The Story Behind the Naming of Louis Armstrong Stadium

Today marks the first day of Fan Week at the U. S. Open, heralding the beginning of one of the most exciting times to be a tennis fan in New York City. Beginning this week and continuing through the actual U. S. Open, which will be taking place between August 26 and September 8, thousands of tennis fans from around the world will descend upon the USTA Billie Jean King Tennis Center in Queens, New York. Many of those fans will catch a match or a practice at Louis Armstrong Stadium. And many of those same fans will wonder aloud, “Hm, I didn’t know Louis Armstrong played tennis!”

This post will be an attempt to tell the story of how a tennis stadium in Queens was named for a trumpeter from New Orleans and we’ll be emptying our Archives to do so. (Though to eliminate any suspense, we’ll say up front that no, Louis Armstrong did not play tennis.)

To go back to the beginning, we must start at the 1964 World’s Fair, which was held in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, about a five minute drive from the place Louis and Lucille Armstrong had called home since 1943. The Singer Bowl was constructed specifically for the World’s Fair and was built by the Singer Sewing Machine Company. In fact, a New York Daily News article from June 28, 1964 noted that the Singer Bowl showcased rolls of dress fabrics ranging from $112 to $1,400 a yard, the latter fabric embroidered with cultured pearls.

As side from the fabrics, the Singer Bowl was an outdoor stadium that could be used for concerts–and the first concert held there would take place on June 30, 1964 and would feature none other than Louis Armstrong. Armstrong was riding high on the wave of “Hello, Dolly!,” which had knocked the Beatles off the top of the charts the previous month and was the number one LP in the country at the time of Armstrong’s Singer Bowl performance. June 30 was declared “Louis Armstrong Day” and the following clipping details Armstrong’s itinerary for the day:

Armstrong’s friend Jack Bradley followed Armstrong around the park that day–we’ve collected all of his surviving photos in this post–and made it to the free concert at the Singer Bowl, where Armstrong wore a Native American headdress he picked up somewhere along the way:

After the World’s Fair, the Singer Bowl was taken over by the New York Department of Parks and Recreation. It continued to host events in ensuing years, including performances by the Who, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and the Doors. In an unfortunate bit of foreshadowing, civil engineers declared the Singer Bowl’s structure to be unsafe, leading to a major renovation by the Parks Department in 1971.

1971, of course, was the year Louis Armstrong passed away. His widow Lucille immediately became dedicated to her husband’s legacy, taking a particular interest in the Corona, Queens neighborhood they called home. We chronicled Lucille’s involvement with Elmcor and her attempts to establish a Louis Armstrong Memorial Project in this post from 2023. Those efforts hit a fever pitch in 1972, leading to an announcement on September 29, 1972 that the City Council voted to rename the Singer Bowl “Louis Satchmo Armstrong Park and Stadium.” Here’s the New York Daily News article about this announcement from 1972:

As time went on, the name of the stadium would be streamlined a bit to simply “Louis Armstrong Stadium.” Plans went into effect to have a massive dedication concert on July 4, 1973. It was extra good luck that Armstrong’s July 4 birthday coincided with George Wein’s massive “Newport in New York” festival so Wein was tasked with booking the musicians for the big concert. Lucille offered assistance, too; here’s a copy of a letter she sent to Ella Fitzgerald, asking her to perform at the concert:

The stars aligned, the weather held up, and an epic concert took place on July 4, 1973. Here’s a photo of Ella at the concert:

As you can tell from the above print, the concert was even filmed by PBS–here’s the opening of the broadcast just to give a taste of all the giants who came out for the occasion, ending with Lucille ruminating about how much having a stadium named after him would have meant to Louis:

Here’s a photo of Lucille basking in the occasion:

Louis’s sister, Beatrice “Mama Lucy” Collins, and half-brother, Henry Armstrong, even traveled up from New Orleans for the occasion and were photographed by Jack Bradley:

One artist who couldn’t make it was Frank Sinatra, but he sent a very sweet telegram that Lucille saved:

Lucille and her close friend Phoebe Jacobs also saved multiple newspaper articles covering the occasion; here are a few:

“I feel like I’m on Cloud Nine,” Lucille was quoted as saying at the event. But that feeling was short-lived. The following year, while planning a follow-up concert, Lucille learned that the stadium was denied a permanent certificate of occupancy and would close by the end of August “because of structural deficiencies.” Newspapers began carrying headlines such as “City to Close Armstrong Bowl” and “Act to Save Satchmo’s Stadium.” Lucille saved one article from 1975 with a statement from the Parks Department assuring that Louis Armstrong Stadium would stay open, noting that the City had received a petition with 18,000 signatures of people who wanted to save it:

But by 1976, there was nothing happening at Louis Armstrong Stadium and its closing seemed inevitable.

Lucille needed help and would receive it from an unlikely source: United States Tennis Association President W.E. “Slew” Hester. While flying over Queens in 1976, Hester saw the run-down Armstrong Stadium from overhead and immediately envisioned it as a home for the U.S. Open, which had been held at the private West Side Tennis Club for the previous 54 years. With the West Side contract due to expire in 1977, Hester set his sights on refurbishing the abandoned Armstrong Stadium and turning Flushing Meadows Park into the site of the U.S. National Tennis Center.

A press release was sent out in the summer of 1977 to announce the plans to turn Louis Armstrong Stadium into the new home of the U. S. Open:

An officially groundbreaking ceremony was held in October 1977 and Lucille Armstrong was invited to take part. Photos were taken and sent to Lucille afterwards; here’s the letter the was sent along with the photos:

And here are the photos, which, in addition to Lucille, spotlight New York Parks Commissioner Joseph Davidson, Queens Borough President Donald Manes, Slew Hester of the USTA, and comedian (and major tennis fan) Alan King:

It would take $12 million dollars and ten months time to construct but by the time of the 1978 U.S. Open, 20,000 fans watched Jimmy Connors and Chris Evert win the singles titles at the brand new Louis Armstrong Stadium.

In a classy gesture, Hester not only kept Louis’s name on the stadium, but he invited Lucille to the opening ceremony. Here are some photos from the event:

That’s Hester next to Lucille in these photos:

Here’s a montage of photos that ran in the newspaper:

And finally, from NBC’s archives, here’s a few clips from the raw footage of Lucille’s speech and Harold Dejan’s Olympia Brass Band performing:

46 years later, Louis Armstrong Stadium is still a central part of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, located just seven blocks away from where the Armstrong’s lived in Corona, now the site of the Louis Armstrong House Museum. The Armstrong House has been open since 2003 and welcomes thousands of visitors from around the world each year, teaching them not only about the importance of Armstrong’s music but also why he loved his Queens neighborhood so much. One trip there and any questions about why a tennis stadium is named after a jazz trumpeter instantly disappear.