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Martha Stewart
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Born: August 3, 1941
Jersey City, New Jersey
Occupation: television and magazine personality
Net worth: $970 million [1]

Martha Stewart (born August 3, 1941) is an American business magnate, entrepreneur and homemaking advocate. Stewart currently hosts Martha, and recently starred in The Apprentice: Martha Stewart. Most of her professional attention, since her release from prison in March 2005, has been focused on reviving the fortunes of her business, which had suffered due to her litigation.

Biography

Born Martha Helen Kostyra in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA, she is the first daughter of Edward and Martha Kostyra. She was born to a large middle-class family of Polish heritage, with five other siblings. She was raised in Nutley, New Jersey.[1]

Instilled with a strong work ethic promoted by her parents, Stewart mastered traits that many would consider common household chores. These traits however proved to be the keystone of her success later in life. Stewart's mother taught her how to cook and sew. Later, she learned the processes of canning and preserving when she visited her grandparents' home in Buffalo, New York. Her father Eddie had a passion for gardening and passed on much of his knowledge and expertise to his daughter.

Stewart also excelled in school, and was active in many extracurricular activities, such as the school newspaper and the Art Club. During this time, Stewart began a modelling career. She was hired and appeared in several TV commercials and magazines, including one of Tareyton's famous "Rather fight than switch" cigarette advertisements.[2] Finishing with straight A's, she was awarded a partial scholarship to Barnard College in New York City. She initially intended to major in Chemistry but switched to Art and European History, and later Architectural History. It was around this time that she meet and later married her husband, Andy Stewart. After marrying him, Stewart temporarily left Barnard for 1 year, and continued her moderately successful modeling career, while her husband finished his law degree at Yale Law School. She would later return to Barnard a year later to graduate with a major in History and Architectural History. In 1965 her daughter, Alexis Stewart was born.

At this time, Stewart began to hone and develop her business skills. In 1967, she became a stockbroker. She was very successful until she left the profession in 1973, in order to focus more time on her daughter and restoring her new home in Connecticut. It has been suggested that a scandal involving the furniture company Levitz may have contributed to her decision to leave the firm of Monness, Horstman, Williams & Sidel. Several principals at the firm allegedly received kickbacks from Levitz for selling stock in the financially troubled company.

Stewart and her husband decided to move to Westport, Connecticut. They purchased and undertook a massive restoration of the 1805 farmhouse, Turkey Hill, that would later become the model for the set of the Martha Stewart Living television program. Stewart and her husband undertook the entire venture by themselves. During the project, Stewart's panache for restoring and decorating became apparent. Stewart's mother now occupies Turkey Hill, while Stewart currently lives at her new home in Bedford, New York.


In 1976 Stewart started a catering business in her basement with a friend, and later business partner, from college. The venture quickly became very successful, and when her partner soured on working with Stewart, who was becoming increasingly perfectionist, Stewart bought her portion of the business. Stewart also opened a retail store, The Market Basket at the Common Market shopping center where she sold her home entertainment kits.

Meanwhile, Stewart's husband Andy had become the president of prominent New York publisher Harry N. Abrams, Inc. In 1977, Andy Stewart was responsible for releasing the English-language edition of the Gnomes book series, by Dutch authors Wil Huygen and Rien Poortvliet which quickly became a blockbuster success and New York Times Best Seller. Andy Stewart contracted Stewart's company to cater the book release party, where she was introduced to Alan Mirken, the head of Crown Publishing Group. Mirken was impressed by Stewart's talent and later contacted her to develop a cookbook feauturing recipes and photos from the parties that Stewart hosted. The result was Entertaining, co-authored by Stewart with long-time fashion maven Elizabeth Hawes. From there, word of her skills and business grew rapidly. Entertaining became a New York Times Best Seller, and the best selling cookbook since Julia Child and Simone Beck's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, released two decades earlier.

Rise to fame and career

Martha Stewart with mother Martha Kostyra and niece Sophie Herbert on the set of Martha Stewart LivingFollowing Entertaining's success Stewart would release several more books under the Clarkson Potter publishing imprint, beginning with a book on hors d'oeuvres in 1984. During this time she authored dozens of newspaper columns, magazine articles and other pieces on homemaking, and made several television appearances on programs such as The Oprah Winfrey Show.

In 1987 Stewart gained national prominence as spokesperson for the housewares department at K-Mart, leading to the launch of her own line, Martha Stewart Everyday, later that year. By this time Stewart's professional success had began to take a toll on her relationship with her husband. In 1990 Andy Stewart filed for divorce from Stewart, on the same day that Stewart's successful book, Weddings, was released.

In 1990 she also signed with Time Publishing Ventures to develop a new magazine, Martha Stewart Living, for which Stewart served as editor in chief. The first issue was released in late 1990 with an initial rate base of 250,000. Circulaton would peak in 2002 at more than 2 million copies per issue. In 1993, she began a weekly half-hour service program based on her magazine, which was quickly expanded to a full hour, and later to a daily format, with half-hour episodes on weekends. Stewart also became a frequent contributor to CBS's The Early Show, and stared in several prime time holiday specials on the CBS network.

On the cover of their May 1995 issue, New York Magazine declared her as "the definitive American woman of our time."

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia

Stewart at the New York Stock Exchange handing out orange juice and brioche to traders on the day of her company's initial public offering.In September 1997, Stewart, with the assistance of business partner Sharon Patrick, was able to secure funding to purchase the various television, print, and merchandising ventures related to the Martha Stewart brand, and consolidate them into a new company, Martha Stewart Omnimedia. Stewart served as chairwoman, president, and CEO of the new company and Patrick became Chief Operations Officer. By organizing all of the brand's assets under one roof, Stewart claimed that it would promote synergy and greater control of the brand's direction through the business' activities. That same month Stewart announced in Martha Stewart Living the launch of a companion website, marthastewart.com and a catalogue business, Martha by Mail.

On Oct 19, 1999, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia went public on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol MSO. The intial public offering was set at $18 per share, and rallied to $38 by the end of trading, making Stewart a billionaire on paper. Stewart was then and continues to be the majority shareholder, with a comanding 96% control of voting power in the company.

Insider Trading Charges

Main article: Martha Stewart (ImClone)
Beginning in 2002, Stewart's career was shaken by a charges brought against her regarding the sale of her shares in pharmaceutical company ImClone, days before its application for a new drug was denied. Stewart's reputation suffered heavily during the course of events that occurred over the next 3 years, which included a significant drop in advertising in Living and to a lesser extent Weddings and Kids. Also, shortly after her conviction on four counts of lying to investigators and obstruction of Justice, her syndicated television show was cancelled and she was forced to step down from her role as CEO and chairwoman of MSLO for a non-executive role, and resigned her position as a board member for Revlon and the New York Stock Exchange. Stewart surprised many when she pleaded guilty, accepting a 5-month prison sentence in 2004 which she served at Alderson Federal Prison Camp. She was released on March 4, 2005, after which she was placed under supervised release and required to wear an ankle bracelet for an additional 5 months.

