It’s a tragedy some people are nearly forgotten. Timmie Rogers was a hugely popular, crowd-pleasing African-American comedian who appeared often on The Ed Sullivan Show during the 1950s and 1960s with his catchphrase tagline: “Oh, yeah!” But he was a quadruple threat: comedian, singer, dancer and composer. He was a smash performer. Details on him on the web are sketchy but here’s a tiny bit.
For comedy fans and aspiring comedians and show biz types, here’s a WONDERFUL bit: Rogers doing a comedy bit with the legendary great comedian Jackie Gleason.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7NCg_B2q4QAnd here he on TV giving a 1970s sitcom his personal comedic touch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0e4PxpY9dQ
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.