The name Rollin Chappell Wooster has only been known for a relatively short period of time, since it wasn't until someone like Tim Brooks wrote Lost Sounds, that his name was more accessible and read by people that weren't just record collectors. Of course, only real geeks and historians own that amazing book Lost Sounds, of which almost too much can be taken from it. If you have any sort of interest in this subject matter, I highly suggest the book to you, as there's so much I have taken from it and used it for in essays I have written for school, seminars I've done, and even many posts on this blog!
Didn't mean to be an advertisement for a moment, I just want more people to have the chance to read that book.
Not much is known about this mysterious silent man, but it is interesting and both suspicious that Wooster was silent in not just one affair. His first big matter of study(as far as we know, it could be something earlier...) was the murder trial of George W. Johnson. I did a very detailed post about this trial back in May, so I won't get into specific detail about the trial itself. It remains unclear if Columbia hired him for the case or if Fred Hylands did, as it would have worked either way. According to Tim Brooks, Wooster was a young and hot attorney for Columbia in the late-1890's, who knew all of the sleazy dealing that was going on at Columbia(from being an associate of Hylands'), from managers having domestic woes to the studio talent beginning their own businesses. If you wanted to know anything about Columbia in that time, it seems that Wooster was the one to go to. This status must have almost immediately caught Hylands' attention, since to start his new publishing ventures involved a legal advisor(that wasn't just Len Spencer). In this case, he needed someone who really knew law and knew Columbia's doings better than even Vic Emerson did, and Emerson had been the studio manager since 1897.
After doing some digging on him to-day, with the help of Charlie Judkins, we found that Wooster was a very respectable man in his day, certainly someone that Columbia's management would have instantly fallen in love with. He was from Connecticut, a wasp in all respects, but that's not all, he was a law graduate from Yale, which was what must have earned him so much love and respect from Columbia's legal associates. His status and high education earned him a place as one of Columbia's special attorneys in the late-1890's. It remains unknown how Columbia encountered him, and first took an interest in him, but it might have something to do with Fred Hylands.
Hylands had taken him under his publishing umbrella in 1899, as a legal advisor and publicist. At this, Fred might have recommended Wooster to the Columbia staff, or maybe he didn't have anything to do with Columbia and it was all Hylands. It's very hard to know, Tim Brooks doesn't really indicate in Lost Sounds that Wooster was already an attorney associated with Columbia or if he was part of the Johnson trial only. It's near impossible that we'll ever know what his association to Columbia was, but it's likely that Hylands threw him in the pit that was Columbia's legal department(or violently shoved him in with trembling hands that is). Wooster had the deepest and most well-organized file of the case.
He knew everything.
No matter what everyone asked him, he kept his lying trap shut. When came the day of the trial, after weeks of study and discussing the matter over with the Hylands Spencer and Yeager crew(everyone involved in the firm, even Roger Harding, Burt Green, and Will J. Hardman) he knew the case inside and out. The boys at the firm probably all gave him hugs and handshakes securing their burning trust in him the day that he went into that courtroom(some of them probably came to the court that day anyway...). The entire time, he kept his mouth shut, watching the entire thing go by without a word. After Johnson was acquitted, on the front steps of the court, the New York Sun reported these words from Wooster:
Johnson is what you call a good coon[nice drop of racism there]. He is too good-natured to have ever killed that woman. We're going to take him to a hotel tonight or to Mr. Emerson's home and give him a good dinner, sitting right down at the same table as him. I am glad that I was the first to shake hands with him after he was discharged. He can earn $35 to $100 a week singing and whistling.
All of that seems kindly convincing(except the first thing he said). After that interview, I can see Hylands coming up to him and giving him a hug, or something of that nature. Master Fred was pleased, and so was everyone else at Hylands Spencer and Yeager. The whole thing about going out to eat after the trial with Johnson seems a little weird, since they wouldn't have really gotten in to most eating establishments with a black man in the mix, or maybe they would after some explanation. It's unlikely that they did that afterward, even though that sort of thing seems stereotypical for those Columbia "thugs" like Len Spencer and Fred Hylands. The white side of the spectrum went out to paint the town after the trial, without Johnson adding a little colour to the pallet. They were all breathing deep sighs of relief at the acquittance of Johnson, and much like Russell Hunting's return from Comstock and prison in 1896, Wooster was revered as a hero and respectable man in the Columbia community, and at Hylands Spencer and Yeager. With this success, Fred probably begged Wooster to remain involved with the firm, which he probably did, since it was still running strong by the middle of 1900 as reports said.
