“The Greatest Photo Taker”: Remembering Jack Bradley Part 55–Final Visit June 1971

Our previous post covered Louis Armstrong’s appearance at the “Friendly Fifty” picnic on August 16, 1970, a time when Armstrong was feeling especially good ; the previous day, Armstrong began writing a letter to Max Jones in England in which he announced that he had been given the clearance by his doctor to once again play trumpet with his All Stars during a two-week stand to take place at the International Hotel in Las Vegas in September (Armstrong was sent a contract on July 23) . Once in Vegas, Louis thought of his friend Jack Bradley and sent him a postcard:

Armstrong’s comeback was complete; after two long years of convalescing at home, he had made it back to the stage with the All Stars and was playing the trumpet again. Critics praised him and audiences gave him a standing ovation after every show in Vegas.

But it was too much too soon. Listening to interviews with Armstrong immediately after the two weeks in Vegas, the spark that had been present in his many media appearances earlier that year seemed to have gone out.

Still, he managed to stay in touch with Bradley, who was was quite busy at the time, still often on the road in the role of Bobby Hackett’s road manager. Armstrong did send him something to his New York address in November 1970, but the post office forwarded it to Bradley at the Lamplighter Hotel in Hyannis, Massachusetts, as Hackett was performing at the Holiday Inn in Hyannis that week. (Alas, only the empty envelope survives and we don’t have any letters from this period so it’s possible, given the size of the envelope, that Armstrong just sent Bradley some photos he might have come across at home):

Armstrong also sent Bradley a letter later that year which also has apparently not survived, though Bradley referenced it in his February 1971 Coda magazine column: “Louis opened at the Tropicana in Las Vegas on December 26 for two weeks,” Bradley wrote. “He was accompanied by his All-Stars. Received a nice letter from him which he signed off by saying, ‘As Bill Robinson said, Everything’s Copasetic and the goose hangs high.’”

It was during that Tropicana engagement that Armstrong began complaining to his doctor about shortness of breath. He spent some time off resting at home, making many reel-to-reel tapes (all described here) and rarely giving interviews. From what I can tell, he also didn’t entertain many visitors in this time; Dan Morgenstern remembered a final visit to Armstrong’s Queens home in December 1970 but Bradley’s collection doesn’t include any such references or photos or other evidence from this stretch.

Bradley did write about an apparently lost Armstrong performance from this period that sounds quite tantalizing: “Our man in jazz, Louis Armstrong, appeared on the Multiple Sclerosis Telethon January 31. Although we missed it, reports from everyone that heard it say that Louis was in fantastic form – playing better than he was before his illness! These reports were verified by Zutty Singleton and Tyree Glenn, among others.” Alas, no one seems to have had a tape recorder running on this local WPIX telecast and audio has not surfaced.

Eventually, Armstrong got himself together to perform two fateful weeks at the Waldorf-Astoria, an engagement Bradley did not attend. Armstrong had a major heart attack the day after and ended up back in intensive care at Beth Israel Hospital. Multiple notes were found in Bradley’s collection with updates on Armstrong’s condition:

All this news broke as Bradley was preparing his April 1971 Coda column. He began it as follows:

“As this issue was being prepared for the printer we received word that Louis Armstrong was in hospital, resting comfortably, for treatment of what his physician called ‘cardiac irregularity.’ No further word is available at this time.”

Armstrong made it back home on May 8 and began writing friends and making tapes later that month; reminder that we covered Armstrong’s final days in great detail as part of this series. Finally, sometime in late May or early June, Armstrong felt well enough to welcome Bradley back to his Corona, Queens home.

Armstrong was in the middle of dubbing Swingin’ the Louis Armstrong Songbook, a Swedish LP produced by Gosta Hagglof when Bradley arrived. Bradley was also close friends with Hägglöf, showing him around during a trip to New York City in 1965 and often trading letters and tapes of rare Armstrong recordings. For the cover of Swingin’ the Louis Armstrong Songbook, Hägglöf used a color photo Bradley shot of Armstrong at the Louie and the Dukes of Dixieland session. Thus, Bradley couldn’t resist taking a few photos of Armstrong in the middle of listening to his friend’s album:

Bradley took some notes on their conversation with Louis; for example, Louis now said he didn’t write some of the songs attributed to him, even though three of them–“Heart Full of Rhythm,” “Where Did You Stay Last Night,” and “Butter and Egg Man”–were on the handwritten list of his compositions Armstrong sent to Hagglof back in October 1969! (The list can be seen in this post.) Bradley also noted that Armstrong was in the hospital for 8 1/2 weeks and had been home for 3 1/2 weeks, meaning this hang must have taken place at the beginning of June 1971:

Bradley also notes that Armstrong was wearing a “California” cap which can be seen in the photos and had the Mets on TV (they played every day from May 29 to June 2 but were off on May 27, 28 and June 3, so this most likely happened during that stretch of games). There’s a note that Armstrong had been playing trumpet again for only three days–a letter to Slim Evans on May 30 mentioned that he had just picked it up again, lending more credence to May 30-31-June 1-2 for the date of this hang. And Bradley’s final line, “Elec. Chair!” is a reference to the electric stair chair Lucille had installed while Louis was in the hospital to help him get upstairs; it’s still a part of the Louis Armstrong House Museum today.

