—52— O’Shaughnessy’s • Summer 2010

By Louis Armstrong

Louis: The Louis ArmstrongStory, 1900-1971 by Max Jonesand John Chilton. Little, Brownand Company, Boston/Toronto1971.

Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrongby Terry Teachout; Houghton-Mifflin Harcourt 2009; 474 pages,$30

In his later years the great trumpetplayer made hundreds of audio tapes ofspoken reminiscences. This account byArmstrong of getting busted for mari-juana possession appeared in the 1971biography by Jones and Chilton.

Speaking of 1931...we did call our-selves “vipers,” which could have beenanybody from all walks of life thatsmoked and respected tight gage. Thatwas our cute little name for marijuana,and it was a misdemeanor in those days.Much different from the pressure andcharges the law lays on a guy whosmokes pot —a later name for the samething which is cute to hear nowadays.

We always looked at pot as a sort ofmedicine, a cheap drunk and with muchbetter thoughts than one that’s full of li-quor. But with the penalties that came, Ifor one had to put it down, though therespect for it —gage— will stay with meforever.

I have every reason to say these wordsand am proud to say them. From experi-ence. Now I’ll relate a few incidents fromthe West Coast in California when VicBerton, the top drummer then in all Hol-lywood, and I got busted together. It wasduring our intermission at this big nightclub which were packed and jammedevery night with all sorts of my fans, in-cluding movie stars.

Anyway, Vic and I were blasting thisjoint having lots of laughs and feelinggood enjoying each other’s company. Wewere standing in his great big lot in frontof some cars. Just then two big healthydicks [detectives] came from behind acar nonchalantly and said to us, “We’lltake the roach boys.”

Vic and I said nothing. So one dickstayed with me until I went into the cluband did my last show. He enjoyed it, too.Because when he and I were on our waydown to the police station we had a heart-to-heart talk. First words that he said tome were, “Armstrong I am a big fan ofyours and so is my family. We catch yourprogram every night over the radio. Infact, nobody goes to bed in our familyuntil your program’s over. And they’reall great.” Which I was glad to hear, es-pecially coming from him.

Then I confidentially told him, “Sinceyou and your family are my fans they’dbe awfully sad if anything drastic wouldhappen to me, the same as the other thou-sands of my fans. So please don’t hit mein my chops.”

When he said to me, “Why, Iwouldn’t think of anything like that.”That’s all I wanted to hear. ImmediatelyI said, “OK let’s ride.”

I also told him, “ After all, I’m nocriminal. I respect everybody and theyrespect me. And I never let ‘em downmusically.”

“Hell,” he said, “you ain’t doing anymore ‘n’ anybody’s doing. It’s when theyget caught is when they’re found out.”Then this dick confidentially told me, hesaid, “Armstrong, this wouldn’t have

happened if that band leader —he prob-ably smoked marijuana himself— who’splaying just up the road from you, andthe big name that he’s supposed to have,didn’t get jealous because you are doingbigger business than him. So he droppeda nickel on you.”

Meaning, “ ‘he dropped a nickel intothe telephone and called us andstoolpigeoned on you.’”

“They sent me and my partner tocome up for the assignment, and whenwe found out that you was the one wemust nab, it broke our hearts.” They toldme, “you must understand we can getyou six months for a roach.” Meaningthe stub of a joint of gage...

When we reached the police head-quarters there were several officers, in-cluding the man at the desk, sittingaround. And the minute we camethrough the door they all recognized meright away. They too had been diggin’my music nightly over the radio. Oh,boy, were those guys glad to see me.They gave me one look and said, “What’ta’ hell are you doing here this time ofnight away from the club?”

So we yakity yakity while I was be-ing booked. That’s one reason why weappreciated pot, as y’all calls it now. Thewarmth it always brought forth from theother person — especially the ones thatlit up a good stick of that ‘shuzzit’ orgage, nice names.

Now when it came to summing it up,the difference between the vipers andthose using dope and all other kinds ofdrastic stuff, one could easily see whowere actually dope addicts. First placethey were never clean, and they staysdirty-grimey all the time. Show mostaddicts a bucket of water and they’ll runlike hell to keep it from touching them.But a viper would gladly welcome agood bath, clean underwear and topclothes —stay fresh and on the ball.

I spent nine days in the DowntownLos Angeles City Jail, in a cell with twoguys who were already sentenced to 40or 45 years for something else. Robbery,pickpocket, or whatever they were in for,didn’t make any difference to me, andthey cared less as to what I was in for...

