“We Love Each Other”: Louis Armstrong and Alpha Smith’s 1932-1933 Snapshots

In our previous post, we shared the entire contents of a scrapbook compiled by young Alpha Smith between 1926 and 1931, the years she was courting Louis Armstrong–while Louis was still married to his second wife, Lillian Hardin Armstrong.

Though these aren’t dated, these two snapshots seem to be from Louis and Alpha’s early years, possibly even taken in the late 1920s and just left out of that first scrapbook. First, “Louis, My Darling”:

And a companion piece of just “Alpha”:

Louis and Lil separated in New Orleans in June 1931 and Alpha soon took her place in the public’s eye as the new “Mrs. Armstrong”–though she and Louis wouldn’t formally marry until 1938.

Though they didn’t walk down the aisle, they might as well have been married after Lil left; in fact, that’s how Louis remembered it. In a 1950s autobiographical manuscript, Louis reminisced about the New Orleans trip, then added, “Alpha and I got married shortly after my first trip to New Orleans. Because Lil, my second wife and I wasn’t getting along none too well. So she and I agreed to disagree; so we finally got a divorce.”

Now officially a couple, Alpha and Louis started a brand new scrapbook in New Orleans, filling over a hundred pages with clippings between the summer of 1931 and early 1932. Perhaps that is a subject for a future post (or posts as it would take quite some time to replicate it in full) but we’re skipping it for now because 99% of the scrapbook is comprised of clippings charting the upward trajectory of Armstrong’s skyrocketing career, and very little of the personal touches that made the last scrapbook we shared so crucial in understanding Louis and Alpha’s early years–except for one page, which includes a small cartoon illustrating the correct usage of the verb “drunk” as opposed to “drank”; next to it, a note in all caps, “LOUIE WON THIS BATTLE AFTER ALMOST FIVE YEARS WITH ALPHA”!

Here’s a closeup if you can’t make out the cartoon above:

The scrapbook runs out in early 1932, a time when Armstrong was on trial, at the center of a manager’s battle between Johnny Collins and Tommy Rockwell. OKeh Records was also at war with RCA Victor over Armstrong’s recording contract. After fulfilling his OKeh contract with sessions in January and March 1932 and filming some shorts for Paramount Pictures in March and April, Louis and Alpha headed back to California, where Louis performed for a few months at Sebastian’s Cotton Club in Culver City. Though he remained a popular attraction, this is a fairly quiet period of Armstrong’s career as he didn’t make any records or films and mostly stayed “underground” while the various warring factions hovering over his career continued to try to work things out.

With the heat still on his prized client, Armstrong’s manager Johnny Collins secured some major bookings in London in July 1932 and Louis headed overseas for the first time, with Alpha by his side. Once there, it was Collins’s turn to compile a scrapbook of all of Louis’s clippings, but he left Alpha out entirely. However, at some point, Louis and Alpha bought a camera and began taking photos, making 8 x 10 prints of some but turning the great majority into small snapshots. Only a handful survive from 1932 but there’s a deluge from both at home and abroad in 1933 and 1934 before the snapshots dry up upon Louis and Alpha’s return to the United States in 1935. This post will the first part in an attempt to collect all of Louis and Alpha’s surviving photos and snapshots from our Archives in one place for the first time.

We begin en route to London, with a photo of Alpha taken on board the S. S. Majestic:

Next, a photo of the Maple, which Louis tells us was taken from his and Alpha’s hotel window:

Here’s Alpha outside the Commodore Theatre, where Louis performed on September 5, 1932:

After exploring England for over three months, Louis and Alpha headed to France for a little vacation, giving Louis his first taste of Paris and Montemarte. Here’s a beautiful photo of Louis and Alpha by the Metro:

This solo photo of Louis has become fairly well known in recent years, often turning up on social media:

The original snapshot has a message on the back:

It’s very hard to read but what becomes clear is Louis received this print as a gift from E. Vance and Louis Williams, the comedy dance team of “Pops & Louie,” who shared many bills with Louis in the late 1930s. It opens with a mystery as it give with an almost illegible address that looks like “18 Josefines Gates” in Oslo, Norway, with a parenthetical note “Dig like Joe Glaser”; Joe Glaser was not yet managing Armstrong’s career in the early 1930s but clearly all these entertainers knew him. [See below for update.]

