This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human. My name is Jessa. One of the things I love the most about working for United Healthcare is that everybody matters. Every moment matters.
There's a person behind every problem. I care because it's what I was put on this earth to do. I'm Ben, and I work at United Healthcare. I am just one piece of a larger puzzle, but every piece matters. It's more than just work.
We want to make the healthcare system better for everyone. I care because I want to make a difference. That's what committed to care means to me. Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans. It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past two hundred and fifty years, and now it takes form in a new way.
The 2026 semi-quintennial coin and medal program from the United States Mint. It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage. Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues. Shop new official. Coins at usmint.gov/semiq.
That's usmint.gov/semiq. Picture a for sale sign on your front yard. It's not the house being sold. It's you. Your name, phone number, address, how much you make.
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This is Hoda Kotb from Joy One Hundred One with Hoda Kotb. Every purchase is a financial decision, so it's worth asking, "What am I getting out of this?" If you're using the Chase Freedom Flex Card, you can maximize your cash back on things you need. More ways to earn, more ways to get rewarded. Sign Up for the Chase Freedom Flex card? Learn more at chase.
dot com slash get flex. This is a paid collaboration with Chase Freedom Flex cards issued by JPMorgan Chase Bank, NA, member FDIC. Subject to credit approval. Offer subject to change. Terms apply.
Indeed, sponsor jobs gets you quality candidates when you need them most. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Less stress, less time, more results. When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. And listeners of this show will get a seventy-five dollars sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves at Indeed.com/podcast.
Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. This is Lee Habib, and this is our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people coming to you from the city where the West begins, Fort Worth, Texas. And all month long, in the month of October, we celebrate Italian American Heritage Month.
This next story, well, it's about Louis Prima. One of the most distinctive performers of the 20th century, Prima's music was almost tailor-made for movies and TV. It's energetic, funny, swaggering, and instantly establishes an era or mood. Here to tell the story is our own Greg Hengler. Let's take a listen.
Louis Prima was one of the great entertainers of the 20th century. In a career that spanned five decades, he was immortalized as King Louis in Disney's The Jungle Book. Here's radio host and singer Ron Canitella. When you think of the Mount Rushmore of Italians, Sinatra, Mario Lanza, Tony Bennett, Caruso, and Louis Prima, and it all kind of forms a really big picture of the Italian experience in America. And Luigi Prima was one of the guys that really, really made us proud.
His music is basically the soundtrack to Italian family life. If you think about gathering. Of Italian families sitting around the table, you can hear songs like "Cielo Luna" and "Angelina" and things like that in the background, and it just wouldn't seem the same without that. Louis was born in New Orleans on December 7, 1910, and was brought up in a crowded area of the city's French Quarter, dubbed Little Palermo. The streets were muddy, and livestock ran loose.
Here's curator of the Hogan Jazz Institute, Bruce Rayburn. There were many Creole inhabitants. There were African American inhabitants. There was a very large Sicilian population. Obviously, Prima was a part of that.
There were Germans. There were French. There were even some Hispanics in the neighborhood. The one thing that unites all these people, and particularly neighborhoods like Tremé, where there's a lot of music in the streets, because of the brass bands, the so-called jazz funerals, the second line parades, and all the rest, the one thing that unites all these people is music. I like it here where I am, just letting everything be.
It's a city that's learned how to make great culture for itself, whether it's music or food. Red beans and rice, jambalaya, gumbo. Essentially, it's poverty food, but it tastes great.
Well, New Orleans music's the same way. It's Essentially, very simple in terms of the formula. It's never intended to be too complex. It's earthy. It's down to earth.
It's street level. More people of Italian and Sicilian descent lived within the city's borders than in any other city in the United States. Louis's parents were second-generation Italian Americans. His father, Anthony, was a quiet, unassuming man who worked two jobs as a laborer until his retirement in the early '50s. But it was Louis's mother, Angelina, who was the head of the Prima household and the musical side of the family.
Here's Louis Prima's widow, Gia, and daughter, Joyce Prima. Angelina was very outgoing. She was a real Sophie Tucker. Kind of red hot mama singer. She performed in all the minstrel shows, all of the church involved shows.
Goodness, she was a good singer, and she had that husky voice, just like he did. Louis was the youngest of three children, and Angelina saw to it that they all received musical lessons in order to perform at the festivals for Saint Anne's Catholic Church, their home church. Angelina even had her own formula for show business success. Always smile, she said. People want to see that you're having a good time.
