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Did Richard Nixon Unwittingly Smuggle Drugs for Louis Armstrong? · Ridiculous History

• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Oh man, oh man, oh man. It's been a while.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: We are finally cool enough cats that we can have
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: a little bit of intro music for today's episode, Friends
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: and Neighbors. That was Muggles. That's performed by Louis Armstrong
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: and co Hi. My name is Ben, my name is no.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: So we're doing a Harry Potter episode today, right one
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: one would think, one would think, but in fact, we
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: are doing something that involves what some people would call magic. Yeah,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: we're talking about the reefer left, the jazz cigarette, the gauge,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: the gauge which was Mr Armstrong's personal favorite slang for marijuana.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: And we were we have had so much fun researching
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: this legend that we were worried our you know, our
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: better third and saving grace. Superproducer Casey Pegram might actually
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: get tired of us. But while we while we have
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: them in the studios still, we are going to take
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: advantage of that precious time. It's really cloudy and it's like,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: should we open a door. Kiddy, don't don't engage with drugs. Kids,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: don't engage with the gauge. Yes, don't gauge, don't get
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: you got there, Yeah, we got it. We're here. Oh, man,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: but our research was strictly academic for this absolutely. Um.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: But man, this is a cool story. There's a lot
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: wrapped up in a and uh, part of it is
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: a bit of a kind of an urban legend, apocryphal. Yeah.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: So we are exploring the life and times of one
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: of the jazz greats, someone that I really enjoy and
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: I think you do as well. Know that is Louis Armstrong.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Pops Yes, sat Statch Mountain and Louis Armstrong is known
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: and loved the world over. He is one of those
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: people you could rightly call an icon. That's right. Born
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: in nineteen hundred August four, to be precise, in New Orleans.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: He lied about his age though too. He's a He's
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: a very layered man, very much so cloaked in mystery.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: But one thing we do know is true. He grew
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: up in a very tough neighborhood in New Orleans called
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: the Battlefield. His father left the family when he was
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: just a little boy, and he kind of had defend
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: for himself, taking on jobs. His mother apparently was only
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: able to pay the bills through sex work. Um. And
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: he had kind of a wild upbringing in the course
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: sort of seed underbelly of New Orleans included dance clubs
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: and Women of the Evening, and of course a lot
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: of jazz musicians right right. His first exposure to music
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: in a learning environment was at the Fisc School for
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: Boys when he was about six years old. But he
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: ended up putting in his time when it came to
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: listening to music at brothels and dance halls, because he
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: had a gig selling coal for a nickel per bucket
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: in these you know, in these houses of prostitution in
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: an area called Storyville. And then as he was as
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: he was making his rounds delivering coal, he ran into
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: these house musicians and he ran into something called spasm band. Well,
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: I don't know about spasm bands. Tell me more. I'm
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: so glad you asked. A spasm band is a musical
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: group that plays dixieland traditional jazz, jug band or skiffle music.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: Skiffle like that's sort of what the Beatles were considered.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: They were part of the skiffle scene. Apparently in the
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: UK the skiffle was sort of like a folk pop
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: kind of form of music. Right, nailed it, nailed it. Jazz, blues,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: folk and uh American folk known for some improvised instruments.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: So he, as as you said, began hanging out there,
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: spending serious time in these halls. And it was pretty
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: apparent early on that he had a gift, a calling,
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: a compulsion to play music, to sing, and to play
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: the horn. And he was taken under the wing of
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: a professor Peter Davis, who taught Armstrong to play the cornet,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: which I believe is kind of a like a smaller trumpet.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: A trumpet is a a little bit longer and more
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: slender than a cornet, but in reality they both played
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: the same notes and they sound more or less the same,
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: So easy one to one transition from the cornet to
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: a trumpet if you want to get nerdy about it.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: The difference is, uh, mainly the way the tubing of
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: the instrument flares. A cornet is more cone shaped or