After that, this is the best I can do with a transcription:

Dear Pops,
This is a souvenir I dug in Paris (Bonne chance) ‘Gay Paree.’ Gabriel, when you blow in K. B. Hallen, may the Bells never stop ringing. I’ll be listening in Oslo, Norway. Sent me the press, I’ll take the rest.
Cowan and Rice and Gumbo yours,
E. Vance (oui)
Louis Williams
Pops + Louie
Rainbow Gardens

Thus, though the photo is from November 1932, we can date Louis receiving it to October 1933, when he performed at the K. B. Hallen arena in Denmark. [October 30, 2024 UPDATE: Thank you to reader Anders Hansson for pointing out that Louis did not perform at K. B. Hallen until October 1949 (not 1947 as is sometimes stated online). He returned in 1952, 1955, and 1961. Thus, this information, plus the aforementioned reference to Joe Glaser, makes me certain that Pops and Louie found these photos in Paris sometime between 1949 and 1961 and sent them to Louis at that time. He references a broadcast and sure enough, Louis’s 1952 and 1955 performances were recorded so it was most likely in one of those years.]

Also, pick up on the “Cowan and Rice and Gumbo yours” sign-off listing three New Orleans food staples; could this have inspired Louis’s famous “red beans and ricely yours” or was this a response to Louis perhaps already using that expression in his own correspondence? [Again, with the updated information, if the inscription is from the 1950s, then they’re just paying homage to Louis’s sign-off.]

Back to the photos! Another from the same series, this one with Alpha and an unidentified woman:

And one more solo shot of Louis:

Upon Louis and Alpha’s return to New York, on November 8, 1932, they received a hero’s welcome in Harlem. They also brought along a British trumpeter who played on board the Majestic ship, who became enthralled by the various nicknames being bandied about Big John’s bar, such as “Gate” and “Gizzard.” “What’s my moniker?” the trumpet player asked. Alpha immediately christened him “Majestic Face!” Louis didn’t keep too many Alpha stories in his rotation, but this one made it onto the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in 1970; here’s a telling of it from one of Louis’s private tapes, made at home with friends in the early 1950s:

Louis soon went back on the road but for the first time in his career, he began suffering with chops issues and had to stop playing for a while after his lip burst on Christmas Eve in Baltimore. He went back in Chicago and cooled it with Alpha for a few weeks while trumpeter Zilner Randolph put together a new band for him. The band was in place for some epic RCA Victor sessions in late January; for a soundtrack to the photo slideshow that is to follow, may I direct your attention to “I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues”(including the recording debut of a young pianist named Teddy Wilson!):

Once on the road, Alpha pulled out the camera and began taking snapshots. Thankfully, she wrote the locations on the back of many of them. You’ll soon notice that later in life, Armstrong the Archivist grabbed his favorite green pen and began numbering the images. The original intention of this post was to replicate Armstrong’s original numbered order but when I lined everything up, several numbers were missing, plus he clearly didn’t have an intended order in mine; photos jump from location to location, along with some from a return to England in 1933 and 1934. Thus, we’ve decided to keep it in chronological order–or at least as best we could.

The caveat comes from a number of photos from this series where Alpha did not write the location on the back. Thus, these are all mysteries, but it’s possible they were taken in and around Chicago in the early part of the year, as evidenced by Louis’s overcoat and Alpha’s fur:

Here’s Louis again in that same suit and coat, posing in front of his car, which will make many more appearances in this series. According to Louis himself, it was a 1932 Buick 8. “This Buick was a convertible, 8-cylinder, long son-of-a-bitch, had a radio in the back and the front, you know,” he said on one of his tapes. Does that check out with any car aficionados out there? I also believe the man standing next to him is his boyhood friend from New Orleans, “Little” Joe Lindsey, who acted as something of a bodyguard for Louis in the early 1930s:

Here’s a photo of Joe Lindsey, Louis, and Professor Sherman Cook, taken in New Orleans in 1931 (and inscribed to Zutty Singleton in 1932):

Seems like the same guy, right? Happy to be corrected, but assuming it is, here’s Alpha and Joe Lindsey:

And finally, Louis and Alpha, a bit of a blurry show perhaps taken by Lindsey:

Louis clearly loved that Buick and posed for multiple photos with it during his 1933 tour–I don’t know exactly when or where these were taken but it’s worth sharing as a group:

Alpha replicating the same pose:

Alpha from behind:

Here’s an unidentified man with the Buick–perhaps it was having some difficulties?

