Sharon Preston-Folta, the only child of jazz icon Louis Armstrong who was born out of wedlock in 1955 and kept a secret from the public until 2012, will be the subject of a forthcoming documentary. According to reports, the film, to be titled Little Satchmo, will screen at film festivals and eventually air on television at some point in 2021, although a specific premiere date has not yet been provided.
The film will further explore Armstrong’s secret daughter who was brought into the world as a result of a relationship between Armstrong and Lucille Preston, a dancer at New York City’s famed Cotton Club. Sadly, Sharon’s existence as Armstrong’s daughter was kept a secret for the remainder of his life.
According to a December 2012 New York Times report, Armstrong financially supported Sharon and her mother for over 15 years via monthly checks. The famous musician also bought the mother and daughter a house in Mount Vernon, NY, and put away $25,000 meant to be used for Sharon’s college education. Sadly, Armstrong took his family’s secret to his grave. The musician’s estate never recognized Sharon’s existence even after his death in 1971, and nothing was left for her and her mother in his will.
Preston-Folta published the story of her secret life and her famous father in a 2012 tell-all memoir, Little Satchmo: Living In the Shadow Of My Father, Louis, on which the new documentary is based.
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Sharon’s existence was subtly mentioned in select biographies in later years after Armstrong’s death, but written correspondence and tape recordings act as the main source of proof for who Preston-Folta’s late father was.
“Sharon may not realize now what I mean to her & doing for her,” Armstrong wrote in the final letter sent to Lucille Preston dated June 12th, 1968. “But I am sure as she matures she’ll Dig Pops as the man who’ll be loving her until he day he dies, or she dies. That’s sincerity and from the heart stuff.”
The first teaser trailer for the film shared earlier this week hears tape recordings of Amstrong talking about Sharon, along with new interview footage with Preston-Folta herself. Click here to watch the new trailer in full.
[H/T Rolling Stone]
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