"Basin Street Blues" Bunk Johnson with Louis Armstrong's Jazz Foundation Sixfrom Esquire concert1945

The man in the picture holding the picture of Louis Armstrong at the beginning of the video I knew only by his nickname, "Backdoor" An earlier recording I uploaded was by a singer named Baby Mack who recorded with Louis Armstrong in 1926 for Okeh records. I knew Baby Mack and visited her many times. I even tape recorded an interview with her about that recording she made with Louis Armstrong in 1926. She autographed a picture of herself to me and my wife I included in the video portion of the recording and a picture of my wife and Baby Mack with my wife holding one of her scrapbooks. She told me if I wanted to know a lot about Louis Armstrong, King Oliver and just about any other jazz musician who played in Chicago and Los Angeles in the 1920's and early 1930's I should talk to "Backdoor" She said she would call him for me and ask him if I could talk with him. I asked why the name Backdoor? She said because he was a bouncer at the Sunset Cafe and would throw unruly drunk customers out the back door. So she set up a meeting with Backdoor and me. When I entered his house I almost fainted. On the walls were pictures I had never seen before of musicians autographed to him. He had one fantastic portrait of Louis Armstrong with a personal message that read "My, My those good old days" then I couldn't make out the rest of the writing except for Louis' autograph. He had autographed pictures to him by King Oliver, Johnny Dodds, Freddie Keppard!!!, Jimmie Noone, Jelly Roll Morton virtually everybody. I asked him what his real name was and he said he would not tell me because he got in trouble in Chicago and had to get out of town and get as far away as possible. So he moved to Los Angeles in the early 1930's. And had to hide here because there was probably a warrant out on him for murder in Chicago. He said one drunk customer he threw out of the Sunset Cafe landed on his head the wrong way. I said by that personal autograph to you by Louis Armstrong you must have known him very well. He said he was Louis' unofficial bodyguard. He said when Louis left after work at the Sunset Cafe he would get mobbed and attacked by a lot of women and it was his job to protect him. He said after he moved to Los Angeles he reconnected with Louis when Louis played at Sebastian's Cotton Club in Culver City and he autographed a picture to him writing on it My My the good old days meaning their time in Chicago. I told him I had seen a lot of pictures of Louis Armstrong and never seen that one before. A portrait of Louis sitting down. Backdoor said he had a lot of pictures he bet I had never seen before. Then I talked with him about jazz in Chicago and some of the stories he told me contradicted what I had read like the Dodds brothers got mad at King Oliver because he was keeping part of their pay for himself and King Oliver had a gun in his instrument case for protection. But that is not what Backdoor told me about why the Dodds brothers were mad at King Oliver. I told Backdoor that if I tell anyone some of the things he told me no one will believe me so could I please tape record an interview with him. He said no man, I don't want any recording of me. People might find me and I am a wanted man. I asked him would loan me that autographed Louis Armstrong picture so I could make a negative of it and he said no, you won't return it. He said he was no fool and knew an unpublished autographed picture of Louis would be worth a lot of money. Finally after seeing him several times and he started to trust me I wouldn't tell anyone about him he let me take his picture holding a picture of Louis Armstrong. But it was just a picture of Louis that had been published many times in books and was not autographed. I asked him to hold that picture of Louis sitting down and he refused. I was not about to give up. Every time I went to see him I asked if he would loan me that fantastic portrait so I could make a negative of it. Finally after asking about a dozen times when I went to see him he loaned it to me and I made a negative. I got a hint once at his real name. I was visiting him and a mailman came up to his door to deliver something. The mailman said package for you Peppy. Probably another nickname he used. I glanced at the package and it was just addressed to "Resident" . This guy really guarded his identity. I thought if this guy knew every musician then some of the local jazz musicians had to know who he was. When I went to the next meeting of the Southern Hot Jazz Society I asked if some of the musicians knew a guy who was a bouncer at the Sunset Cafe named Backdoor.All of them said no, they never heard of this guy. When I went to visit Backdoor again he immediately said you have been asking about me haven't you. You are wasting your time. I told you I am a wanted man and don't want anyone to know who I am or where I am. Here is my question. Louis Armstrong mentioned everybody he knew in his books but no Backdoor.Does anyone know who Backdoor is?

Added 6 Jul 2026