Like a locomotive, Jimmie Rodgers came into this world with a force that is still strong over one hundred years later.  And like the trains that criss-crossed the country, Jimmie Rodgers’ legacy crosses over every aspect of the American music scene.  His music echoes in tunes we hear today as his memory is enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame, where on his plaque it states, “The Man That Started It All.”   Known as “The Father of Country Music”, he has garnished the W.C. Handy Blues Award and is in the Grammy Hall of Fame and the Songwriter Hall of Fame, and the first entertainer to be put on a US Postage Stamp...

In 1883 Wild Bufalo Bill Cody formed his Wild West Show and the first Vaudeville--Benjamine F. Keith opens theatre in Boston and we are seeing the early days of show business... the US Railroads adopt Standard Time, Thomas Edison pioneers the radio tube, and Etienne Jules Marey experiments with chronophotography--the photography of people in movement.  Then in 1884 German Paul Nipkow applied for a patent covering another image scanning system beginning of TV.   Ringling Brothers' Circus starts, and The Central Pacific Railroad is merged into the Southern Pacific Railroad.  In 1885, the first commercial moving-picture film was produced in Rochester, NY. Eastman Kodak, the film and camera maker.  Cattle business is the biggest business in the West and

the cattle barons are born.   Annie Oakley joins Bill Cody's Wild West Show, and the Santa Fe Railroad extends its service to Los Angeles.

 

In the year 1886, Marconi gets first patent for the invention of the radio and electric lighting begins to reach in urban areas. Patent granted to Charles Sumner Tainter and Chichester Bell (cousin of AG Bell) for a disc, but began to work on a cylinder for their work to replace the tin-foil that TA Edison develop for his tinfoil phonograph.  They used cardboard coated with wax.  3 years later their new machine the Graphophone, was ready for its first major exhibition in Washington DC 2 years later.   Sitting Bull joins Cody's Wild West Show and the first rodeo in America was held at Prescott, Arizona.  In 1987 Hannibal W. Goodwin of Newark, NJ applied for a patent for celluloid photographic film -- the stuff from which movies are shown.  Edison phonograph company is founded and Buck Taylor, King of the Cowboys is published.  Heinrich Hertz's electric waves will be the basis of radio communication, and there are now 200,000 US telephone listings. Thomas Edison invents the first motor-driven phonograph and opens new lab in W. Orange, NJ, Edison's new phonograph plays cylindrical wax records.

In 1989, Cecil B. DeMille is born, the Slot machine invented, the Columbia Phonograph Company was formed in Washington, DC., and there is the beginning of the Oklahoma Land Rush...Land Ho! At noon, the sound of a gun shot was the only signal needed for thousands of settlers to rush into the Oklahoma territory to claim land "sooners" name give to those that left too soon.  The Sioux Indians secede Dakota Territory to the U.S., Montana, South Dakota and Washington become states and the1st movie film developed by Edison, who also invents the prototype of the 1st juke box--Edison Tinfoil Phonograph with 4 listening tubes and a coin slot for each.  Electric lights are installed at the White House, The Wall Street Journal begins, Texas outlaw Belle Starr is shot dead in Oklahoma, and Ever Ready batteries are introduced.

 

In 1890, Sitting Bull is killed and many historians say that this was the end of the West, and the fastest time for a train is set 78.1 mph US has 125,000 miles of railroad in operation.  The Grand Opera House Opens it doors in Meridian, MS.  1891 and the
1st patent for a movie camera is T.A. Edison for his Kinetoscope, Carnegie Hall opens in New York, and the Ryman Auditorium is built in Nashville--for revivals.  That year is the1st photo of the sun, and Columbia first company to offer a catalog of its phonographs and cylinders.  The next year, 1892, get first U.S. patent for a radio, and The Dalton gang from Oklahoma are shot.

In 1893, Henry Ford builds the first auto.  T.A. Edison, changing the way the world lives is inventing things like the mimeograph, the phonograph, the movie camera, not to mention the electric light, and the radio and opens the world's first motion picture studio--his Black Maria in New Jersey.  The world's first ferries wheel goes up, and the American Buffalo head falls down to 1,090.  The next

year Sears is offering seven guitar models in its catalogue,  W.K. Dirckson received a patent for motion picture film, Marconi sends

a radio wave 3/4 mile..."wireless" is born...Edison demonstrated the Kenetoscope "peepshow" in New York City, showing 13

seconds of images of Annie Oakley and Buffalo Bill.