According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Stewart avoided a loss of $45,673 by selling all 3,928 shares of her ImClone stock. The day following her sale, the stock value fell 16%.[3]

Comeback

Publicity Shot for MarthaFollowing her release from prison March 2005, Stewart launched a highly publisized comeback, and was once again involved in Martha Stewart Living. Offerings of her company's Martha Stewart Everyday line at Kmart were expanded to include a new line of ready-made home furnishings, and its mass market interior paint line became avalible at larger Sears stores. However, the most heavily promoted aspect of her attempted comeback is television. Stewart became returned daytime television with Martha and appeared in an adapted version of The Apprentice (called The Apprentice: Martha Stewart). Both shows premiered in September 2005, and both were produced by Mark Burnett.

Her prime time Apprentice spin-off received poor ratings, which some attribute to popular dislike for the opportunistic tone of the network's massive promotional campaign and to NBC's slotting the show up against the hit drama Lost. The Apprentice: Martha Stewart was not renewed for a second season.

In October 2005, Stewart also released a new book called The Martha Rules on starting and managing a new business, and a month later her company released Martha Stewart Baking Handbook. She also is a regular contributor of cooking, gardening, and crafts segments on NBC's The Today Show. Stewart's daily talk show was nominated in 6 categories for the 33rd Annual Daytime Emmy Awards in 2006, including Best Host and Best Show.

In October 2005, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia launched a line of houses that carry her name to be built by KB Home initially in Cary, North Carolina and various other locations nationwide. The first homes, which were inspired by Stewart's homes in New York and Maine, were completed in early 2006. Ultimately 650 homes are planned with prices from low $200,000 to mid-$400,000s. Stewart's company is currently developing an upscale line of homewares for Federated Department Stores, owner of Macy's. A line of paper-based crafts for EK Success is also in development.

In addition to television and merchandising, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia launched a 24-hour satellite radio network with Sirius in November 2005, on which Stewart currently hosts a weekly call-in show.

Those who live by the sword get shot by those who don't.

Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something
right, there's a 90% probability you'll get it wrong.

Flashlight: A case for holding dead batteries.

The shin bone is a device for finding furniture in a dark room.

When you go into court, you are putting yourself in the hands of 12
people who weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty.

Hey, hawkman. Love those observations, especially the one defining shin. I think most of us have the scars to prove it. Thanks, B.B. for the great background on the celebs. I was particularly interested in the fact that Scopes really didn't break the law that was on the books at the time. What a surprise.

Well, we need to play a song by Tony, I guess, folks, in honor of what he has done for the music world of jazz, etc.

Back later to find another besides, "I left my Heart."

This may have been Tony Bennett's very first hit, folks. We'll refer to it as the Horatio Alger song. <smile>

I know I'd go from rags to riches
If you would only say you care
And though my pocket may be empty
I'd be a millionaire

My clothes may still be torn and tattered
But in my heart I'd be a king
Your love is all that ever mattered
It's everything

So open your arms and you'll open the door
To ev'ry treasure that I'm hopin' for
Hold me and kiss me and tell me you're mine ever more

Must I forever be a beggar
Whose golden dreams will not come true?
Or will I go from rags to riches?
My fate is up to you

Must I forever be a beggar
Whose golden dreams will not come true?
Or will I go from rags to riches?
My fate is up to you

Good day.

Like the one about the jury, Bob.

I just lost my whole page of pictures when I pushed the submit button. I have no idea what happened.
So here I go again.

Leon Uris

Hey, there's our Raggedy. Great montage, PA, as usual. You know, I have trouble as well doing the picture bit. I don't understand it either.

I didn't recognize Leon Uris, but we all know about his great book Exodus.

Theme:

Theme from
EXODUS
(THIS LAND IS MINE)

Music Score by Ernest Gold
Lyrics by Pat Boone

A Mickey McBride Arrangement

THIS LAND IS MINE, GOD GAVE THIS LAND TO ME,

THIS BRAVE AND ANCIENT LAND TO ME,

AND WHEN THE MORNING SUN REVEALS HER HILLS AND PLAIN,

THEN I SEE A LAND WHERE CHILDREN CAN RUN FREE,


SO TAKE MY HAND AND WALK THIS LAND WITH ME,

AND WALK THIS LOVELY LAND WITH ME,

THOUGH I AM JUST A MAN, WHEN YOU ARE BY MY SIDE,

WITH THE HELP OF GOD, I KNOW I CAN BE STRONG,

THOUGH I AM JUST A MAN,

WHEN YOU ARE BY MY SIDE,

WITH THE HELP OF GOD,

I KNOW I CAN BE STRONG,


IF I MUST FIGHT TO MAKE THIS LAND OUR HOME,

I'LL FIGHT TO MAKE THIS LAND OUR OWN,

UNTIL I DIE, UNTIL I DIE, I WILL FIGHT UNTIL I DIE,

THIS LAND IS MINE.

Good morning
Our Little Town

Now the railroad came generations ago
And the town grew up as the crops did grow
The crops grew well and the town did too
They say it's dyin now and there ain't a thing we can do
I don't have to read the news
Or hear it on the radio
I see it in the faces of everyone I know
The cost goes up
What we made comes down
What's gonna happen to our little town

The summer is full of thunder
The kids run and play
Momma got a new wrinkle
Poppa ain't got much to say
Rust grows along the railroad track
The young folks leave
They don't come back
And I don't have to read the news
Or hear it on the radio
I see it in the faces of everyone I know
The boards go up
The signs come down
What's gonna happen to our little town

Tom lost his farm
And we lost Tom
He left in the night
I don't know where he's gone
What he'd lost
He just couldn't face
What we're losin' can't be replaced
I don't have to read the news
Or hear it on the radio
I see it in the faces of everyone I know
The reason we're here
Is the farms around
So what's gonna happen to our little town

We've seen hard times
Many times before
Maybe this whole thing is just one more
It never was perfect
Maybe no one's to blame
To see it die like this
It's a god damned shame
And I don't have to read the news
Or hear it on the radio
I see it in the faces of everyone I know
The sun comes up
The sun goes down
But what's gonna happen to our little town

You know, folks. I believe that our Try is on a crusade to save Little Town USA, or some other place.

Great song, buddy. We're with you; most of us appreciate small towns. They have such charm.
I love those dear hearts and gentle people,
Who live in my home town.
Because those dear hearts and gentle people
Will never ever let you down.

They read the good Book from Fri' till Monday,
That's how the weekend goes.
I've got a dream house I'll build there one day,
With picket fence and ramblin' rose.

I feel so welcome each time that I return
That my happy heart keeps laughin' like a clown.
I love the dear hearts and gentle people,
Who live and love in my home town.

There's a place I'd like to go and it's Batten, Idaho,
Where your friendly neighbors smile and say "Hello."
It's a pleasure and a treat to meander down the street,
That's why I want the whole wide world to know.

I love those dear hearts and gentle people,
Who live in my home town.
Because those dear hearts and gentle people
Will never ever let you down.

For our young friend Eiremill wherever he is.


