Billy Staton from Alexandria, Virginia: “I can sink every ball on
this table with one shot”
Staton is
talking about all fifteen balls on a pool table, strategically positioned. His first effort only pockets fourteen of the
fifteen balls, but tape is shown from an earlier rehearsal in which he
accomplishes the remarkable feat. Staton
is a professional pool player who used his winnings to finance a small chain of
“Weenie Beenie” hot dog stands in northern Virginia. In addition to winning various championships,
Staton would make many television appearances demonstrating his expertise. He would also perform trick shots in the film The Color of Money (1986). One of his Weenie Beenie locations continues
to operate today.
Henry Bryson from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania recently won a hard
fought political campaign: “I beat my wife in the election”
Bryson and
his wife Henrietta have been married 25 years, and competed against each other
for the post of election judge in the Bridesburg neighborhood of
Philadelphia. Mr. Bryson won with 193
votes to Mrs. Bryson’s 174, despite the fact that Mrs. Bryson was running as a
Democrat in a heavily Democratic region.
Mr. Bryson had previously held the community position, and had changed
party affiliation.
Special guest Louis Armstrong: “I took my first lessons on this
trumpet 53 years ago…The man who gave me those lessons is backstage”
Peter Davis,
well known in New Orleans jazz circles, taught Armstrong and hundreds of other
boys as a volunteer instructor at what was known then as the Colored Waifs
Home. Armstrong was arrested on New
Year’s Eve in 1912 and spent 18 months in the orphanage/prison for boys. When he was released at the age of thirteen,
he began pursuing what would become his legendary career. Armstrong routinely acknowledged his early
teacher in interviews throughout his life.
Here, the elderly Davis (there are conflicting stories about the year of
his birth) joins Armstrong and members of Norman Paris’ band for a little bit
of “When the Saints Go Marching In” (1923).
Davis plays the old trumpet Armstrong referred to at the start.
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