“Merry Christmas, Everybody–This is Satchmo!” – Louis Armstrong and Stuff Crouch Celebrate Christmas in 1950

Happy Holidays, everyone! When it comes to the Christmas season, Louis Armstrong has become almost as much of a mainstay as Santa Claus; the holiday compilation Louis Wishes You a Cool Yule ended up on the Billboard charts a couple of years ago and Armstrong’s Spotify numbers always go through the roof at this time of year due to repeated streams of perennials “Cool Yule” and “Zat You Santa Claus?”

Back in 2020, we created a virtual “Louis Armstrong Holiday Experience,” which still lives on this site here–check it out if you’d like to learn more about Louis and the holidays. But for this year, we thought we’d offer a different type of gift: audio of a tape Louis made on Christmas day in 1950 at the Los Angeles home of his friend Julius “Stuff” Crouch.

In his 1966 obituary, Crouch was described as having spent “37 years [as] a symbol of champagne service in night-clubs.” Crouch truly was a fixture on the Los Angeles scene; he first appears in the Atlanta Daily World on February 14, 1934, in an article that offered “Glories to the Following Folks,” noting Crouch’s work at the Club Alabama in South Central Los Angeles: “To Stuff Crouch for that stunning Breakfast Club over the Club Alabama. Sunday morning, it was studded with band leaders, musicians, singers, and even writers. Some being Les Hite, Marshall Royal, Sonny Greer, Alton Redd, Harry Mills…The Cotton Club Girls and gobs of others.”

Two years later, on July 3, 1936, the California Eagle described Crouch as a “popular figure in nite club and other stay-up-late places,” noting he was working as headwaiter at Henley’s Congo Tavern. But two years after that, the Pittsburgh Courier reported on November 19, 1938 that “Julius ‘Stuff’ Crouch is no longer at the spot. He still is a great press agent for Ivy [sic] Anderson and Louis Armstrong.” Thus, the Armstrong-Crouch relationship dated back to the 1930s, with Crouch serving a west coast rep of sorts for Armstrong coverage in the Black press.

In 1944, Crouch was working as a host at Joe Morris’s Plantation Club (he is featured in one advertisement noting live entertainment by Fletcher Henderson, as well as T-Bone Walker) and by 1948, he was operating the Backstage theatrical club, making headlines for a party he hosted for one of his closest friends: Louis Armstrong. “Crouch is everybody’s friend, and he and Pops have been bosom-buddies through the years,” the California Eagle reported.

Getting to the matter of hand requires sharing major piece of backstory for the legend of Louis Armstrong. First, though, in December 1950, Armstrong arrived in Los Angeles, which would be his home base for well over a month. He began his time out west by filming a small scene for Bing Crosby’s film Here Comes the Groom. Next, the All Stars opened at the Oasis nightclub on December 15 for a three-week run. In the middle of it all, he made time to appear on Tallulah Bankhead’s Big Show radio program on December 17, plus two Bing Crosby Chesterfield shows, taped on December 14 and 30. He closed out the month and the start of January 1951 by filming his scenes for the MGM film The Strip, starring Mickey Rooney.

Backtracking to December 16, Armstrong spent that day playing a star-studded Christmas benefit show at the Lincoln Theatre, featuring Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, Phil Harris, Billy Eckstine, Scatman Crothers, and Stuff Crouch–the scan isn’t great, but here’s a newspaper banner heralding the event and part of a story that appeared in the Los Angeles Sentinel:

But in the middle of it all–perhaps the same day as the Lincoln Theatre benefit–Armstrong made a trip to Music City in Los Angeles and bought his very first reel-to-reel tape recorder. The exact date isn’t known but on the very first tape he made, he references rehearsing that day for The Big Show so it was most likely December 15 or 16. Though Armstrong’s tape recording habit would eventually become synonymous with his Corona, Queens home, the first handful of tapes he made were all done in Los Angeles–and Stuff Crouch appears on almost every single one of them.