Sand in my shoes, sand from Havana
Calling me to that ever so heavenly shore
Calling me back to you once more
Dreams in the night, dreams of Havana
Dreams of a love I hadn't the strength to refuse
Darling the sand is in my shoes
Deep in my veins the sensuous strains
Of the soft guitar
Deep in my soul the thunderous roll
Of a tropic sea under the stars,
That was Havana
You are the moonlit mem'ry I can't seem to lose
That's why my life's an endless cruise
All that is real is the feel of the sand in my shoes

(Instrumental Interlude)

Deep in my veins the sensuous strains
Of the soft guitar
Deep in my soul the thunderous roll
Of a tropic sea under the stars,
That was Havana
You are the moonlit mem'ry I can't seem to lose
That's why my life's an endless cruise
All that is real is the feel of the sand in my shoes
Sand in my shoes
Sand from Havana.

I would like to stay, but I must…

Leave Right Now -
Will Young

I'm here just like I said
Though its breaking every rule I've ever made
My racing heart is just the same
Why make it strong to break it once again?
And I'd love to say I do
Give everything to you
But I can never now be true
So I say...

I think I'd better leave right now
Before I fall any deeper
I think I'd better leave right now
Feeling weaker and weaker
Somebody better show me how
Before I fall any deeper
I think I'd better leave right now

I'm here so please explain
Why you're opening up a healing wound again
I'm a little more careful
Perhaps it shows
But if I lose the highs, at least I'm spared the lows
Bridge
Now I tremble in your arms
What could be the harm
To feel my spirit calm
So I say..

I think I'd better leave right now
Before I fall any deeper
I think I'd better leave right now
Feeling weaker and weaker
Somebody better show me how
Before I fall any deeper
I think I'd better leave right now

I wouldn't know how to say
How good it feels seeing you today
I see you've got your smile back
Like you say your right on track
But you may never know why
Once bitten twice is shy
If I'm proud perhaps I should explain
I couldn't bear to lose you again

I think I'd better leave right now
Before I fall any deeper
I think I'd better leave right now
Feeling weaker and weaker
Somebody better show me how
Before I fall any deeper
I think I'd better leave right now

Ah, listeners. Somewhere, some babe is beggig our Try.....




Baby please don't go
Please don't go
Stay right by my side
By my side

Rainy days bring back memories of you
And I will never lie
I want you by my side
Thinking of you
Makes me not want you to go
Please stay, stay with me

Chorus

Oh I can't face the fact
That I want you in my life
Don't Go my love I'll show
My heart I send to you
You are my friend
Don't leave I'll do anything you need
Rainy days brings back memories
Rainy days brings back memories
Rainy days brings back memories of you
Rainy days, rainy days brings back memories
Rainy days, brings back memories of you
Rainy days I think of you

Oh, baby please don't go, please don't go
Stay right by my side, stay by my side, by my side
Baby please don't go, please don't go
Stay right by my side, you're in my life, by my side
Oh ya
Rain

Rainy days, you, you, you, you
Please Don't Go

Please don't go
Rainy days, you, you, you, you
Stay right by my side
Rain

Stay right by my side
Please don't go
Rainy days, you, you, you, you
Stay right by my side, by my side, in my life
Baby please don't go, please don't go, please stay
I need you back in my life
Oh ya, by my side, oh ya
Don't go, baby please don't go
No, No, No, I want you back in my life, here
Please don't go, please don't go, please don't go, Please don't go
Don't run away, back in my life, baby

You heart breaker, you.

My Mom was so infatuated with this song, she named her second daughter Linda.

Linda
Buddy Clark w/ Ray Noble

When I go to sleep
I never count sheep
I count all the charms about Linda

And lately it seems
in all of my dreams
I walk with my arms about Linda

But what good does it do me for Linda
doesn't know that I exist
Can't help feeling gloomy
think of all the lovin' I've missed

We pass on the street
my heart skips a beat
I say to myself, hello, Linda

If only she'd smile
I'd stop for a while
and then I would get to know Linda

But miracles still happen
and when my lucky star begins to shine
with one lucky break
I'll make Linda mine

"when my blue moon turns to gold again"
from bill munro's : "bean blossom festival"
-------------------------------------------------
we spent about three months in the spring of 1979 in texas - most of the time in austin .
developed a taste for country , texas and tex/mex style music .
"bean blossom" festival" was one of the records we brought back and still play - bought a new sony recordplayer a year ago and many of the old records are having "a second life" .
hbg
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Memories that linger in my heart,
Memories that make my heart grow cold,
But some day they'll live again sweetheart,
And my blue moon again will turn to gold.

cho: When my blue moon turns to gold again,
When the rainbow turns the clouds away,
When my blue moon turns to gold again,
You'll be back within my arms to stay.

2. The lips that used to thrill me so,
Your kisses were meant for only me.
In my dreams they live again, sweetheart,
But my golden moon is just a memory.

cho....

3. The castles we built of dreams together,
Were the sweetest stories ever told.
Maybe we'll live them all again,
And my blue moon again will turn to gold.

my favourite record is one we brought back from new york city in the early 1970's .
we went to a performance of "sweet emma and her new orleans' preservation hall band" and after the performance bought two records - they were FIVE DOLLARS EACH !!! and we thought hard and long before buying them - today i wouldn't sell them for $1,000 !!! .
some of the great artists were : sweet emma(barrett) on piano and leader , the humphrey brothers (percy and willie) , cie frazier , emanuel sayles and alcide "slow drag" pavageau (he was "the young one " - in his sixties ! - and we saw him again about twenty years later in toronto . he was not quite as young anymore , but he was still "slow drag" !).

so here goes ...
"when the saints go marching in"
(there is actually quite a message in that song - "when our leaders learn to cry ... "!)

We are traveling in the footsteps
Of those who've gone before
But we'll all be reunited (but if we stand reunited)
On a new and sunlit shore (then a new world is in store)

Oh when the saints go marching in
When the saints go marching in
Oh lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in

And when the sun refuse (begins) to shine
And when the sun refuse (begins) to shine
Oh lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in

When the moon turns red with blood
When the moon turns red with blood
Oh lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in

On that hallelujah day
On that hallelujah day
Oh lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in

Oh when the trumpet sounds the call
Oh when the trumpet sounds the call
Oh lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in

Some say this world of trouble
Is the only one we need
But I'm waiting for that morning
When the new world is revealed

When the revelation (revolution) comes
When the revelation (revolution) comes
Oh lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in

When the rich go out and work
When the rich go out and work
Oh lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in

When the air is pure and clean
When the air is pure and clean
Oh lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in

When we all have food to eat
When we all have food to eat
Oh lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in

When our leaders learn to cry
When our leaders learn to cry
Oh lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in

anyone remember 1977 when : "country comes to carnegie hall" was recorded ?
hank thompson , freddy fender , roy clark and don williams were the performers . ABC - dot records issued a two disc album - wow !



here is freddy fender with the 'brazos valley boys' performing :
"el rancho grande"

