[dubious – discuss] Even though, for the motion picture, the name and city were changed, the basics of the story appear to ring true, according to family members,[better source needed] and New Orleans jazz history aficionados.[who?]
King Watzke and his band are referred to in a scholarly book by Daniel Hardie, about the history of New Orleans jazz.
However, one unlabeled not commercially released "demo" or sample 78 rpm record was known to have been in the hands of surviving family; though it is believed forever lost due to a Gulf Coast hurricane.
His father, Alexander Constantin Watzke, Senior, was a successful businessman, in the hide and fur trade, who immigrated to New Orleans from Germany circa 1851; he had served one term in the Louisiana State Legislature and was a leader in the German community of New Orleans; he and his family resided in a large mansion, since demolished, on South Rampart Street.
in The New York Times,[citation needed] and his inscription on the family tombstone in New Orleans suggests a date of death on January 14, 1919.
There had been some confusion, however, as an obituary published in the New Orleans Times-Picayune referred to the death of another Alexander Watzke almost a decade later, on June 2, 1928, but that person has now been established to have been the nephew of "King" the jazz musician.