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: conical than a trumpet, so as a cornett kind of
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: considered more bite sized portable. I don't know, I don't
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: see the point. Yeah, let us know we are not
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: cornetitiansu um. But I am fond of some hot jazz. Ah, yes,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: hot jazz, which in its day would be considered often
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: as controversial perhaps as the use of drugs and Louis
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: Armstrong's jazz career is worthy of not just an episode,
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: but an entire podcast. We could spend exploring this guy
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: and exploring the personal struggles that he endured. I have
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: some great Louis Armstrong facts at the end of this
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: But before you and I go too far down the
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: fam boy rabbit hole, should we set the scene for
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: today's encounter? I think we should, Ben, I think we
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: should please do the honors. Today's episode centers around an
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: apocryphal tale. I believe you weren't used that word earlier.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Been um, a pot crow full tale. Not not good.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: It's fine, We're keeping it. Yeah. Where so Louis Armstrong
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: during the Cold War he was made a US ambassador,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: a goodwill ambassador. Excuse me, he was sent abroad, as
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: were many African American musicians and actors and writers. Um,
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: I don't know, to preach equality. I guess during the
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: era of integration. Well, yes, so a good will ambassador
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: isn't just relegated to this period in time, like Angelina
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: Jolie is a good will ambassador. That's right, that's right.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: They're a person who advocates for their person who advocates,
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: typically for a country or maybe for a specific cause,
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: based on the fact that everyone knows who they are.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: That's right. So Louis Armstrong had this distinction straight from
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: the U. S. State Department, who actually also paid for
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: or or in part financed a tour that he did
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: in Europe and Asia. And while there are a few
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: versions of this story that sort of change where he
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: was coming from, uh, the one common little thread is
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: that Louis Armstrong was at the airport on after getting
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: off a plane from from one of these trips um
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: and he was led um out of line into a
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: customs line, which was unusual for him because, according to
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: the story, as a good will ambassador, he was traveling
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: to different areas of the world and never having to
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: enter custom They waved him on through. Sure, but he
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: was supposedly coming back from Japan. Um. That's that's the
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: most consistent version of the story that I've read. And so, yeah,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: he's in this line and he starts to sweat. Why
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: is he sweating? He's not. He's not sweating because of
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: the because of the sound of a hot trumpet, right,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: He's not sweating because of the heat in the airport.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: He is sweating because his trumpet case contains more than
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: a beautiful musical instrument. He is, in our parlance today,
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: riding dirty, riding dirty. Packing. Yeah, he has gauge on him. Yep,
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: he's gauged up. He's got he's got his muggles, uh
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: slang for marijuana. At the time, his left hand cigarettes
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: in a pretty substantial amount three pounds. Right, that's what
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: we hear with the story. And there's something important we
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: want want you to be aware of. As we're telling
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: this story. You may hear us switching between different versions
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: and different sources. Again, quite apocryphal, bordering on urban legend,
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: very hard to confirm or deny the story, but there
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: are several versions in Louis armstrong biographies that are floating
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: out there. So we'll we'll give you, we'll give you
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: the kind of the bare bones version. So we got
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: off the first class flight, he's going into a customs line,
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: and then who does he see but Richard Nixon, who
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: was either on the way to becoming president or serving
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: as a vice president. Tricky dicky yep, himself uh, the
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: one of the men who would go on to become
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: a huge advocate of what we call the drug war. Yes,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: the war on drugs, the war on drugs, and so
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: in a panic and thinking quickly Louis Armstrong, who is
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: talking with Nixon, who turns out to be a huge
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: fan of well the way I've read it too, and
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: there's a couple of versions. But Nixon sees Louis and
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: comes running at him with open arms. Think he's gonna
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: get a sweet press photo, right Armstrong statch Molly says.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: He says, sharts shrosh mall, mall are you doing so?
