Trivia

So popular was he that one evening in Chicago in 1926, he was kidnapped by four henchmen and driven to the Hawthorne Inn, owned by infamous gangster Al Capone . He found out he was the "surprise entertainment" for Capone's birthday party! There Fats played songs for 3 days, was treated like Royalty and left with pockets full of money.

Inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1989.

Jazz pianist and vocalist.

Before his solo career, he played with many performers, from Erskine Tate to Bessie Smith.

His nickname came about because he weighed nearly 300 pounds. His weight and extreme drinking habits are believed to been contributors to his death. Waller died of pneumonia aboard an eastbound train in the vicinity of Kansas City, Missouri, following a West Coast engagement.

Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.

Son of a Baptist minister.

He started playing the piano when he was six and graduated to playing the organ at his father's church four years later.

Waller is believed to have composed many novelty tunes in the 1920s and 1930s and sold them for small sums, attributed to another composer and lyricist.

The Strong National Museum Of Play in Rochester, New York has one of his Sheet Music books.

Copyrighted over 400 songs, many of them co-written with his closest collaborator, Andy Razaf.

In 1938, Waller was one of the first African Americans to purchase a home in the Addisleigh Park section of St. Albans, Queens, a New York City community with racially restrictive covenants.

Played with Nathaniel Shilkret, Gene Austin, Erskine Tate, Fletcher Henderson, McKinney's Cotton Pickers, and Adelaide Hall.

He enjoyed success touring the United Kingdom and Ireland in the 1930s, appearing on one of the first BBC television broadcasts on September 30, 1938, from the Alexandra Palace studios in London, performing "I'm Crazy 'Bout My Baby," "Honeysuckle Rose," "Neglected," "Hallelujah," and "Truckin'".

Body Cremated and Ashes Scattered over Harlem, New York by the 'Black Ace', a World War I avaiator.