“The Greatest Photo Taker”: Remembering Jack Bradley Part 35–Chicago October 1967

Our previous post ended with Louis Armstrong and His All Stars going back on the road on October 12, 1967, doing a string of one-nighters before winding up in Chicago towards the end of the month with a few days off. Coincidentally, Jack Bradley would be in Chicago at the same time! “I’ll never forget that occasion because I was in Chicago on a photo assignment for a magazine publisher in New York and Louie was in Chicago and the band and they were off for a week and Bobby Hackett was in Chicago and Jonah Jones was appearing at The London House and Jimmy Durante was appearing at a fancy hotel whose name I can’t remember.”

Bradley would have his camera for nearly all of the above–and more–and those photos will make up the bulk of this post. First, a little detective work is needed to try to pinpoint a date for what will follow. Jonah Jones opened at the London House on October 17 and performed there until October 30. Jimmy Durante was at the Empire Room of the Palmer House from October 15-November 1. Louis and Jack also dropped in to see Jack E. Leonard at Mister Kelly’s during his three-week run, which began October 16.

As for Armstrong, he performed at Boston’s Symphony Hall on October 21 and he performed at Roseland in New York City on October 20, so that narrows it down to October 22-29 for the photos we’re about to share. Chicago Tribune Columnist Herb Lyon was following Louis’s movements, mentioning him twice in his column that week; here’s a blurb from October 29:

And one from October 30:

Photos to come! But first, Jack Bradley wanted to make the most of this trip to Chicago, filling up two pages with phone numbers and addresses of people and places he wanted to visit–here’s Jack’s to-do list (perhaps the “Wed. 8:30 LOBBY” note above Louis’s name seals it and Wednesday, October 26 is the date we’re looking for, which meshes with Herb Lyons’s “the other night”):

One thing Bradley never mentioned was one of the ways Armstrong spent his time in Chicago was by holding a rare rehearsal with the All Stars at the Peoples Gas Building, 122 South Michigan Avenue. They did have another Brunswick record date coming up on November 1 so it’s possible they wanted to familiarize themselves with some of the material they were to perform then. But there was another song they wanted to nail down for their live shows: “What a Wonderful World.”

History tells us that “What a Wonderful World” was released in the United States and sank without a trace but as proven in this series, it did get a nice review in Cash Box and Louis performed it on the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on October 9. It wasn’t enough to crack the charts here in the States but it was enough for Louis to realize that maybe he should adapt it for the All Stars to perform nightly. Here he is at the mystery Chicago rehearsal, holding the published sheet music:

Besides sharing the roll of film with other Chicago adventures, more evidence that these rehearsal photos were taken in that particular city is found in the presence of former All Star drummer Barrett Deems! He doesn’t seem to have sat in with the band, but was probably happy to reunite with his old boss. Here are two photos of Barrett in the background watching Louis and Tyree Glenn in action:

And here’s one more shot from farther away to glimpse the studio, the rest of the band–Joe Muranyi on clarinet, Marty Napoleon on piano, Buddy Catlett on bass, and Danny Barcelona on drums–and Barrett again:

Bradley also took the time to shoot some close-ups of a few of the All Stars; here’s a couple of great portraits of Marty Napoleon:

Bassist Buddy Catlett:

And three charming photos of Louis with Joe Muranyi; when I interviewed Joe at his apartment in 2006, one of my parting gifts was a glossy print of this first image:

That’s all Jack shot of the rehearsal but what happened next is a mystery; half the negatives are shared with images from the London House with Jonah Jones and the other half are from Mister Kelly’s with Jack E. Leonard. Louis is wearing different shirts in the photos so he most likely hit the London House one night and Mister Kelly’s another, but the original order of visits is unknown. We’ll arbitrarily start at the London House because these are really some of the jewels of this post.

Trumpeter Jonah Jones started his career as a full-on Armstrong disciple but by the late 1950s, he struck gold by playing muted trumpet with quartet backing on a series of popular albums made for Capitol. “Oh Jonah was just a quartet, well, oh, I think he had a guitar, too, five pieces, yeah,” Jack Bradley recalled when discussing these photos. “Yeah he was marvelous. Unfortunately he sort of got typecast with the mute and the shuffle rhythm–he could do much more than that, he could do glissandos. Yeah and he was another disciple of Louie, Louie was really his idol.”

Having Jonah Jones and Louis Armstrong in the same room more than met the quota for great trumpeters in the London House that night, but a third top trumpet man soon appeared: Bobby Hackett! Here’s Bradley’s remembrances: “I went with Louie and Lucille and entourage and Tyree to hear Jonah and his group and it was like old home week. And Bobby Hackett happened to be there in the audience so I got pictures also of Bobby and Louie and Jonah together. And Louie and Tyree went up and did ‘Hello, Dolly’ routine which they’re doing here–wait no that’s not ‘Hello, Dolly,’ it’s ‘That’s My Desire’ and Tyree.”