Angelina had Louis, the center of her attention, learn violin. Here again is Bruce Rayburn. Violinists had originally been leaders of most dance bands in New Orleans at the turn of the 19th into the 20th century. Jazz changed all that. The rise of star cornet players like Buddy Bolden, for example, and Louis Armstrong certainly, Joe Oliver changed the dynamic within New Orleans dance bands, and the trumpet became king.
Louis, whose other great passion was sport, wanted to play something more manly.
So when Louis's brother Leon began performing a new kind of music, they were calling jazz. He left one of his old cornets home, and Louis picked it up and never put it down. I'm free. Here's Louis's business manager, Joe Segreto. Louis told me that as a child, he also went and stuck his head in on little black churches, which were very near where he was raised, and stick his head in and see all of that excitement that was part of the the worship.
Louis's greatest musical influence in the French Quarter was a stocky young black named Satchmo, with a thick chest and an enchanting sound on the horn. His real name was Louis Armstrong. And Prima was Louis Armstrong's biggest fan in Little Palermo. The great Satchmo had, by the early 1920s, left a permanent musical legacy in the Crescent City. Louis would study the fingering techniques of these horn masters and made up for what he lacked in know-how through sheer enthusiasm.
Already dreaming of a career in music, Prima left high school in the spring of 1928 and immediately applied for membership at the local musicians' union. The following year, he landed a job at Canal Street Singer Theater. Here again is Gia. During the shows at the Singer, when the orchestra would play, Mr. Cherniavsky would always feature Louis.
Then it got to the point where. I think a little jealousy developed because Louis was getting more attention than Cherniavsky himself.
So he fired Louis, and I know that Louis said to Cherniavsky, "Someday you're going to be sorry." Cause I'm gonna be a star. And even listening to Greg Hengler tell the story of Louis Prima, and my goodness, the primacy of New Orleans as a hotbed for Italian American life. Little Palermo is the neighborhood in which Sicilians lived and thrived, creating a musical culture blending with many cultures in New Orleans. And the two things that mattered most to the residents there: music and food. When we come back, more of the story of Louis Prima.
Here on our American stories. Sle Habib here, and I'd like to encourage you to subscribe to Our American Stories on Apple Podcasts, the iHeart Radio app, Spotify, or wherever you get our podcasts. Any story you missed or want to hear again can be found there daily. Again, please subscribe to the Our American Stories podcast on Apple Podcasts, the iHeart Radio app, or anywhere you get your podcasts. It helps us keep these great American stories.
Coming. Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans. It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past two hundred and fifty years, and now it takes form in a new way. The twenty twenty six semi quincentennial coin and medal program from the United States Mint. It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage.
Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues. Shop new. Official coins at usmint.gov/semiq. That's usmint.gov/semiq. Picture a for sale sign on your front yard.
It's not the house being sold. It's you. Your name, phone number, address, how much you make. Data brokers sell it to anybody buying it. Scammers, insurance companies, you name it.
That's why you want Incogni. Go to incogni.com/lee for sixty percent. Off. That's i n c o g n i dot com slash lee incogni dot com slash lee incogni dot com slash lee incogni dot com slash lee. This is Hoda Kotb from Joy One Hundred and One with Hoda Kotb.
Halloween has a funny way of making you buy things you'd never normally buy. A ten foot skeleton, sure. A full size fog machine, why not? Three bags of candy that somehow become six bags of candy. It happens.
Which brings me to the Chase Freedom Flex card, the savvy decision that will earn you more cash back on the everyday purchases, plus the extraordinary Halloween tricks and treats. With Freedom Flex, you earn even more treats on your Halloween and everyday needs. You get 5% cash back on popular rotating quarterly categories, 3% on dining and drugstores, and 1% on all other purchases. More ways to earn, more ways to get rewarded. That's no tricks.
All treats. More ways to earn, more ways to get rewarded. So sign up for the Chase Freedom Flex card. Learn more at chase.com/getflex. This is a paid collaboration with Chase Freedom Flex.
Cards issued by J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, NA, member FDIC. Subject to credit approval. Offer subject to change. Terms apply.
Ready to feel energized and in control again? At Orderly Meds, we have helped thousands just like you take charge of their health. With a GLP-1, if you've tried dieting, exercising, and relying on willpower, and nothing seems to stick, then it might be time to talk to a licensed provider about your options. That's what Orderly Meds is for. This fall, choose healthier habits for yourself with a visit to OrderlyMeds.com.
