“A Very Fine Man With a Camera”: In Loving Memory of Milan Schijatschky

Milan Schijatschky passed away this week at the age of 95. You might not recognize that name, but he was a Swiss dentist by trade, in addition to being a photographer who took what might have been Louis Armstrong’s very favorite photo. And he was a friend of mine.

If you don’t mind, let me start with my personal connection before sharing some truly beautiful photos (and music!). In 2009 I was hired as Project Archivist for the Louis Armstrong House Museum. I had also just submitted the manuscript for my first book, What a Wonderful World: The Magic of Louis Armstrong’s Later Years. I still had to select photos for the book and was completely knocked out by the images of Armstrong and the All Stars I found in a scrapbook that was saved by Armstrong himself. The scrapbook stated the photos were taken by someone named Milan Schijatschky, but I couldn’t much information on him when I tried Googling his name.

But then I found a mention of Milan listed in the acknowledgements of a book written by Ron Hughart. Hughart had a website and though it seemed like a shot in the dark, I wrote the following email on the morning of September 20, 2010:

“Dear Ron, My name is Ricky Riccardi and I am the Project Archivist for the Louis Armstrong House Museum at Queens College.  I am also an author, putting the finishing touches on a book about Armstrong to be published by Pantheon next year.  Right now I am in the midst of securing permissions for photos to be used in the book.  At the Armstrong House, we have a scrapbook  Milan gave to Louis filled with photos he shot in 1957.  A few of the photos are breathtaking and I’d like to use them in my book but I am having absolutely no luck trying to find contact information for Milan.  I just found an eBook preview of your ‘Beyond the Dust Bowl With a Pocket Full of Peanuts’ and I noticed you mentioned Milan as a friend.  Do you have an e-mail address for him?  Or could you perhaps forward this e-mail to him?  I would love to use his photos but am trying my best to secure his permission.  Thank you so much for your time and I hope you have a wonderful day, Ricky Riccardi.

About six hours later–at 5:51 p.m. to be exact–I received the following email from Ron Hughart:

“Ricky, This is amazing.  It so happen I just arrived at Milans house and am trying my best to type on this Swiss keyboard. I read your email to Milan and his first thought was what pictures do you want.  I will give your address to Milan so he can write to you.”

To this day, I cannot believe the serendipity of my email arriving in Ron Hughart’s inbox just as he arrived at Milan’s house in Switzerland! It was the first (maybe not the first) of many times when it felt like Pops was calling the shots…

Anyway, Milan wrote the next day, letting me know, “But as you need to know as soon as possible I hurry to give you the permission for the publication of these pictures. As
your budget is small I do not charge you any fee. But please give me the photo credit ‘Milan Schijatschky’ and a complimentary copy of the final book. But I made the prints 50 years ago myself in the darkroom of the x-ray department of the dental school at the University of Illinois in Chicago I fear they do not have a good quality. I suggest that I
will send you scanned pictures (there might be more than you mentioned). I would scan them later in the week.”

Milan did just that, sending me not only new scans but also several gorgeous prints I was able to scan and hang in my home office (I’m staring at them as I write this). My book ended up using three of Milan’s photos on the inside and one on the back cover, which he provided the following scan for (file name “LA-for-Ricky,” which makes me smile):

Milan and I traded phone calls and emails and I learned more about how he met Louis. It turns out that he met bassist Arvell Shaw first; Shaw was married to a Swiss woman, Madeleine Berard, and though he was no longer with the All Stars, he agreed to write a letter for Milan to show Louis when he met him. Milan kept a copy of it and shared it in one of his early emails to me:

With the introduction out of the way, Milan met Louis and was given permission to photograph him and the All Stars as they played the Chez Paree in Chicago in November 1956. Milan took multiple photos–as we’ll soon see–but one stood out. When he presented it to Louis, Louis fell in love with it and signed Milan’s print, “To Milan Schijatschky, From Louis Armstrong. This picture is a living Ass. Yea Man.” (If you couldn’t tell by now, “living ass” was one of Louis’s highest compliments, one he often amended in public to “living asperin.”) A scan of Milan’s print was sent to me this week by filmmaker Wolfgang Weigl, who spent much of last year filming a documentary on Milan’s life and his photographs:

Louis also signed the following message to Milan, also graciously shared by Wolfgang Weigl:

After our flurry of emails and exchanges of gifts between 2010 and 2013, I admittedly didn’t correspond with Milan for several years. But then I reached out to him in 2025 and was thrilled to find out that he was going to be the subject of this documentary. I filmed myself in my home office, showing off the prints Milan sent me and telling the still hard-to-believe story of my reaching out to Ron Hughart. Milan was able to see a rough cut of the film and I’m thrilled to be in touch with Wolfgang and will share more details when the finished version is able to be viewed.

