Charlie Rogers

[Anthony Peabody]

If you have read the biography of Charlie Rogers elsewhere on this site, you may have read most of whatever information there might be on this significant individual, "The Boy Wonder".  I don't think anything is known of him after service in the First World War.

I have been quite unable to find him in any of the records available to me, (census, baptism, marriage, military service etc), and indeed he appears in no official record I can find..

This usually means that the details are incorrect in some way.

So, here are the questions which I am sure that someone out there will have at his/her fingertips:

1.  Are we sure that he was born in 1891?

2.  Where was he born?

3.  Important this, was his name Charles or Charlie, and was this is first or second name?

4.  Finally, to go with the previous question, was "Charlie Rogers" a stage name-(personally I think this is unlikely, but you never know).

As soon as any answers arrive from 1-4, I shall be able to put some bones on this rather shadowy and mysterious figure, and share it with anyone who needs/wants to know.

I hope my reply tray will be full to overflowing with all the answers!

Thank you

Anthony

Peabody

[Jody Stecher]

re question 3, on the Charlie Rogers page of this website there is a photo of what seems to be his trunk from the days when he was a member of The Royal Pierrots of Clifford Essex. And on it, in gold letters, os painted the name "Charles". As mysterious as any detail about C Rogers is the question of what makes a Pierrot royal. Here is the photo:

[thereallyniceman]

Hi Anthony, I have looked through my records and cannot confirm, 100%, Roger's year of birth. In the 1966 BMG article below, mathematics suggests that: in 1907 the famous photo of Rogers was published in the BMG, showing him as a sixteen year old.  1907 - 16 = 1891.  (but it may have been taken before 1907)

BUT in this extract from Winans and Kaufman it suggests that in 1903 Rogers was 17 years old  

 (1903 - 17 =  1886):

Anthony, I hope that you can find confirmed details so that I can confirm/correct the biography

Below is a Podcast produced some time ago by our friend Hal Allert and is one of many worth a listen on his classicbanjo.com website. ( I hope Hal does not mind me posting this here!)

Hal Allert’s Podcast about Charlie Rogers

[Joel Hooks]

I don't have anything.  I did like RTB(jr?)'s comment about "Mr. So" adding U.S.A to make his name "prettier."  

[Jody Stecher]

From coast to coast in the USA there were and are bands of Native American musicians who play the music of John Philip Sousa and who specialize in this repertoire.  It's been going on for a long time. But that doesn't make the composer an Indian. Sousa is a Portuguese name. JPS was not an American Indian. JPS's father was Portuguese born in Spain and his mother was born in Bavaria. His father played trombone in the Marine Band of the USA in the mid 19th century. I don't think there were any Native  Americans doing that in the 1850s.  Where in the world did Bailey get the idea about "So"?   Oh! I know. Maybe he was actually a sheep. His sheep name was Ba and he added the iley to make his name prettier. Of course this is iley unlikely to be true, but then perhaps Ba wrote this article in an election year when speaking and printing unlikely and untrue things is the custom.

[Jody Stecher]

Or was this an obscure joke about americans? "so USA" could mean "very american".  Probably not.  I was left wondering how someone comes to believe that "So" is an American Indian name. I invest-a-migated. And here's what I found:

The original false rumor was not that he was named John Philip So but rather John Philipso (rhymes with Calypso?) to which he added USA, meaning United States of America. It was a publicity stunt. How the American Indian part got added remains a mystery.

http://www.dws.org/sousa/learn/questions/item/so-u-s-a

SO-U-S-A 

Q: I heard a story that Sousa was really an immigrant named John Philipso but because his steamer trunk was labeled "John Philipso, U.S.A.", he changed his name to SOUSA. Is this true?

A: Not true. There are several versions still floating around, all based on rumors that he added the U-S-A to his last name out of sheer patriotism. This is, however, false. Sousa's father was the immigrant, and Sousa (or Souza, or De Sousa) is a well-known Portuguese family name. The story was started by the Sousa Band's manager as a publicity stunt during one of the band's European tours, and it still endures nearly 80 years after Sousa's death.

http://www.dws.org/sousa/learn/questions/item/so-u-s-a

Jody Stecher said:

From coast to coast in the USA there were and are bands of Native American musicians who play the music of John Philip Sousa and who specialize in this repertoire.  It's been going on for a long time. But that doesn't make the composer an Indian. Sousa is a Portuguese name. JPS was not an American Indian. JPS's father was Portuguese born in Spain and his mother was born in Bavaria. His father played trombone in the Marine Band of the USA in the mid 19th century. I don't think there were any Native  Americans doing that in the 1850s.  Where in the world did Bailey get the idea about "So"?   Oh! I know. Maybe he was actually a sheep. His sheep name was Ba and he added the iley to make his name prettier. Of course this is iley unlikely to be true, but then perhaps Ba wrote this article in an election year when speaking and printing unlikely and untrue things is the custom.