You don't need to visit with a physician in person to become eligible. Orderly Meds has a simple virtual process. Connect with licensed medical professionals who can determine whether a GLP-1 treatment may be appropriate. For you, wherever you are, get started from the comfort of home online. Change your habits and consider a new approach to feeling your best.
Visit orderlymeds. dot com to learn more. That's orderlymeds. dot com. Orderlymeds.
dot com. Gain confidence and choose better habits this fall. Compounded medications are not FDA approved. Eligibility required and determined by a licensed provider. Individual results may vary.
See website for details. All right, quick quiz for the hiring managers out there. What's worse, being understaffed or being poorly staffed?
Well, that's a trick question because both are recipes for chaos. Either way, just say to yourself, this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. You'll get matched with candidates that meet the skills, certifications, and everything else you're looking for. Or go a different way and get no traction. Seriously, sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed are 95 percent more likely to report a hire than non-sponsored jobs.
It really is a no-brainer. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Less stress, less time, more results. When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. And listeners of this show will get a seventy-five dollars sponsored job credit to help your job get the premium status it deserves at Indeed.com/podcast.
Just go to Indeed.com/podcast right now. Indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs.
And we continue with our American stories and the story of Louis Prima. We're celebrating Italian American Heritage Month all October long here on Our American Stories. Let's pick up with Greg Hengler where we last left off. It was the Mardi Gras, 1932, that played a part in setting Louis on the road to stardom. Guy Lombardo, the celebrated band leader, was in town for the festivities, exhibiting little modesty.
Prima was now billing himself as America's hottest trumpeter. Here again is Bruce Rayburn and Ron Canitella. Guy Lombardo heard Prima performing on Bourbon Street with a little four-piece band, with nobody in the house. Putting out 110, and he was so impressed, he set up a job for him on 52nd Street at Leon and Eddie's in 1934. Louis knew that he would have to go to New York in order to make it big, as all the performers did.
Every great performer from New Orleans, predominantly, had to leave New Orleans in order to hit the big time. But before he could leave, Louis had one major hurdle to overcome, and he needed Guy's help. Here's Gia. Louis told him, "My mother won't let me do that. You're gonna have to talk to my mother." So Guy did go and talk to Mama Prima.
And she she wouldn't have anything to do with him. Married for the first time to Louise when he was just nineteen, Louis was now a father, which may partly explain Angelina's objections to him leaving. But Angelina was eclipsed by the magnetic pull of New York. Louis's dream of notoriety and chance was shared by millions in the Great Depression. There were dozens of hungry musicians, equal to or better than Prima in New Orleans.
But Prima was discovered largely because he performed so well. It was his showmanship that made him stand out. Louis arrived in New York towards the end of 1933. His emphasis was on musical comedy. Yet at the height of the Great Depression, unemployment never went above 50 percent, but 60 percent of musicians were out of work.
In December 1933. President Roosevelt repealed prohibition, and this reawakened New York nightlife and benefited entertainers. But it wasn't until he played the opening night of the famous Door on 52nd Street that things really took off. Here again is Bruce Rayburn and Gia. People who have written about the apotheosis or the burgeoning of 52nd Street as a New York City phenomenon pretty much date the rise of that phenomenon from Louis Prima's presence there.
So his New Orleans gang became the hit of the street in 52nd Street, the street that never slept. Hearing Louis Prima is one thing; seeing him was something entirely different. Because in order to get the full impact, you really had to see the way he moved, the way he gestured, the way he he played. What he did off other members of the band, he tends to be working. Off of clarinet players in terms of the act, so he had Pee Wee Russell, and this kind of call and response that he does with Pee Wee has a comical bent to it, but it's also musical.
Objective for a New Orleans performer is to engage an audience, to create an emotional connection to the audience, and you do that by operating on all levels. You have to have the chops. You have to be a technician. You have to emote feeling on your instrument. If you tell jokes, if you move well, use everything at your disposal to create those emotional connections with the audience.
Same way that Louis Armstrong was an exceptional example of how to do that. Louis Prima was too. Anyone who wants to explain how swing, particularly the small combo-driven swing of the 1930s, anchored itself in New York City, you can't tell that story without beginning the story and continuing to reference the role that Louis Prima played in it. The gangsters would come and sit ringside at the famous door, try to get his attention, and of course, in those days. They they wanted to own you, and they wanted to protect you.