ALLA EN EL RANCHO GRANDE
ALLA DONDE VIVIA
HABIA UNA RANCHERITA
QUE ALEGRE ME DECIA
QUE ALEGRE ME DECIA

TE VOY A HACER TUS CALZONES
COMO LOS USA EL RANCHERO
TE LOS COMIENZO DE LANA
TE LOS ACABO DE CUERO

ALLA EN EL RANCHO GRANDE
ALLA DONDE VIVIA
HABIA UNA RANCHERITA
QUE ALEGRE ME DECIA
QUE ALEGRE ME DECIA

NUNCA TE FIES DE PROMESAS
NI MUCHO MENOS DE AMORES
QUE SI TE DAN CALABAZAS
VERAS LO QUE SON ARDORES

ALLA EN EL RANCHO GRANDE
ALLA DONDE VIVIA
HABIA UNA RANCHERITA
QUE ALEGRE ME DECIA
QUE ALEGRE ME DECIA

PON MUY ATENTO EL OIDO
CUANDO RECHINE LA PUERTA
HAY MUERTOS QUE NO HACEN RUIDO
Y SON MUY GORDAS SUS PENAS

ALLA EN EL RANCHO GRANDE
ALLA DONDE VIVIA
HABIA UNA RANCHERITA
QUE ALEGRE ME DECIA
QUE ALEGRE ME DECIA

I always loved Freddy Fender, who can for get his "Before the next teardrop falls" and

"WASTED DAYS AND WASTED NIGHTS"

(1st Verse)
Wasted days and wasted nights,
I have left for you Behind
for you don't belong to me,
your heart belongs to someone else.

(2nd Verse)
Why should I keep loving you,
when I know that you're Not true?
And why should I call your name,
when you're to blame
for making me Blue?

(chorus)
Don't you remember the day,
that you went away and left me?
I was so lonely,
prayed for you only,
my love

Good morning, WA2K listeners and contributors.

My goodness, folks, what a potpourri of music from our friends here on our radio.

Muchos gratias to hamburger, edgar, and a warm welcome back to Dutchy.

A little advice to those who are sleepless out there. Forget all the meds that we hear about as sleep aids. Simply have a couple of Heinegen beers and there will never be a problem. <smile>

This is for all you math folks out there:

'Tis a favorite project of mine
A new value of pi to assign.
I would fix it at 3
For it's simplier, you see,
Than 3 point 14159.

Love it! Now that's what I call a great mnemonic device.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Percy Bysshe Shelley (August 4, 1792 - July 8, 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets and is widely considered to be among the finest lyric poets of the English language. He is perhaps most famous for such anthology pieces as Ozymandias, Ode to the West Wind, To a Skylark, and "The Masque of Anarchy." However, his major works were long visionary poems including Alastor, Adonais, Prometheus Unbound and the unfinished "The Triumph of Life." Shelley's unconventional life and uncompromising idealism, combined with his strong skeptical voice, made him a notorious and much denigrated figure in his own life. He became the idol of the next two or three generations of poets (including the major Victorian poets Robert Browning, Alfred Tennyson, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Algernon Charles Swinburne, William Butler Yeats and Subramanya Bharathy). He was also famous for his association with the contemporaries John Keats and Lord Byron. An untimely death at a young age was common to all three. He was married to the famous novelist Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein and is possibly responsible for the novel as well.

Life

Education and early works

Shelley was the son of Sir Timothy Shelley, later the 2nd baronet of Castle Goring, and his wife Elizabeth Pilfold. He grew up in Sussex, and he received his early education at home, tutored by Reverend Thomas Edwards of Horsham. In 1802, he entered the Sion House Academy of Brentford. In 1804, Shelley entered Eton College, and on April 10, 1810 matriculated at University College, Oxford . His first publication was a Gothic novel, Zastrozzi (1810), in which he gave vent to his atheistic worldview through the villain Zastrozzi. In the same year, Shelley, together with his sister Elizabeth, published Original Poetry by Victor and Cazire. Whilst at Oxford, he issued a collection of verses (perhaps ostensibly burlesque but quite subversive), Posthumous Fragments of Margaret Nicholson. A fellow collegian, Thomas Jefferson Hogg, is thought to have been his collaborator.

In 1811, Shelley published a pamphlet The Necessity of Atheism. This gained the attention of the university administration and he was called to appear before the college's academics. He later claimed to have refused to answer all questions about its authorship on principle. His failure to do so resulted in his being sent down from Oxford on March 25, 1811, along with Hogg. The re-discovery in mid-2006 of Shelley's long-lost 'Poetical Essay on the existing state of things', a long, strident anti-monarchical poem printed in Oxford, gives a new dimension to the expulsion, reinforcing Hogg's implication of political motives ('an affair of party'). Shelley was given the choice to be reinstated after his father intervened, on the condition that he would have had to recant his avowed views. His refusal to do so led to a falling out with his father.

Married life

Four months after being expelled, the 19-year-old Shelley travelled to Scotland with the 16-year-old schoolgirl Harriet Westbrook to get married. After their marriage on August 28, 1811, Shelley invited his college friend Hogg to share their household, which included his wife. When Harriet objected, however, Shelley abandoned this first attempt at open marriage and brought her to England's Lake District, intending to write. Distracted by political events, he visited Ireland shortly afterward in order to engage in radical pamphleteering. His activities earned him the unfavourable attention of the British government.

Over the next two years, Shelley wrote and published Queen Mab: A Philosophical Poem. The poem shows the influence of English philosopher William Godwin, and much of Godwin's freethinking radical philosophy is voiced in it. Unhappy in his nearly three-year-old marriage, Shelley often left his wife and child (Ianthe Shelley, 1813-76) alone while he visited Godwin's home and bookshop in London. It was here that he met and fell in love with Godwin's intelligent and well-educated daughter, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (Mary Shelley). He became enamoured when Mary made fun of his "sissyfied" name (Percy), and he quickly grew fond of his "sassy wench," which was his nickname for Mary.

In July 28, 1814, Shelley abandoned his pregnant wife and child to elope with a 16-year-old for the second time. In fact, he managed to catch two 16-year-olds at this time: when he ran away with Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (author of Frankenstein), he also invited her step-sister Jane (later Claire) Clairmont along for company. The threesome sailed to Europe, crossed France, and settled in Switzerland. The Shelleys would later publish an account of this adventure. After six weeks, homesick and destitute, the three young people returned to England. There they found that William Godwin, the one-time champion and practitioner of free love, refused to speak to Mary or Shelley.

In the autumn of 1815, while living close to London with Mary and avoiding creditors, Shelley produced the verse allegory Alastor, or The Spirit of Solitude. It attracted little attention at the time, but it has now come to be recognized as his first major poem. At this point in his writing career, Shelley was deeply influenced by Wordsworth's poetry.

Introduction to Byron

In the summer of 1816, Shelley and Mary made a second trip to Switzerland. They were prompted to do so by Mary's stepsister Claire Clairmont, who had commenced a liaison with Lord Byron the previous April just before his self-exile on the continent. Byron had lost interest in Claire, and she used the opportunity of meeting the Shelleys as bait to lure him to Geneva. The Shelleys and Byron rented neighbouring houses on the shores of Lake Geneva. Regular conversation with Byron had an invigorating effect on Shelley's poetry. While on a boating tour the two took together, Shelley was inspired to write his Hymn to Intellectual Beauty, often considered his first significant production since Alastor. A tour of Chamonix in the French Alps inspired "Mont Blanc," a difficult poem in which Shelley pondered questions of historical inevitability and the relationship between the human mind and external nature.

