On this episode of The Art of the Story, A 2003 WBGO Archive conversation between WBGO's Rhonda Hamilton and the late Phoebe Jacobs on the legacy of Louis Armstrong.
On November 14, 2003, the Executive Vice President of the Louis Armstrong Foundation came to WBGO to share her stories, and Rhonda Hamilton greeted her with a fine introduction . . . .
RH:
"It is 12 minutes after 12 o’clock on member-supported WBGO;
I’m Rhonda Hamilton, and it is our great pleasure to have in the studio with us a lady who has had many years’ experience in the music business, working with some of the biggest names in jazz, and I’m talkin about the giants like L Armstrong, D Ell, E Fitzgerald, S Vaughan, Benny Goodman Eubie Blake and so many others… It’s a pleasure to have you with us, Phoebe Jacobs.
PJ:
Thank you so much, Rhonda. Thank you for inviting me here. I’m just so proud to be part of WBGO, I love it, I’m a member, I listen, you’re my therapy.
Phoebe Jacobs was born in New York and lived here all her life, from 1919 to 2012
RH:
Born in the Bronx?
PJ:
Lived here all my life.
RH:
And everyone in your family loved music and the ppl who created the music, right?
PJ:
In fact it was my uncle Ralph Watkins who named his night club for Louis Armstrong (L.A.) that introduced me to DE and LA when I was in my teens. He named his club Basin Street in honor of Louis. Originally on Broadway and then it moved to the East Side.
So it did have lots of popularity and of course I grew up w ppl like Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald. and in later years when I went to work for my uncle, I got an opportunity to be part of their life.
RH:
We must mention that you were involved in the opening now of Louis Armstrong’s home in Queens, which is now open to the public. That was a project that was many yrs in the making.
PJ:
Louis died and left all he owned to Lucille and the LAEF. Lucille lived until 1983. And she gave me the glorious honor of being in charge of Louis’s legacy and heritage which Louis had given me in 1968 when he started his foundation
I was really enchanted with this wonderful responsibility. And she said I want my house to go to the City of NY, because I want people to know how Pops lived. So that’s what we were planning to do, get it ready for the City of NY.
RH:
It was an extraordinary house because she was really quite a decorator, such attention to detail!
PJ:
She only paid $3200 for the house when she bought it but there was about a million dollars worth of decorations inside.
RH:
I heard that she was interested in moving, but Pops really wanted to stay in the neighborhood.
PH:
You’re exactly right. She found a house next to Jackie Robinson in Connecticut cause he loved Jackie Robinson.
When she came home, she said, Pops, I got a place for us in Connecticut. And he said, Lucille, You give me your address, I’ll send you your money and you come visit me here. I’m not leaving my people.
RH:
He liked being with the people, and was very much a part of it when he was home.
PJ:
Oh yes he was
And That’s the Art of the Story from the WBGO archive, thanks to the American Archive of Public Broadcasting and WBGO Archive Director Becca Pulliam.
