Plan: Ali, Muhammad

Armstrong, Louis

Louis Armstrong was born into a very poor home. He was a cheerful, mischievous lad, but one day when he was 13 he went a bit too far. He took a pistol out of the house and fired it in the street. It was meant as a harmless prank, but he ended up being taken to a children's home. It was at the home that he had his first music lesson and learned to play the cornet.

He left the home as a teenager and gradually started to earn a living playing his cornet. In the 1920s, after playing in other bands, he formed various small groups of his own, such as The Louis Armstrong Hot Five, and made some records. These recordings brought him world-wide fame among jazz fans.
But Armstrong was more than just a cornet player. His big smile and his antics on stage made him into something special. In 1936 he appeared in his first film, Pennies from Heaven, with Bing Crosby. From then on he gradually became a popular singer, his gravelly, cheerful voice having an attraction all of its own.
His biggest popular song hits were Hello Dolly, (1964) and What a Wonderful World (1968).