Charles Edward Kerr

Charlie Kerr (11 August 1890 Philadelphia – 7 October 1976 Coconut Grove, Miami, Florida) was an American jazz drummer who led a jazz orchestra bearing his name in Philadelphia beginning in the early 1920s. In 1922, Kerr led orchestra in the first radio remote broadcast of a dance in history from the Café L'Aiglon, Philadelphia, via WIP radio.^[1][2][3] Throughout the 1930s, his orchestra continued broadcasting on stations WFI and WLIT, which merged as WFIL in 1935. During the summers of the 1930, through World War II years, his orchestra performed in Cape May City, New Jersey.

Kerr retired from music in the late 1940s and opened his own furniture store in Miami.

Former members of the Charlie Kerr Orchestra

• William A. Bove (born 1901), piano
• Joseph DeLuca, trombone
• Jerry DeMasi (born 1901), saxophone
• Vincenzo d'Imperio (born 1885), saxophone
• Tommy Dorsey (1905–1956), trombone
• Frank Guarantee (1893–1942), trumpet
• Stan Keller (1907–1990), saxophone
• Edward Lang (1902–1933), banjo, guitar
• Leo McConville (1900–1968), trumpet^[4][5]
• Robert McCracken, Piano
• Michael O. Trafficante (born 1892), bass
• Albert Valante, violin
• Joe Venuti (1903–1978), violin
• Cecil Way, trumpet

Employers as a musician

• The Bellevue-Stratford Hotel, Philadelphia (c. 1918)

Family

In 1918, Charlie marred Edna VanDusen Kerr (née Hilt; 1894–1980). They had two children, Harry Nagle Kerr, D.O. (1912–1998) and Edward Allison Kerr (1924–2010).

Charlie’s parents, Henry Nagle Kerr (1867–1951 Miami)^[6] and Mary Emma Kerr (née Thomas; 1867–1943 Philadelphia)^[7] were married in 1889.

References

1. "Score to Store," Billboard, January 21, 1950, pg. 16
2. "Orchestra Notes: Atlantic Whisperings," Billboard, October 24, 1942, pg. 23
3. Edward Palmes J. Shurick (1912–2004), The first quarter-century of American broadcasting, Midland Publishing Company, Kansas City, MO (1946) OCLC 237672 LCCN 46-7926
4. Biographical Dictionary of Jazz, by Charles Eugene Claghorn (1911–2005), Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ (1982)
5. Who's Who of Jazz: Storyville to Swing Street, by John Chilton, Chilton Book Co., Philadelphia (1972)
6. "The Final Curtain," Billboard, September 29, 1951, pg. 56
7. "The Final Curtain," Billboard, May 15, 1943, pg. 28