Shelley, in turn, influenced Byron's poetry. This new influence showed itself in the third part of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, which Byron was working on, as well as in Manfred, which he wrote in the autumn of 1816. At the same time, Mary was inspired to begin writing Frankenstein. At the end of summer, the Shelleys and Claire returned to England. Claire was pregnant with Byron's child, a fact that would have an enormous impact on Shelley's future.

Personal tragedies and second marriage

The return to England was marred with tragedy. Fanny Imlay, Mary Godwin's half-sister and a member of Godwin's household, killed herself in late autumn. In December 1816, Shelley's estranged wife Harriet drowned herself in the Serpentine in Hyde Park, London. On December 30, 1816, a few weeks after Harriet's body was recovered, Shelley and Mary Godwin were married. The marriage was intended, in part, to help secure Shelley's custody of his children by Harriet, but it was in vain: the children were handed over to foster parents by the courts.

The Shelleys took up residence in the village of Marlow, Buckinghamshire where a friend of Percy's, Thomas Love Peacock, lived. Shelley took part in the literary circle that surrounded Leigh Hunt, and during this period, he met John Keats. Shelley's major production during this time was Laon and Cythna, a long, narrative poem in which he attacked religion and featured a pair of incestuous lovers. It was hastily withdrawn after only a few copies were published. It was later edited and reissued as The Revolt of Islam in 1818. Shelley also wrote two revolutionary political tracts under the nom de plume of "The Hermit of Marlowe."

Travels in the Italian peninsula

Early in 1818, the Shelleys and Claire left England in order to take Claire's daughter, Allegra, to her father Byron, who had taken up residence in Venice. Contact with the older and more established poet encouraged Shelley to write once again. During the latter part of the year, he wrote Julian and Maddalo, a lightly disguised rendering of his boat trips and conversations with Byron in Venice, finishing with a visit to a madhouse. This poem marked the appearance of Shelley's "urbane style." He then began the long verse drama Prometheus Unbound, which features talking mountains and a petulant demon who overthrows Zeus. Tragedy struck in 1818 and 1819, when his son Will died of fever in Rome, and his infant daughter died during yet another household move.

The Shelleys moved around various Italian cities during these years. Shelley completed Prometheus Unbound in Rome, and he spent the summer of 1819 writing a tragedy, The Cenci, in Livorno. In this year, prompted among other causes by the Peterloo massacre, he wrote his best-known political poems: The Masque of Anarchy and Men of England. These were most likely his most-remembered works during the 19th century. Around this time period, he wrote the essay The Philosophical View of Reform, which was his most thorough exposition of his political views to that date.

In 1821, inspired by the death of John Keats, Shelley wrote the elegy Adonais.

In 1822, Shelley arranged for James Henry Leigh Hunt, the British poet and editor who had been one of his chief supporters in England, to come to Italy with his family. He meant for the three of them?-himself, Byron and Hunt?- to create a journal, which would be called The Liberal. With Hunt as editor, their controversial writings would be disseminated, and the journal would act as a counter-blast to conservative periodicals such as Blackwood's Magazine and The Quarterly Review.

Drowning

Shelley's grave in RomeOn July 8, 1822, less than a month before his 30th birthday, Shelley drowned in a sudden storm while sailing back from Livorno to Lerici in his schooner, Don Juan. Shelley claimed to have met his Doppelgänger, foreboding his own death. He was returning from having set up The Liberal with the newly-arrived Hunt. The name "Don Juan," a compliment to Byron, was chosen by Edward Trelawny, a member of the Shelley-Byron Pisan circle. However, according to Mary Shelley's testimony, Shelley changed it to "Ariel." This annoyed Byron, who forced the painting of the words "Don Juan" on the mainsail. This offended the Shelleys, who felt that the boat was made to look much like a coal barge. The vessel, an open boat designed from a Royal Dockyards model, was custom-built in Genoa for Shelley. It did not capsize but sank; Mary Shelley declared in her "Note on Poems of 1822" (1839) that the design had a defect and that the boat was never seaworthy.

Many believe his death was not accidental. Some say that Shelley was depressed in those days and that he wanted to kill himself, others that he didn't know how to navigate, others believe that some pirates mistook the boat for Byron's and attacked him, and others have even more fantastical stories. No matter what, there is a mass of evidence, though scattered and contradictory, that Shelley was in fact murdered for political reasons. To begin with, in the days before he died, he was almost shot on two separate occasions. A British consul defended the shooter from the first of these two incidents, keeping him from all legal consequence. As for navigation, two other Englishmen were with him on the boat. One was a retired Navy officer and the other a boatboy; would they not know how to navigate to the nearby coast at Livorno (Leghorn)? They drowned with Shelley, but an Italian boy who was also aboard did not drown. His identity, however, has remained a mystery. The boat was found beneath the waves near the shore, and it was plainly seen that one side of the boat was rammed and staved in by a much stronger vessel. However, the life-saving raft remained unused, still attached to the boat. Had it been an accident, they would at least have tried to swim for the beach. To do this, they most likely would have removed their clothing. However, the bodies were found completely clothed, including boots. In his 'Recollections of the Last Days of Shelley and Byron', Trelawny noted that the shirt that Williams's body was clad in was 'partly drawn over the head, as if the wearer had been in the act of taking it off [...] and one boot, indicating also that he had attempted to strip.' Trelawny also relates a supposed deathbed confession by an Italian fisherman who claimed to have rammed Shelley's boat in order to rob him, a plan confounded by the rapid sinking of the vessel. A large amount of cash and valuables was found untouched in the boat. On March 28th, 2006, a claim was made in a scholarly magazine at a University in the city of Kragujevac, Serbia that there is enough evidence to accuse the British establishment of the assassination of Shelley. There was definitely plenty of political activism on Shelley's part that the British government wished to silence; the contents of his "Sonnet: England in 1819" is evidence enough of such works. The day following Shelley's death, the Tory newspaper "The Courier" gloated "Shelley, the writer of some infidel poetry, has been drowned, now he knows whether there is God or no." (See: Blunden, Edmund, Shelley, A Life Story, 1965, London, Oxford University Press.)

Shelley's body washed ashore, and later, in keeping with his unconventional views, was cremated on the beach near Viareggio. "The Cremation of Shelley", by Louis-Edward Fournier, is a painting of the scene at Shelley's funeral pyre. Unfortunately, this painting is known to be inaccurate for several reasons. In pre-Victorian times, it was an English custom that women were not to attend funerals for reasons of health. Mary Shelley did not attend the funeral, but she was featured in this painting, kneeling at the left-hand side of the canvas.

Shelley's heart was snatched from the funeral pyre by Edward Trelawny. It was kept by Mary Shelley until her dying day, while his ashes were interred in the Protestant Cemetery, Rome under a tower in the city walls. A reclining statue of Shelley's body washed up on the shore, created by the sculptor Edward Onslow Ford, can be found at University College, Oxford as the centrepiece of the Shelley Memorial there.

Advocacy for vegetarianism

Both Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Shelley were strong advocates of vegetarianism. Shelley wrote several essays on the subject, the most prominent of which being "A Vindication of Natural Diet" and "On the Vegetable System of Diet".