 

1895 Louis and Auguste Lumiere patent Cinematograph, actor Ken Maynard born, Marconi built a wireless system capable of transmitting signals at long distances, and Columbia was manufacturing hundreds of cylinders daily.  Woodville Latham demonstrated the first use of a moving picture projected on a screen in NY City.  The next year, 1996,  George Burns is born, The Gramophone is perfected by E.R. Johnson, gold is discovered in Alaska, and the Nobel Prize is established.   One of the earliest spring-powered Gramophones is advertised, and Westinghouse builds huge power generators at Niagara Falls, the 1st auto accident takes place in New York, and Thomas Edison's Vitoscope an improvement on his 1893 Kinetoscope is released.

 

James Charles Rodgers is born September 8, 1897, it's a time when Annie Oakley and Sitting Bull traveled with Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show, and trains, nearing 80 miles an hour began to connect the western territories with the populous eastern cities.  Moving faster than the train, the technological  inventions of the day such as the phonograph (talking machines), the radio (the wireless), and the big silver screen (flickers and talkies) would not only spur along Jimmie Rodgers’ career, but would give rise to

the Entertainment Industry itself.  Jimmie Rodgers was three years old when the century became nineteen hundred. 

 

In 1900, there was less than 10 miles of pavement in the entire U.S., and Casey Jones dies when his train the “Cannonball” wrecks,
the next year oil is discovered in Texas, Eldridge Johnson starts Victor Talking Machine Company, and U.S. Steel Corporation

is formed.  During this period of time tuberculosis was afflicting a majority of the population and was the major killer. In 1902, “The Great Train Robbery” is released and is the first movie with a plot.  Gibson begins to make guitars and mandolins, and the novel “The Virginian” is published.  The few years following would see the Wright Brothers fly at Kitty Hawk, Ford Motor Company sells its first car, the first film exchange in America established, New York open the subway, and the Pennsylvania Railroad inaugurates the “fastest long distance train in the world”, then  there is the San Francisco Earthquake.  Time and change is at a rate never known by man... In 1903 Jimmie Rodgers' mother dies and he begins his ramblin' life, first living with relatives.

New York City opens their first subway in 1904, the first Baldwin Locomotive, a big eight-wheeler of the Consolidation type is made, and Victor Talking Machines opens a new studio in New York.  Aaron Rodgers, Jimmie's dad, marries Ida Smith and moves to the the outskirts of Meridian, Miss. where Jimmie moves in with them for awhile. 

 

The next year Einstein presents his "Theory of Relativity", there are 4 million telephones in use, Bob Wills is born, the American Bison Society is formed to save the buffalo from extinction and "Variety Magazine" begins a weekly publication in New York.  Victor opens its own pressing plant.  That year of 1905, the Union Station railroad station at 1805 Front Street in Meridian, Miss.

is finished.  Tom Mix begins to ride in the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Wild West show near Ponca City, OK.  Jimmie's dad quits

the RR and tries farming in Pine Springs.  Jimmie is not getting along with his step-mother and moves to live with his brother.

Jimmie is 9, in 1906 and moves to live with his Aunt Dora in Pine Springs, hanging in the streets and missing school and loafing

his time away. Meridian is a booming rail and trade center in the south.  Lots of entertainment and theaters..."flickers" newfangled

moving picture shows were being shown between the vaudeville.  Aaron Rodgers goes back to work on the RR.  On the West

coast there is the San Francisco Earthquake.  Tex Ritter is born, the first radio broadcast of voice and music booms out of Brant

Rock, Mass.  The Victrola is introduced by Victor Talking Machine Co., who's Eldridge Johnson has enclosed the gramophone

horn in a cabinet.

 

"Even if Meridian's prohibition laws did effectively prohibit, the spirited, feisty young Jimmie Rodgers was hardly at a loss for other temptations.  In additon

to the fine, delicious evils that emanated from the rail shops and poo room, there were countless alleys to roam, pranks to play, drugstores with Belgian marble soda counters and gaudy trinkets, and a succession of tatty carnivals, circuses, and "expensive companies and leading stars" which played the Opera House....Young Jimmie apparently starstruck from birth, was fascinated by any kind of show; he was particularly excited when the Gem and Elite theaters, both nominally vaudeville houses, began to show the newfangled moving pictures between acts.   from JIMMIE RODGERS by Nolan Porterfield

 

 

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