It’s quite possible that Armstrong was staying with Crouch’s family, but some tapes were also made at the famed Dunbar Hotel so it’s also possible that Louis was staying there and made time to Crouch and his family on Christmas Day. At the time of Christmas 1950, Crouch was married to Dottsie Bloodworth Crouch and the couple had one daughter, Julie, with another daughter, Cheryl, on her way home literally that day. First, though, here’s a Christmas card from the Crouch family saved by Louis, just when it was Stuff, Dottsie, and Julie:

Here’s a photo of Stuff Crouch, his daughters, and Louis, taken in the late 1950s:

Armstrong even dedicated a page in one of his scrapbooks to “God Child Julie Crouch”:

Now, onto the main event–the audio! First, though, a description of what you’ll be listening to. Because much of it is devoted to music, we’ll include YouTube links of all the recordings played on the tape below, after the discourse.

The first part of the tape is mostly devoted to Christmas 78s being spun by Armstrong and Crouch, beginning with Bing Crosby’s “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” Louis can be heard talking quietly in the background, before letting out a cough at the conclusion of the record. The voice of Stuff Crouch can then be heard telling Louis to “wish everyone a Merry Christmas.” At 3:01, the needle drops on Al Hibbler’s “White Christmas” and Louis leans into the microphone and announces, “Merry Christmas, everybody, this is Satchmo…but it’s Hibbler singing!”

At 6:10, Crouch puts on Mahalia Jackson’s “Silent Night,” causing Louis to comment, “This chick is very good.” As the record concludes at 8:45, Louis can be heard saying, “This is very beautiful.” Then it’s over to Nat King Cole for his original 1946 recording of “The Christmas Song”; King Cole had already made an appearance on Armstrong’s aforementioned first tape, as he and Crouch spun “Mona Lisa” on that one, Louis calling it “a sharp record.” Then it’s back to Bing for “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”; there some laughter in the background at one point, but it’s impossible to hear what causes it.

Nat King Cole steps back up to the microphone for “All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth”–don’t miss the charming moment at 15:20 when Louis starts responding to Cole and even sings, “What would you do, old boy?” It’s the closest we’ll ever get to a duet between the two titans–if only they could have made an album together!

Crouch can be heard once again saying, “Merry Christmas, everyone,” as Bing Crosby’s “Jingle Bells” begins, featuring the Andrews Sisters. In the background, Crouch can be heard saying, “It’s strong,” and Louis responding, “It’s wonderful,” with some laughs following; you can fill in the blanks in your imagination about what they might have been discussing. Actually, you might not need to fill in the blanks after the next section! At 19:52, Crouch gets back on the microphone with another, “Merry Christmas, everybody. This is Stuff Crouch.” Armstrong responds by describing the scene: “Yeah, that’s Stuff, and this is Satchmo. Lucille is over on the couch asleep and we’re just having a nice Christmas.” Crouch gets back on the microphone and adds, “This is Stuff again. We’re trying to wait for Julie to wake up so we can see what she thinks of Santa Claus.”

However, Crouch stumbles a bit and can be heard softly giggling. Armstrong doesn’t let him off easy, getting on the microphone and stating, “And this is Satchmo again cause Stuff fumbled his line and I’m going to try to keep from not fumbling mine!” At this moment (20:10 in the file), Louis lets out the most uproarious laughter imaginable, even clapping his hands! Crouch handles it perfectly and quickly quotes a line Jerry Lewis said on The Big Show episode Armstrong taped the previous week: “My tongue got in the way of my eye tooth and I couldn’t see what I was saying!” The laughter this elicits from Armstrong at 20:22 is positively hysterical and a great glimpse of the hilarity Armstrong enjoyed in his offstage moments.

The next coupling required quite a bit of detective work as it stumped Shazam, but eventually I found it on YouTube: a Decca 78 featuring two parts of an instrumental “Christmas Medley” by pianist Charlie Kunz, who was born in Pennsylvania but achieved fame during his many years in Great Britain.