And Louis wouldn't have it. He didn't want to be owned by anyone. Louis left New York in the autumn of 1935. Just a few weeks later, he arrived in Los Angeles, having become a nationally known figure in music circles as a result of his rafter rattling success at the famous door. Louis quickly opened his own famous door, West.
Here's Gia. They used to claim that you could see the roof coming up and down off of the building at night. That the music was so wonderful and frantic that they thought it was going to blow apart. Everyone in Hollywood wanted to be at the famous door, West. Clark Gable, Betty Davis, John Crawford—it became the place to hang out for all of the Hollywood elite.
Beyond the simple physical capabilities which prompted observers to compare Prima with various black performers, was the simple essence of Prima's music and his scat style of singing. By the early 1930s, Louis Armstrong perfected the art of jazz and scat singing. With scat, Armstrong dispensed with words and substituted for them an odd, meaningless language of sounds. Essentially, Armstrong and Prima used their voices the way most jazz musicians use their instruments. In addition, both Armstrong and Prima understood and easily expressed themselves in black jive rhetoric.
Now, this ability gave Prima an important edge in taking advantage of the new musical trends that. By 1935, were just beginning to take hold. With Louis attracting so much attention, it didn't take long before he was appearing in front of the camera himself. In 1936, he appeared in his first feature, *Rhythm on the Range*, starring Bing Crosby. Here again is Ron Canettella and Gia.
I think the people in Hollywood recognized what a character Louis was. Louis was great with with ad-libbing and adding little special words and things to songs and writing special lyrics to songs. He sings "I'm an old cowhand" with Bing in the film Rhythm on the Range and throws in this line about eating hot tamales, which is hilarious. The great thing about the early films with Alice Faye or Bing or Jimmy Durante was Louis played Louis, so he didn't really have to act. Because really, he was a terrible actor.
While he may have had limitations as an actor, Louis was fast developing as a songwriter. And in 1936, he wrote what was to become one of the greatest jazz standards of all time. Here again, is Ron Canettella and Bruce Rayburn. If he hadn't even been a performer, he still would have contributed one of the most important songs. To the Great American Songbook, when he wrote words and music to "Sing, Sing, Sing." "Sing, Sing, Sing" is probably the most famous of Louis Prima's compositions, simply because it became the anthem for the swing era, and the swing era was, to many minds, the apogee of American jazz history in the 20th century.
It's when jazz reached its point of greatest popularity as popular music. One of Louis' great passions was horse racing, and for many years he ran a successful stable of his own. It was at one of these races with his friend Bing Crosby where Louis wrote "Sing, Sing, Sing." Here's his widow, Gia, and Ron Canitella. Bing had a horse that he wanted to win really badly, so Bing was shouting. For his horse, come on, come on, and Louis standing behind him say, "Sing, Bing, sing." Well, right there on the spot, Louis wrote, "Sing, Bing, sing." He changed it to "Sing, sing, sing," and of course Benny Goodman got a hold of it, and the rest, they say, is musical history.
And you've been listening to Greg Hengler and other notables tell the story of Louis Prima. And of course, his big shot comes about because of a political decision to repeal prohibition. Suddenly, the New York nightclubs are open, and the rise of Fifty Second Street and American jazz.
Well, Louis Prima had a lot to do with it. He was a performer, knew how to connect and engage with audiences in ways few could. Louis Armstrong being one of them. He took New York City by storm. The club he performed in was where everyone in Hollywood and anywhere else wanted to be seen.
And of course, the anthem of the jazzer, as it reached its apogee, "Sing, sing, sing!" Every one of us listening knows that song. When we come back, more of the story of Louis Prima here on Our American Stories. Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans. It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past two hundred and fifty years, and now it takes form in a new way. The twenty twenty six semi quincentennial coin and medal program from the United States Mint.
It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage. Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and. Issues. Shop new official coins at usmint.gov/semiq. That's usmint.gov/semiq.
Your car can be a spy. A guy's car insurance jumped over 20. No accidents, no tickets. It was his car. His automaker logged it, sold it to a data broker, and the broker sold it to his insurance company.
That's why I use Incogni. It forces data brokers and people search sites to delete your information. Go to incogni.com/lee for 60% off. I n c o g n i dot com/lee. Incogni dot com/lee.