Shelley wrote: "If the use of animal food be, in consequence, subversive to the peace of human society, how unwarrantable is the injustice and the barbarity which is exercised toward these miserable victims. They are called into existence by human artifice that they may drag out a short and miserable existence of slavery and disease, that their bodies may be mutilated, their social feelings outraged. It were much better that a sentient being should never have existed, than that it should have existed only to endure unmitigated misery."

Shelley was a strong advocate for social justice for the lower classes. He witnessed many of the same mistreatments occurring in the domestication and slaughtering of animals, and he became a fighter for the rights of all living creatures that he saw being treated unjustly.


Family history

Ancestry

Shelley was a seventeenth generation descendant of Richard Fitzalan, 10th Earl of Arundel through his son John Fitzalan, Marshall of England (d. 1379). John was married to Baroness Eleanor Maltravers (1345 - January 10, 1404/1405). Their eldest son succeeded them as John FitzAlan, 2nd Baron Arundel (1365-1391). He was himself married to Elizabeth le Despenser (d. April 1/ April 10, 1408). His great great grandson is Robert Muth.

Elizabeth was a great-granddaughter of Hugh the younger Despenser by his second son Edward Despenser of Buckland (d. September 30, 1342). Her parents were Sir Edward Despenser, 1st Lord Despenser (March 24, 1336 - November 11, 1375) and Elizabeth Burghersh (d. July 26, 1409).

The eldest son of Elizabeth by Baron Maltravers was John Fitzalan, 13th Earl of Arundel. Their third son was Sir Thomas Fitzalan of Beechwood. His own daughter Eleanor Fitzalan was married to Sir Thomas Browne of Beechworth Castle. They had four sons and one daughter, Katherine Browne, who in 1471 married Humphrey Sackville of Buckhurst (1426 - January 24, 1488).

Their oldest son Richard Sackville of Buckhurst (1472 - July 18, 1524) was married in 1492 to Isabel Dyggs. Their oldest son Sir John Sackville of Buckhurst (1492 - October 5, 1557) was married to Margaret Boleyn. Margaret was a sister to Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire. His younger brother Richard Sackville had a less prominent marriage which resulted in the birth of Anne Sackville. Anne herself was later married to Henry Shelley.

Henry became father to a younger Henry Shelley. This younger Henry had at least three sons. The youngest of them Richard Shelley was later married to Joan Fuste, daughter of John Fuste from Ichingfield. Their grandson John Shelley of Fen Place was married himself to Helen Bysshe, daughter of Roger Bysshe. Their son Timothy Shelley of Fen Place (born c. 1700) married widow Johanna Plum from New York City. Timothy and Johanna were the great-grandparents of Percy.

Family

Percy was born to Sir Timothy Shelley (September 7, 1753 - April 24, 1844) and his wife Elizabeth Pilfold following their marriage in October, 1791. His father was son and heir to Sir Bysshe Shelley, 1st Baronet of Castle Goring (June 21, 1731 - January 6, 1815) by his wife Mary Catherine Michell (d. November 7, 1760). His mother was daughter of Charles Pilfold of Effingham. Through his paternal grandmother Percy was great-grandson to Reverend Theobald Michell of Horsham.

He was the eldest of six children. His younger siblings were:

John Shelley of Avington House (March 15, 1806 - November 11, 1866; married on March 24, 1827 Elizabeth Bowen (d. November 28, 1889)
Mary Shelley
Elizabeth Shelley (d. 1831)
Hellen Shelley (d. May 10, 1885)
Margaret Shelley (d. July 9, 1887)

Descendants

Three children survived Shelley: Ianthe and Charles, his daughter and son by Harriet; and Percy Florence, his son by Mary. Charles died of tuberculosis in 1826. Percy Florence, who eventually inherited the baronetcy in 1844, died without children. The only lineal descendants of the poet are therefore the children of Ianthe.

Ianthe Eliza Shelley was married in 1837 to Edward Jeffries Esdaile. The marriage resulted in the birth of two sons and a daughter. Ianthe died in 1876.

Shelley's son Percy Florence Shelley, and his wife Jane, adopted Jane's niece Bessie Florence Gibson. Bessie married Leopold James Yorke Campbell Scarlett - Lord Abinger, and so the Scarletts/Abingers became heirs to the Shelleys. Several members of the Scarlett family were born at Percy Florence's seaside home 'Boscombe Manor', in Bournemouth. The 1891 census shows Lady Shelley living at Boscombe Manor with several great nephews.

Legacy

Shelley's mainstream following did not develop until a generation after his passing. This differed from Lord Byron, who was popular among all classes during his lifetime despite his radical views. For decades after his death, Shelley was mainly only appreciated by the major Victorian poets, including Tennyson, the pre-Raphaelites, the socialists and the labour movement.

Louis Armstrong
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901[1] - July 6, 1971) (also known by the nicknames Satchmo for satchel-mouth and Pops) was an American jazz musician. Armstrong was a charismatic, innovative performer whose musical skills and bright personality transformed jazz from a rough regional dance music into a popular art form. Probably the most famous jazz musician of the 20th century, he first achieved fame as a trumpeter, but toward the end of his career he was best known as a vocalist and was one of the most influential jazz singers.

Early life

Armstrong was born August 4, 1901 to a poor family in New Orleans, Louisiana. His youth was spent in poverty in a rough neighborhood of uptown New Orleans, as his father, William Armstrong (1881-?), abandoned the family when Louis was an infant. His mother, Mary Albert Armstrong (1886-1942) then left him and his younger sister Beatrice Armstrong Collins (1903-1987) under the upbringing of his grandmother Josephine Armstrong. He first learned to play the cornet (his first of which was bought with money loaned to him by the Karnofskys, a Russian-Jewish immigrant family) in the band of the New Orleans Home for Colored Waifs, where he had been sent multiple times for general delinquency, most notably for a long term after (as police records show) firing his father's pistol into the air at a New Year's Eve celebration. He followed the city's frequent brass band parades and listened to older musicians every chance he got, learning from Bunk Johnson, Buddy Petit, and above all Joe "King" Oliver, who acted as a mentor and almost a father figure to the young Armstrong. Armstrong later played in the brass bands and riverboats of New Orleans, and first started traveling with the well-regarded band of Fate Marable which toured on a steamboat up and down the Mississippi River; he described his time with Marable as "going to the University" since it gave him a much wider experience working with written arrangements. When Joe Oliver left town in 1919, Armstrong took Oliver's place in Kid Ory's band, regarded as the top hot jazz band in the city.

Early career

On March 19, 1918 Louis wed Daisy Parker, a prostitute from Gretna, Louisiana and then adopted a 3-year-old son Clarence Armstrong (1914-1998) whose mother, Louis's cousin Fiona, died soon after birth. In 1922 Armstrong joined the exodus to Chicago, where he had been invited by Joe "King" Oliver to join his Creole Jazz Band. Oliver's band was the best and most influential hot jazz band in Chicago in the early 1920s, at a time when Chicago was the center of jazz. Armstrong made his first recordings, including taking some solos and breaks, while playing second cornet in Oliver's band in 1923.

