“To Remember Your Visit in Prague”: A 60th Anniversary Photographic Celebration

Last week, we celebrated the 60th anniversary of Louis Armstrong’s historic tour of Prague with a packed post featuring audio, videos, photos, newspaper clippings, and other artifacts from our Archives and from around the internet. But there was a big chunk of our collection that we held back: the photographs of Ivan Englich.

Who was Ivan Englich? In 1974, Lucille Armstrong and her close friend and traveling companion Phoebe Jacobs toured Eastern Europe. It was there that they connected with the 40-year-old Englich. According to Englich’s resume, he “personally escorted and directed the 8 day tour of Mrs. Louis ‘Satchmo’ Armstrong to 12 programs presented in theatres around the country, acted as interpreter, created a slide show, film clips and music tracks as well as sharing the stage with Mrs. Armstrong as a contributor to the program.” We have his resume because soon after the trip, Englich began corresponding with Lucille and Phoebe, who offered to him find work in the United States.

In one of his letters to Jacobs, Englich offered up some details about his backstory, noting that he was born in Prague on April 2, 1934, received a master’s degree, and was a Yachtsman in school, becoming “the state champion in Flying Dutchman several times.” “I am a photographer with several exhibitions at home and pictures printed everywhere,” he added, in addition to his role as directing manager of the International Jazz Festival Prague for five years. He also worked as Deputy Director of the Czechoslovak Folk Dance and Song Group and stressed that the “most important part of my work is administration of the arts.”

In 1975, Englich sent about 60 photos he took of Louis and Lucille in Prague in 1965 to Lucille at her Corona, Queens home. “Concerning my photos, I am happy that you obtained them and as you are writing, you enjoyed them,” he wrote to Lucille on September 25, 1975. “In case that somebody will use them somewhere, it will be much more than I expected.” We have not been able to find out of Mr. Englich is still alive–he would be 90 so it’s very possible–but we hope he’d appreciate the use of his photos in this post!

Englich claimed he sent 60 photos to Lucille, but we only have about 50 with his photo stamp; however, we have many more images of Armstrong in Prague that have a similar look and feel to Englich’s so we’ll include those below, after the initial batch, plus photos taken by other local photographers. If you’re looking for images of Pops in Prague, look no further.

The photos definitely taken by Englich come from three locations. First up is the evening when Louis and Lucille went to the Semafor Theatre and were entertained by local entertainers before the All Stars jumped on stage to perform a few selections of their own. Thus, we begin with the rare sight of Louis and Lucille actually in an audience, enjoying a show:

Louis, digging it:

Close-up of Lucille:

Even in the audience, Louis found himself honoring autograph requests:

Louis meeting with the locals:

All Stars vocalist Jewel Brown appears next to Louis in this one:

Here’s Armstrong greeting the local Prague entertainers who just performed for him; again, you can watch this sequence on YouTube in Jan Špáta’s film Hallo, Satchmo, which lists the performers as follows: Pavlína Filipovská, Karel Gott, Ferdinand Havlík, Jiří Jelínek, Eva Pilarová, Jiří Šlitr, Jiří Suchý, Naďa Urbánková. If anyone has more concrete identifications, we’ll take them, but for now, here is Englich’s photo of the moment:

As already mentioned, it was only a matter of time before Armstrong and the All Stars took over to perform a few selections. It was a loose affair with clarinetist Eddie Shu playing tenor and Armstrong calling tunes he didn’t perform in every show, things like “So Long Dearie,” “Way Down Yonder in New Orleans,” and “Back O’Town Blues.” Here are three Englich photos from the impromptu concert, opening with Louis being backed by Billy Kyle’s piano:

That’s Tyree Glenn on trombone, Arvell Shaw on bass, and Danny Barcelona on drums:

The next batch of Englich’s photos were taken onstage and off at one of Armstrong’s Lucerna Hall concerts, when the trumpeter was wearing a light gray suit. We’ll begin with some really striking images from the concert itself:

Love this shot from behind of Eddie Shu giving Armstrong an admiring glance:

Jewel Brown takes the microphone:

Armstrong acknowledges the incredible ovation of the crowd:

Armstrong then parked himself in his dressing room, looking a bit weary after such a draining concert (check out his chops):

Englich positioned himself over Armstrong’s shoulders and got this candid shot:

A smile eventually appears on Armstrong’s face:

Then the money shot–Armstrong turns his head, he looks right into Englich’s lens and offers a beautiful, warm smile:

