December 15, 1943: Fats Waller, one of the giants of jazz, dies. He was only 39 years old.
Thomas Wright Waller was born on May 21, 1904 in Manhattan. He started playing the piano at the age of 6, and at 15, he dropped out of DeWitt Clinton High School to work as the organist at the Lincoln Theater in Harlem. In 1922, only 18 years old, he made his first recordings.
By 1928, he was not only appearing in Broadway musicals, he was composing for them. Contrary to an urban legend, he did not write "I Can't Give You Anything But Love." But he did write "Ain't Misbehavin'," "Honeysuckle Rose," "This Joint Is Jumpin'" and "Your Feet's Too Big." Oscar Levant called Waller "the black Horowitz," honoring him by comparing him to fellow classical pianist Vladimir Horowitz.
Waller had appeared in "soundies," the music videos of the time; and in films such as Stormy Weather, an all-black musical released on July 21, 1943. He had stayed in Los Angeles after making that film, with a long, successful engagement at the Zanzibar Room in Santa Monica.
But he got sick, and headed for home on the the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad's Super Chief, which ran from Chicago to Los Angeles and back, and was known as "The Train to the Stars." He never made it: On December 15, as the train pulled into Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri, Waller was found dead in his compartment, from pneumonia.
His funeral was held at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, whose pastor, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., was preparing his 1st run for Congress. More than 4,200 people got inside, and Powell told them, "Fats always played to a packed house."
Fats left a wife, an ex-wife, and 3 sons. Darren Waller, a Pro Bowl tight end for the Las Vegas Raiders, is his great-grandson. (UPDATE: In 2023, Darren Waller was traded to the New York Giants.) In 1978, Fats returned to Broadway, in a way, when the musical Ain't Misbehavin' was produced. It was based around his songs, starred Ken Page as the Waller analogue, and helped to make a star out of singer-actress Nell Carter.
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December 15, 1943 was a Wednesday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And no games were scheduled for the NHL. Therefore, there were no scores on this historic day.
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