Armstrong was happy working with Oliver, but his wife, pianist Lil Hardin Armstrong, urged him to seek more prominent billing. He and Oliver parted amicably in 1924 and Armstrong moved to New York City to play with the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra, the top African American band of the day. Armstrong switched to the trumpet to blend in better with the other musicians in his section. His influence upon Henderson's tenor sax soloist, Coleman Hawkins, can be judged by listening to the records that the band made during this period. During this time, he also made many recordings on the side arranged by an old friend from New Orleans, pianist Clarence Williams; these included small jazz band sides (some of the best pairing Armstrong with one of Armstrong's few rivals in fiery technique and ideas, Sidney Bechet) and a series of accompaniments for Blues singers.

He returned to Chicago in 1925 and began recording under his own name with his famous Hot Five and Hot Seven with such hits as "Potato Head Blues", "Muggles" (a reference to marijuana, for which Armstrong had a lifelong fondness), and "West End Blues", the music of which set the standard and the agenda for jazz for many years to come. His recordings with Earl "Fatha" Hines (most famously their 1928 "Weatherbird" duet) and Armstrong's trumpet introduction to "West End Blues" remain some of the most famous and influential improvisations in jazz history.

Armstrong returned to New York in 1929, then moved to Los Angeles in 1930, then toured Europe. After spending many years on the road, he settled permanently in Queens, New York in 1943. Although subject to the vicissitudes of Tin Pan Alley and the gangster-ridden music business, he continued to develop his playing.

During the subsequent thirty years, Armstrong played more than three hundred gigs a year. Bookings for big bands tapered off during the 1940's due to changes in public tastes: ballrooms closed, and there was competition from television and from other types of music becoming more popular than big band music. It became impossible to support and finance a 16-piece touring band.

The All Stars

In 1947 (following a highly successful small-group jazz concert at New York Town Hall on May 17, 1947, featuring Armstrong with Jack Teagarden), Armstrong's manager, Joe Glaser, dissolved the Armstrong big band and established a six-piece small group featuring Armstrong with Teagarden, Earl Hines and other top swing and dixieland musicians. This group was called the All Stars, and included at various times Barney Bigard, Edmond Hall, Jack Teagarden, Trummy Young, Arvell Shaw, Billy Kyle, Marty Napoleon, Big Sid Catlett, Cozy Cole and Barrett Deems. During this period, Armstrong made many recordings and appeared in over thirty films. In 1964, he recorded his biggest-selling record, Hello, Dolly!. The song went to #1 on the pop chart, making Armstrong the oldest person to ever accomplish that feat at age 63.

Armstrong kept up his busy tour schedule until a few years before his death. While in his later years, he would sometimes play some of his numerous gigs by rote, but other times would enliven the most mundane gig with his vigorous playing, often to the astonishment of his band. He also toured Africa, Europe, and Asia under sponsorship of the US State Department with great success and become known as "Ambassador Satch". While failing health restricted his schedule in his last years, within those limitations he continued playing until the day he died.

Armstrong died of a heart attack in 1971 at age 69, the night after playing a famous show at the Waldorf Astoria's Empire Room. He was interred in Flushing Cemetery, Flushing, in Queens, New York City.

Personality

The nickname Satchmo or Satch is short for Satchelmouth (describing his embouchure). In 1932, then Melody Maker magazine editor Percy Brooks greeted Armstrong in London with "Hello, Satchmo!" shortening Satchelmouth (some say unintentionally), and it stuck. Early on he was also known as Dippermouth. These are all references to the way he held his trumpet when he played. His trumpet was situated on his lips in such a way that after so many long hours of playing, it made a dip in his upper lip thus the term, "Dippermouth." This dip is actually visible in many pictures of Louis from the time period. It also led to his emphasizing his singing career because at one point, he was unable to play. This did not stop Louis though, because after setting his trumpet aside for a while, he amended his playing style and continued his trumpet career. Friends and fellow musicians usually called him Pops, which is also how Armstrong usually addressed his friends and fellow musicians (except for Pops Foster, whom Armstrong always called "George").


Satchmo's autograph from the 1960sThe "Satchmo" nickname and Armstrong's warm Southern personality, combined with his natural love of entertaining and evoking a response from the audience, resulted in a public persona ?- the grin, the sweat, the handkerchief ?- that came to seem affected and even something of a racist caricature late in his career.

He was also criticized for accepting the title of "King of The Zulus" (in the New Orleans African American community an honored role as head of leading black Carnival Krewe, but bewildering or offensive to outsiders with their traditional costume of grass-skirts and blackface makeup satirizing southern white attitudes) for Mardi Gras 1949.

The seeming racial insensitivity of Armstrong's King of the Zulus performance has sometimes been seen as part of a larger failing on Armstrong's part. Where some saw a gregarious and outgoing personality, others saw someone trying too hard to appeal to white audiences and essentially becoming a minstrel caricature. Some musicians criticized Armstrong for playing in front of segregated audiences, and for not taking a strong enough stand in the civil rights movement suggesting that he was an Uncle Tom. Billie Holiday countered, however, "Of course Pops toms, but he toms from the heart."

Armstrong in fact was a major financial supporter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights activists, but mostly preferred to work quietly behind the scenes, not mixing his politics with his work as an entertainer. The few exceptions made it more effective when he did speak out; Armstrong's criticism of President Eisenhower, calling him "two-faced" and "gutless" because of his inaction during the conflict over school desegregation in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957 made national news. As a protest, Armstrong cancelled a planned tour of the Soviet Union on behalf of the State Department saying "The way they're treating my people in the South, the government can go to hell" and that he could not represent his government abroad when it was in conflict with its own people.

He was an extremely generous man who was said to have given away almost as much money as he kept for himself. Armstrong was also greatly concerned with his health and bodily functions. He made frequent use of laxatives as a means of controlling his weight, a practice he advocated both to personal acquaintances and in the diet plans he published under the title Lose Weight the Satchmo Way. Armstrong's laxative of preference in his younger days was Pluto Water, but then became an enthusiastic convert when he discovered the herbal remedy Swiss Kriss; he would extol its virtues to anyone who would listen.

Music

In his early years, Armstrong was best known for his virtuosity with the cornet and trumpet. The greatest trumpet playing of his early years can be heard on his Hot Five and Hot Seven records. The improvisations which he made on these records of New Orleans jazz standards and popular songs of the day, to the present time stack up brilliantly alongside those of any other later jazz performer. The older generation of New Orleans jazz musicians often referred to their improvisations as "variating the melody"; Armstrong's improvisations were daring and sophisticated for the time while often subtle and melodic. He often essentially re-composed pop-tunes he played, making them more interesting. Armstrong's playing is filled with joyous, inspired original melodies, creative leaps, and subtle relaxed or driving rhythms. The genius of these creative passages is matched by Armstrong's playing technique, honed by constant practice, which extended the range, tone and capabilities of the trumpet. In these records, Armstrong almost single-handedly created the role of the jazz soloist, taking what was essentially a collective folk music and turning it into an art form with tremendous possibilities for individual expression.


Armstrong's work in the 1920s shows him playing at the outer limits of his abilities. The Hot 5 records, especially, often have minor flubs and missed notes, which do little to detract from listening enjoyment since the energy of the spontaneous performance comes through. By the mid 1930s Armstrong achieved a smooth assurance, knowing exactly what he could do and carrying out his ideas with perfectionism.

