“My Little Hatchetmouth Wife”: The Marriage of Louis Armstrong and Alpha Smith

When we last left off, Louis Armstrong and Alpha Smith abruptly left Europe in January 1935 and headed back to the United States, where they laid low in Chicago as Louis was unable to play trumpet and didn’t want to go back to work for disgraced manager Johnny Collins.

On February 14, Chicago welcomed Louis back with a party at Tony’s Tavern, attended by none other than Duke Ellington. Alpha is sitting next to Louis and across from them is Louis’s adopted son Clarence and Ellington’s bassist, Wellman Braud.

The Chicago Defender caught up with Louis that same month and reported that “Armstrong is in retirement in his Southside Chicago apartment with Alpha, his dazzling brownskin sweetheart, and Peter Armstrong, his pet Scotch terrier. He recently returned from Europe, where he is alleged to have left a trail of broken contracts.” 

Louis eventually got his chops back in shape and hired Joe Glaser to be his manager. Glaser made Armstrong’s managerial woes disappear and got the trumpeter back on the road by July 1935, heralding the start of a comeback that would have been unthinkable earlier in the year. But as alluded to in our previous post, with Louis going back on the road full-time and spending long stretches in New York City, including a run at Connie’s Inn in the fall, it appears that Alpha might have often stayed back home with her mother in Chicago.

After the dozens of photos we have shared of Louis and Alpha on the road that we have shared between 1932 and 1934, the number of photos of them together dwindles to a precious few in the back half of the decade. It really seems as if they might have been at their happiest during those long stretches of time off in Europe, making home movies and going to the cinema.

Instead of photos, though, we have mentions of Alpha in various surviving letters that Louis wrote in the 1930s. The first comes after one of the more harrowing moments of Armstrong’s offstage life: a throat operation he underwent in January 1937. Once again, the Chicago Defender was present and described the scene before the surgery. “At Louie’s home was a pitiful scene,” the Defender reported. “Alpha, his wife, was in a frenzy with fright; Clarence, Satchmo’s nephew, was in terms, simply lost without the only father he ever knew; ‘Mom’ Smith, Louie’s mother-in-law, was a nervous wreck.”

The Defender paid particular attention to Alpha’s plight while Louis went under the knife. “In the little dimmed private room sat Alpha, Louie’s petite wife, shaking with fright, heart torn and worried because her Louie for once was completely out of her jurisdiction,” they wrote. “Within forty minutes after they had rolled away the world’s greatest cornetist, the rolled him back to the little dimmed lighted room, where petite Alpha waited with a big broad smile, plus a million hugs and kisses for her Louie.”

Once he was feeling better, Louis wrote a letter on January 29 to his friend J. H. Reese. “How’s everything in Deah’ ole Miami?,” Armstrong began. “Man you letter sure was a Sending surprised to me No foolin… Alpha my little darling and I were talking about you and your wife no longer than the other day, and as a surprise would have it, your letter come swinging up into our mail box… Now Gate believe me that is a real killer….Now as for me and my little Alpha, we are both well and happy as ever… Of course I have been in the hospital, resting from a tonsil operation, but all’s well on the Tonsil Front now….Ha…Ha…. Yessir Gate Ole Doctor Nash, pulled tonsils out of me as long as my little Satchmo Trumpet..Ha..Ha…”

When Louis was let out of Provident Hospital, the Chicago Defender was there to take a photo of him and Alpha leaving; this isn’t the best quality but it’s still worth sharing since photos of Alpha in this period are not easy to come by:

You might have noticed something different in the letter we quoted above–ellipses. Up to this point, all surviving letters by Louis were handwritten but that changed when Alpha bought him his first typewriter. He alluded to it in a letter to trumpeter Taft Jordan, then with Chick Webb’s band (with young Ella Fitzgerald), in a letter from March 10, 1937:

Alpha also wishes to be remembered to Ella Fitzgerald and all of youall …I know, this typewriter is puzz-ling you, ain’t it?… But don’t pay it no mind ole ‘deah’ because I am an Old Veteran on this Gaget..Ha..Ha..

