Jass.com: Info About the Frogs

The Who, What and Where of The Frogs

The Officers were:

Directors:
- George W. Walker - President
- J. Rosamond Johnson - Vice-president
- Jesse Shipp - Treasurer
- R. C. McPherson (Cecil Mack) - Secretary
House Committee
- Tom Brown - Chairman
- R. C. McPherson (Cecil Mack)
- Lester A Walton
Auditing Committee
- Samuel Corker Jr - Chairman
Art Committee
- Bert Williams
- Bob Cole
Historian
- Alex Rogers
Librarian
- James Reese Europe

On July 18, 1908, The Frogs Club was organized in New York by the 11 men featured in the photograph. Less than a month before, most of them had performed at a benefit, at the West End Theater in New York, for Ernest Hogan. Hogan, a veteran of the musical theater was a man they had all worked with before and must have admired. One of the unanswered questions about this group is whether the Frogs were formed as a memorial to Hogan.

The group was named after the characters in Aristophanes' play and Aesop's fable. The founders meant the organization's name to symbolize their feelings of dignity and responsibility. The "club" was held in great respect by the Harlem commuinty and held benefits in various cities on the East Coast.

Information about Other Frogs

Lester Walton
- He was a reviewer for the New York Age who later became manager of the Lafayette Theater. In 1906, he was described as a former writer for the St. Louis Star engaged as Ernest Hogan's personal representative and the following year, he acted in Hogan's musical, Rufus Rastus.
Sam Corker
- Corker was business manager for the Bob Cole's musical, Trip to Coontown. In 1901 he was treasurer for another show, The Hottest Coon in Dixie Co. In 1909, he was the advance representative for Cole and Johnson's Broadway musical comedy, Red Moon. On Sept. 10, 1910, Corker became the manager of Robert Mott 's Pekin Theater in Chicago.
Jesse Shipp
- Jesse Shipp, performed in some of the earliest African American musical shows. In 1896, he was a vocalist for Isham's Oriental America and in 1897 he acted in Bob Cole's Trip to Coontown. He also spent much time with the Williams and Walker team as a writer, actor and stage manager. In 1910 , he wrote and performed in A Night in New York's Chinatown at the Pekin Theatre, described as a "comedy pantomime of lowly life."
Tom Brown
Tom Brown was a dancer and performer in many of the turn-of-the-century Black musicals.

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