Charles Cohen

The first target is Arthur Charles Cohen in Philadelphia born in Germany on September 20, 1875 and immigrated to the United States in 1892. He was a piano teacher and self-employed musician throughout his life. That there was little ragtime published in Philadelphia would suggest the possibility that this Cohen, who could have used his middle name to avoid being confused with author Arthur M. Cohen of Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, might have published primarily with Vandersloot Music Publishing Company in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. However, after considering information uncovered on two other Cohens and the presence of a couple of popular pieces published in Cleveland, Ohio, it seems likely, in the author's estimation that this Cohen was potentially responsible only for a series of five pieces released between 1932 and 1936 attributed to a Charles Cohen. There is a diminished possibility that that these were the responsibility of the second Charles Cohen discussed below. These were five songs composed to known stories or lyrics, somewhat in the matter of Texas composer David Guion who had been resurrecting old American tunes in new arrangements. The last of the five, Rivets, was a contemporary look at American workers. All five were released as a set in New York in 1936.

The 1910, 1920 and 1930 censuses showed Cohen working as a musician or music teacher in Philadelphia in his own home studio, residing with his wife Mary and children Frederick (1906) and Evelyn (1913). Cohen died on April 27, 1939, in Philadelphia. The G. Schirmer Company of New York issued some of his works in the early 1940s under the pseudonym of Charles Kingsford, his music set to words by some noted poets.

The second Charles Cohen was born on June 18, 1874, in rural Kansas to German (Prussian) immigrants Henry and Sarah Cohen. He was one of six children, four of which survived their childhood. Others included Lenah (c.1873), Ralph (c.1877), Mattie (c.1879 but deceased by 1900), and Hannah (c.1882). As of the 1880 census, the family was living in Saint Marys, Kansas, in Pottawatomie County, northwest of Topeka, with Henry working as a retail merchant in dry goods. tatters rag cover

While the family is difficult to track over the next decade, by 1894 they had moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where Henry was listed in the directories as a tailor or finisher. Charles had received some formal piano training during this period, perhaps at the fine conservatory in Cleveland. In the 1899 directory he was listed as a music teacher, living with the family on 251 Sawtell Avenue. By the following year the family had moved to 5 Ledge Avenue, where Charles was now listed as a musician. The same was true in the 1900 census, where he is shown to be a Musical Director, possibly in a theater or for a band.

In 1903, the Cleveland Cohen was married to Emma Pearl Marks, a Kentucky-born girl who had been working as a stenographer. Playing in local theaters as a soloist and, according to local directories and ads, in bands, he was likely doing some musical arranging, leading to composition. His first known published work was Tatters issued in Cleveland in 1906 by the dominant local house, Sam Fox Publishing. It is a pleasant two step that was easily adaptable for band. Three years later he would follow with it up with the tuneful waltz, Dream of the Flowers, also published by Fox. In 1908, Charles and Pearl had their first of two daughters, Lenore. Their daughter Florence would follow in 1910. The couple was shown living in Cleveland in 1910 with Charles listed as a musician in an orchestra.

In 1918 on his draft record, Charles was listed as employed in the Duchess Theater at 5708 Euclid Avenue, where he worked with stage plays and musicals for many years. Much of the fare at this time was comprised of Yiddish musicals and melodramas. He was likely still working there in 1920 when he listed himself as a musician playing piano. Little is known of his activities in the 1920s save for a couple of notices of him in the Duchess and one other Cleveland theater. It appears that he also played for a movie house at some point in the early to mid-1920s. In 1930 the entire Cohen family was still living together, but with hard economic times coming upon the country they had taken in a lodger as well. Charles was still working as a musician in a theater, potentially the Duchess which was still in business at that time. That he was still working suggests the possibility that he may have been the source of the New York publications of the mid-1930s, but this is hard to verify.

The Ohio Cohen spent his remaining years in Cleveland. The 1940 enumeration showed no occupation for either Charles or Pearl. He was not seen in any newspaper billings after 1940 or so, and at 66 appears to have retired from daily work. He died in Cleveland on April 3, 1956, at age 82.

Now to the Charles Cohen who was responsible for some of the better known rags published in Pennsylvania in the 1910s. While the expectation might be that he, like the other two Cohens, was of European or Russian Jewish heritage, this is not the case. This Charles Cohen was a black composer, born in Georgia (he cites the town of Cuba which may be in error) in 1878. riverside rag cover

He was the youngest of what appeared to be a mixed family of whites, blacks and mulattos, likely dating back to the time of slavery. The family was found in Rome, Georgia in 1880, with all of the non-white members shown as servants in a house run by tobacco merchants. This includes his mother, Susan Cohen, and at least three potential siblings who were also listed as black. They included Julius (1873), Elizabeth "Lizzie" (1870) and Jacob (1868), and perhaps two more listed as mulatto, Celia (1856) and Julia (1852).