But first, a few more words about the above photo, which Louis absolutely loved. In fact, I truly think it was his favorite photo of himself, which is saying a lot considering he must have been one of the most photographed human beings of the 20th century. He had literally hundreds of tiny copies made and used them in collages, letters, even in his trumpet case, as this Jack Bradley photo from 1961 reveals:

I sent that image to Milan in 2025. He responded by writing in an email, “Pops told me once that my portrait was his favorite photo. Of course it made me proud, but I thought it was just a nice compliment. But when I saw the photo of my picture pasted in his trumpet case, I finally realized that he really liked it.”

That’s an understatement! When I was approached about helping out with this documentary, I filmed myself at the Louis Armstrong Center one day, showcasing just how many copies of Milan’s photo Louis had; I edited the video this week, adding a few more cutaways and a touching final photo provided by Wolfgang:

Here’s that photo again of Milan last year, holding up Louis’s favorite photo:

Now, onto the main event–on February 11, 1961 (coincidentally 65 years ago yesterday), Louis Armstrong and His All Stars performed two soncerts at Kongresshaus in Zurich, Switzerland. By this point, Milan had graduated from dental school and moved back home to Switzeralnd. Knowing Louis was coming to town, Milan prepared a scrapbook made up of photos he took of Louis predominantly at a concert at Hinsdale High School on March 20, 1957, along with some more photos from the aforementioned Chez Paree gig in November 1956.

Before we get to the scrapbook, Milan did share with me a scan of the ticket to the Hinsdale show, which he saved all of those decades later–$2.25! (In 2026 dollars, still a bargain at $26.32!)

But now, a little soundtrack to this post. Back in the July 2010–two months before my fateful meeting with Milan–Dan Morgenstern, the dean of all jazz historians, reached out to let me know he was found a couple of cassettes of the All Stars while cleaning his desk at the Institute of Jazz Studies. He didn’t know who sent them or how he got them, but he figured I’d want them (he was right!). It turns out that it was the Hinsdale High School show of March 20, 1957! It wasn’t in any discographies and it was SPECTACULAR. Since it was a cassette copy, it had some tape hiss and the piano was miked a little low in the mix, but my goodness, Louis’s trumpet sound was rarely captured better and the band was positively on fire. Dan really couldn’t find any more details (I asked again years later when I thought the concert might be worth issuing commercially) so I have been hoping for 16 years that the original donor–or anyone with the original tape–reaches out.

Until that lucky day, Milan’s photos need a soundtrack. He was tickled to know the concert was recorded and was touched when he was able to listen to it again all of those years later. (He even designed CD covers with his photos!) To show what a party atmosphere it was in Hinsdale, Illinois that night, here’s “Muskrat Ramble,” which Louis dedicates to Lucille Armstrong and two mysterioius “relatives,” Mr. and Mrs. Barbee. This was a 31-year-old Hot Five tune, but listen to the high school students in the audience cheering like mad (and yes, clapping on one and three). This is the only incomplete track from the show as the original tape ran out right before the last chorus–but good news: the person who taped it was able to turn it over and start recording again in time for a wild encore, which Louis didn’t ordinarily do on this number (listen for “The Song is Ended” quote!):

With the preamble out of the way, let’s dive into Milan’s scrapbook–here’s the cover!

Milan’s inscription “To dear Papa Dip”:

A clever credit page–love Pops’s floating hand:

I absolutely love the title page for “An Evening with Papa Dip,” complete with calendar design and multiple copies of Louis’s favorite photo:

Then it’s off to Hinsdale–here’s the original concert poster, taped onto a “No Smoking” sign:

A photo of the exterior of the venue:

I always adore these backstage photos, especially seeing Velma Middleton not in her stage outfit. That’s Billy Kyle back there, plus you can see the hands of Louis in the mirror and Edmond Hall on the bottom right. I’m not sure who the man is seated next to Kyle; could be the band boy, Vernon Black, or could just be a Chicago friend:

This is one of the photos I just knew I had to have in my book: Louis Armstrong, jazz’s greatest genius, at the height of his fame, warming up in a high school gym locker room:

This photo also made the book, with Louis signing autographs for the students of Hinsdale High; no VIP packages needed for Pops (the woman in the background, I’m fairly certain, is trombonist Trummy Young’s wife):

Waiting to go on–I’m not sure who the man in glasses is (probably a high school rep), but there Trummy Young, Edmond Hall, Louis (what about the “No Smoking” sign, Pops!), bassist Squire Gersh, and drummer Edmond Hall. The man in the patterned jacket is unidentified, but again, my guess is the proximity to Chicago probably brought out some of Louis’s old friends and associates from his time there in the 1920s and 30s:

Milan went to the back of the room to capture this lovely setting–it sure doesn’t feel like a high school auditorium!