The notes on the middle of the page are a bit more cryptic. “Wall – kids – note to parents” could be a reference to the brick wall Armstrong was having constructed around his new Japanese garden, which was being built after he and Lucille purchased the home next door. Armstrong didn’t want the neighbors to think he was “putting on airs,” so he offered the pay for brick walls for any neighbors who wanted it in front of their homes (two took him up on the offer). There’s a reference to “ice cream and cake.” The mention of “croquet” is probably another reference to the garden, as Louis recently made that joke in a May 1971 New York Daily News article about putting in a croquet-court. “Practice – Lucille worry about Swing That Music” could be a reference to a joke about Louis pushing himself too hard on demanding pieces like “Swing That Music,” but that’s speculation–if only Bradley brought a tape recorder!

Here are some more photos of Armstrong writing–either fan letters or catalog pages for his tapes–with his California hat on:

Bradley returned for another visit that same week–Armstrong was now wearing a Budwiser bucket hat. This time Bradley brought along trumpeter Chris Clifton, an Armstrong disciple who used to send Louis tapes of his playing back in the 1950s (when he went by his given name of Chris Clufetos). The feeling of wishing Bradley brought along a tape recorder only grows stronger when reading Clifton’s 2002 reflections on this particular visit. Here are Clifton’s words, interspersed with more of Bradley’s photos:

“About a month or so before [Armstrong] passed away (it’s even hard to write!), Jack Bradley and I spent the day with him at his house in Corona. Lucille was expecting us and ushered us up to Louis’ den on the 2nd floor.”

“The first thing he said to me was, ‘Well, Pops, are you ready to take over the captain’s chair?’”

“I haven’t answered him to this day! How do you answer Louis Armstrong when he says something like that to you??”

“Shortly, Lucille brought in some drinks. I forget what. Through the years. I had been thru several different drinking regimes with Pops, from beer to B+B, to Courvoisier 5 star Cognac, and of course, the infamous ‘Cherry Herring.’”

“I noticed on his desk was a pack of ‘DORAL’ cigarettes instead of the Camels I was so used to seeing him smoke. When I expressed concern to Lucille that perhaps he shouldn’t be smoking at all, as frail as he was, she quickly (and rightfully so) shushed me up and said, “Well–he’s got to do something.”

“That day was the last time I heard him play his horn. He put on his vocal recoding of Joyce Kilmer’s ‘TREES’ on the reel to reel tape recorder behind his desk and played his ‘SELMER’ along with it.”

“I had never heard anything so beautiful and moving in all my life and I shall remember every note till the day I die!”

Because this is a serious moment–the last time Bradley would ever photograph Armstrong playing the trumpet, or Armstrong period–here are a bunch of other photos from this series; note the band-aid on Armstrong’s right knee is from a fall he took soon after he arrived home in early May:

Soon after getting back home, Clifton must have written Armstrong a thank-you letter for the time they spent together. On June 16, Armstrong wrote Clifton back, noting, “I haven’t seen or heard from our boy Jack Bradley since he was here with you. Guess he’s a busy man these days.” Indeed he was; we rarely share non-Louis images in this series but all of the above photos are on two rolls of film alongside other images Bradley shot during this time in New York and New Jersey and so here’s a few more. First, a formidable front line of Bobby Hackett, clarinetist Bobby Gordon, and trombonist Herb Gardner, with drummer Buzzy Drootin in the background (thank you to Bob Leary and Michael Steinman for the identification):

Hackett and trumpeter Bobby Branca; anyone know the pianist?

Here’s a mystery band, performing at what looks like a private function, maybe at a musician’s union or something similar–looks like Dickie Wells on trombone. Any other IDs on the personnel?

Here’s Earle Warren on alto with a mystery accordionist and clarinetist:

But after making the scene in New York for a while, Bradley returned to New England. He continued to monitor news about his friend Louis, clipping the following photo out of a Providence, Rhode Island newspaper on June 23:

He even clipped out a page from Time magazine, featuring a photo of Louis blowing the trumpet in his den, still wearing the California cap:

But while on Cape Cod, Bradley received the fateful news on July 6, 1971 that Louis Armstrong had passed away. We’ll have that sad story next time.