Soon enough, Armstrong began greeting his public and the autograph session began. We don’t know the identity of any of these folks but here’s a series of Englich’s photos of Louis signing autographs backstage:

Englich even took a photo of Lucille entertaining visitors in another part of the backstage area:

A close-up photo of Lucille in a quiet moment:

Here’s a close-up of one of Louis’s autographs, either shot at the above concert or the one below:

That’s a good segue into the final batch of photos we know Englich took, also at Lucerna Hall but this time featuring Armstrong wearing his dark band uniform. For whatever reason, Englich only seemed to have taken one photo of Armstrong in performance, but it’s a good one, once more taken from behind:

Once backstage, it was time for more autographs:

Armstrong also took a photo with the man in the above photo–anyone know who it is?

He also posed with the woman in the above photo and a young man:

Even when seated with Lucille, the autograph requests kept coming in:

Lucille consulting with the band’s road doctor, Dr. Alexander Schiff:

These folks also look pretty important, as Louis got up from his table with Lucille to pose with them:

Eventually one of the men bent over to kiss Armstrong’s trumpet!

At least I believe that’s Louis’s trumpet; at some point it Prague, Armstrong was presented with a trumpet as a gift, which remained a prized possession. He didn’t perform on it–he remained a Selmer man to the end–but he did save it.

That concludes the photos that definitively have Ivan Englich’s stamp but there’s another series of images from Prague that have the same look and feel as the above images, so I’m going to include them here, with the caveat that they might not have been Englich. The scene was a banquet thrown in Louis and Lucille’s honor, though I have not been able to identify the setting. Here’s Louis and Lucille with their hosts; I recognize some faces from the backstage photos so these were obviously the big shots who helped make Armstrong’s visit possible:

The man with the mustache clearly bonded with Louis:

Louis offers a toast–perhaps of some Slivovice!

Even once seated, the parade of guests didn’t stop from approaching Louis–at least it appears that he didn’t mind:

The rest of the photos from the banquet are actually focused on Lucille, as she received numerous gifts:

Lucille was pleased to receive this necklace:

Next, Lucille was asked to pour a beverage into an almost comedically large glass:

It was literally bigger than her head:

Lucille picked the skinner glass and enjoyed a taste:

It might seem odd to kind of end at the beginning, but we also have a series of photos of Louis and Lucille arriving in Prague and attending a press conference. Again, it does not appear that these photos were taken by Ivan Englich but since this is the 60th anniversary of the occasion, now seems to be the time to share them! Here’s Louis and Lucille getting off the airplane:

Again, the man with the mustache:

Louis and Lucille, fresh off the plane:

Armstrong meets the press:

And of course, makes time to sign autographs:

And finally (finally!), other Prague photos that we definitively know were not taken by Ivan Englich as they have stamps of other photographers. Here’s one that looks like it might have been taken in the Semafor theater, though Lucille is wearing the coat she wore to the press conference:

Here’s the back, if anyone can make out the name:

Louis with a fan, Jane Harriet Whitman:

Those photos seem to go along with this one of Louis with a toy trumpet:

These two photos of Louis enjoying a beer while being interviewed look like they might have been taken at the same time as the above series:

This charming photo of Louis and Lucille backstage was taken by Vadav Chochola, who signed and dated it as March 16, 1965:

Louis must have enjoyed it and had a copy made, which he annotated, “After a Dee’Licious Meal in Prague 1965”:

And last but not least, a nice shot of Louis and Lucille, taken by a fan; we’ll share the front and back, which has a fitting message for this post (hence, the title):

That concludes our photographic look at Louis and Lucille’s historic week in Prague 60 years ago, but we’ll once again bring it back to Ivan Englich. Beginning in 1975, Englich began writing to both Lucille Armstrong and Phoebe Jacobs to tell them that one of the All Stars’s Lucerna Hall concerts was recorded by Czech radio–and Englich wanted to put it out on LP. The behind-the-scenes back-and-forth isn’t worth chronicling in great detail here but suffice to say, Lucille Armstrong wrote in offering her permission in 1978 and the album came out on the Panton label in Prague in 1979. I don’t believe it ever got a United States release (though Englich sent Lucille at least 20 copies) but it is on YouTube. Here ’tis (oh, if you read the description, the song marked as “Louisiana” is obviously “Indiana”):

That’s all for our 60th anniversary celebration of the time Pops conquered Prague but if anyone out there has any memories of this tour, please share in the comments below. Thanks for reading!