Charles Rogers - He's a Poet and You Didn't Know it!

Charles Rogers and Stan Laurel (Credits Unknown)

Laurel and Hardy and Hal Roach Studios enthusiasts will undoubtedly know that Rogers had a real knack for writing gags - but what many don't know is that he was something of a poet too! In Leo M Brooks' excellent book The Laurel and Hardy Stock Company, there is printed a very seldom-seen poem penned by Rogers celebrating the success of Laurel and Hardy's 1950's tours entitled 'The Show Must Always Go On'.

"The Show Must Always Go On"

by Charles Rogers

To My dear pal Stan Laurel,

I dedicate this little verse to 'Laurel and Hardy'

In Memory of your trip to England.

At the dawn of our verse

The Curtain will rise

And the show must always go on.

In a long cavalcade

Like a Pageant Parade

The show must always go on.

And the part that they play

Has been moulded in clay

Like wine in a bottle improving each day

At times they were broke and down in the dumps

With cards stacked against them without any trumps,

But smiling together, they just took the bumps - 

For the show had to go on.

They're just two old strollers

With odd fitting bowlers

Who hope to return before long

But you know how you're hooked

You just play where you're booked,

'Cause the show has to go on.

Here's to the club they love and respect.

It's been battered and torn and pretty near wrecked

But you can't keep a "Water Rat" down 'till he's hecked.

'Cause the show just has to go on.

Gone are the troopers who laughed at the score.

They couldn't take bows, though we shouted "Encore."

So we'll just put a Star on their dressing room door.

For the show has to go on.

Brooks also mentions that the poem had previously been printed in Issue 6 of the Sons of the Desert Quarterly, Intra-Tent Journal.

Whilst we've stumbled across many hidden Rogers gems in our research thus far, we've sadly not found any more poems - but we're very thankful to Brooks for sharing 'The Show Must Always Go On' in his book, and to the late and great John McCabe for suggesting he do so.

Written by Holly Foskett