The Louis Armstrong House Museum has put together a fascinating virtual exhibit. You can view photos, listen to tapes (Louis recorded conversations, his own musings, and music of all genres), and see the collages he put together. Take some time to browse around. His house is in the Corona neighborhood of Queens, where he lived from 1943 until his death in 1971. He and his wife could certainly have moved to grander surroundings but they chose to remain.
“And you take this neighborhood we live in,” he said in 1964. “We’re right out here with the rest of the colored folk and the Puerto Ricans and Italians and the Hebrew cats. We don’t need to move out in the suburbs to some big mansion with lots of servants and yardmen and things. What for? What the hell I care about living in a ‘fashionable’ neighborhood? Ain’t nobody cutting off the lights and gas here ‘cause we didn’t pay the bills. The Frigidaire is full of food, what more do we need? Pops, my motto is ‘Eat Good, Stay Healthy and Don’t Worry About Being Rich.’”
I visited the museum several years ago and is well worth the time to see how the man lived who declared, "I'm here in the cause of happiness".
No comments:
Post a Comment