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: Louis Armstrong thinks this is a sign, and Nixon's like, oh,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: you know, one more help you? And he says, actually, yes,
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: you see, I'm I'm old and this trumpet is heavy.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: Do you think you could carry it for me? Give
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: me a hand. That was an amazing Louis Armstrong impression.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: I feel like it would be racist for either of
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: us to attempt. Yes, but next yeah, we could do
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: we could do our muppet level. Nixon's back and forth
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: right in and let us know if you want us
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: to do a show where both of us are Richard Nixon.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: We're ridiculous at how stuff works. Dot com, oh Man,
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: what if people write in we'll do it if only
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: if the episode has nothing to do with Richard Dixon.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: That's fine, Okay, you're you're agreed to this, sure, all right,
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: So what what happens when Armstrong asked him to give
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: him a hand Well, first of all, one version one
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: one difference in various accounts is whether he was carrying
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: one case or two cases. That he would make the
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: most sense for him to have been carrying two cases,
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: because three pounds of weed is not going to fit
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: into a single trumpet case, right, And then also asking
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: someone to carry something for you when you have nothing
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: else to carry seems shady. Again, several versions. The one
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: that we're kind of talking about here is Nixon demands
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: that he hand him his cases because he says, a
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: good world ambassador doesn't have to go through customs, and
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: the vice president of the United States will carry your suitcases.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: Satch mall and then again, this story, depending on when
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: you hear it, describes a different point in Richard Nixon's career.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: But according to the story, according to the legendent, what
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: happens is with the maybe not the best of intentions,
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: because he clearly wanted the photo the man who would
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: later become Richard Nixon, a very anti drug president, carries
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: marijuana through customs for Louis Armstrong, hands hands it back
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: to Louis Armstrong, who somehow must have been keeping a
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: straight face through the whole thing. Uh. And later Louis
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: and some of his accompanists will swear by this story.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: But the thing is, depending on who you ask, the
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: story differs in a multitude of ways. Right. First off,
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: Armstrong was only about twelve years older than Nixon. Because
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: he got his he would tell people he was born
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: on August four, nine hundred, but it was more like
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: nineteen o one because it was a thirteen month or
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: so difference. Yeah, man, and that particular account is credited. Uh,
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: this is getting in a murky territory. Here's someone named Miles,
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: So Miles Davis. I don't know, it's hard to say,
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: but yeah. As it turns out, though, that keyboardist that's
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: mentioned in that version of the story never played with
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: Louis Armstrong. So yeah, there's shock full of holes that
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: there's no record of any session where they played together.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: And so in that version, he Armstrong was not necessarily
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: an ambassador. He was just on a good Will tour
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: and he was going to I think they were all
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: on the same plane and they were headed to Moscow
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: in this thing, So the the directions and the locations change,
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: that's right. And this is in what what year are
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: we talking here? Uh? This particular, the Moscow story would
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: date it to nineteen fifty nine, and that has its
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: problems as well, right, but in general, like, if we're
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: looking at a rough estimate for when this meeting was
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: supposed to take place, it would have been late fifties,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: early sixties, right, yeah, that's about right, yeah, exactly. So
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: the good will tours, I think that part of it
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: was about integration because a lot of the people they
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: sent on these tours were African American luminaries, um. And
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: it was meant, I think, to show, hey, we're we're
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: doing good work. Well, because one of the tenants of
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: the Soviet ideology at the time was that communism provides
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: much more equality than capitalism. So this is sort of
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: a foray against exactly. And so it's also tied to
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: the Cold War as well, right yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely,
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: at least ideologically. And so this this story continues through
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: some other iterations, right that the problem with the idea
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: of the vice President of the US taking a flight
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: on official business to Moscow in nine is that there
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: would be some sort of record of it. Right. Well,
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: although it is true that apparently in those days the
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: vice president would have taken commercial flights, which I thought
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: was fascinating big time. I had no idea. Well, what
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: a kick in the pants man. Seriously, man, it's the
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: president hops on air Force one and what what do
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: you just fist bump and then say all right, I
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: gotta go get in line catch my flight. And customs,
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: of course, was a lot easier in those days. Everything
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, yeah, guys, it's going to the airport
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: today just stresses me out so much it's not fun. Furthermore,
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: there had only been three trips by jazz musicians to
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: Russia by nine at least that are documented, and Louis
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: Armstrong was not one of those constitutions. So I'm leaning
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: towards if this is if this did happen, probably coming
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: back from his uh I've seen this version of the
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: story enough times that it seems to stick. Coming back
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: from one of his tours in Asia in Japan. Yes,
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: this is one of those stories though, where it's it's
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: you want to believe it because it's just so so
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: funny to think that Sachemo kind of put one over
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: on tricky Dick Nixon before he was even well known
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: as being such a vehement uh anti drug force. You know. Um,
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: but can we talk a little bit about satch Mo's
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: lifelong love of of of the Mary Jane. Yeah, let's
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: set it up with a clip. What do you say? Yea?