So I got to trial. Everybody were there—which takes in my boss, manager anda whole gang of lawyers— and I said to

“Tight Gage —More a Medicine Than a Dope”especially for you. Hmmm...

I went into the men’s room and therewas this fine ofay musician, a good one,whose father was big judge down south,so you can easily see he was well off.He led me to the corner and showed methis sack. It was full of gage in therough—dirty looking and had to becleaned. He said “Louis, this muta —oneof the names lots of the Ears used—came from out of the backyard where thechickens trampled all over it, so it shouldbe well seasoned.”

He and I went to the hotel over onCentral Avenue, rolled up our sleeves,cleaned it real beautifully and rolled upone a piece. We dragged on down half-way to a “roach” and he was right. Whenwe got on down there we could taste thecackling, the crowing and the otherthings those chickens did. Beautiful!

We finished at the club with a bigclosing night, and a big farewell celebra-tion from everybody. With a promise toreturn, which I did a year later, I left thecoast, arriving home in Chicago on aSunday morning. Had a sleep up into theafternoon, then had my supper while lis-tening to some of my records. Lil wasout visiting some place. The door bellrang. I went to the door and found oneguy standing there, pointing towards fourother youngsters getting out of the car. Isaid “Boys, I’m very glad to see you. It’sbeen a long long time.”

The minute they came in they toldme, “Pops, we came to serenade you.”Those boys pulled out their guitars, ukeset cetera and wailed awhile with a per-fect beat which lifted me up just beauti-fully. Then they put up their instruments,one cat pulled out a big bomber, lit it,took two drags and looked straight intomy eyes as he passed it to me, saying,“Pops, we all feel you could use this stickafter all you’ve been through.”

I said, “Aw boys, y’all didn’t have todo this,” reaching for that joint at thesame time.

Each of them pulled out a stick a pieceand started blowing and talking about alot of interesting things. That momenthelped me to forget a heap of ungodlythings. Made me have the right frame ofmind for my opening day at the theateron the South Side, which was reallysomething else. After all, the vipers and

myself that I was straight.Meantime the Chicago papers were

all on the stands, with big headlines say-ing “Louis Armstrong will have to servesix months for marijuana,” and thingslike that. The judge gave me a suspendedsentence and I went to work that night — wailed just like nothing happened.

What struck me funny, though, Ilaughed real loud when several moviestars came up to the bandstand while weplayed a dance set. and told me, whenthey heard about me getting caught withmarijuana they thought marijuana was achick. Woo, boy, that really fractured me!

Every night I would run across thosesame detectives who arrested me, gladas ever to see me, and me back on themound blowing again.

Now I’m back in the club, andeverything’s running along verysmoothly when one night the washroomboy comes up to the bandstand and saysthere is a white boy in the washroom whowants to see me in there. I asked who itwas, and he said, I don’t know but hejust came up from the south and he has alarge croaker sack —meaning Burlapbag— full of something that he said is

CHARLES PETERSON, ZUTTY SINGLETON, AND ARMSTRONG relaxingafter a concert. Stokes’ text: “At the table in drummer Zutty Singleton’s Harlemapartment in February 1942, Charles Peterson, Louis, and his friend sincetheir youthful New Orleans days have clearly enjoyed the host’s chicken gumbo—as well as what Pops is pinching between thumb and index finger... As isalways the case when he appears in the photo, photographer Peterson composedthe frame and then had someone hold the camera and click the shutter, in thiscase Commodore record label producer Milt Gabler.”

LOUIS ARMSTRONG MUGGING WITH ATOMIZER in a photo from“Swing Era New York: The Jazz Photographs of Charles Peterson,” by W. RoyalStokes. Temple University Press, 1994. Stokes’ accompanying text:“Flit-gun atthe ready in Feburary 1942, Louis fumigates the room of the telltale fragrance.The pinched thumb and forefinger of the woman indicate that she holds theoffending marijuana ‘roach.’ To the left of Armstrong is pianist Nick Aldridge,who appeared in the 1943 film ‘Stormy Weather’ with a group billed as theTramp Band.”

continued on next page

O’Shaughnessy’s • Summer 2010 —53—

Louis Armstrong continued from previous page

Teachout’s PerspectiveSome light is shed on Armstrong’s

marijuana use and the 1930 bust in theseexcerpts from his most recent biography,“Pops,” by Terry Teachout.

