RODGERS AND ROSSI

by ED BRUCE edbrucevegas@yahoo.com

BOY THIS WAS A STRANGE ONE.

ALLEGED COMEDIAN STEVE ROSSI AND SINGER JIMMY RODGERS.

ROSSI OF COURSE THE SINGING HALF OF THE ALLEN AND ROSSI TEAM....ROSSI 81 LAUGHED AT HIS OWN JOKES ....READ THEM OFF THE TELEPROMTER AND SANG MORE...DID NOT COME TO SEE HIM.

JIMMIE RODGERS MY HIGH SCHOOL SINGING HERO....DENNIS MOTT HAD PAT BOONE...DANNY PAVLIK HAD ELVIS AND I HAD RODGERS....WHAT A SWEET SOUND...KISSES SWEETER THAN WINE...SECTRETLY AND OF COURSE IN 1954 HONEYCOMB.

RODGERS A REAL TRAGIC LIFE WITH RECENT PROSTATE AND HEART SURGERIES...LOST HIS VOICE...ON WIFE NUMBER THREE...SANG OVER HIS HITS...SOUND WAS TREMENDOUS.

THE REAL TALE OF HIS DOWNFALL FOLLOWS HERE...STILL CLOUDY.

 

 

Head injuries, surgeries, lawsuits and aftermath[edit]

On December 1, 1967, Jimmie Rodgers suffered traumatic head injuries after the car he was driving was stopped by an off-duty police officer near the San Diego Freeway in Los Angeles. He had a fractured skull and required several surgeries. Initial reports in the newspapers attributed his injuries to a severe beating with a blunt instrument by unknown assailants.^[2][3] Rodgers had no specific memory of how he had been injured, remembering only that he had seen blindingly bright lights from a car pulling up behind him.^[4] A few days later, the Los Angeles Police Department stated that off-duty LAPD officer Michael Duffy (later identified in the press as Richard Duffy) had stopped him for erratic driving, and that Rodgers had stumbled, fallen and hit his head. According to the police version, Duffy then called for assistance from two other officers, and the three of them put the unconscious Rodgers into his car and left the scene.^[5] This account was supported by the treating physicians who had first blamed the skull fracture on a beating; by the latter part of December, they concluded that Rodgers had in fact fallen and that had caused his injuries.^[6] The following month, Rodgers filed an $11 million lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles, claiming that the three officers had beaten him.^[7] The police and the L.A. County District Attorney rejected these claims, although the three officers were given two-week suspensions for improper procedures in handling the case, particularly their leaving the injured Rodgers alone in his car. (He was later found by a worried friend.)^[8][9] The three officers and the LA Fire and Police Protective League filed a $13 million slander suit against Rodgers for his public statements accusing them of brutality.^[10] Neither suit came to trial; the police slander suit was dropped, and in 1973 Rodgers elected to accept a $200,000 settlement from the Los Angeles City Council, which voted to give him the money rather than to incur the costs and risks of further court action.^[11] Rodgers and his supporters still believe that one or more of the police officers beat him, although other observers find the evidence inconclusive.^[12][13]
Recovery from his injuries caused an approximately year-long period in which he ceased to perform. He eventually returned, though not reaching the Top 100 singles chart again. He did, however, make an appearance on the album chart as late as 1969, and his records hit the Billboard Easy Listening survey sporadically until 1978. Also, during the summer of 1969, he made a brief return to network television with a summer variety show on ABC (which later bought the rights to Rodgers' Dot Records releases, now owned by Universal Music Group).
Rodgers and his first wife Colleen (née McClatchey) divorced in 1970, and she died May 20, 1977.^[14] They had two children, Michael and Michelle. He had remarried in 1970, and Jimmie and Trudy Rodgers had two sons, Casey and Logan. He and Trudy divorced in the late 1970s, and he remarried again. Jimmie and Mary Rodgers are still married today, and they have a daughter, Katrine, who was born in 1989.
Rodgers appeared in a 1999 video, Rock & Roll Graffiti by American Public Television, along with about 20 other performers. He stated that he had suffered from spastic dysphonia for a number of years, and could hardly sing. Nevertheless, he gave a try at "Honeycomb", and he mentioned that he had a show in Branson, Missouri.

THIS A TWO NIGHTER AT THE LAS VEGAS HILTON...AWFUL PRODUCTION AND CONTINUITY...161 PLUS YEARS ON STAGE BUT I CRIED...I LOVED THIS JIMMY RODGERS MUSIC AND HE WAS SO WARM AND PROUD AND THE WORLDS GREATEST SMILE...GREAT VIDEOS WITH HIM AND TONY BENNET...CONNIE FRANCIS AND JACK NICHOLSON...LOVED THE VIDEOS...THE DAMN THING ACTUALLY STARTED EARLY....SOME WALKED OUT I AM SURE THEY HAD NO IDEA WHAT WAS GOING ON.
NO IDEA WHO THEY INTENDED TO SELL THIS TO OR WHY ?

I HAVE ALWAYS LOVED JIMMY RODGERS...SAW IN EL PASO IN 1972...WHAT A CAREER HE COULD HAVE HAD.

GREAT JOY HERE FOR ME....THANKS JIMMY GOOD TO SEE YOU ONE MORE TIME.

88B+...FOR BEING ALIVE