The Rogers Family
When I was studying at The University of Kent and went digging through its delightfully huge collection of theatre and music hall memorabilia for anything related to Charles (Charley/ie) Rogers, I was hoping to stumble across a couple of potential credits that we could use to patch up our understanding of his career path - little did I know I would stumble across something far bigger, and far more enlightening regarding the Rogers story. This started me on the path of learning about his early life, and to the discovery that he was part of a very talented and fascinating show business family.
In 1961, Claude Flory published an article in the academic journal Modern Drama delving extensively into the life and career of an English playwright, Charles Rogers - who, it turns out, was actually the father of our Charles Rogers. He was also the father of actors Gerald and John Rogers (who you've likely seen in many films throughout the 1930's and 1940's. In fact Gerald actually appears in A Chump at Oxford!), as well as to (potential) actresses May Rogers and Lilian Rogers - who, incidentally, was married to actor O.P Heggie - probably best known for his role as the blind hermit in Frankenstein (1931).
The senior Charles Rogers, who had originally been a waterproof maker, penned many plays - and whilst he never quite became a household name, he was still very successful. I also found out from some British Newspaper Archive digging that Stan Laurel’s father, Arthur Jefferson, actually staged one of Rogers’ plays, The Days of Cromwell, in 1900. Rogers even penned the first play about Sherlock Holmes - albeit unofficially. It seems Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was not best pleased about this, - in fact you can actually read his response to the play here on The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia.
Even after his tragically young passing in 1899, Rogers' plays continued to be performed across the globe. In fact, our Charles Rogers oversaw several productions of his own - but that's something for another time. For the moment, I'm going to switch us back to John Rogers.
Much of the information in Flory's article was provided by John and his (unpublished) memoir. In this memoir, he touches upon the childhood and career beginnings he shared with his siblings;
'Like the farmer who needed hands to run the farm, so play authors had to cast plays as cheaply as possible. The result was that we all - like so many other English actors' families - made our debuts in the theatre at a very young age.'
He also mentions that his father became so successful that the family’s children were able to attend private grammar schools (for Charles and John, this was a now long-gone school called Taplow College in the village of Taplow, Buckinghamshire).
It goes without saying how incredibly frustrating it is that this memoir was never published - just think of what a gold mine it would be for so many theatre and film historians! In an ideal world, John’s manuscript is tucked away somewhere in a loft, just waiting to be rediscovered and shared…
This is where I’ll round up this entry for now, but please do expect more updates on this as the unravelling of the Rogers story is very much ongoing - and probably will be for some time.
As always, if you have any suggestions, queries, or information for this project - whether that's about Rogers or any Roach writer - please do let us know by leaving a comment or sending us an email at roachwriters@gmail.com.
Thanks so much for reading and for your interest in the blog - and please stay tuned for more! 😎
Holly Foskett
Cited Sources:
Flory, Claude (1 September 1961). "Charles Rogers: Late Victorian Provincial Playwright". Modern Drama, p. 117–130
Letter from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to John Reid (1894) Available at: https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/Letter_to_John_Reid_about_Holmes_drama_%283_june_1894%29
Unknown author (29 Nov 1900) Advertisement for 'THE DAYS OF CROMWELL' produced by Arthur Jefferson, Shields Daily News
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