Date: June 25, 2025

Legacy Makers: Stories of Black Inventors and Icons

Title and Show Info

Episode #30. What a Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Story

Featuring: Toni Davis (Host & Storyteller).

Summary

🎙️ Before he was Satchmo, he was a boy from The Battlefield—a dirt-poor New Orleans neighborhood with more gunshots than good luck. But out of the chaos came a sound that would change music forever.

In this sweeping, soulful episode, we follow the full arc of Louis Armstrong’s extraordinary life: from his scrappy beginnings and reform school redemption to revolutionizing jazz with the Hot Fives and Hot Sevens. You'll meet the mentors, the marriages (some stormy, some steady), and the moments that made a boy with a cornet into the king of swing.

With Lil Hardin’s ambition, King Oliver’s call, and a trumpet that refused to play quietly, Louis tore through the 1920s and '30s, shattered racial barriers in Hollywood, and dazzled radio waves across America. He wasn't just playing music—he was changing hearts.

From wartime tours with the All-Stars to stealing the show in High Society and knocking The Beatles off the charts with Hello, Dolly!, Louis became a global icon. And when he recorded What a Wonderful World, it wasn’t just a song—it was a statement of defiant optimism in a fractured time.

This is not just the story of a jazz legend. It's the story of a man who turned pain into poetry, rhythm into revolution, and joy into a global language.

🎧Tune in and travel from New Orleans to the Vatican, and from heartbreak to high notes—because the world still spins to the sound of Satchmo.

🎺What a Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Story begins here. 🎺 Top of Form Top of Form

 

Highlights:

00:57- INTRO.

01:02- LOUIS ARMSTRONG BIRTH.

01:23- HIS MOTHER MARY ALBERT.

01:25- HIS FATHER.

02:07- SENT TO REFORM SCHOOL.

02:30- CORNET.

02:54- BEGINS PERFORMING.

03:10- KID ORY’S BAND.

03:19- MARRIES DAISY PARKER.

03:29- CREOLE JAZZ BAND IN CHICAGO.

04:22- MARRIES LIL HARDIN.

04:30- FLETCHER HENDERSON’S ORCHESTRA IN NYC.

05:23- THE HOT FIVE AND THE HOT SEVEN.

06:02- “SATCHMO”.

06:38- FILM DEBUT.

07:09- RADIO.

07:57- ENDS MARRIAGE WITH LIL HARDIN.

08:02- MARRIES ALPHA SMITH.

08:15- MARRIES LUCILLE WILSON.

08:24- THE COUPLE PURCHASE A HOME IN CORONA, QUEENS, NY.

08:31- FORMS THE LOUIS ARMSTRONG ALL STARS BAND.

08:53- PUBLISHES MEMOIR.

09:54- RELEASES THE SONG, “WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD”.

10:21- PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM.

10:27- PLAYS FOR POPE PAUL VI AT THE VATICAN.

10:57- PASSES AWAY.

11:31- BURIED.

11:42- CONCLUSION.

 Subscribe to the podcast.

 

Links to additional resources:

Louis Armstrong - Wikipedia

The Louis Armstrong House Museum - Jazz History Comes To Life In Corona

Louis Armstrong | Biography, Facts, What a Wonderful World, Nickname, & Songs | Britannica

Biography - Louis Armstrong House Museum

Louis Armstrong: Biography, Jazz Musician, “Satchmo”

Louis Armstrong: A Cultural Legacy | National Portrait Gallery

Louis & Family - Louis Armstrong House Museum

Louis Armstrong: Harlem Renaissance Pioneer – Pieces of History

9 Things You May Not Know About Louis Armstrong | HISTORY

Louis Armstrong's Childhood - America Comes Alive

Louis Daniel Armstrong (1901-1971) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree

Louis Armstrong - Parents, Family Tree, History & Death - Examined

Louis Armstrong and the Jewish Family | Aish

Louis Armstrong - 64 Parishes

Education - Louis Armstrong House Museum

Louis Armstrong: The Mand and His Life

Where did Louis Armstrong go to school? | Blake Pontchartrain | Gambit Weekly | nola.com

Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation | Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation

Louis Armstrong | Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

Louis Armstrong Personified the American Dream

Louis Armstrong Facts | Britannica

10 Interesting Facts About Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong Biography | American Masters | PBS

Louis Armstrong, Jazz Trumpeter and Singer, Dies - The New York Times

The Story of Louis Armstrong’s Final Tape – That's My Home

Statement on the Death of Louis Armstrong. | The American Presidency Project

Louis Armstrong – Kurt's Historic Sites

July 6 marks 50th anniversary of the death of Louis Armstrong

In Memoriam: Inside Louis Armstrong's Cause Of Death

Well-being and Care the Satchmo Way – Part II - Louis Armstrong House Museum

Louis and His Positivity - Louis Armstrong House Museum

9 Things You May Not Know About Louis Armstrong | HISTORY

https://www.notablebiographies.com/An-Ba/Armstrong-Louis.html

Louis Armstrong - New World Encyclopedia

Louis Armstrong | EBSCO Research Starters

Lucille Armstrong Biography | Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation

“Marriage is Really a Business”: 70th Anniversary of Louis Armstrong’s “Why I Like Dark Women” – That's My Home

Brown Sugar: The Story of Lucille Wilson Armstrong – That's My Home

Four Wives Share Louis Armstrong’s Story in ‘A Wonderful World’ | ArtSpeak

What a wonderful world: The love story of Louis and Lucille Armstrong | Very Local

Louis & Family – West End Blog