[1] Some New Orleans musicians remembered as a musical highlight of their lives, a 1919 cutting contest where, after long and intense struggle, Hardy succeeded in outplaying Louis Armstrong.
[1] For a time during its Friar's Inn residency/ the NORK used a two-cornet format – Paul Mares, leader and first cornet, and Emmett Hardy as second.
A relative remembered Hardy as being somewhat shy and unassuming, with a good dry sense of humor; that he was easily frightened by sudden loud noises, and superstitious about passing by graveyards.
When advancing tuberculosis started to make breathing difficult, Hardy taught himself banjo so he could continue playing music.
When Tulane University's Jazz Archive was established in the late 1950s, however, a diligent search failed to turn up any of these recordings, which are presumed lost forever.