By H. Kimball Jones

Another fond memory involving Louis Armstrong. It was 1957 and his group was performing at the Civic Auditorium in Pasadena. The house was packed and Thelma Middleton was singing with Louis. Both Thelma and Louis had obviously imbibed a bit during the intermission, and mid-way through the second half of the program they sang a duet of "Baby It's Cold Outside." About half way through the first chorus they pretty much threw away the real lyrics to the song and started doing their thing, which I could best describe as "seduction by song." It kept getting more and more sexy (in those days we said "racy" - and remember this was the 50's!), but always couched in just enough nuance to avoid being explicity sexual. Finally Louis just motioned for the band to stop and sang: "Put your shoes on Lucy, and let's get juicy now" -- which brought a "whoo whoo" from Thelma and brought the house down. That was a great moment. It was all recorded on an old 45 box set by Capital, but I don't think it ever made it onto an LP.