Armstrong Louis

Louis Armstrong ALS: "I am always relaxed when I have a lot of Lip Salve"

Autographed letter signed and penned on back of four sheets of Louis Armstrong's advertisement flyers of "Lose Weight, The Satchmo Way!" 8.5" x 11." Dated "Jan 20th, 1970." Holograph "X" marked through the text of each page of his advertisement. Pages numbered 1 through 4. Signed on the last page by Armstrong as "Satchmo / Louis Armstrong." Near fine with expected folds. Accompanied by the signed and autographed mailing envelope. Signed on the verso within Armstrong's return address of "Louis Satchmo Armstrong ... " Tape ghosts to verso, neatly sliced open along top.

A wonderful and lengthy letter written by Armstrong on the back of personal diet plan advertisement. Armstrong writes to his "dear friend" Mr. Kauffman noting he was enclosing a "Tape" for him from "the Television Show that I had when I was the Guest on the Dick Cavett Show, a Real live show ... " with Armstrong later also reflecting his TV show appearance "on the Mike Douglas show." On the Cavett show on January 13, 1970, Armstrong performed "Someday you'll be Sorry" and shortly before this on the Mike Douglas show in 1969 Armstrong famously performed "Mac the Knife" with Pearl Baily by his side. However the majority of this letter shows Armstrong love of simple things, which are of utmost importance to him, and Mr. Kauffman is his lip salve purveyor, noting "I am always relaxed when I have a lot of Lip Salve and for God sake you must make it forever ... "

Thanks to a relentless touring schedule and his penchant for hitting high C's on the trumpet, Armstrong spent much of his career battling severe lip damage. He played with such force that he often split his lip wide open, and he suffered from painful scar tissue that a fellow musician once said made his lips look "as hard as a piece of wood." Armstrong treated his lip callouses with a special salve or even removed them himself using a razor blade, but as the years passed, he began struggling to hit his signature high notes. The trumpeter was so famously hard on his "chops," as he called them, that a certain type of lip condition is now commonly known as "Satchmo's Syndrome." Armstrong had made the acquaintance of Franz Schuritz, a trombonist who also happened to be the inventor of Ansatz-Crème, an invigorating lip balm. Armstrong became an immediate and lifelong convert, and later fully endorsed the product ("Ansatz-Crème") continuing to use his lip salve throughout the remainder of his performing life. By the mid-1950s, Ansatz-Crème was rebranded with Armstrong's name getting top billing.
In this ALS, Louis refers to Schuritz in the letter, "Lucille and I were in Philadelphia we got in touch with Mr. Gruner. I met him...when he was the agent for Mr. Franz Schuritz Lip Salve Ansatz Creme. He is still around & seems to be in good shape..."
A wonderful association letter with iconic Armstrong content!
This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.
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