Fact Check: Yes, Photos Do Show Louis Armstrong Drawing on a Fan's Head in France
Claim:
Two photos circulating on social media for years authentically showed jazz legend Louis Armstrong drawing a trumpet on a fan’s head in France.
Rating:
For years, two photos purportedly showing jazz legend Louis Armstrong drawing a trumpet on a fan's head have circulated on social media. Examples have appeared on platforms such as X (archived), Tumblr (archived), and Reddit (archived).
Louis Armstrong drawing a trumpet and autographing the side of a young man's head in Nice, France... pic.twitter.com/OF6ISsP4yP
— Intriguing and unexpected content! (@WriteEditPJ) July 30, 2024
Some social media users were struck by the fan's mohawk haircut, which closely resembled styles worn by punks, starting in the 1970s and 1980s. For example, a commenter on an April 2021 Facebook post (archived) featuring one of the images wrote:
That guy has to be a time traveler! Way ahead of his time!
Similarly, an August 2020 Reddit post (archived) featuring one of the images read, in part:
It's crazy how the fan, because of his haircut, looks more like a punk enthusiast time traveling from the future. Anyone knows more details about this encounter ?
Despite the seemingly anachronistic appearance of the fan, the images were authentic.
At least one of the photos — the picture where the fan's head was facing slightly more in the direction of the camera — was taken by a photographer for the newswire agency United Press International (UPI), as noted in the information provided for one copy of the image (archived), which is now in the collection of the Library of Congress (LOC).
According to the information provided by the LOC, the photo was snapped in Nice, France, in 1961.
A differently cropped version of the image was also available on Getty Images. Getty credited the photo to the Bettmann Archive, which took over management of UPI's library in 1984. The caption provided by Getty read:
Nice, France: Goes To His Head. A handy man with a grease pencil, jazz trumpeter, Louis Armstrong supplies an unusual autograph for an admiring fan here, Jan. 31st. The fan, already sporting an Indian haircut, asked Louis for an autograph and the latter obliged by sketching a trumpet on the side of the fan's head. Armstrong is in the process of adding his name to the fan's forehead.
Yet another cropped version of the same photo also appeared in an image of a German newspaper clipping shared by the official account of the Louis Armstrong House Museum in 2020.
Yep! From our Archives, here's an original clipping from a German newspaper covering that landmark moment! https://t.co/gtwEKu0u7u pic.twitter.com/aEeBMQA9qP
— Louis Armstrong (@ArmstrongHouse) August 29, 2020
Translated into English using Google Translate, the caption of that clipping read:
Trumpet King: Louis Armstrong once again gave an example of his inexhaustible ingenuity in Paris. He painted an autograph in the shape of a trumpet on the forehead of a passionate admirer of his jazz skills. Berlin will soon be celebrating a reunion with the veteran of hot tones. On February 13th he will be performing at the Deutschlandhalle with his "All Stars". Two days before that, his colleague Ella Fitzgerald will also try to fill the mammoth building with the Oscar Peterson Trio.
An article from the era, published in the German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel, confirmed that Armstrong did go on to perform at Berlin's Deutschlandhalle arena on Feb. 13, 1961, supporting the dates the LOC and Getty Images assigned to the photo.
Because the German newspaper caption said the photo was taken in Paris, not Nice, Snopes reached out to the Armstrong House for further information about precisely where the photo was captured. We will update this story if or when we hear back.
Regardless, both sources suggested the photo was taken in France in January 1961.
Snopes has so far been unable to confirm whether or not the other frequently shared photo of the same moment, in which the fan appeared to look more directly at Armstrong, was taken by the same photographer.
As some commenters suggested, the fan's haircut may have been inspired by the mohawk sported by jazz musician Sonny Rollins as early as the late 1950s. In a 2009 interview with A Blog Supreme, which is operated by NPR, Rollins explained:
Well, the mohawk was my attempt to pay homage to the Native Americans. There was a Native American guy that I know that used to come to see me when I was at the old Five Spot. ... This was back in the '50s. That sort of brought that to my attention.
That said, the theory that the fan based his haircut on Rollins' was no more than that: a theory. No personal details about the fan, including his name, appeared to have been recorded or preserved.
Despite the lack of available information about the mohawked fan and some confusion over which city the photos were captured, there was sufficient evidence to support the claim the photos authentically depicted Armstrong doodling a trumpet on a fan's head in France in January 1961. Therefore, we rated this claim as "True."
Previously, Snopes looked into another widely shared photo of Armstrong, showing the jazz great playing his trumpet for his wife in front of the Great Sphinx and the pyramids of Giza.
Sources:
"A Spiky History of the Mohawk." MEL Magazine, 18 May 2019, https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/a-spiky-history-of-the-mohawk.
"BERLINER Chronik: 13. Februar 1961." Der Tagesspiegel Online. Tagesspiegel, https://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/13-februar-1961-1885966.html. Accessed 12 Sept. 2024.
"Goes To His Head. A Handy Man with a Grease Pencil, Jazz Trumpeter,..." Getty Images, 12 Mar. 2016, https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/goes-to-his-head-a-handy-man-with-a-grease-pencil-jazz-news-photo/515513142.
Levy, Aidan. Saxophone Colossus: The Life and Music of Sonny Rollins. Hachette Books, 2022.
"[Louis Armstrong Drawing a Trumpet and Autographing the Side of a Young Man's Head in Nice, France]." Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, https://www.loc.gov/item/97518332/. Accessed 12 Sept. 2024.
Sonny Rollins at Sixty-Eight - 99.07 (Part Two). https://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/99jul/9907sonnyrollins2.htm. Accessed 12 Sept. 2024.
"UPI, Bettmann Archive Sign Reciprocal Library Agreement - UPI Archives." UPI, https://www.upi.com/Archives/1984/02/02/UPI-Bettmann-archive-sign-reciprocal-library-agreement/7882444546000/. Accessed 12 Sept. 2024.
