John Shearer: More Emmett Rogers/Tivoli-Related Scrapbooks Discovered

An Oct. 15 story on the life of former pioneering Tivoli Theatre manager Emmett Rogers written in connection with the theater’s 100^th  anniversary discussed three of Mr. Rogers’ scrapbooks that had been given to the Chattanooga Public Library in 2008.

 

They had been donated by his daughter and only child, Gwen Rogers, and a note with the collection said some other scrapbooks had been given to Clyde Hawkins, who in the 1970s and ‘80s was the manager of the Tivoli and Memorial Auditorium.

 

It turns out those have now been found to be in the possession of another Chattanoogan, Debbie King, and the retired nurse plans to give them to the Chattanooga Public Library’s local history and genealogy department, too.

As a result, his scrapbooks will soon be reunited like some of the famous on-again, off-again silver screen romances of old.

 

With a circuitous plot also not unlike those displayed on the screen of the Tivoli in its old original days as a movie theater, Mr. Hawkins had moved to Florida in his later years before his death in 2017.

 

But about the time he was leaving, Bones Boring acquired that set of scrapbooks as well as a large envelope of some clippings from the Tivoli’s days showing old movies again in the 1970s and ‘80s.

 

“He (Mr. Boring) knew Clyde, and Clyde sold him all these things before he moved to Florida,” Ms. King said during a recent meeting at the Gunbarrel Road Panera to show the items before she made plans to contact the library.

 

Another part of the collection is a large, silver-plated trophy cup presented to Mr. Rogers by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio for outstanding publicity for the 1920s war movie, “The Big Parade.” It looks like the kind pro golfers or pro tennis players hold up after winning a big tournament.

 

Ms. King’s former husband, Bill Roper Jr., is a friend of Mr. Boring, and Ms. King ended up acquiring the items back in January of this year for $300 from him. 

 

She has her own connection to the Tivoli, as the Northern Ohio native had approached Mr. Hawkins off the street one day in 1984 and encouraged him to have a “Three Stooges” film festival at the theater.

 

He obliged and the event ended up being a success, and Mr. Hawkins continued to thank her over the years.

 

“He said it was a commercial success,” Ms. King recalled, saying she helped promote it by posting flyers at UTC and elsewhere. “People packed out the Tivoli for the four shows and you could hear them (laughing) down the street.

 

“As a result, he gave me four free tickets to every movie after that.”

 

Nearly 40 years later, Ms. King would decide to return a favor regarding the Tivoli. When the first story was posted last month on Mr. Rogers, and reference was made to the three scrapbooks in the library archives, Ms. King’s former husband saw it and told her.

 

Realizing she wanted to make sure the items are preserved and not sold online and thinking about some catastrophic events like the 2020 tornado that hit near her East Brainerd home, she knew then that she wanted to give them to the library.

 

She hopes to donate them in memory of her former husband’s late parents, William T. and Eugenia Wilburn Roper.

 

“They lived here, and they were upset when the Rogers Theatre (named for the former Tivoli manager) was torn down (in 1980),” she said. “It would be nice to memorialize them. He was a lawyer in Chattanooga.”

 

The collection includes eight scrapbooks, and they feature much more than photographs and information on the Tivoli and the Rialto. Those were the local theaters owned by the firm for which Mr. Rogers worked when the Tivoli opened in 1921 and were the main subjects of the other scrapbooks.

 

A quick perusing of the ones Ms. King owns reveals such items as old copies of the Municipal Record publication of news about city of Chattanooga happenings when Mr. Rogers was a secretary to the mayor in the 1910s. He likely had a hand in the journal’s publication, and the newsletters feature photos of such forgotten landmarks as a handsome Richardsonian Romanesque-style fire hall at 11^th and Carter streets.

 

The collection also includes photographs from some apparent movie stars, drawings the talented artist did of various prominent Chattanooga women (including Dorothy Brizzie) and others, 1920s-era Christmas cards from Mr. Rogers and the Tivoli stage crew, a yearbook drawing he did before he graduated from Chattanooga High in 1912, a 1908 Chattanooga Star newspaper drawing, and a letter welcoming him as a member of the Kiwanis Club of Chattanooga.

 

Other items are general correspondence from Rock City head Garnet Carter, a certificate for attending the Panama-California Exhibition of 1915 in San Diego, an article from Motion Picture News where he is quoted about the ills of the movie industry, and a 1923 article saying he was moving to Atlanta to work for a new movie chain (before coming back).

 

One of his scrapbooks also has a page or two of photographs under the heading, “Motion Picture Celebrities I have Met.” However, silent film comedian Harold Lloyd is the only one identified.

 

But Mr. Rogers and the Tivoli might be even more easy to identify with through all the pages of the recently rediscovered books.

 

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To see the previous story on Emmett Rogers and the Tivoli, read here.

https://www.chattanoogan.com/2021/10/15/436729/John-Shearer-A-Look-At-Pioneering.aspx

 

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Jcshearer2@comcast.net