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: So this is a clip from Louis Armstrong on um
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: some sort of television appearance. Looks like an interview show.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: At first, I thought it was like Steve Allen or something,
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: but the guy's name play says Mr Daley, and I
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: couldn't figure out what show it was. But from that's right, Yes,
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: so let's give that a listen. Actually, I haven't had
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: a chance to talk to for the show, but we
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: had a great discussion about it, and I just asked
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: one of the folks on the show, Bob Backers, well,
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: what is it? What is Louis Armstrong going to do?
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: How is he going to discuss farce? It's always going
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: way up the way he sings? Is that the highest good? Well,
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: I don't know what I'm saying it was high for you.
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: But oh uh, this is worth looking up on YouTube
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: because without being um, without being like experts in assessing
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: someone's mental condition or their level of intoxication, Louis Armstrong
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: looks like he is mildly amused by this guy, or
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: maybe smoked some pot before the show. Yeah, the gauge,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: the gauge what he called it. In fact, this clip
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: is called Pops Loves His Pot because Pops was another nickname,
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: and apparently also Louis Armstrong called everybody else Pops, which
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: is kind of neat. Yeah, I think that's cool. If
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: I started calling everybody by my own nickname, that'd be
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: pretty presumptuous. Also kind of badass. Well, he probably started
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: it before it was his nickname and people gave him
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: that nickname. That's a good point. That's a good point.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: But you know, I don't think that's a way to
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: get ahead in life. You've gotta be a Louis Armstrong
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: for that to work. Did you get a sense that
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: this uh, very white host being a little bit of
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: a dick? You know, as we were watching a lot
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: of these interviews. One thing that bothered me and that
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: we talked a little bit about off air is that
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: in this time, many of the interviews that he has,
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: especially with white interviewers, are exercises in condescension, and they're
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: consistently talking over him and talking too much. It's strange,
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: it's not cool, it's gross because the thing like, Okay,
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: so in the company of Louis Armstrong, as African American
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: artists who had crossover appeal, you know, to a largely
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: white audience, where people like Cab Callaway and Fats Waller,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: for example, they all kind of had in common that
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: they came him from this kind of underground scene, Um,
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: Louis Armstrong in New Orleans, like we talked about the
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: top of the show, but they managed to break through
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: and be very successful with white audiences. But that also
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: they kind of had to like that's the word I'm
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: looking for. I don't know that I felt like they
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: had They had to play by their rules a little bit.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: They had to sort of bow and scrape a little bit.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: And while this may have given them um success or
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: maybe even to some degree sanitized them or made them
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: less dangerous to the very racist white community, it was
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: contentious and considered offensive in the black community in the States.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: At the time, and this is something we know now
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: deeply troubled many of these artists, Louis Armstrong included, because
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: he would have he would have people in the movement,
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: the civil rights movement accused him of being and Uncle Tom.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: The idea be that he was selling out his own
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: identity for some measure of personal profit from people who
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: would never respect him, which which is which is a
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: shame because once you see his his letters and his correspondence,
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: he did have a public persona for sure, that's true.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: Everybody does, no no, no, no doubt about him. But
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: he was an activist. Uh, he came to activism. In
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: his letters, you can see him angry, ferociously angry and
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: righteously fed up with the state of race relations in America,
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: as well as the policies towards marijuana. His wife actually