All that is known for sure is that hestarted smoking it on a regular basis in1928 and continued to do so for the restof his life. He would later explain to anacquaintance that it “makes you feelgood, man. It relaxes you, makes you for-get all the bad things that happen to aNegro. It makes you feel wanted, andwhen you’re with another tea smoker itmakes you feel a special kinship.” It wasalso, unlike alcohol, legal, though 29states had outlawed its use and sale by1931.

fans in Chicago thought I was actuallyserving time from the incident on thecoast with my boy, Vic Berton, whom Istill think is the greatest drummer of alltimes.

The vipers and fans in Chi-cago thought I was actuallyserving time from the incidenton the coast.

So the theater was packed to therafters. They came to hear what their boyLouis had to say, and when I was intro-duced you can imagine the house com-ing down with thunderous applausewhich lasted for a whole gang of min-utes. Made my heart flutter with happi-ness.

Soooo, when they quieted down, Isaid “Yeah, you thought I was. But Iwasn’t.” And that did it. Such yells!“Dipper! Satchelmouth! We’re glad tosee you back!” We went into our showand every tune was a gasser. We did threeshows a day, each one packed andjammed...

As we always used to say, gage ismore of a medicine than a dope. But withall the riggermaroo going on, no one cando anything about it. After all, the vi-pers during my haydays are way up therein age, too old to suffer those drastic pen-alties. So we had to put it down. But ifwe all get as old as Methuselah ourmemories will always be of lots ofbeauty and warmth from gage.

It became customary for Armstrongand his sidemen (except Earl Hines, whodisliked marijuana) to get high beforemaking a record, which probably ex-plains how ‘Muggles’ got its name...

He left behind two posthumouslypublished accounts of his experienceswith the intoxicant herb in which he ad-mitted to having enjoyed it enormously.The least hypocritical of men, he saw noreason to conceal the fact, known to allhis friends, that he smoked pot nearlyevery day: “I felt at no time when ever Iran across some of that good shit, that Iwas breaking the law, or some foolishthought similar to it...”

In the first of these accounts,Armstrong discusses “gage” (his pre-ferred nickname for marijuana) in con-nection with his mother’s advise to takea laxative daily. She had given him apotion concocted out of “Pepper Grass,Dandelions, and lots of weeds similar togage” that she picked by the railroadtracks, brought home, and boiled up intoa ‘physic.’” Later he saw young whitemusicians looking “fresh —neat andvery much contented” after their gigs,and learned that they were smokingmarijuana instead of drinking alcohol.He did so and became an ardent advo-cate.

At one point he started writing a bookin which he called for the legalization ofmarijuana, declaring it to be “an Assis-tant —a friend, a nice cheap drunk” andclaiming that it was both “a thousandtimes better than whiskey”... and saferthan “Heroin, Cocaine, etc. or some otherunGodly shit...”

Armstrong’s preference for marijuanaover alcohol was known to jazz musi-cians everywhere, as well as to fans whoshared his tastes. One “club” of St. Louissmokers presented him with a joint thesize of a baseball bat, along with a carddubbing him “King of the Vipers.” Manyyounger players later said that it wasArmstrong who first got them high.

“The first person I ever saw smokemarijuana,” Charlie Barnet wrote in hismemoirs, “was Louis Armstrong.... Dur-ing an intermission we all went over tohear Louis. He was down in the base-ment rolling the stuff and I know I hadsome that night.”

Marijuana was still legal in moststates when Armstrong started using it.Mezzrow remembered how the two ofthem would “roll our cigarettes right outin the open and light up like you wouldon a Camel or a Chesterfield...”

After his bust on Nov. 14, 1930Armstrong was accused of violating theCalifornia Poison Act, which bannedmarijuana possession. On Dec. 8 he wasarraigned and pleaded not guilty. Hechanged his plea to guilty on March 10,1931, and was sentenced to 30 days injail. Teachout comments:

California v. Louis ArmstrongArmstrong recalled that he spent a to-

tal of nine days in jail before being re-leased, though his account, taped nearlyfour decades later, incorrectly suggeststhat he served this time immediately af-ter his arrest.

