[AMERICANA; COUNTRY MUSIC; PROMOTION/ADVERTISING BOOKLET; BLACK/AFRICAN AMERICAN PERIOD RACIAL STEREOTYPES] SONGS AS FEATURED BY JESSE ROGERS, VICTOR RECORDING AND RADIO STAR, America's Favorite Cowboy Singer and Blue Yodeler, self-published by Jesse Rogers, printed by H Ray Ha'mel Photolith, San Diego, California, no date/ca. 1938 (date of front cover illustration by Lee Payne), 6-3/4” x 10”, softcover/paper wraps, staple-bound, 52 pages including wraps/paper covers, photographs, illustrations, song lyrics, music scores, 6-page listing of radio stations in towns, cities, or counties/provinces as applicable in U.S. states, Mexico, Cuba, and Canada, “Chord Chart” for guitar and banjo, 1-page, 2-column essay “The Mexican Bullfight” As Described by Sr. Victor Muzquez (Announcer on staff of XEPN), an amateurish, roughly published booklet (like an early zine) with an eclectic content, “Hello Radio Friends Everywhere – In answer to the requests of many of my friends all over the country, I have published this album of songs, containing all the old and new favorites I have enjoyed singing for you over the years…many of them are my own compositions…for those [songs] you do not know [newer songs, and others not the most popular], you will find a complete musical score, so that you can quickly learn the guitar accompaniments…I want all of you to learn these fine old songs [traditional cowboy and western songs], and to help keep their popularity alive, for they present a great period on America's musical history…a period of simple, sincere songs that should never die…” (from Roger's foreword ending with facsimile handwriting, “Come ride the range and yodel with me, Jesse”; cartoon-like illustrations include stereotypes of Blacks, cowboys, women, and man-woman romance; the photographs are hazy; RARE, no copies listed at WorldCat/OCLC, and none found for sale on the market online (7/27/20), presumed only known surviving copy /// POINTS OF INTEREST: “JESSE ROGERS, cousin of the famed country music star Jimmie Rodgers, changed the spelling of his last name to try to establish his own identity in the music field and also maybe link himself to the cowboy star Roy Rogers who was then popular; Jesse Rogers (RCA Victor) is solidly booked for the entire summer in parks and fairs under his Philly TV name, Ranger Joe.” (https://archive.org/stream/cashbox13unse_43/cashbox13unse_43_djvu.txt); Jesse Rodgers, the Cousin of the Father of Country Music When Jimmie Rodgers finally succumbed to tuberculosis on May 26, 1933, the world of country music was left without it's founding father, and Victor records was left without one of it's biggest stars. If an effort to fill the void, Victor quickly signed Jimmie's cousin, Jesse Rodgers, to their Bluebird record label. Similarities between the two were emphasized, with rumors circulating that they had grown up in the same household (they hadn't), and that Jimmie had taught Jesse to play the guitar (he probably didn't). Sides were recorded with distinctly Jimmie Rodgers-esque titles (“Yodeling Railroad Blues”), and Jesse even signed his early promotional photographs with Jimmie's trademark “Yodelingly Yours.”.But as time wore on Jesse must have found the comparisons to Jimmie constricting, or perhaps waning commercial interest in Jimmie Rodgers imitators made them less desirable. He developed his own “singing cowboy” persona, and by 1938 had dropped the “d” from his last name in an effort to further distance himself from his cousin (and likely to associate himself with that other singing cowboy, Roy Rogers)…While he never came close to being the national star Jimmie was, the singing cowboy Jesse Rogers had a successful career as a featured performer on the WLS National Barn Dance in Chicago and on WFIL's Hayloft Hoedown in Philadelphia (where he would go on to host the children's television show Ranger Joe. His recording career continued into the early '60s, when emphysema forced him to retire.” (https://blogs.lib.unc.edu/sfc/tag/cowboy-songs/); LIMITED BLACK/AFRICAN AMERICANA CONTENT: on page 38 there is a half-page nonsense prose section titled “Jesse's Talking Blues” which is the monologue of a Black/African-American about hanging around a “white folks” farmyard reading in part, “Standing on a corner with a bucket in my hand waiting for the slope [sic] where the white folks stand…[shoots hog]…Says scrapings — eating hog eyes — love chitlings…They put me in the jailhouse on my knees…got hold of a goose, white folks say you better turn him loose…”, at lower right of the section is a caricature of a Black man (this section is shown in one of the photos); on p. 5 there is a small illustration of a Blackman playing a banjo /// CONDITION: well-preserved, minimal wear, as noted above, roughly published with worn look of photos faded and limited spots of text broken though this was the way it was published, light vertical crease down middle of all pages, scattered light, transparent soiling, scribbling in left margin of page 11 not affecting any text, small dog-ears at lower right corners of some pages.
