Did goons grab Fats Waller for boss's birthday bash?

The 1925-26 Capone legend does not ring true

According to a widely circulated story, jazz great Thomas “Fats” Waller was once kidnapped by gunmen and forced to play piano for a three-day-long Al Capone birthday celebration.

1977 biography of Fats Waller

It is an interesting, if not entirely believable, tale that has been told for nearly fifty years now. The incident allegedly occurred in the early stages of Prohibition, or about fifty years before its earliest telling. This supposedly century-old story came to light when Fats Waller’s son Maurice Waller and Anthony Calabrese coauthored a 1977 biography of Fats. They included the tale in a few paragraphs on Pages 62 and 63 of their book.

Their story, which you may already have heard in various forms, goes like this:

Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong, the brilliant jazz trumpet and cornet player, moved from New York City’s Harlem neighborhood to Chicago in 1925 and invited New York native Fats Waller to visit him and perform for some fresh crowds. Waller soon followed and got himself a job playing piano to entertain guests at the Hotel Sherman.