This is Hoda Kotb from Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb. Halloween has a funny way of making you buy things you'd never normally buy. A 10-foot skeleton, sure. A full-size fog machine, why not? Three bags of candy that somehow become six bags of candy.
It happens. Which brings me to the Chase Freedom Flex card, the savvy decision that will earn you more cash back on the everyday purchases, plus the extraordinary Halloween tricks and treats with Freedom. Flex, you earn even more treats on your Halloween and everyday needs. You get five percent cash back on popular rotating quarterly categories, three percent on dining and drugstores, and one percent on all other purchases. More ways to earn, more ways to get rewarded.
That's no tricks, all treats. More ways to earn, more ways to get rewarded. So sign up for the Chase Freedom Flex Card. Learn more at chase.com/getflex. This is a paid collaboration with.
Chase Freedom Flex cards issued by JPMorgan Chase Bank, NA, member FDIC. Subject to credit approval. Offer subject to change. Terms apply. Ready to feel energized and in control again?
At Orderly Meds, we have helped thousands just like you take charge of their health with a GLP-1. If you've tried dieting, exercising, and relying on willpower, and nothing seems to stick, then it might be time to talk to a licensed provider about your options. That's what Orderly Meds is for. This fall, choose healthier habits for yourself with a visit to orderlymeds. dot com.
You don't need to visit with a physician in person to become eligible. Orderly Meds has a simple virtual process. Connect with licensed medical professionals who can determine whether a GLP one treatment may be appropriate for you wherever you are. Getting started from the comfort of home online. Change your habits and consider a new approach to feeling your best.
Visit orderlymeds. dot com to learn more. That's orderlymeds. OrderlyMeds. dot com.
Gain confidence and choose better habits this fall. Compounded medications are not FDA approved. Eligibility required and determined by licensed provider. Individual results may vary. See website for details.
All right, quick quiz for the hiring managers out there. What's worse, being understaffed or being poorly staffed?
Well, that's a trick question because both are recipes for chaos. Either way, just say to yourself, "This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs." You'll get matched with candidates that meet the skills, certifications, and everything else you're looking for, or go a different way and get no traction. Seriously, sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed are 95% more likely to report a higher than non-sponsored jobs. It really is a no-brainer. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes.
Less stress, less time, more results. When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. And listeners of this show will get a seventy-five dollars sponsored job credit to help your job get the premium status it deserves at Indeed.com/podcast. Just go to Indeed.com/podcast right now. Indeed.com/podcast.
Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. And we continue with our American stories, and the story of Louis Prima, whose rise to prominence, well, it happened in New York City, and it happened at the time of the apogee of the jazz movement and jazz era. Let's pick up where we last left off.
Louis just really contributed a very important piece of music with that song. Perhaps the tremendous reaction was predictable. Ever since the greatest migration of Italians to the U.S. during the first part of the century, a certain amount of intolerance and ridicule had plagued the collective psyche of the newly sworn-in American citizens. Many of the poor and illiterate Italians arrived in the U.S.
lacking the proper identification, thus being stamped without papers. The acronym WAP. Shortly became a slur reflecting upon the immigrant's ethnicity, social lot, and economic status. Ironically, it was during the Second World War that Louis's Italian heritage really came to fore when he realized a series of hugely popular Italian novelty songs that allowed for a certain amount of sentimentality coupled with self-parody. This was an act of bravery, considering the United States was at war against Mussolini and Italian fascism.
I eat Aunt the pasta twice just because she is so nice, Angelina. Angelina, it's a sad pizzeria. Here again is Bruce Rayburn, Louis Prima drew on that. Ethnic heritage, and developed a repertoire around it that was entertaining. It was funny.
It was musically valid. It moved people, and it gave people who were Italian American pride in their culture. And he did it during the Second World War, at a time when the nation was at war with Italy. And yet he made V discs where he talked about Italian food. He spoke in Italian.
He did songs like Angelina. And he basically said, you know, Italian Americans are Americans, and yet we're proud of who we are and where we came from. That's. Exactly what his persona was all about, reflecting who he actually was. There are a lot of people that try to create themselves in terms of the expectations of the audience.
Louis Prima was one of the few people had the courage to relax with who he was and just put it right out there, and people loved it. As World War II came to its bloody ending in 1945, Prima broke box office records and topped the pop charts lists week after week. But by the end of the decade, big bands were on the way out, and he realized he'd have to reinvent his act once again. Here again is Bruce. What Louis understood in the 1950s was that public taste had shifted, and that if you wanted to make it in show business, you needed to reach younger audiences, and you had to do that by rocking.
