Charles J. Correll was born in Peoria, Illinois, in 1890 and earned his first dollar delivering newspapers. When he became old enough to distinguish a hammer from a ripsaw he entered the construction business, in which his father and uncles were then engaged.
But this was just the bread-and-butter money for Correll, a daytime job, and his heart wasn't in it. At night he played the piano for a local movie house, and as he rendered "Hearts and Flowers" for the Pearl White close-ups and ragged "Everybody's Doing It" for the John Bunny comedies, he dreamed of other things. He was cut out by temperament and desire to be an actor, and he knew it. Incidentally it was in these days that he laid the foundation of a good sound education in the fundamentals of jazz which was to prove valuable in later years. (He plays the piano and makes most of the arrangements used by Correll and Gosden in their song periods over the radio.)
But young Correll had other attainments. The world lost an able "hoofer" to radio. For Correll, even in his younger days, waved a wicked shoe in the one-two-three step. When the town had fiddler's contests, Correll was always on hand as one of the dance contestants, carrying off everything from a sack of flour to what have you as his reward for first place.
Amateur theatricals called him, too. He sang in the quartet. He sang in the minstrel circle. He acted in local plays. He was always about the stage door during rehearsals, and when anyone was needed to chase the hounds across the ice or to substitute for an ailing principal, Correll was there, able and willing to "supe" at a moment's notice.
At one time a professional producer staged a show in town with local talent, and of course Correll was in it. He did his part so well, and showed so great an understanding of the fundamentals of showmanship, that the producer offered him the job of taking on branch of the show and rehearsing it.
Correll left the construction business flat on its back and went away on the next train.
Two years later he was rehearsing a show in Durham, North Carolina, when he met a young fellow by the name of Freeman Gosden, who-
But that's another chapter.
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