Click on above image for larger picture and better detail. This lot not available for sale at this time. Due to the historic significance of this lot of photos, I much prefer to find a home for these pieces in a museum. If you represent a museum, university, or similar instituiton, please email me to inquire at louie@thejukejoint.com. These four photos were purchased by me in 1998 from a construction worker who was demolishing a blighted home in the New Orleans 9th Ward Neighborhood, not far from the Treme area where Louis Armstrong grew up and married his first wife, Daisy, in 1918. I was immediately intrigued by the set of photos because the inscription in the first photo referred to the recipient as "our daughter". This was interesting because Armstrong never had children. I was also intrigued by the presence of the name "Alpha" in the signature - Alpha was Armstrong's third wife to whom he was married for only four years and there isn't much documented about their relationship. The second photo referred to the recipient as "Godchild" - also intriguing. The third photo showed Armstrong playing trumpet for a woman who looked to be in her mid thirties and a young man of about twenty - the identities of whom presented another mystery. The fourth photo showed a photo of a congregation in a church gathered around a table for a meal. The photos presented an interesting puzzle. After some research, I have found the following information that relate to them. In 1918, at the age of 18, Louis Armstrong fell in love with and married his first wife, Daisy Parker, a local prostitute. According to Armstrong himself in his first autobiography, "Satchmo: My Life In New Orleans", his first encounter with Daisy was as "working girl and customer" at a New Orleans house of ill repute called The Brick House. Their marriage was passionate but tumultuous - according to Armstrong, Daisy was very jealous with a violent temper, and according to others she occasionally went back to "her old trade" even after the marriage. The marriage lasted 6 years, ending in 1924 when Armstrong met and fell in love with pianist Lil Hardin, who was to be his second wife. But here's where Wila Mae Wilson fits into all this: The only direct reference that I could find to Wila Mae turns out to be from the best possible source - Louis Armstrong's own autobiography, "My Life In New Orleans". On page 221 he states; "In the same year of 1921 Daisy adopted a little girl called Wila Mae Wilson." To view a scan of this page of Armstrong's book click here He continues on about Wila Mae for two more interesting pages, stating on page 222 that she was 13 years old at the time (and important clue!) and also that in 1922 (one year later) Wila Mae "married a boy named Sibley and had a son she called Archie". On page 222 to 223 Armstrong refers to himself as Wila Mae's "godfather" and states that Archie, when he got older, took up the trumpet and changed his name to "Archie Armstrong". For a scan of pages 222 and 223 click here. This information gives Wila Mae the likely birth year of 1908 (Armstrong states she was 13 in 1921) and Archie the likely birth year of 1923 or 1924 (Armstrong mentions Wila Mae's marriage to Sibley as being around 1922). This would mean that Wila Mae gave birth to Archie at the young age of 14 or 15 years old. With this information, the mystery of the two unnamed people in the third photo is possibly solved: The stamped date on the back of the photo is March 28, 1945. With their birth years reliably approximated by Armstrong, this would mean that in 1945 Wila Mae would be 37 years old and Archie either 21 or 22 years old. The people in the photo with Armstrong do appear to be about those ages. (See Photo: http://216.147.66.66/jukejoint/louisplus2.jpg ) Which brings us back to photo #1. In the picture, Armstrong is kissing a woman and mugging for the camera. The photo is inscribed to Wila Mae from "Louis & Alpha Armstrong", so it isn't difficult to figure out that the woman in the picture is Armstrong's third wife, Alpha Smith. Louis met Alpha (who was a young fan from Chicago) in 1938 while on tour and still married to Lil, fell in love with Alpha, divorced Lil and married Alpha. This was to be the shortest of Armstrong's marriages lasting 4 years. After divorcing Alpha in 1942, he quickly remarried a showgirl named Lucille Wilson. There is a happy ending for Satchmo, because Lucille turned out to be the love of his life and they stayed married until his death in 1971. So, photo #1 is a prize for several reasons. It's a rare unpublished photo of Louis with his third wife (unknown even to the Armstrong House!), and it is inscribed to Wila Mae, the adopted daughter of his first wife, Daisy. Plus, it is a gorgeous photo. The date of it was probably early in Armstrong's marriage to Alpha, 1938 or 1939. Click here to view photo #1. Photo # 2, signed to "my darling godchild", is an Associated Booking Corp promotional photo, probably from the early 1940s. Click here to view photo #2. The image for photo #3, Armstrong with Wila Mae and Archie (most likely) can be viewed here. Photo #4 is a complete mystery; I have been unable to identify any of the faces in the photo. It is most likely a photo from a local Baptist church, and is significant only because it was found with the other photos and therefore bears some importance to Wila Mae's family (having been kept with the others). Click here to view photo #4. 
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by Louis Maistros Signed copies available exclusively on the net here at Louie’s Juke Joint, just click this link to order! Click the book cover image below for reviews, excerpts from the novel, free mp3 downloads and more.
Quotes: "Louis Maistros has written a lyrical, complex, and brave novel that takes enormous risks and pulls them all off. He is a writer to watch and keep reading, a writer to cherish." "The Society of North American Magic Realists welcomes its newest, most dazzling member, Louis Maistros. His debut novel is a thing of wonder, unlike anything in our literature. It startles. It stuns. It stupefies. No novel since CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES has done such justice to New Orleans. If Franz Kafka had been able to write like Peter Straub, this might have been the result." “The Sound of Building Coffins is easily one of the finest and truest pieces of New Orleans fiction I've ever read.” “One has to write with considerable authenticity to pull off a story steeped in magic and swamp water that examines race and class, death and rebirth, Haitian voodoo, and the beginnings of jazz in 1891 New Orleans...The plot is complex and magical, grounded in the history of the city, without being overly sentimental. There is a comfort with death as a part of life in this work that reveals deep feeling for the city and its past....Highly recommended for all fiction collections, especially where there is an interest in jazz." Signed copies available exclusively on the net here at Louie’s Juke Joint, just click this link to order!  Click here to see what we have THIS WEEK ON EBAY  |
