Charlie Beal(1908-1991)

The son of a Los Angeles based U.S. postal mail carrier, Charlie Beal was born and raised in the nearby town of Redlands and was educated in its public schools. With his younger brother Eddie, Charlie was known as a free-lance piano player in the Los Angeles jazz scene during the early 1930s, and soon moved to Chicago where he played with Les Hite, Jimmy Noone, Frankie "Half-Piny" Jaxon, and, after 1933, with Louis Armstrong, with whom he would be associated with for much of his later career. After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, Beal returned to play with Armstrong, but soon emigrated to Europe.