My Darling Wife Alpha gave it to me for my Birthday, and I’ve nearly driven her ‘Nutts since I’ve had it, with my ‘Tap’Tap’Tapping..Ha..Ha But she has gotten used to me by now… Infact ‘Everything I do she think’s it is ‘Cute… ”Cute?…Of course I’ve mentioned that I’ve had a Birthday and that’s all…I ain’t telling how old I am… Never Mind ‘that..Ha..Ha..

Alpha next shows up in a Baltimore Afro-American profile of Louis from April 30, 1938. “His second wife, Alpha, a native of Indiana, accompanies him on all his trips and helps him to change between shows,” Conrad Clark wrote. “She is a general allround assistant to him.  The present Mrs. Armstrong was a former dancer on the stage under the management of Lucky Millinder, who first produced shows before becoming a wielder of the baton. She came from the Cotton and Cicero clubs, both of Chicago. Standing in his bare feet; Louis is 5 feet, 7 inches tall and weighs 210 pounds, while Alpha stands 5 feet, 4 inches, and weighs 127 pounds.”

A few days later, on May 12, 1938, Louis wrote a letter to 17-year-old Australian swing fan Jim Allison, “My little Satchel Mouth Wife Alpha sends her very best regards to You’s all..She’s also a real Swing Fan – if there ever is one… I am sure that I told you that they named a Swing Club after Alpha in England when we were over there and the name was The Alpha Rhythm Club…She and I used to go to those Swing Club Meetings and Alpha used to Send all the Members when she would chat with them about music and it’s players, etc….They went wild over my little Alpha over there…Jim you must meet Alpha some day…She’s a natural sender ‘no foolin’…”

All the references to Alpha as Louis’s “wife” or even “second wife” were still wrong as Louis was still technically married to Lillian Hardin Armstrong, even though they had been separated since 1931. According to Lil, she was still in touch with Louis, who told her repeatedly not to give him a divorce because deep down, he didn’t want to marry Alpha. But that changed in 1938 and I have a pet theory as to why it might have happened. Louis first recorded “Struttin’ With Some Barbecue” in 1927, with the label crediting Lil as the sole composer. But then he re-recorded it for Decca in January 1938 and listed himself as the sole composer. I can see this angering Lil–she apparently later took him to court over it–leading her to formally file for divorce on September 20, 1938.

Almost immediately after the divorce was finalized, Louis and Alpha finally wed while on the road in Houston Texas on October 11, 1938. John R. Williams offered further details in an article he wrote for The Pittsburgh Courier with the headline “Armstrong Romance Ends in Wedding Bells”:

“That love will find a way—eventually–was evidenced here last Tuesday by the marriage of America’s No. 1 trumpeter, Louis Armstrong, to his faithful and efficient personal secretary, the winsome Alpha Smith. The wedding took place at the local court house yesterday with Justice of the Peace Tom Maes officiating, and proved to be one of the outstanding events of the week for Heavenly Houston. 
“Notwithstanding Houston’s reputation along the line of race prejudice, the entire city seemed concerned because of Louis’ wedding ceremony. Announcement was made over every important local radio station as well a in the columns of the local dailies and congratulatory messages were received throughout the day and evening, most of them coming from persons whom neither the bride nor groom had ever met. 
Those witnessing the ceremony were George [bassist “Pops”] Foster, Dr. C. W. Pemberton, Mrs. Flora Price and, Van Pell Evans. 
“The Armstrong-Smith romance dates back 14 year to the time when Louis was playing with the Erskine Tate Symphony orchestra at the Vendome in Chicago. It was there that Miss Smith first came into the employ of Mr. Armstrong. Through the years he has served him faithfully and well. In Louis’ own words: ‘Alpha has stuck with me through thick and thin. She has been a wonderful inspiration; indeed my very back-bone. Whatever success I may have attained has come about largely because of her never falling interest in my welfare along all lines.’
“After receiving the felicitations of his admirers and friends and posing for photographs to appear in the world’s greatest weekly, Louis departed with his wife and bandmen for New Orleans, where a real celebration awaits the bridal pair.”