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: got arrested one time in nineteen fifty four for carrying
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: marijuana that was allegedly his. Yeah, it was like something
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: in the neighborhood of like fourteen Grahams. It was like
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: a rolled up marijuana cigarette. Yeah it was. It sounds
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: like a pot, a joint it. It was in an
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: eyeglass case and a couple of roaches. Yeah, the half
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: smoked joint. And we have an excerpt because he wrote
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: a letter about this. He almost got banned from Hawaii
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: for life. Yeah, because that was just on Waikiki. Yeah,
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: and this is a letter to his then manager, who
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: also I believe had uh ties to the al Capone
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: crime syndicate. Yeah. Yeah, that's a very strange part of it.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: Uh So Joe glass Or it was his manager at
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: the time. And because he was so incensed about about
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: this huge what he called Rigga maru regard. I love
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: that rigamarole, mind you Riga maru rigor maru. Because he
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: was so angry about this, he wrote to his manager
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: Joe And we won't read the whole letter, but we
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: have some choice excerpts here, and one of our favorites
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: was when he said, straight out, Mr Glasser, you must
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: see to it that I have special permission to smoke
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: all the reefers that I want to when I want,
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: or I will just have to put this horn down.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: That is all. That is all. He refers to the
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: gauge um as more of a medicine than a dope,
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: he says, but he's just fed up with the penalty
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: surrounding it, and this was not his first run in
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: with the law. He's actually kind of credited as the
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: right word, but as being I've seen it written as
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: the first celebrity arrested for marijuana possession, right, and he
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: you know, he did have his addictions. I believe he
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: smoked three cigar sized blunts a day day and that's
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: that sounds like just a maintenance thing. You know, he
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: never had a drinking problem. Yeah, he says he smoked
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: the reefers um instead because he said there was no hangover,
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: and you know he had he had a lot of reasons.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: He had a lot of feelings about this stuff, right,
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: and he was very open and about about it in
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: a way that you would not expect one to be.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: But I guess even in those days, if you get
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: to a level of that kind of sacred status, you know,
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: as an American treasure, you can probably say what you want.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: I mean, this is like Snoop Dogg Willie Nelson level,
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: and those are those are two very prominent advocates of
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: marijuana today. So that first running was in nineteen thirty
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: where he was hanging out with his drummer, a guy
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: by the name of Vic Burton outside the Cotton Club
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: in Culver City, California. And Lordie, Lordie, Lordie, this quote
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: is a delight. I'm gonna read this again. Not not
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: gonna do uh. Louis Armstrong boys, he says, Vic and
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: I were blasting this joint, having lots of laughs and
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: feeling good, enjoying each other's company. Just then two big
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: healthy dicks that means detectives came from behind a car,
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: nonchalantley and said to us, we'll take the roach boys. Yep,
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: and that is that is a true statement. But as
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: we have seen, it did not discourage him what one bit.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: Because one thing Louis Armstrong had was dry. That's true. Um.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: He did get put away for a handful of days.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: He could have gotten six months. Um. He and the drummer,
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: Where I think find a thousand dollars a piece in
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: nineteen thirty which is insane? Shall we inflation calculator that
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: bad boy? Yes, let's one thousand dollars in nineteen thirty
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: is worth in twenty eighteen approximately. May have a drum roll, please, Casey,
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: it's gonna be It's gonna be crazy. Fourteen thousand, five
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: hundred ninety three dollars, and whenever I read a fine
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: of that sort. You know what always drives my gears
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: the most. It's the it's the change. Come on, insult
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: to injury, just add twenty cents, right, Why are you doing?
