May 21st, Tuesday | Fats Waller meets the Mob

The date is May 21st, Tuesday, and today I’m coming to you from Buenos Aires, Argentina. 

Today is the birthday of Alexander Pope, English Poet, born in 1688. He gives us such lines as “To err is human; to forgive, divine.” and “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”

His greatest works were satirical in nature, commenting on English politics, life, or contemporary public figures. Pope gave us English translations of The Iliad and The Odyssey, and is heavily quoted in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, second only to Shakespeare. 

And today is the birthday of Fats Waller, jazz musician and composer during the Harlem Renaissance. [By 15, Fats had dropped out of school to work as an organist in Harlem for $32 a week. He was considered a prodigy by the staff of the Lincoln Theater where he worked.] He composed hits of his own and also sold songs to other artists to use as their own compositions. 

He was famous enough that in his 20s, he was abducted by gangsters after a performance of his in Chicago. He was forced into a car, driven across town, and escorted through the back entrance of the Hawthorne Inn. Fats must have been sweating in fear as he was told to open a final door. When the door opened, Fats found himself in a room with a birthday party in full swing, the honoree mobster Al Capone. Waller suddenly realized he was not going to be murdered, rather, he had been kidnapped to be the ‘surprise guest’ for Capone’s party. 

According to one biographer, Fats emerged from the Hawthorne Inn a few days later, exhausted, intoxicated, and his pockets as fat as his person from Capone and other extremely generous tippers at the party.

Fats was featured in the 1943 hit film Stormy Weather singing his song “Ain’t Misbehavin’” which is in the Grammy Hall of Fame along with another of his best known songs “Honeysuckle Rose”.

And today is the birthday of Henri Rousseau, French painter during the late 19th century. He never went to school for art, and worked most of his life as a toll and tax collector. A self-taught painter, he didn’t begin showing his painting in galleries and salons until he was in his 40s. His work was not popular among the masses but gained a small following of avant-garde critics and other artists, including Pablo Picasso, who practically stumbled upon it. 

The story goes that Picasso spotted a painted canvas for sale as a canvas to paint over. Picasso was so taken with the painting, he demanded the salesperson give him the name of the artist. Picasso promptly found Rousseau and soon thereafter held a dinner party in Rousseau’s honor, calling it Le Banquet Rousseau. Contemporary artists, previously unknown to Rousseau attended the dinner as well writers and critics. Gertrude Stein was also in attendance. 

Rousseau’s depictions are rich in color and flat in space, giving them an almost child-like quality. His more famous include Tiger in a Tropical Storm, The Dream, and The Snake Charmer. His gravestone epitaph reads: “We salute you Gentle Rousseau… Let our luggage pass duty free through the gates of heaven. / We will bring you brushes paints and canvas / that you may spend your sacred leisure in the light and Truth of Painting.”

Today’s poem is “Ode to Solitude” by birthday poet Alexander Pope.

Ode to Solitude

Alexander Pope

Happy the man, whose wish and care

   A few paternal acres bound,

Content to breathe his native air,

                            In his own ground.

Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread,

   Whose flocks supply him with attire,

Whose trees in summer yield him shade,

                            In winter fire.

Blest, who can unconcernedly find

   Hours, days, and years slide soft away,

In health of body, peace of mind,

                            Quiet by day,

Sound sleep by night; study and ease,

   Together mixed; sweet recreation;

And innocence, which most does please,

                            With meditation.

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;

   Thus unlamented let me die;

Steal from the world, and not a stone

                            Tell where I lie.

Thank you for listening. I’m your host, Virginia Combs, wishing you a good morning, a better day, and a lovely evening.