After the firm fell, Wooster went on to become a district attorney, and work as a congressman's private secretary. By 1905, he was a Baptist minister, seemingly jumping from the left of the pond to the right in his views, no longer defending less-than-moral men like Fred Hylands and Len Spencer. He had moved out of the New York area by 1910, as he died in 1917 out in Georgia, where his obituary stated he had been for a few years by then. Much of the background information on him came from that very obituary from 1917. It seems that his later doings were of much more respect from most people, since as far as we could find, there's nothing yet on the entire Johnson trial or his association with Hylands, Spencer, and Yeager The absence of all of that is very interesting, yet seems pretty strange in many ways.
Before I finish the post, I must make something right that has been an issue for years now. A descendant of John Yorke Atlee wants me to make it clear that his birthdate is 1853, not 1842 as most sources say out there. The 1842 date comes from someone finding the grave of one of John's older siblings, his brother in fact. I hope more record sources take this up, since I find it very important to fulfill the wishes of family members of these great performers.
After doing some digging on him to-day, with the help of Charlie Judkins, we found that Wooster was a very respectable man in his day, certainly someone that Columbia's management would have instantly fallen in love with. He was from Connecticut, a wasp in all respects, but that's not all, he was a law graduate from Yale, which was what must have earned him so much love and respect from Columbia's legal associates. His status and high education earned him a place as one of Columbia's special attorneys in the late-1890's. It remains unknown how Columbia encountered him, and first took an interest in him, but it might have something to do with Fred Hylands.
He knew everything.
No matter what everyone asked him, he kept his lying trap shut. When came the day of the trial, after weeks of study and discussing the matter over with the Hylands Spencer and Yeager crew(everyone involved in the firm, even Roger Harding, Burt Green, and Will J. Hardman) he knew the case inside and out. The boys at the firm probably all gave him hugs and handshakes securing their burning trust in him the day that he went into that courtroom(some of them probably came to the court that day anyway...). The entire time, he kept his mouth shut, watching the entire thing go by without a word. After Johnson was acquitted, on the front steps of the court, the New York Sun reported these words from Wooster:
Johnson is what you call a good coon[nice drop of racism there]. He is too good-natured to have ever killed that woman. We're going to take him to a hotel tonight or to Mr. Emerson's home and give him a good dinner, sitting right down at the same table as him. I am glad that I was the first to shake hands with him after he was discharged. He can earn $35 to $100 a week singing and whistling.
All of that seems kindly convincing(except the first thing he said). After that interview, I can see Hylands coming up to him and giving him a hug, or something of that nature. Master Fred was pleased, and so was everyone else at Hylands Spencer and Yeager. The whole thing about going out to eat after the trial with Johnson seems a little weird, since they wouldn't have really gotten in to most eating establishments with a black man in the mix, or maybe they would after some explanation. It's unlikely that they did that afterward, even though that sort of thing seems stereotypical for those Columbia "thugs" like Len Spencer and Fred Hylands. The white side of the spectrum went out to paint the town after the trial, without Johnson adding a little colour to the pallet. They were all breathing deep sighs of relief at the acquittance of Johnson, and much like Russell Hunting's return from Comstock and prison in 1896, Wooster was revered as a hero and respectable man in the Columbia community, and at Hylands Spencer and Yeager. With this success, Fred probably begged Wooster to remain involved with the firm, which he probably did, since it was still running strong by the middle of 1900 as reports said.
After the firm fell, Wooster went on to become a district attorney, and work as a congressman's private secretary. By 1905, he was a Baptist minister, seemingly jumping from the left of the pond to the right in his views, no longer defending less-than-moral men like Fred Hylands and Len Spencer. He had moved out of the New York area by 1910, as he died in 1917 out in Georgia, where his obituary stated he had been for a few years by then. Much of the background information on him came from that very obituary from 1917. It seems that his later doings were of much more respect from most people, since as far as we could find, there's nothing yet on the entire Johnson trial or his association with Hylands, Spencer, and Yeager The absence of all of that is very interesting, yet seems pretty strange in many ways.
Before I finish the post, I must make something right that has been an issue for years now. A descendant of John Yorke Atlee wants me to make it clear that his birthdate is 1853, not 1842 as most sources say out there. The 1842 date comes from someone finding the grave of one of John's older siblings, his brother in fact. I hope more record sources take this up, since I find it very important to fulfill the wishes of family members of these great performers.
Hope you enjoyed this!
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