Comedy / Music / Film & TV
Timmie Rogers
1915–2006 · comedian, singer-songwriter, bandleader
Detroit-born comedian called the 'Jackie Robinson of comedy', one of the first Black comics to work solo and speak directly to white audiences, without blackface.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
Los Angeles, California
aged 91- Birth name
- Timothy Louis Ancrum
- Detroit years
- 1915–1927
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Rogers was born Timothy Ancrum in Detroit and was earning coins by dancing on the street at eight. At twelve he ran away and took a job washing dishes on a boat, picking up languages from the cooks, and later cleaned ashtrays in a ballroom until he was invited to dance on stage. From 1932 he toured vaudeville in the dance team Timmie & Freddie. In 1944 he went solo with a new kind of act: a well-dressed Black comic, often in a tuxedo, talking to the audience as himself about topical and political subjects, never in blackface. His catchphrase 'Oh yeah!' lasted fifty years. He starred in Uptown Jubilee (1949), television's first Black prime-time show, spent twelve years as a recurring guest on The Jackie Gleason Show, and wrote songs recorded by Nat King Cole and Sarah Vaughan. He was inducted into the National Comedy Hall of Fame in 1993.
Highlights
- Danced for coins on Detroit streets at age eight
- One of the first Black comedians to perform solo as himself, without blackface
- Starred in Uptown Jubilee (1949), TV's first Black prime-time show
- Recurring guest on The Jackie Gleason Show for over 12 years
- Inducted into the National Comedy Hall of Fame in 1993