Thanks to a flurry of e-mails, I'm learning more about census forms from early in the previous century. The 1925 one in question was dated June 1 of that year and it asked the age of each occupant at the time of their last birthday. Rose Marie Mazzetta's (that was her birth name) was given as 1. Since she was born in August, that meant she was one year old in August of 1924, which would mean she was born in 1923 which is the date commonly given.
I am at a loss to say why she made references to being born two years earlier than that except to note, as several folks pointed out to me, that census forms and birth certificates back then were sometimes inaccurate. Indeed, my own father who seems to have been born in 1910 wasn't entirely sure he was born in 1910, He did know he'd been born in October but wasn't sure of the precise date. Make of this what you will.
Also: As I mentioned, Rose apparently made her film debut in a short musical called Baby Rose Marie the Child Wonder, which debuted on June 12, 1929. Some websites (including this one at one time) and other sources have said that short preceded The Jazz Singer, the famous Al Jolson movie hailed as "the first talkie," on the night it first opened and changed the motion picture industry forever. That would be impressive but The Jazz Singer had its premiere on October 6, 1927. Rose's short was not on the bill that night and she was not in The Jazz Singer, as has sometimes been reported.
I spoke with Leonard Maltin earlier this evening and he theorized that her first short could have played somewhere on a bill with Jolson's third talkie, Say It With Songs, which opened in America on August 6, 1929. More likely, all the confusion on this flows from Rose telling stories of appearing on a stage with Jolson at least once.
Hey, here's a photo with her that I don't think I've ever run on this site. The gent at the upper left is Larry Mazzeo, who under the name Larry Matthews played Ritchie on The Dick Van Dyke Show. The lady between Larry and me is Shelly Goldstein, the fine comedy writer-performer who is the fourth runner-up for the title of Person Most Mentioned On Mark's Blog, right behind Jack Kirby, Donald Trump and Frank Ferrante. Then there's me…and you can probably recognize Rob Petrie and Sally Rogers.