Louis and Johnny Collins with the car in the background:

Now here’s Collins alone with a different car; perhaps he traveled separately:

That theory might be accurate, judging by this next photo, taken on the side of the road with Alpha, Johnny Collins and an unidentified friend and both cars:

And while we have Louis and Alpha in those outfits on the side of the road, here’s a cute photo of the couple most likely taken on the same day in the same location; wish we knew where:

So that’s how Louis, Alpha, and Johnny Collins traveled–where did they go? Well, to get some itinerary work out of the way, while recording for RCA on January 26, 27, and 28, Armstrong squeezed in a date at the Savoy Ballroom on January 27. He left for the road almost immediately after that last session, performing at Tomlinson Hall in Downtown Indianapolis on January 29. I next find Louis performing on February 7 at New Dreamland in Evansville, Indiana and February 8 at Madrid in Louisville, Kentucky before returning to Chicago to play on a vaudeville bill at the Palace from February 12-16, followed by a return to the Savoy on February 17.

Then Armstrong got into a few “battles of the bands,” taking on Dick Snyder and His Orchestra at the Indiana Roof Ballroom in Indianapolis on February 18 and the St. Louis Crackerjacks at the Peoples Finance Building in St. Louis on Monday, February 20. From there, it was off to Memphis to perform at The Casino on February 22 (Bennie Moten was there on February 18).

On Saturday, February 25, Armstrong and his Orchestra played a dance in Tallulah, Louisiana. Alpha marked a number of photos as emanating from Tallulah, including this one of the bus they must have traveled in for this leg of the tour:

In these photos, the band looks to be packing–or unpacking–their instruments in a residential neighborhood. Louis doesn’t appear so he might have taken these photos, perhaps stricken by Alpha in the fur coat:

Yet another photo of Alpha in the fur with the musicians and all of their cases, this time taken from another angle in Tallulah:

I then lose Armstrong’s whereabouts for the rest of February but when he pops back up in March, there are photos to share, but it took some detective work to figure this out. Before the reveal, let’s check in with Louis and Alpha at a train station:

Same setting, here’s Louis with manager Johnny Collins:

Even Alpha took a photo with Collins at the train station:

Which train station? The next batch of photos show members of the band at a “Terminal” of some sort with the luggage lined up, most likely waiting for a bus:

Louis appears for a charming photo with Alpha in the same spot:

Here’s another of the happy couple:

I tried zooming in on this next photo but didn’t find any clues about the location:

But finally, we back up a little bit to find they’re standing in front of the Union Terminal; which one, though? “Union Terminal” is a pretty common name. Here’s Alpha and the man who appears to be Joe Lindsey again:

But then the bus pulled up and “Dallas-Ft. Worth” sign in front let me know we’re most likely at the Dallas Union Terminal! Armstrong and crew must have taken a train to Dallas and then gotten on the bus to continue their tour in Texas:

I didn’t find any dates for Armstrong in Dallas, but sure enough, he did do a well-publicized dance at the Winter Garden in Fort Worth on March 2 and returned for a dance at The Hillclub at Casino Park in Fort Worth on March 18, so these photos must be from around those dates. In between, Armstrong performed at a country club in Austin on March 16, but more importantly, he did a full week at the Shadowland Nite Club from March 9 to March 15; here’s an advertisement from the Victoria Advocate, grabbed from Newspapers.com:

Alpha did mark the following photo from San Antonio–I wonder whose dog that was?

At some point in March, Armstrong must have passed through Corsicana, Texas (where trumpeter Oran “Hot Lips” Page spent much of his youth). Alpha took a photo of a different Dixie Motor Coach bus (this one number 108; the one in the above photo is 210) in front of the Corsicana Hotel:

Strangely, most of the surviving photos Louis and Alpha took in Texas were taken in Houston and I have not been able to pinpoint an exact engagement he might have performed there, but I think it’s safe to assume these were taken in March 1933. I personally love this photo of Louis, Alpha, Joe Lindsey, a man who might be a bus driver, and some fans of all races, ages, and backgrounds that was taken in Houston:

Here’s another shot of Louis with one of the young men and the driver from the above photo, along with an unidentified man (possibly Zilner Randolph?).