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: It's it's it's it's it's ridiculous. But like you said,
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: it did not diminish his love of the herb Um.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: He A lot of these quotes are coming from excerpts
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: from a biography that I believe, Correct me if I'm wrong,
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: but I believe there was one biography where he talked
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: very openly about his his love of marijuana and you know,
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: his belief in marijuana law reform very openly. But this manager,
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: that manager we talked about with with the mob ties,
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: UM had a lot of that stuff redacted pulled out
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: UM because he thought it would be a bad book,
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: I guess for his client. UM and Louis arms Armstrong
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: swore that he would have a sequel released that only
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: contained the stuff about his beloved gauge UM. But yeah,
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: so he got out. UM. They pulled some strings. Some
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: of the club owners I guess in in California in
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: the Los Angeles area got him out. He returned to
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: the bandstand post haste, and then he said when he
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: was performing on the bandstand as a quote where he says,
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: I laughed real hard when several movie stars came up
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: to the bandstand while we played a dance set and
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: told me when they heard about me getting caught with marijuana,
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: they thought marijuana was a chick. Well boy, that really
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: fractured me. Yes. Uh, this is strange because you will
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: hear a lot of marijuana advocates today and in more
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: recent years describe Louis Armstrong as one of the first
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: public policy advocates for marijuana, and granted, a lot of
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: these outfits will be a little biased, like you can
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: read an article that takes this stent on a website
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: called Guess what Noel Marijuana dot com by someone had
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: to snap up that you r o right. And what
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: we also found in what we would be remiss not
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: to mention is that later in life Armstrong developed significant
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: lung problem plums and he died before he even reached
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: his seventieth birthday. You can find this in uh, Louis
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: Armstrong Genius and Drugs by Stanton Peel, a PhD. Writing
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: for Psychology Today. The marijuana used had to have something
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: to do it, of course. Yeah, no, no, no, no, no,
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: no question about it. And I want to be clear,
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: we are certainly not advocating the use of marijuana. Uh.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: This is is such an interesting story and it's it's
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: obviously part of the culture and especially when it comes
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: to you know, creative types and musicians. And clearly Louis
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: Armstrong was a highly functional, successful creative person. Uh. And
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: this was something he chose to do. And you can't
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: deny that it may have had an impact on um
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: the music that he made. Absolutely, Yeah, there was this
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: idea that uh, it opened up people's improvisational chops. And Armstrong,
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: when he writes about it, also mentions that there was
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: a bit of escapism, you know, and it made it
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: easier to um not feel like you lived in a
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: country that was constantly kicking the crap out of you.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: And we and we can say one of the reasons
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: we're laughing so much about this is because Louis Armstrong's
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: personality shines through so vibrantly and at times comedically in
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: the interviews, in the in his written works. And we
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: didn't even mention the cartoonish anti marijuana propaganda that was
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: around in the twenties and thirties, right well, a lot
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: of it which was race based, primarily discriminating against people
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: of color. So is rebelling against an authoritarian effort, which
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: in principle is admirable. And I'm just to clarify that
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: some of those quotes of of Louis Armstrong talking about
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: his experiences with uh with weed Um, we're not from
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: that original book which came out in nineteen fifty four
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: called Satchmo My Life in New Orleans, because he did
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: talk about it in those sessions, but his manager did
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: have those pulled out and that you cannot find them.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: But it was near the end of his life. In
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy one he sat down with two biographers, Max
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: Jones and John Chilton Um where he decided he was
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: going to quote tell it like it was. And this
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: comes from a fantastic article by Lisa Ruff from Leafley
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: called Louis Armstrong and Cannabis the Jazz Legends lifelong love
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: of the gauge. And when he sat down with these biographers,
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: he admitted that he did eventually have to put down
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: the Mary Jane right because the penalties were just too
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: steep for him to deal with. You know, he talks
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: about as it's a young man's game. You know you're
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: gonna skirt the law and live life on the edge.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: But you get older and it's just just stops being functional. Yeah,
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: and he's still. My favorite part about that quote is
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: that he's still found a playful way to refer to
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: the substance. Do you want to read this system? It's
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: a delight, Sure would be an honor. Well that was
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: my life and I don't feel ashamed at all. Mary Warner, Honey,
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: you're sure it was good and I enjoyed you heap much,
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: but the price got a little too high to pay.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: At first, you was a misdemeanor, but as the years
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: rolled on, you lost your misdo and got meaner and meaner.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: Jail house Lee speaking, So bye bye, I'll have to
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: put you down, dearest beautiful. Do you feel sad all
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: at once? It's like Kurt Vonnegut kind of writing. Uh,
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: There's there's one other thing I do want to point out.
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: I thought you would enjoy this snoll. It has little
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: to do with It has little to do with Barre Watta,
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: but a lot to do with Louis Armstrong. He was
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: an amazing trumpet player, right, and he was an amazing singer.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: He was uh, forthright advocate for marijuana. He was also
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: a laxative advocate. I'm sorry, a laxative advocate. Okay, yeah,
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: sort of like a like a John Harvey Kellogg kind
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: of guy. Uh, kind of hopefully not not that into
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: uh animals. But he was an advocate of losing weight
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: through laxatives, which is tremendously unhealthy. Nobody do it, but
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: he was such a proponent of it. People would ask
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: him how he lost so much weight because his weight
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: would fluctuate, and he was very open about it. He
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: was like, I use laxatives, and he would name a
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: brand of it. Uh. He even wrote a book called
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: Lose Weight the Satchmo Way, was he sponsored? Did he have? Was?