Why was he let off so easy? Accord-ing to Charlie Barnet, the police “had nosubstantial legal precedent because mari-juana wasn’t classified as a narcotic then,and they were afraid of being sued if theyinterfered with performances at theclub.” That may have been part of it,but Ralph Berton, Vic’s younger brother,later claimed that the drummer’s boss,who led the band at the AmbassadorHotel’s popular Cocoanut Grove nightclub, put the fix in...

The King of Vipers went back to workat the Cotton Club with the utmostpromptitude. He continued to play thereuntil the following March, when he wenton trial before Judge William TellAggeler, who preached him a starchylittle sermon...

Armstrong then served nine days ofhis 30-day jail term, after which thejudge obligingly suspended the remain-der of the sentence.

ARMSTRONG IN SEATTLE HOTEL ROOM, photographed by Milt Hinton(c) The Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection, www.MiltHinton.com.Hintonwas playing bass with Armstrong at the time (1953). After a gig, writes TerryTeachout, Armstrong “unwound by smoking a joint, catching up with his cor-respondence, and listening to music on the two reel-to-reel tape recorders thathe carried with him wherever he went. Armstrong was one of the first Americansto purchase commercially manufactured tape recorders (Bing Crosby wasanother) when they became available after World War Two... He transferredhis record collection to tape so he could listen to music on the road.”

The Triumph of “Scientific Medicine”Rockefeller Medicine Men by E. Ri-chard Brown; University of Califor-nia Press, Berkeley, 1979, 283pages

Marijuana prohibition was imposedin the first third of the 20th century, asmillions of Americans were shiftingfrom work on family farms to indus-trial jobs. Also in this period, practitio-ners of “scientific medicine” weremarginalizing all other alternative ap-proaches to health care, includingherbal medicine.

E. Richard Brown explains who wasbehind the rise of scientific medicineand why.

A Baptist minister named FrederickGates advised John D. Rockefeller, Jr.to underwrite medical research and edu-cation. “Gates appreciated the humanbody as one of nature’s puzzles, to beinvestigated by science... Science washelping industry reshapethe organization of pro-duction by developingmachinery to control andcheapen human laborand more cheaply extractfrom nature a salableproduct. Science wouldalso extract from naturethe secrets of life itselfwhile medicine wouldapply them to understanddisease and developmethods of preventing orcuring these pestilences

of life and commerce. Improving thehealth of the population was thus an en-gineering job that involved understand-ing and manipulating nature...

“Gates embraced scientific medicineas a force that would: 1) help unify andintegrate the emerging industrial societywith technical values and culture, and 2)legitimize capitalism by diverting atten-tion from structural and other environ-mental causes of disease.”

Thanks to Gates, “The RockefellerFoundation discovered what the mission-aries also knew: medicine can be used toconvert and colonize the heathen... be-cause medical care is so seductive to eventhe most reluctant people.

“In China, Gates switched from sup-porting the religious missionaries tobuilding a Western medical system... Inthe Philippines, the foundation’s Interna-tional Health Commission outfitted ahospital ship to bring medical care and

‘the benefits of civiliza-tion’ to the rebelliousMoro tribes. The foun-dation officers wereecstatic that such medi-cal work made it ‘pos-sible for the doctor andnurse to go in safety tomany places which ithas been extremelydangerous for the sol-dier to approach.’”

In the U.S., “theirdomestic medical pro-grams had exactly the

same ends, though Gates and otherswere far more circumspect in discuss-ing them.” In other words, the corpo-rate leaders were intent on bringingthe “benefits of civilization” to us, too.

The goal of the Rockefeller Foun-dation in the U.S. was to transform themedical profession into a modernpriesthood that would inculcate re-spect for technology and industrialculture. “Research institutes were thetemples of the new religion,” Brownobserves.

The American Medical Associationbecame the mechanism for driving outcompetition from herbalists, homeo-paths, and all other practitioners whohad not been trained at elite medicalschools (whose labs and hospitals re-quired underwriting by the wealthy,and whose tuition fees effectively ex-cluded working-class students).

Scientific medicine “focused atten-tion on the individual.” It derived cred-ibility from the work of European bac-teriologists who had “identified dis-crete, external, and specific agents ofdisease. This perspective encouragedthe idea of specific therapies to curespecific pathological conditions, andit diverted attention from the social andeconomic causes of disease.”

The cult of technology supported adefinition of medicine that excluded“crude” herbs. It was conceded that aplant might contain a specific activeingredient that could be isolated, syn-thesized, and marketed as medicine.