You might ask yourself, what is in Louis’s hand? That’s a movie camera! Here’s Louis again with the young boys, but this time he’s filming the scene:

It doesn’t appear that much is happening in this photo but perhaps this is what Louis was shooting, more of the outdoor scene:

Apparently, Louis and Alpha became known for shooting home movies and screening them for friends. Alas, none of them have apparently survived, which is real shame. They must have shot plenty in Houston as Louis is almost always pictured holding the camera:

Another:

Here’s Louis in action with it:

Alpha’s holding it in this one:

Alpha again:

And perhaps this photo offers a taste of the types of home movies they made–check out Cowboy Armstrong!

Even Alpha wrote, “I really like this one” on the back of that snapshot:

After the return engagement in Fort Worth on March 19, it was time to leave Texas and head to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Armstrong performed at the Coliseum on March 21. Thanks to Alpha’s annotation, we know this photo was taken in Tulsa:

This next photo is a bit of a mystery. I’ve always thought it looked like trumpeter Hot Lips Page, who was playing with Bennie Moten at this time. Alpha wrote on the back of it “Tulsa”; I checked the March 21 date and Moten was not playing in Tulsa that night–he was playing in Oklahoma City! And Armstrong’s organization either came from or went to Oklahoma City in and around the Tulsa date–so could the bands have run into each other in Oklahoma and Alpha or Louis snapped a photo of Page? Or am I completely off? Here’s the photo:

And here’s a photo of Alpha and Louis by the Oklahoma Transportation band bus, which Alpha has noted was taken “Between Okla City and Tulsa 33”:

After a week of dates in Tulsa, Muskogee, and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Louis Armstrong unexpectedly died in late March 1933–at least that’s what the newspapers reported! Word traveled around the world that Armstrong died in a nursing home in New York but eventually that was downgraded to him just have been bitten by a dog, though reports still had him “near death.” (Could it have been the dog in the photo from San Antonio???) Columnist Walter Winchell cleared it all up in his column of April 2, noting that Armstrong was fine and adding that “Louis just completed his dance tour of Texas, Tennessee, Okla., Louisiana and Missouri.”

Armstrong spent much of April relaxing with Alpha in Chicago. One article stated, “Louis Armstrong, the kingfish of cornet tooters, has been resting at his home, 421 E. 44th St., for several weeks after completing his Chicago, Publix and dance hall engagements. Louie plans to continue his tooting after another week of rest.”

While resting, Armstrong corresponded with friends from around the world. On April 5, he wrote to a man named “George” in England, praising Alpha and giving a positive summary of his tour, even mentioning his home movie hobby:

“My little family and I are all well and still happy. Alpha as nice as ever.  She says hello to you and the family. Gate, I sure was glad to hear from you. Kinda brought me back to old times. I’ve received general letters (LOTS) from some of the boys over there, Sho (SURE) was glad to get them. I’ve just gotten back home from my Tour down South – we had a lovely time.  Everybody was so glad to see me and- you know? – all the ‘Buh lony’ (HOT DOG) that goes along with it.  Ha.  Ha.  But sho ‘nuff Gate I am having a grand time on my tours (TRIPS). Then too we have chance to take lots of movin picture with Alpha’s camra.”

On April 20, Armstrong wrote a letter to fellow trumpeter Henry “Red” Allen. Our Archives has a photocopy of this letter and we feel it’s worth reproducing the second page, which offers some insight into Louis and Alpha’s relationship:

The entire first paragraph finds Armstrong lusting over a chorus girl who danced in the floor show at Small’s Paradise in Harlem. “She doesn’t even know it herself that I have fresh love for her, ha ha,” Armstrong writes. But below, after addressing the rumors of his death, he praises Alpha, calling her “the sweetest thing,” mentioning how she cooks “red beans and rice” for him, and even writing “WE LOVE EACH OTHER” in the margin. “She Says – I am her ‘itty bitty baby,’” he writes, adding “LITTLE BOY” and “Ha Ha.” “And she treats me like a little baby. Nice, Eh? Isn’t it? I began to feel ‘Spoiled’ – No I don’t mean I Smell that way, Ha Ha.”

