebe Jacobs, vice president of the Louis Armstrong Education Foundation, who worked for Pops manager Joe Glaser, agrees that Satchmo, another of the trumpeters nicknames, was always the jovial, generous man.
"Louis was a people person," said Jacobs warmly. "He loved New York and Corona."
According to Jacobs, the Armstrongs settled in Corona because Lucille grew up in the neighborhood. The two met and fell in love while she was a dancer at the Cotton Club. "He would watch her walk, and he would say How do you like that filly?" said Jacobs.
While working for Glaser, Jacobs made many trips out to the performers house and saw how the two became mainstays in the community. She recalls Pops, who had no children of his own, always buying ice cream for the neighborhood kids whenever the Good Humor man came to his block.
Pops was one of many jazz greats to live in the area. Other famous residents include Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald and Clark Perry. "For Louis and Dizzy, who came from the south, it had a nice atmosphere a little like the country," said Jimmy Heath, a saxophonist and Corona resident, on the reason the two acclaimed performers took to Corona. Heath would speak with Armstrong in the streets when they bumped into one another, and the two musicians would attend each others shows.
Fans curious to know what home life was like for Satchmo will soon have the chance to take a tour of his residence, courtesy of the Louis Armstrong Education Foundation and the Louis Armstrong Archives. The house was willed to the citys Department of Cultural Affairs, while its possessions went to the Louis Armstrong Archives, after Mrs. Armstrong passed away in 1983. In turn, the department leased the Corona treasure to Cogswells organization, to manage it and conduct tours. After a $1.6 million renovation, it is set to unfurl its welcome mats October 16.
To commemorate the houses opening, a plethora of jazz players will perform throughout that morning and early afternoon.
"He was the one who started it all and put it all together," said John Faddis, a trumpeter and Purchase College professor, who is organizing the celebrations musical ensemble, about Armstrongs significance to jazz music. Faddis, a former director of the Carnegie Hall Jazz Orchestra, said that a vision of Louis Armstrong is what inspired him to take up the trumpet when he was seven.
After 20 years with no one living in the house on 107th Street, the national and city landmark remains almost exactly as the Armstrongs left it. Vibrant colorful wallpaper chosen by Lucille Armstrong, who, as an assistant to interior designer Morris Grossberg, gained an eye for decorating, lines the interior. The original 1950s-style kitchen remains intact, as do the myriad mirrors adorning the walls of the bathroom.
"Louis was a delightfully eccentric pack rat," said Cogswell, who recently wrote Louis Armstrong: The Off-Stage Story of Satchmo, which details the trumpeters personal life. The director said that Armstrong was known for tape recording anyone who came for a visit. Six hundred and fifty tapes were found in his house, including piquant palavers of Pops entertaining dinner party guests, joking during one meal, he japes, "Brussel sprouts come from Brussels?" telling band stories, palling around with the family dog, General, and even bickering with his wife. From the start of the tour, which begins with a ring of the door bell, people will hear these audio tracks of the Armstrongs and their guests playing in each room.
And, of course, in keeping with Mrs. Armstrongs practice of maintaining an immaculate home, the rooms are spotless. "He would say, That Lucille is so clean, you could perform surgery in these rooms," said Jacobs, relaying one of Pops quips.
The Armstrong House will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesdays through Fridays, and noon to 5 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays. General admission is $8. Students and seniors pay $4, and free for members of the Louis Armstrong Museum.