It turns out Bradley’s memory was correct in both instances; Louis was called onstage to do “Hello, Dolly!” and then brought Glenn up to do their duet on “That’s My Desire.” In Jones’s quartet was John Brown on bass, Solomon Hall on drums, and Andre Persiany on piano (no guitar as Bradley misremembered). That’s enough background, here are the photos Bradley took of Armstrong on stage:

Bradley switched spots–and film–to get these images of Louis and Tyree doing “That’s My Desire”:

Now let’s go into the audience and add Bobby Hackett to the mix. Doing some research on Hackett’s whereabouts in this period, he spent the first two weeks of October at the Showboat in Detroit. However, his whereabouts become murky after October 15, though he was scheduled to play the Northwestern Illinois University Homecoming Coronation Dance on Friday, October 27 at the University Center Ballroom. Thus, it would make sense that if he had a few days off, he’d spend it knocking around Chicago. (Hackett was in the news almost daily as he had two new albums on the market, Verve’s Creole Cooking and Project 3’s That Midnight Touch, the latter made with Enoch Light.)

Here’s Jonah, Louis, and Bobby–what a trio of trumpeters!

Hackett sitting in between Lucille and Louis:

An unidentified young man–wish we knew who it was:

Anyone recognize the man in the glasses? I originally thought it was Willie “The Lion” Smith but he looks to be too young for the Lion of 1967; a Facebook post of this photo yielded no definitive answers a few years ago:

I’m guessing this must be Mrs. Edna Hackett, but if I’m wrong, let me know:

Now Louis, Bobby, and Tyree are joined by another unidentified man who gives off a show business vibe; maybe someone associated with the London House?

Hackett seems to be patting Armstrong’s stomach in the above image; Armstrong was in the early stages of losing a massive amount of weight, as will be chronicled in future installments in this series. (Remember, one month earlier–probably to the day–Louis was in a Reno hospital battling pneumonia for the second time in four months.)

That concludes the London House photos so now it’s time to turn our attention to another night in Chicago when Louis and Lucille–wearing different outfits–made time to go to Mister Kelly’s to see the insult comic Jack E. Leonard. Armstrong and Leonard had known each other since the 1920s, when Leonard was a Charleston dancer at the Sunset Cafe. Once Leonard spotted his old friend in the audience, he brought him up onstage; there’s no audio of this moment but based on their later interactions on The Mike Douglas Show in 1970, Louis could give as good as he got when confronted with Leonard’s barbs.

Here’s Jack Bradley’s photos, opening with a few of Leonard by himself:

Before leaving Mister Kelly’s, Louis and Lucille were besieged by fans–possibly nightclub staff–in the kitchen. Jack did his best to take a group photo, with varying results, but even the blurry and unfocused shots convey the fun that was had:

In addition to the All Stars rehearsal and the nights at the London House and Mister Kelly’s, Louis and Jack Bradley also attended a book party together for the release of Louis Armstrong: People of Destiny. This was a brand new series of children’s books being published by Children’s Press Inc. of Chicago. Bradley saved much of his business papers and they show that he had been in touch with Editorial Assistant Gerri Stoller back in June and July 1967 to work out an arrangement to use some of Bradley’s photographs. The book was finally published in October 1967 and both Armstrong and Bradley were invited to the official book party in Chicago.

I’m doubtful that Bradley took these photos; we don’t have the negatives and in researching this post, I’ve spotted a few that were published in newspapers around the nation to announce the release of the book. Still, for completeness, here’s one of Louis reading it:

This is Louis and Bill Parbs of Children’s Press, Inc.:

Louis with his trumpet and I’m assuming, the aforementioned Gerri Stoller and the book’s editor, Joan Downing:

But the photo of them all is this one of Louis and Jack together:

Jack even managed to inscribe a copy for Louis, which we still have in our Armstrong Collection. Here’s the cover:

And here’s Jack’s inscription:

We’re going to close with Bradley’s most memorable night during this Chicago trip, a visit to the Palmer House to see Jimmy Durante perform at that hotel’s Empire Room. For once, Bradley did not bring his camera, but we do have his memories and we do have a wonderful photo of the night he refers to in this excerpt from a 1989 conversation with Richard Shaw:

“Well, I’ve got the picture somewhere that was taken by the photographer of the hotel of us all at the table with Louie and Lucille and Louie’s valet and Louie’s doctor and Louie’s road manager and myself. And they invited me to hear Jimmy Durante and it was just marvelous. It was the first time and last time I ever saw Jimmy Durante in person. Of course, he came from the old school place Louie came from really and they, Louie and Jimmy, loved each other. And the whole show was really directed at our table right up front and Jimmy did like an hour and a half without stopping for a minute, sang and danced, he told jokes, he played piano, he just did everything. It was just fantastic, it was like having our own Jimmy Durante show just for us at the table. Although the place was full, you know, being up front and he directed everything right at Louie and he did an awful lot of adlibbing and in-jokes. And Louie signed, you know, the photographer gave me the picture inside the hotel folder he said, ‘Jack the night of all nights Aye?’ or something like that because Louie had enjoyed those things as much or more than anyone, especially entertainers from that era. They seem to have all gone now and no one’s taken their place.”

Thus, there are no photos of Armstrong and Durante together that night, but here’s the hotel photo, which was placed in one of these Palmer House sleeves:

The photo itself, featuring, from left to right, valet Bob Sherman, Jack Bradley, Louis, an unidentified Palmer House waiter, Lucille, road manager Ira Mangel, and Dr. Alexander Schiff:

And finally, Louis’s personal inscription to Jack:

That concludes our look at the “night of all nites” and a very memorable, action-packed “week off” for Louis in Chicago in October 1967. He’d be seeing Jack Bradley soon enough, at Roseland on October 30 and at another Brunswick recording session on November 1. Bradley would have his camera at both venues and we’ll have those photos to share in our next installment.