Eventually, Armstrong and His Orchestra went back on the road, this time to tour the South. While the band had some time off, Johnny Collins invested in a new bus for the band to travel in, complete with Louis’s name on the side:

There would be no more “Dixie Motor Coach” buses for the time being. Armstrong and his band got arrested for not switching to a more rundown bus in Memphis back in 1931 so Collins wanted to ensure that didn’t happen again. Here’s a close up of the sign on the side proclaiming Armstrong as the “World’s Greatest Trumpeter”:

The Armstrong band must have gotten a kick out of their new ride and most likely hit it off with their new driver, even posing with him for two photos in front of the bus. Here’s Louis, Alpha, the driver, and (I think) Joe Lindsey:

And here’s a gem of a photo as it’s one of the few to depict (almost) the entire band:

Before going back on tour, Armstrong recorded another round of sessions for RCA Victor in late April. The personnel on those recordings is as follows: Louis Armstrong, trumpet, vocal; Ellis “Stumpy” Whitlock, Zilner Randolph, trumpet; Keg Johnson, trombone; Scoville Browne, George Oldham, alto saxophone, clarinet; Budd Johnson, tenor saxophone; Charlie Beal, piano; Mike McKendrick, guitar; Bill Oldham, tuba; Harry Dial, drums.

Now, trying to match the names with the faces, that’s more difficult. I think I figured it out and put my guess in the caption above, but I should probably take you through my process. I do know that is pianist Charlie Beal dead center above Alpha, with the part in his hair. To the right of Louis is guitarist and “straw boss” Big Mike McKendrick. I don’t quite know what the Oldham brothers looked like but the men on either side of the bus driver sure look related so I’m going to say that’s them. And speaking of brothers, I think that’s saxophonist Budd Johnson hiding behind the man with the sunglasses and his brother, trombonist Keg Johnson, is right above the bus driver, wearing the hat. I’m fairly confident based on the “Great Day in Harlem” photo that the man on the far right is reedman Scoville Brown.

That leaves the man on the far left with the sunglasses on his head and the man sitting way up on top, both of whom seem to be flashing hand signals of some kind. Going through the personnel, I’m missing trumpeters Zilner Randolph and Ellis “Stumpy” Whitlock, and drummer Harry Dial. There were 11 musicians in the band and 10 in the photo so someone didn’t make the cut. The guy on the left looks to be too heavyset to be Zilner Randolph so I’m going to say that’s “Stumpy” Whitlock. That just leaves the guy on top; after zooming all the way in, I’m fairly sure it’s Harry Dial based on his later photos. That would just leave out Randolph, the actual music director of the band–perhaps he took the photo? If anyone out there disagrees with my assessment, please leave a comment!

The tour kicked off with Armstrong’s first trip to Omaha, Nebraska, where he performed at the Dreamland on May 1. It’s possible Alpha had some family there, as I don’t recognize these folks in this photo, which Alpha annotated as being from Omaha:

Here’s Louis and Alpha posing with an unidentified woman, also in Omaha:

For whatever reason, Louis and Alpha didn’t seem to take any more photos on the Southern tour, but once back in Chicago, they spotted an advertisement for their friends Buck and Bubbles at the Regal Theater on June 30 and took a snapshot of it:

Louis hadn’t performed with drummer Zutty Singleton since 1929 but he must have hung with Zutty one June day and decided to take a gag photo of the two of them thumbing their noses at the Buck and Bubbles ad!

There are also a few other snapshots from this period that are worth sharing, though we don’t exactly know when they were taken. Here’s a beautiful shot of Louis and his son Clarence (now holding the movie camera) that is now part of the permanent exhibit of the Louis Armstrong Center:

And here’s a tinted snapshot of “Mattie + Mother”; I don’t know who Mattie is, but I’m guessing the other woman is Alpha’s mother, Florence Smith:

Perhaps there’s no photos from the Southern tour because it seemed to be a pretty miserable experience. The band wasn’t getting paid well and when they complained to Armstrong, he told them to take it up with Johnny Collins. Collins decided to break up the band at this point and book Armstrong on another tour of England.

On July 19, 1933, Louis, Alpha, and Johnny Collins boarded the S. S. Majestic and headed back to Europe; Louis and Alpha would not return to the United States until January 1935. They did bring their camera with them so we’ll have those snapshots and photos in our next post.