Charles Edward Kerr
Charlie Kerr was an American jazz drummer who led a jazz orchestra bearing his name in Philadelphia beginning in the early 1920s. In 1922, Kerr led orchestra in the first radio remote broadcast of a dance in history from the Café L'Aiglon, Philadelphia, via WIP radio. Throughout the 1930s, his orchestra continued broadcasting on stations WFI and WLIT, which merged as WFIL in 1935. During the summers of the 1930, through World War II years, his orchestra performed in Cape May City, New Jersey.
Kerr retired from music in the late 1940s and opened his own furniture store in Miami.
Members of the Charlie Kerr Orchestra
- Frank Guarantee – trumpet
- Cecil Way – trumpet
- Joseph DeLuca – trombone
- Tommy Dorsey – trombone
- Leo McConville – trumpet
- Vincenzo D'Imperio – saxophone
- Jerry DeMasi – saxophone
- Stan Keller – saxophone
- William A. Bove – piano
- Robert McCracken – piano
- Michael O. Trafficante – double bass
- Albert Valante – violin
- Joe Venuti – violin
- Eddie Lang – banjo, guitar
Employers as a musician
- The Bellevue-Stratford Hotel, Philadelphia
Family
Charlie’s parents, Henry Nagle Kerr and Mary Emma Kerr were married in 1889.