Continuing on with our tribute to jazz, CashColorCannabis.com decided to take at one of the genres biggest names and how he’s connected to one of best urban legends ever!
It’s widely know that jazz legend Louis Armstrong was found of cannabis. Armstrong, like many others in his day, called weed “vipers” or “reefer, ” and frequently smoked them whenever he could.
Even in the 50’s, Armstrong had a different view on the plant.
He spoke about his reverence for cannabis to Max Simon for his autobiography. When asked about weed, he said:
So it’s ironic that someone so pro-cannabis would ever be connected to someone anti-cannabis.
But let history tell it, that’s what happened.
In the 1950s, the US State Department was sending African-American writers, artists, musicians, and sports figures as Goodwill Ambassadors around the world to promote American democracy during the Cold War with the Soviet Union.
(Also ironic, a country that was fiercely segregated would send their best African-Americans overseas to promote democracy. In this story, the jokes write themself.)
Being a big star at the time, Armstrong obviously was tapped to be an ambassador.
Louis would be sent on a concert tour around Europe and Asia. On his way back to the states is where this story turns legend.
Because he was an ambassador and had ambassadorial status when he returned from the first two tours he was just waved through customs.
But when he landed at Idlewild Airport in New York in 1958 this trip got rerouted.
Armstrong was directed toward the customs lines where he would join other travelers that were about to be inspected.
It was said that Louis began to sweat because at the monemt, he allegedly was carrying three pounds of marijuana in his suitcase.
As the story goes, while Armstrong was waiting in line to be inspected, then-Vice President Richard Nixon showed up in the room, followed by reporters and photographers.
Nixon is said to have seen Louis and greeted him asking why he was in the customs line. Reminding him of his ambassador status, he told Louis to come with him. He even offered to carry his bags.
Louis gladly accepted the offer and walked past inspectors, weed, and freedom intact.
So, for a brief moment in time, the man who kicked off the war on drugs and helped stigmatized weed smuggled weed through customs.
Did it really happen that way? Who honestly knows at this point. Every year around Louis’s birthday, the story of the time he turned Richard Nixon into a drug mule gets told.
Source: Vintage News