That concludes Armstrong and Crouch’s Christmas music party, but now the real fun begins at 25:50 as the hosts pull out a Vox album of Armstrong’s 1934 Paris recordings. “Stuff, this record, ‘Will You, Won’t You,’ that you’re getting ready to put on now, it brings back them days, especially that tune, man, when I was out at the Cotton Club with Les Hite, we used to play this tune and boy, that band used to blow that thing! So I just kept it in mind, I just had to record it when I got to Paris, you know.” Armstrong then sings a snatch of it and says, “That thing is a gassuh!…I’m going to dedicate this number to Les Hite, because he’s coming here to dinner–you know, we’re all going to have dinner today–and I know it’s going to bring back memories to the Cotton Club the minute he hears this tune! So let’s spin it, huh?” It’s pretty neat that Les Hite, associated with both Armstrong and Crouch since the 1930s, was coming over for dinner later that afternoon.

Armstrong then flips it over and plays the incendiary version of “St. Louis Blues” on other side, concluding this part of the reel. With the description out of the way, here’s the 32-minute segment that makes up part one of this very special tape (As usual, we have included aural watermarks, beeps that go off every 30 seconds or so to prevent the use of this material in any commercial capacity.)!

Part 2 continues on an Armstrong kick, starting at the very top with the immortal 1928 recording of “West End Blues” (after Crouch makes an introduction and misses the first notes of Armstrong’s cadenza twice). At 4:13, Armstrong and Crouch turn towards Ella Fitzgerald, playing her 1948 Decca 78 of “It’s Too Soon to Know.”

But then the music is turned off and we get a good chunk of the Christmas scene, beginning at 6:48 with a charming conversation between Louis and young godchild Julie Crouch. He tries getting Julie to thank her father for her Christmas gifts, but she’s too shy at first, eventually wishing both of her parents a Merry Christmas. At 8:10, Louis asks, “What do you call me?” and she responds, “Pops,” eliciting an “Ahhhh” of satisfaction from Louis.

Julie tells everyone that Santa Claus got her a car and Stuff shows off a “very pretty” lighter he received as a gift from pianist Earl “Fatha” Hines. Stuff mentions that “Sunshine Sammy” called–a reference to Ernest Morrison, a former Our Gang cast member–and said she could get a cocker spaniel. Stuff mentions that his wife Dottsie is coming home later that day and talks more with Julie about what she received for Christmas.

At 11:25, Stuff tells Julie to wish “Pops” a Merry Christmas and to do it “loud.” She does as told and Louis responds with a warm, “Merry Christmas, Julie!” He then adds, “Let’s make General say Merry Christmas!” General was Louis and Lucille’s beloved toy Boston bulldog, a gift from Glaser–here’s a color photo of General from this time period:

Louis loved this dog–affectionately known as “Steak Face”–and even made sure he was there for his west coast stay. At 11:55, Louis announces, “Let’s make General say Merry Christmas!” General comes over and eventually starts making the most ungodly sounds imaginable! Louis delights in his “talking” dog, singing “Merry Christmas, dear General” to the tune of “Happy Birthday to You!” Don’t listen to this part too loudly in public because you’ll be bound to get strange looks from those nearby, but it must have been all in good fun; here’s a photo of Louis and General to cleanse the palate:

After that interlude, Louis passes the microphone around to have everyone deliver messages to Dottsie Crouch. Louis sweetly talks about how Julie Crouch looks like “a movie star,” followed by messages from Julie, Stuff, and Lucille Armstrong. Lucille mentions that she hopes Dottsie is feeling better and references her daughter Cheryl; this is picked up by Julie Crouch, who gets back on the microphone to wish her mother comes home soon with her “baby sister.” Thus it appears Cheryl Crouch was born at this time and was coming home on Christmas Day.