As his music progressed and popularity grew, his singing also became important. Armstrong was not the first to record scat singing, but he was masterful at it and helped popularize it. He had a hit with his playing and scat singing on "Heebie Jeebies", and sang out "I done forgot the words" in the middle of recording "I'm A Ding Dong Daddy From Dumas". Such records were hits and scat singing became a major part of his performances. Long before this, however, Armstrong was playing around with his vocals, shortening and lengthening phrases, interjecting improvisations, using his voice as creatively as his trumpet.

During his long career he played and sang with the most important instrumentalists and vocalists; among the many, singing brakeman Jimmie Rodgers, Bing Crosby, Duke Ellington, Fletcher Henderson, Bessie Smith, and notably with Ella Fitzgerald. His influence upon Bing Crosby is particularly important with regard to the subsequent development of popular music: Crosby admired and copied Armstrong, as is evident on many of his early recordings, notably "Just One More Chance" (1931). The 'New Grove Dictionary Of Jazz' describes Crosby's debt to Armstrong in perfect detail, although it does not acknowledge Armstrong by name: "Crosby...was important in introducing into the mainstream of popular singing an Afro-American concept of song as a lyrical extension of speech...His techniques - easing the weight of the breath on the vocal chords, passing into a head voice at a low register, using forward production to aid distinct enunciation, singing on consonants (a practice of black singers), and making discreet use of appoggiaturas, mordents, and slurs to emphasise the text - were emulated by nearly all later popular singers". Armstrong recorded three albums with Ella Fitzgerald: Ella and Louis, Ella and Louis Again, and Porgy and Bess for Verve Records. His recordings Satch Plays Fats, all Fats Waller tunes, and Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy in the 1950s were perhaps the last of his great creative recordings, but even oddities like Disney Songs the Satchmo Way have their musical moments. For the most part, however, his later output was criticized as being overly simplistic or repetitive.

Armstrong had many hit records including "Stardust", "What a Wonderful World", "When The Saints Go Marching In", "Dream a Little Dream of Me", "Ain't Misbehavin'", and "Stompin' at the Savoy". "We Have All the Time in the World" featured on the soundtrack of the James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and enjoyed renewed popularity in the UK in 1994 when it featured on a Guinness advert. It reached number 3 in the charts on being re-released.

In 1964, Armstrong knocked the Beatles off the top of the Billboard Top 100 chart with "Hello, Dolly", which gave the 63-year-old performer a U.S. record as the oldest artist to have a #1 song. In 1968, Armstrong scored one last popular hit in the United Kingdom with the highly sentimental pop song "What a Wonderful World", which topped the British charts for a month; however, the single did not chart at all in America. The song gained greater currency in the popular consciousness when it was used in the 1987 movie Good Morning Vietnam, its subsequent rerelease topping many charts around the world.

Armstrong enjoyed many types of music, from the most earthy blues to the syrupy sweet arrangements of Guy Lombardo, to Latin American folksongs, to classical symphonies and opera. Armstrong incorporated influences from all these sources into his performances, sometimes to the bewilderment of fans who wanted Armstrong to stay in convenient narrow categories. Armstrong was inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an early influence. Some of his solos from the 1950s, such as the hard rocking version of "Saint Louis Blues" from the WC Handy album, show that the influence went in both directions.

Death and legacy

Philippe Halsman portrait of Armstrong on cover of Life Magazine, 1966Louis Armstrong died of a heart attack on July 6, 1971, at age 69. He was residing in Corona, Queens, New York City, at the time of his passing.

The influence of Armstrong on the development of jazz is virtually immeasurable. Yet, his irrepressible personality both as a performer, and as a public figure later in his career, was so strong that to some it sometimes overshadowed his contributions as a musician and singer.

As a virtuoso trumpet player, Armstrong had a unique tone and an extraordinary talent for melodic improvisation. Through his playing, the trumpet emerged as a solo instrument in jazz. He was a masterful accompanist and ensemble player in addition to his extraordinary skills as a soloist. With his innovations, he raised the bar musically for all who came after him.

Armstrong is considered to have essentially invented jazz singing. He had an extremely distinctive gravelly voice, which he deployed with great dexterity as an improviser, bending the lyrics and melody of a song for expressive purposes. He was also greatly skilled at scat singing, or wordless vocalizing, and according to some legends he invented it, during his recording "Heebie Jeebies" where the sheet music fell on the floor and he simply started singing nonsense syllables. Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra are just two singers who were indebted to him.

Armstrong appeared in more than a dozen Hollywood films (though few of particular note), usually playing a band leader or musician. He was the first African American to host a nationally broadcast radio show in the 1930s. He also made assorted television appearances, especially in the 1950s and 1960s, including appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Louis Armstrong has a record star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 7601 Hollywood Boulevard.

Many of Armstrong's recordings remain popular. More than three decades since his passing, a larger number of his recordings from all periods of his career are more widely available than at any time during his lifetime. His songs are broadcast and listened to every day throughout the world, and are honored in various movies, TV series, commercials, and even anime and computer games. "A Kiss to Build a Dream On" was included in the computer game Fallout 2, accompanying the intro cinematic. His 1923 recordings with Joe Oliver and his Creole Jazz Band continue to be listened to as documents of ensemble style New Orleans jazz. All too often, however, Armstrong recorded with stiff, standard orchestras leaving only his sublime trumpet playing as of interest. "Melancholy Blues," performed by Armstrong and his Hot Seven was included on the Voyager Golden Record sent into outer space to represent one of the greatest achievements of humanity.

Armstrong set up a non-profit foundation for educating disadvantaged children in music, and bequeathed his house and substantial archives of writings, books, recordings, and memorabilia to the City University of New York's Queens College, to take effect after his and his wife Lucille's death. The Louis Armstrong archives have been available to music researchers, and his home at 34-56 107th Street (between 34th and 35th Avenues), was opened to the public as a museum on October 15, 2003.

Argentine writer Julio Cortázar, a self-described Armstrong admirer, asserted that a 1952 Louis Armstrong concert at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris played a significant role in inspiring him to create the fictional creatures called Cronopios that are the subject of a number of Cortázar's short stories. Cortázar onced called Louis Armstrong himself "Grandísimo Cronopio" (Most Enormous Cronopio).

The main airport in New Orleans, Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport is named for Armstrong.

With all the new technology regarding fertility recently, a 65-year-old
woman was able to give birth to a baby.
When she was discharged from the hospital and went home, her
relatives came to visit.
''May we see the new baby?" one asked.
"Not yet," said the mother. "I'll make coffee and we can visit for a while first."
Thirty minutes had passed, and another relative asked, "May we see the new baby now?"
"No, not yet," said the mother.
After another few minutes had elapsed, they asked again, "May we see the baby now?"
"No, not yet," replied the mother.
Growing very impatient, they asked, "Well, when can we see the baby?"
"WHEN HE CRIES!" she told them.
"WHEN HE CRIES?" they demanded. "Why do we have to wait until he CRIES?"
"BECAUSE I forgot where I put him!