You had you had to find that new aesthetic. Prima sold himself as a happy Lothario who frequently got into trouble for his meandering eye, but was impossible to hate simply because he was so lovable. He had a female fan base that called themselves the prima donnas. These women would come into the audience and scream and holler and everything for him, and and many of them would cook Italian food for him and bring lasagna and different things and and lay it out on the stage. During the final days with his big band, Louis started featuring a young Irish Cherokee singer named Keely Smith.
He discovered her as a talented 17-year-old in 1948, and when he disbanded his orchestra in 1950, they went on the road together. Two years later, the 21-year-old Keely married the 42-year-old Prima and became Miss Louis Prima Number Four. The early 50s were lean years for Louis and Keeley, and when they drove into Las Vegas in 1953, they were all but broke. This was fed by the public's desire to stay home and watch television. Between 1950 and 1954, the number of households with television in the nation leaped from 3.8 million to more than 20.4 million.
One of the greatest success stories in the history of the United States. At first, the group didn't work. There was just something badly missing, and Louis thought about this young fellow that his brother Leon had told him about, and that he had met in New Orleans by the name of Sam Butera. Here's Keely Smith. I have to be honest and say this: until Sam came.
The group didn't really cook. It was they were nice guys and they were pretty good musicians, but Sam was the front that Louis needed to work off of. With Sam leading his backup group, the Witnesses, Louis had his band and sound for the fifties. But it was his magical onstage relationship with Keeley Smith that was to make them the most talked-about act in town. Prima's generation found it difficult to accept the beat, sound, and stage antics of rock and rollers, but Prima had his own views, as usual, far different from the conventional wisdom.
There's nothing but nothing wrong with rock and roll, he said. It's got that beat. Don't sell those kids short. They've got an instinct for the kind of music that's fun to listen to and dance to. The best sound he decided would be one that mixed aspects of Dixieland, jazz, swing, and rock and roll.
Now this was a revolutionary thought in the business. In 1954, the lines between such styles were firmly drawn, with musicians rarely venturing to cross such borders, much less combine elements of each genre. During the second half of the 1950s, Louis Prima, with Keeley Smith and the Witnesses, built a reputation as the must-see act in Las Vegas. A town of only 8,422 in World War II, when the casinos operated on a restricted schedule, Las Vegas by 1954 was the fastest-growing small city in the country, with a population of more than 45,000. They played to a packed audience in the 400-seat Casbah Lounge from midnight until 6 a.m.
in the morning, five shows a night. Here's Louis' business manager, Joe Segreto.
Now, any one of those shows would be, in the audience, some of the biggest stars of the world. There's Joe DiMaggio.
Now, when he would introduce Joe DiMaggio, they talk about excitement. People would go crazy to see Jolton Joe in the audience.
Okay, there was Frank Sinatra, there was Dean Martin, there was Sammy Davis Jr., who often would jump up on the stage, just like Jerry Lewis, jump up on the stage and want to play the drums or do something.
Well, Sinatra so much enjoyed being there and the excitement of the Louis Prima show, but wanted some of that excitement for his own show and his own presentation.
So he would go back to the Sands and say, "What the heck is going on here? Everybody's there. All the stars are there. The showgirls. Everybody's there.
We got to do that." So that's when he put together. He called on Lawford, Joey Bishop, Sammy Davis. Junior and Dean Martin, and they all appeared together on stage at one time. That was the Rat Pack. That was the birth of the Rat Pack.
And you've been listening to our own Greg Hengler and many other notables tell the story of Louis Prima and sing, sing, sing. Just well, his career took off. And at the same time, Italians were starting to wean their way into modern American life. First and second generation faced discrimination, and this is why Italians really loved Louis. He didn't hide his heritage.
He loved his country, but he loved his Italian food, his Italian music, and his Italian life. By the fifties, public mood had shifted. Rock and roll was taking hold, and Louis didn't see it as well. Unmusical, he adopted parts of rock, got a new lineup, and merged rock and roll with Dixie jazz and swing. His show so exciting that Frank Sinatra put together the Rat Pack to be able to compete with Louis's Vegas act.
When we come back. More of the story of Louis Prima here on Our American Stories. Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans. It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past 250 years, and now it takes form in a new way. The 2026 semi-quintennial coin and medal program from the United States Mint.