Stuff turns off the tape recorder at this point and we can assume holiday dinner was served to a houseful of guests–including none other than Scatman Crothers! Though best known today for his performances in films such as The Shining and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Crothers was another mainstay on the Los Angeles scene, singing and playing drums with Slim Gaillard among others. (Anyone who has seen the wonderful Sanford and Son scene of Crothers and Redd Foxx doing “All of Me” knows can feel the affinity those two had for Armstrong.)

Crothers had his tiple guitar with him at the Crouch Christmas party and mentioned he had written a song, “Waiting for My Baby” (perhaps a message from Stuff to Dottsie Crouch?). Crothers did end up recording “Waiting for My Baby,” but that version is sadly not online (though it appears on a 2-CD retrospective of Crothers’ work on the Fresh Sound label). However, we have good news: at 16:14, Armstrong fired the tape recorder back up to record his friend Scatman performing a heartfelt version of his composition. Upon its conclusion at 19:30, Louis offers a warm, “Very good, Scatman!” “Pops, you might wax this number, huh?!” Scatman enthusiastically responds. “Well, the world’s gonna want this one!” Louis says. “I’d like to record this one, Daddy.” “You can have it,” Crothers says. “Well, let’s see what happens,” Louis says.

Alas, Armstrong never did record “Waiting for My Baby” but Crothers definitely gave it his best effort. In addition performing it for Louis at the Crouch’s Christmas party, he recorded a test pressing with a sextet led by bassist Red Callender and gave it to Louis, who eventually added it to his tape collection, marking it as “Recorded”:

After that, we’re left to assume the party continued with Scatman, Les Hite, and other Los Angeles figures, but Louis hadn’t gotten to the point of surreptitiously recording parties and gatherings just yet. Instead, the next thing we hear is the sound of Armstrong’s All Stars doing “Bugle Blues” and “Ole Miss,” recorded for Decca in April 1950. Armstrong plays the entire record, even flipping it over in the middle. But then, with three minutes left, Armstrong, now seemingly by himself, plays Dean Martin’s recording of “If.” My hunch is Decca sent this one to Louis as he was due to record a Gordon Jenkins arrangement of it on February 6, 1951. Armstrong often tape recorded the hit versions of the songs Decca asked him to record, a way for him to familiarize himself with the material before he entered the studio.

But don’t miss the moment at 31:20 as the Dean Martin record ends and Louis comes back on the microphone and says, “A beautiful way to end this reel–eh, General?” Armstrong then plays a recording of General barking for a few seconds, a humorous way of ending this Christmas Day tape.

With that description out of the way, here’s the audio of part 2:

Now, ideally, I wanted to close with a Spotify or Apple Music playlist of the music contained on this reel but alas, a number of tracks were nowhere to be found on the streaming services. However, they are all on YouTube so if you’d like to play some of this material on Christmas day and recreate the mood of the Crouch household in 1950, here are the links!

Bing Crosby, “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”:

Al Hibbler, “White Christmas”:

Mahalia Jackson, “Silent Night”:

Nat King Cole, “The Christmas Song”:

Bing Crosby, “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”:

Nat King Cole, “All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth”:

Bing Crosby, “Jingle Bells”:

Charlie Kunz, “Christmas Medley Part 1”:

Charlie Kunz, “Christmas Medley Part 2”:

Louis Armstrong, “Will You, Won’t You Be My Baby”:

Louis Armstrong, “St. Louis Blues”:

Louis Armstrong, “West End Blues”:

Ella Fitzgerald, “It’s Too Soon to Know”:

Louis Armstrong, “Bugle Call Rag/Ole Miss”:

Dean Martin, “If”:

That concludes this special look at how Louis and Lucille Armstrong spent Christmas Day in 1950. I do just want to close by saying that if any members of the Crouch family–specifically Julie or Cheryl–are still out there, please let us know, we’d love to hear their memories of the Armstrong and of their parents.

Merry Christmas, everyone–have a Yule that’s Cool!