The Courier even ran a photo spread from the event:

Though the photos might not have reproduced well in the digitized image shared above, we are lucky to have prints of two of them in our Archives. Here’s a beaming Alpha leaving the Houston courthouse, with Louis annotating it “THE DAY WE MARRIED”:

And Louis and Alpha’s first kiss as husband and wife:

By January 1939, Louis and Alpha were officially New Yorkers, as alluded to by Louis in a letter written to Elmer Lewis on January 23. “You can write to me any time you see fit – at the Olga Hotel 145th,&,Lenox Ave, New York,” he wrote. “That’s my headquarters…Ofcourse you should know that by now….My wife Alpha and our little dog ‘Charm’ sent their very best regards to you also….Gate you must meet them…Charm is a little Toy Boston Bull Terrie and is the Cutest thing you’ve ever laid eyes on when it comes to dogs, No foolin…”

Everything seemed to be happy at home but apparently 1939 is the year when Louis and Alpha’s relationship began to go south. As Louis shared in the Ebony article “Why I Like Dark Women,” “Alpha was all right but her mind was on furs, diamonds and other flashy luxuries and not enough on me and my happiness. I gave her all the diamonds she thought she wanted but still she wanted other things. She went through most of my money and then walked out. We had some real spats. She’d get to drinking and grab that big pocketbook of hers and hit me in my chops with it. Then I’d want to go after her and beat on her a while, but some of the cats would grab me and say, ‘Don’t hit her, Pops.’”

The first sign of a problem came in November 1939 when a singer named Polly Jones “filed suit against Louis Armstrong on Wednesday for breach of promise, charging that instead of marrying her, he married another woman,” according to the Pittsburgh Courier. Armstrong and Joe Glaser responded, “We don’t know anything about this breach of promise suit. We don’t know the girl even. We have been served with no papers in the case. Therefore, no interview is possible. It’s all a mystery to us.”

But at the same time of the Polly Jones lawsuit–which, admittedly, was never mentioned again in the press–Louis had opened up at the Cotton Club in midtown Manhattan, where he became smitten with dancer Lucille Wilson. The Cotton Club run was an epic one, beginning in September 1939 and lasting until May 2, 1940. It’s not exactly known Louis began courting Lucille, but it’s possible he kept it under wraps for a while. He later mentioned going out with Lucille between shows, distributing cookies she was selling to kids in Harlem, perhaps inferring that most nights, he likely still went home to Alpha at the Hotel Olga.

Besides, Louis was not quite ready to leave Alpha yet. In December 1939, Alpha went in for surgery to receive “three tumors”; newspapers didn’t give any further details but the Pittsburgh Courier did print a photo of her leaving the hospital:

In March 1940, the Pittsburgh Courier reported, “Louis and Alpha are getting along splendidly all reports from the East say.” Soon after, the pair moved from the Hotel Olga to the Hotel Currie at 145th Street and Lenox Avenue. Louis broke the news to friend Elmer Lewis in a letter from July 16, 1940, adding, “I want you to meet the Mrs…Yea Man – you must meet my Alpha (my little hatchetmouth wife)…All the musicians – Actors – Record Fans – and everybody has met the Madam Armstrong…”

Three days later, Louis praised Alpha in his “Special Jive” column in the Harlem Tattler, writing, “Now about my family . . . My wife Alpha is here now. ‘Jo’ reeing’ me about my two-finger typing . . . She loves to kid me about this lonely deuce of fingers that I use to lay down this fine mess of jive I am writing on my public . . . But, folks I ain’t paying her no ‘Rabbit’ mind . . . I bet she’d be glad if she could type half as good . . . But outside of that folks, she’s the finest wife in this man’s world . . . And just lives for her husband–Louis (Satchmo Gatemouth Gizzard) Armstrong.”

We’ll close this post on that happy note but for all of his public–and private–proclamations about his love for Alpha, Louis was definitely spending more time with Lucille Wilson as 1940 wore on. Meanwhile, Alpha was drinking more and more and looking for a beau of her own to spend time with when Louis was away. All of the messiness would eventually erupt in late 1941, even hitting the newspapers. We’ll have the story of the unhappy end of Louis and Alpha in our next and final installment of this series.