It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage. Available one year only, this historic Our collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues. Shop new official coins at usmint.gov/semiq. That's usmint.gov/semiq. Your car can be a spy.
A guy's car insurance jumped over twenty percent. No accidents, no tickets. It was his car. His automaker logged it, sold it to a data broker, and the broker sold it to his insurance company. That's why I use Incogni.
It forces data brokers and people search sites to delete your information. Go to incogni.com/lee for sixty percent off. I n c o g n i dot com/lee. Incogni dot com/lee. This is Hoda Kotb from Joy One Hundred and One with Hoda Kotb.
Halloween has a funny way of making you buy things you'd never normally buy: a ten-foot skeleton, sure; a full-size fog machine, why not? Three bags of candy that somehow become six bags of candy—it happens. Which brings me to the Chase Freedom Flex card, the savvy decision that will earn you more cash back on the everyday purchases, plus the extraordinary Halloween tricks and treats with Freedom. Flex, you earn even more treats on your Halloween and everyday needs. You get five percent cash back on popular rotating quarterly categories, three percent on dining and drugstores, and one percent on all other purchases.
More ways to earn, more ways to get rewarded. That's no tricks, all treats. More ways to earn, more ways to get rewarded. So sign up for the Chase Freedom Flex card. Learn more at chase.com/getflex.
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Here to complete the story. Is our own Greg Hengler. Louis had a thing called shuffle rhythm, and he kept that shuffle rhythm with the drummer going all the time. Here again is Bruce Rayburn and Ray Gelato, a man who covers Louis Prima's standards with his band, the Giants of the Jive. Take a song like "Cielo, una metà mare." It's a Neapolitan folk song, and they turned it into "Zuma Zuma." Well, one of the ways they turned it into that was by taking the tempo and just juicing it up to the maximum, and so it is this torrential, just torrid tempo that just burns you when you hear it.
Everyone in the band is like right there with a tempo. You can put the shuffle behind a song like a standard, and people will respond to it because we do it. And I don't know why they respond to it, but there's something in that that drives people nuts. And every time it rains, it rains. Raindrops from heaven.
Shoop idoo bing. Don't you know each cloud contains raindrops from heaven. Shoop idoo bing. You'll find your fortune falling all over town. Be sure that your umbrella is up, up, up, up, up, upside down, and trade them for a pack of jumbo, sunshine and ravioli.
Discover America's number one song and fun team, Louis Prima and Keeley Smith. By the end of the fifties, Louis and Keeley were stars across America, favored guests on the Ed Sullivan Show. They were described by the host as one of the only two acts that could automatically bolster his ratings just by the announcement of their appearance. The other being Elvis. Then in 1959, Louis and Keeley received a Grammy for the recording of "That Old Black Magic." Old Black Magic has been its spell.
Old Black Magic that you weave so well. Those icy fingers up and down my spine. The same old witchcraft when your eyes meet mine. Same old tingle that I feel inside. He and Keeley had two children together, and with a lucrative new contract at the Las Vegas Desert Inn, their career seemed unstoppable.
But rumors had started circulating that Prima's marriage was in trouble. And these proved true when Keeley filed for divorce on October 3, 1961. Following Keeley's departure, Louis immediately announced a nationwide search to find a new girl singer. And in May 1962, he found her. Just 20 years old, Gia was an Italian American from New Jersey.
Her father was an avid Louis Prima fan and took her to see him perform when she was just 14. After we saw the show, the next day we went into a restaurant to have dinner, and who walks in? But Louis Prima and Keeley Smith. My dad marched me right over to their table, and Louis was just as sweet and wonderful. He signed an autograph for me that I carry in my purse with me today.
Fifty some years later. Ladies and gentlemen, we would like for you now to meet the new addition to our little family—a young lady we're very proud of from New Jersey. Her first television appearance. Geo, my own. Here she is.
I, I, I want, I want, I want you. I want you. I want you too. I want you too. I want you to be what?
Want you to be my baby, 'cause we'll. I don't know to this day. Where idolatry left and love began, or if it ever did, I have no idea. I don't even want to know, because for me it was heaven. Whatever it was, it was heaven.