But at this point, the low ceiling tells us we’re no longer in Hinsdale, but back at the Chez Paree–here’s Louis and Velma Middleton (I never asked Milan if he and Louis discussed Velma’s sad passing, as she died on February 10, 1961, one day before Louis’ arrived in Switzerland):

Back to Hinsdale for some shots of the crowd, whom I believe are sitting in bleachers; Lucille Armstrong and, I suppose, the mysterious Mr. and Mrs. Barbee are in the photo on the bottom:

Back to the Chez Paree for Louis and Trummy Young, probably duetting on “Rockin’ Chair”:

Hinsdale photos of Trummy Young and Squire Gersh:

Edmond Hall and Billy Kyle:

Another incredible shot with the students crowding around the bandstand to watch Barrett Deems in action; Louis knew a good thing when he saw it and called multiple encores for Deems to show off for the kids. The full version of “Stompin’ at the Savoy” with encores lasted 8 minutes and 42 seconds!

Velma at the Chez Paree:

Here’s the photo I shared at the top, which ended up on the back cover of my book:

Some Hinsdale fans hanging onto each and every note:

This spread of Louis and Edmond Hall at the Chez Paree took up two full pages:

Close-up of Edmond Hall at the Chez Paree:

Another of Velma at the Chez Paree:

Of course, Milan had to include a nice print of Louis’s favorite:

Another fantastic action shot from Hinsdale of Louis in ecstasy watching Velma Middleton dance during one of her features (she did “St. Louis Blues,” “Ko Ko Mo,” and her usual blues, “Big Mama’s Back in Town”):

A Hinsdale pennant on the back wall closes the show:

Milan wanted Louis to again know that these were his photos (using just his last name on the copyright notice):

And finally, for completeness sake, the back cover:

That concludes the scrapbook, but I must close by sharing a touching email from Milan, one of the last I received. He really wanted to know more about my family life, so last June, I sent him a photo of me with my wife Margaret, my three daughters, and my parents, and shared with him the fact that Margaret and I had just celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. His beautiful, reflective response follows:

“Let me tell you in short about my life, my life with Hedi. Both of us are now nearly 95, Hedi is 3 weeks older. 75 (SEVENTY-FIVE!!) years ago I met her at an apres-ski dance at a youth hotel in the mountains. Since then we are going steady, no other partner! As a student I could not afford to marry, so I finished my studies first. A day after our wedding (1956) we left Zurich for Chicago where I had a grant at the University of Illinois. I assume that you have googelt me and have found out that I was a DDS. I have worked for over 40 years as dentist.  As we had green cards, Hedi became immediately the favorite secretary  of my professor. By the way: I developed the small pictures for Pops at night in our x-ray department at the UoI. 

“Back in Zurich we started our family, Marko 1959, Corinne 1961. We had not much money and our share of worries (Corinne was an 8 month child with only 800g) but we always stuck together. Hedi gave up her job as chief secretary just to be ready for the children and me (by the way: she looked like a movie star and everybody loved her). She always kept my back free while I wrote three books and developed an emergency kit for dentists and organized lectures for airlines and travel offices, of course travelling all over the world, very often with Hedi and the children.  

“After giving up my dental practice (1999) after 40 years I have travelled  and photographed and lectured even more and worked with my Mac. Hedi was now mostly with me, the ‘children’ were of course out of our home.  

“What an old man can tell you at your 20^thWedding Anniversary: Please enclose the family, especially Margaret always in your work, NEVER LET GO, whatever happens.  

“About 2 years ago Hedi developed signs of Alzheimer, I cared for her as long as I could. Two weeks ago, one day before our 69^th Wedding Anniversary (!) I had to bring her in a nursing home. I visit her every second day and she still knows me. I am sad but not unthankful. We had nearly great 75 years together, we have no regrets. 

“Now I live alone in my penthouse overlooking a white chain of mountains and it would be wonderful if you and Margaret could come for a visit.”

Alas, that trip never came to be. Hedi passed away soon after and according to Wolfgang, Milan’s health deteriorated quickly until he eventually passed away earlier this week. I cherish all of my emails and voicemails (which I saved) from Milan, but it’s bittersweet that my last email included an apology for being so busy and a promise to reach back out soon–a promise I sadly wasn’t able to keep. When Wolfgang shared the news on Tuesday, I was very sad, but ultimately grateful for the friendship and for the miracle that I even found him. I’ll think of him every time I look at his wonderful photos of Pops and listen to the Hinsdale concert tapes.

I don’t want to leave on a down note–because of Milan’s touching ode to love and his relationship with Hedi, and because tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, here’s one more track from the Hinsdale High School, March 20, 1957: “La Vie En Rose.”

Thank you, Milan!