While Susan was shown to be married, no spouse was specified in the 1880 census. Charles cites his father as having been born in England (making him potentially a mulatto) in the 1900 census, but all others cite South Carolina for his origin. Nothing definitive was found on his upbringing or musical training. However, many well-to-do families in the South at that time had a keyboard instrument of some kind in their home. At some point, Charles received some formal training in music as well as piano tuning and repair, as he would engage in both as a career later in life.

Cohen was listed in the 1900 census in Montrose, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, boarding in the home of local physician Benjamin Carey, who headed a white family. While this would be unusual in many parts of the country then, there was a higher tolerance in the northeast for such living accommodations, something which would be tested by Cohen in years to come. It is likely that Charles was associated with two of the sons of his host, both musicians, including Ralph L. Carey, who was the same age as Cohen and his older brother George B. Carey.

Working primarily as a musician in Northern Pennsylvania and Southern New York State, Charles moved to Binghamton, New York sometime around late 1905. His name started appearing in Binghamton directories in 1906 as a musician, and in the Binghamton newspaper in 1907. The 1910 census taken in Binghamton showed him as boarding with Miss Parmelia Tiffany, and working as a music teacher. According to a book on Binghamton written by Ed Aswad and Suzanne Meredith, Charles found work in this southern New York town as a musician, a music teacher, and as a piano and organ technician.

There was an amusement park in Binghamton located in town on Riverside Drive, where he likely performed, as was common in the 1900s and 1910s. It was a drawing of this park that appeared on one of his first compositions, Riverside Rag, self-published in Binghamton in 1910. fashion rag cover

A similarly themed piece titled Carnival Bingo appeared that same year, also under the moniker of the Cohen Music Company. However, Carnival Bingo was printed in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, home of two publishers at that time, so was possibly jobbed out to one of them. The most likely candidate would be Vandersloot Music, since on the Riverside Rag cover there is a reference to a song Cohen co-composed with Vandersloot manager and resident composer, Harry J. Lincoln, even though it was actually written with his Binghamton colleague Kenneth Lacey (possibly a pseudonym since an identity could not be ascertained).

In short order, both rags would be obtained and reissued by Vandersloot, along with I Love You Still, the song that Cohen co-wrote with Lacey. Riverside Rag now had a much different cover by Vandersloot resident artist Walter J. Dittmar, which while clever was also, in retrospect, one of the more offensive ones of the ragtime era. It featured two little black boys at the riverside taking a swim while two alligators (crocodiles?) discuss them as a potential meal. However, the piece itself is still popular a century later. The original cover was likely abandoned since it was specific to Binghamton. Just the same, the choice for the replacement is curious given the possibilities that would go with the name Riverside. Another Vandersloot reissue followed in 1911 with Baby Lou of 1910, lyrics also by Lacey. Then in 1912 they issued Fashion Rag, another fine piece of Cohen's that has remained popular as well. That was the last that was seen of Charles Cohen in print for some time other than the 1914 piece Only You (ambiguous as per the listing). The pieces listed above comprise the bulk of the output of Charles Cohen number three.

Cohen had married Lillian Rosenzweig in 1911, and as she was white and Jewish theirs was a mixed marriage on many levels. However, he had obviously gained the respect of those in Binghamton and was thought of very highly. Also, miscegenation in general was better tolerated in this area of the country. During the 1910s and beyond Charles worked in one or more movie houses in the area providing music for films, as well as his other duties as an entertainer and piano expert. On his 1918 draft record he is listed as a musician working for a Mr. Gibson, probably a theater owner. His address was 38 Haendel Street, a house which he and his wife owned.

In the 1920 census Charles was oddly enough counted as white, suggesting that he may also have been a mulatto member of the Georgia Cohens. Cohen was still working as a musician in a theater, likely the Star Theater where he was known to have been employed in the early 1920s, and the Suburban Theater where he was working later in the decade. He also played special engagements at the Binghamton Theater, including a custom score for the 1925 movie Ben Hur which hit town in 1927, requiring the temporary installation of a large "portable" console organ. Cohen's name appeared often in the Binghamton Press as "Binghamton's Artist Organist."

The 1930 census shows him still listed as a musician in a moving picture theater, but history would declare that his job there would soon evaporate, thanks in part to a stage actor named Al Jolson who sometimes ironically sang in blackface. The last notices for him playing for a movie appear in late 1930. During this period a younger white couple, Fred and Helen Merk, was boarding with the Cohens. In October of 1931 Charles Cohen died at age 53, and was buried in Floral Park Cemetery in nearby Johnson City, a section of Binghamton. Three decades later, in the early 1960s, Riverside Rag and Fashion Rag were reprinted in folios issued by Mills Music, who had obtained the Vandersloot catalog, and Cohen's name became known to a new generation of ragtime fans and players. Now hopefully who he really was may also be known.