By the mid '60s, Louis had been performing for more than three decades and had survived many changes in musical style. Here again is Joe Segreto, Bruce Rayburn, and Gia. Disney always wanted to do Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book. When he finally decided that the studio was going to do it, he said, "Of all the men that I want for this movie, Phil Harris has got to be the bear, and Louis has got to be King Louis the Great." So they approached the office about Louis doing it. At first, he wasn't.
I don't want to do that. I don't want to do that. I said, Chief. You got to do this. This is going to propel you into untold numbers of generations to come.
Children are going to see this forever, and King Louis the Great is going to be in their minds. Your music and your sound.
Now I'm the king of the swingers, oh the jungle VIP. I've reached the top and had to stop, and that's what's bothering me. I wanna be a man, man cub, and stroll right into town, and be just like the other men. I'm tired of mugging around. Oh, King Louis is Louis Prima's persona, written into the storyline of the Jungle Book because the Disney people knew it would sell, it would work, and because Prima was already, in his own right, a larger-than-life.
Fun-loving character. The way they picked up even his facial expression, or the eyes, the expression of the orangutan was just amazing. Louis. Was so tickled, he would laugh and laugh. During the 1970s, Louis Prima showed little sign of slowing down.
He was now in his 60s. Throughout his lifetime, he enjoyed extraordinary good health. Although he was in a business in which many succumb to mass amounts of eating, drinking, and the use of illegal and even prescribed drugs, Prima stayed away from such temptations. The reason for his vigor were many. He was an athlete who enjoyed a wide variety of sports and a dancer who nightly put his body through rigors that men half his age might find difficult to duplicate.
I played football, basketball, and track at Jesuit High School. Prima once noted in explaining his general healthiness and lifelong interest in sports. His career was put on temporary hold in 1973 after he suffered a mild heart attack, and he returned to work later that same year. But there were signs that all was not well. In 1975, a scan revealed that Louis was suffering the effects of a tumor in the brainstem.
Here's Gia. They saw a tumor. It was not malignant. It was benign, and it was in the brain stem, which is the most difficult place. Every nerve in your body goes through there.
So there was only one neurosurgeon. That would risk it, even though there would be less than one percent chance of survival. But he felt that you know Louis wanted it. He was vital. He had a young family.
Immediately, when they entered the brain, part of the brain hemorrhaged, and he went into what they call a semicomatose state. He could. Understand and see everything going on around him, but he could not respond back, nor could he match a thought with an action. Louis spent three years in a coma, and then died on August 24th, 1978. In 1981, Gia moved Louis's casket to a stately gray marble crypt in a cemetery just outside New Orleans.
This highly symbolic location is home to the oldest Italian benevolent organization in New Orleans. It is here where Prima's music, indeed his very essence, lives again in the words engraved on his marble tombstone. Louis Prima, December 7, 1910 to August 24, 1978, a legend. When the end comes, I know they'll say just a jiggleo, as life goes on without me. When the end comes, I know they'll say just a jiggleo.
Life goes on without me, 'cause I ain't got nobody. Oh, and it don't matter 'cause for me, there's no. And a terrific job on the production, editing, and storytelling by our own Greg Hangler. And what a story you just heard! Prima was the kind of act only Elvis Presley could match, in the sense that when either of them came on the Ed Sullivan Show.
The weekly ratings just soared. No other artist, Sullivan said, matched Prima and Presley. Then came the divorce with Keeley Smith, and in came young Gia and King Louis the Great, that sealed Louis Prima's legacy. Louis stayed away from drugs, took care of himself, and had general good health until a tumor was spotted in his brainstem in 1975. The operation, well, it was risky and it didn't work.
Prima was in a coma. He could see and hear what was going on around him, but the cruel irony: the man who was so good at call and response couldn't respond. He was buried in New Orleans, where his essence was birthed in Little Palermo. The story of Louis Prima here on Our American Stories. Your car can be a spy.
Here's a true story. A guy's car insurance jumped over twenty percent. No accidents, no tickets. He started digging to find out who reported him. It was his car.
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Never been just a word to we Americans. It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past 250 years, and now it takes form in a new way. The 2026 semi-quintennial coin and medal program from the United States Mint. It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage. Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues.
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Hello, everyone, and welcome to Rushing the Field. I'm Nicole Auerbach, and I'm Joshua Perry. We're so excited to be here to chat about our favorite thing in the entire world—college football. From the biggest headlines and breaking news to the stories shaping the sport behind the scenes, Rushing the Field is your home for everything college football. Whether you're obsessed with rankings, rivalries, or game day drama, we've got you covered.
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