"The Oakland Dandy"--Jay M. Roberts

"He lived beyond his means..."

Jay Roberts. Where do I start with this boy. He was a true San Francisco character, he is what people sixty years after his prime would call a "hippie". He was just an innocent blonde, born in Oakland California in 1890 who just happen to find a connection to the piano in his teen's.

 He was already a well-known child star in the San Francisco and Oakland area by the age of 15, and he was being recognized in mostly classical backgrounds before 1908. 

But in 1908 and 1909, the boy went astray from his innocent church-playing ways. He became tired of the highly-restricting ways of the community he was a part of. 

The wicked ways of ragtime had him! 

He immediately fell in love with the music, and wanted to play it every time he played anything from then on. He began to live the "Rag-Time Life", and he did---big time. He took up the cutting contests, the late-night shows, and took too high of an advantage of his money. Even if he was only 20, his first success, "The Entertainer's Rag" became a million seller hit within the next two years after he published it, in Oakland:

(From my own sheet music collection)

This tune was really something to start a music writing career...

It was heavy-handed, catchy, comical, creative, hard-to-play, and SCATTERED AS HELL! (some of my well played ragtimer friends even have trouble playing some of Roberts' quick runs in the piece!)

This was Roberts showing off all his style and eccentricities, it was truly a dandy Rag, just as he. 

He was the living image of his three Rags. 

"the Entertainer's rag" was a way for Roberts to kick out everyone who dared to pass him at the high staked cutting contests. He owned the show wherever he went, not intentionally even! He just looked that way.

 At over 6 feet tall, and a dashingly handsome-faced blond boy, it was hard not to set your eyes on his intense blue eyes. His playing was scattered, quick, heavy-handed, and progressive melodically. He was the epitome of the San Francisco Ragtime style. 

Not long after his first two success' in music, he began to take advantage of the "sporting life' he was then living by 1912. He bought a very expensive Regal auto by the end of 1912, and invested in several very pricey plots of land in Oakland and San Fran. By the end of 1913, he had acquired a small plane!(whew! what an investment) He seemed to go out flying his plane over the city often, as he became a very careful and skilled pilot by 1916. This must have been an amazing thing to see if you lived in SF in this time. But unfortunately for him, every one in Oakland ad SF knew him, and this meant that the law was becoming suspicious with him by 1914. He seemed not to have done any harm in 1914 and 1915, so nobody bothered with him, they just let him continue his performing, as he was still a very popular attraction. He was especially quite the sight at the 1915 Panama exposition in SF, as he has been said to have played there for many pianists who later became novelty pianists.

 All who described him saw him as a wildman, quick-minded on the piano keys, but played the Rags very well. He had a rather disorganized melodic structure usually, but his power and style over-rulled that factor. He began the pieces with all of his hair in line, and fresh faced, but after every set, his hair was all in random strands all over his face, which was then tinted red by the set's end. 

His innocence was severed to its ending in the next year, 1916. He took up the I  habit a few years prior to 1916, but this is when he got into a big bust for it. He was also accused of flying in weapons to aid the rebels of the Mexican revolution. All of these things were considered vile to both his family and the SF court system. These two heavy charges got him exiled from SF, and he never pleaded once the desire to come back. So Jay just set off on his way down to Los Angeles. 

He lived in L.A. with his wife, Grace, as an occasional performer and a pilot, living mostly out of the public eye for the rest of his life. He remained in L.A. until about 1922, and then he made the(rather terrible) decision to go and live in Panama. He could not get any work whatsoever in this rather secluded latin country, and he was not the type who wanted to work out at the canal, but he did anyway at any time he had the means to. He had nowhere to turn to, he probably had to beg people for some of the snuff(opium) that he was than addicted to. 

Roberts couldn't tae life any longer, in 1932(at the deep depths of the great depression)he scribbled a little note to whomever came later, that he was tired of life and the pain he was going through. So he shot himself with a small revolver and his wife came later only to find him dead on the floor with the heartbreaking note.

He became a forgotten ragtimer from then on. The Oakland Dandy was no more.

His style still echoes in the surviving old music halls of San Francisco to-day. Being a bay area citizen, I can still hear and see the faint echoes of the ghost of Jay Roberts whenever I go a little north to San Fran or Oakland---especially Oakland. 

I hope you enjoyed this!