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In the spring of 1952 the cast of the Grand Old Opry made two trips to New York to appear on the Kate Smith Hour on NBC TV. This clip, from the first appearance, begins with a short comedy sketch with Oprey MC, Roy Acuff and June Carter, which introduces Hank Williams. This was a few months before June married country singer Carl Smith and about four years before she met Johnny Cash. It is interesting to see the contrast between the real June Carter in performance here, and the far more sophisticated June Carter depicted by Reese Witherspoon in the movie “Walk The Line.”

Hank Williams was at the top of his game, here, but would be fired by the Grand Old Opry in October because of his drug and alcohol use. On January 1st 1953 Hank Williams died, possibly from an overdose of morphine, while riding in a chauffeur driven car from Knoxville Tennessee to Canton Ohio for his next gig.

I have found a number of clips of Lois Armstrong that I would like to share, not surprisingly. This one is of an appearance on the Johnny Cash TV show in October of 1970, just eight months before Armstrong’s death of a heart attack in July of 1971. In this clip Satch and Johnny perform a song that Louis originally recorded, as a featured instrumentalist, with Jimmy Rodgers in 1930.

During his lifetime Louis Armstrong was sometime looked at as undignified, catering to the racism in American society. Later I will show you a clip of him in “African” costume. I think that those criticisms are off base. Here he is on an all white country music program, 21 months after Martin Luther King’s assassination, in the second year of Nixon’s first term as President. Louis makes a joke in the gentlest most upbeat way, about the Racial tensions griping the country. Armstrong acts as though he expects to be judged by the content of his character and not the color of his skin, and he is, here, accepted on those terms.

This is a segment from a 1947 film “New Orleans.” Louis Armstrong plays himself, as does Kid Ory, in this fictionalized story of the birth of Jazz. Billie Holiday is a maid in a Storyville “club.” Her duties seem to include singing with the band, which is a good thing. There are several great musical moments in this film. It’s available on DVD, so put it in your NetFlix cue.