Laurence Bergreen

And there may be no name more closely associated with this month than Christopher Columbus.

Here to tell the story is Laurence Bergreen, author of Columbus: The Four Voyages.

Take it away, Lawrence.

[instrumental music plays] Hello.

My name is Laurence Bergreen, and I've written a book about Christopher Columbus, Columbus: The Four Voyages.

Of all the books I've written, I think this has been the most challenging and the most controversial because, uh, Columbus' reputation has been changing almost by the month.

He's a figure that we all know about, and he's been devalued almost beyond recognition, torn down from statues, discredited over and over as if it were the first time.

We would call them rust buckets, except they were made out of wood, and they were small.

Okay.

So this is from, uh, "Louis Armstrong: An Extravagant Life" by Lawrence Bergreen.

"The music publisher wanted to enlist Louis to record it simply as a way to plug the show." This is this single, "Hello Dolly", "Which had nothing to do with jazz.

On December the 4th, 1963, Louis and the All-Stars went into the studio.