In 1930, Hollywood heard about him and put him in the first of a half-dozen films (his latest: A Song Is Born).
As Big as Mussolini. When Armstrong went abroad in 1932, Europe turned out to be as much of a cinch as Chicago. At London's Palladium, George V did Armstrong the honor of attending in person. Louis repaid the compliment with a grinning bow to the royal box: "This one's for you, Rex." In Italy he relished seeing his own picture blown up to the same size as Mussolini's, hanging on the opposite side of the theater doorway ("Mussolini was big stuff in those days").
Louis liked Europe well enough to return in 1933 and stay for two years. He still thinks the British are the best appreciators of jazz in the world ("Man! They know more about my records than I do"). Next to the British, he ranks the French, who call his kind of music le jazz hot. Last year, when he went to France for the Jazz Festival at Nice, President Vincent Auriol himself sent Louis a large Sèvres vase. But after each trip abroad Louis says: "Europe's fine, but I sure get homesick for the ol' U.S.A."
"That Bop." With his present sixman outfit, the All-Stars, and 267-lb. Singer Velma Middleton, he was playing to dine & dance audiences of 1,000 a night last week in Vancouver, B.C. Most of his band, like Armstrong, had been musically famous for more than two decades, though they were only in their early 40s: Trombonist Jack Teagarden, Pianist Earl ("Father") Hines, Clarinetist Barney Bigard and Drummer Sidney ("Big Sid") Catlett. The only youngster, 25-year-old Arvell Shaw played bass fiddle. When Louis and his All-Stars swung into West End Blues, Confessin' or Rockin' Chair, it was hard for oldtimers to believe that Louis or jazz were ever better.
Louis gives the back of his hand to the latest variety of jazz, bebop (or bop). The boppers, who know the way he feels, tend to speak of him in the past tense. "Nowadays," says Negro Bop Trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, "we try to work out different rhythms and things that they didn't think about when Louis Armstrong blew. In his day all he did was play strictly from the soul--just strictly from his heart. You got to go forward and progress. We study."
Louis likes playing from the soul. Says he: "That bop is nice to listen to for a while but not all night. It's not jazz--all them variations--it's more an exercise. You've got to have that lead, too . . ."