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: Was he sponsored by what's the popular laxative x lax
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: that's like a legacy brand? Well, his initial favorite laxative
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: was something called Pluto water God, and it was banned
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy one because it contained lithium. Boy, so
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: not only did it make you poop your brains out,
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: it probably made you feel real mellow. Yes, he was
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: so convinced that laxatives were a great curative thing that
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: he gave bottles of them to his friends his presence,
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: and he also, you know, he produced flyers that depicted
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: him sitting on a toilet smiling. He told the British
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: family when he met them during the nine Great Britain
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: Tour about how awesome laxatives were. True story. That's uh,
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: that's pretty fascinating. But I, I just I wanted to
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: end on something a little little upbeat, because it is
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: a shame that he was driven, you know, to to
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: say goodbye to things that he loved. It's true. Um.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: And speaking of saying goodbye, uh, Richard Nixon himself, whether
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: or not he served as Sachem's drug mule, he did
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: have some very kind words to share on the day
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: of his passing, that was July sixe UM. He says,
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: Mrs Nixon and I share the sorrow of millions of
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: Americans at the death of Louis Armstrong, one of the
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: architects of an American art form, a free and individual spirit,
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: and an artist of worldwide fame. His great talents and
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: magnificent spirit added richness and pleasure to all our lives
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: and and to steal a line from this really cool
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: um but but by far the most off the mark
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: version of the story. But it's animated in this series
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: called Drawn and Recorded, Uh Louis Armstrong, SACHEMO and Nixon
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: you can check out on Spotify. At the very end,
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: it quotes this um this statement from Nixon as well
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: and ends by saying that Richard Nixon also added richness
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: and pleasure to Louis Armstrong's life by smuggle and his
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: his gage stash. And and this is just touching on
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: a single anecdote from the strange and rich history of
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: drugs and public policy in the United States. Uh. You know,
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: we can also recommend, if you'd like to learn more
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: about the history of marijuana, specifically in the United States,
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: that you check out our friends over at Stuff you
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: Should Know and check out the article from NPR The
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: Mysterious History of Marijuana by Matt Thompson, which comes via
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: code Switch. That's a that's a great show, and that's
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: all for today, folks. Thank you so much for giving
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: us a listen. As always, thanks to Casey Pegram, our
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: super producer. Big thanks. Maybe the first time we mentioned
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: on the show to Christopher hascy otis this guy is
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: our this. This guy is a top notch researcher has
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: been working with us and we're hoping that one day
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: we can cajole him or you know, sweet talk him
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: into peering on the show. He seemed game, but yeah,
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: we're collaborating with him um on research for new episodes
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: from here on out, which is really exciting. So look
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: for some really cool fun topics coming up, one of
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: which is coming up next where we talk about how
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: a James Bond film essentially created a Da Della s
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: Muertos tradition um parade event festival in a city where
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: that wasn't a thing. So tune in and check it out. Yes,
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: and in the meantime, you can find us on Instagram,
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: you can find us on Facebook, you can find us
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: on Twitter. We'd love to hear from you. Also dropped
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: by ridiculous Historians. I don't know if it'll be up
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: by the time this this comes out, but based on
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: a previous episode, uh, one of you dear listeners started
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: a poll and the people have spoken, so I'm gonna
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: have to post that opuland picture. Oh cool. I hope
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: it's not underwhelming. It's it's from far away then how
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: could it be? You may we see a tiny a
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: tiny boy, a gigantic cat, but it'll be spoilers. Yeah,
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: I can't wait to see it that. That's gonna be
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: really exciting. Um, did we thank Alex Williams who composed
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: our theme? You know what, even if we did, let's
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: thank and again, right he deserves it. Thanks Alex Williams
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: who composed our theme, and most poorly, thanks to you
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: for listening to another episode of Ridiculous History. I can't
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: wait to see you next time.