Ernest Hogan

File:Ernest Hogan smiling.jpg

Ernest Hogan (born Ernest Reuben Crowdus; 1865 – May 20, 1909"Ernest Hogan Dead". Billboard, May 29, 1909.) was the first Black American entertainer to produce and star in a Broadway show, The Oyster Man in 1907, (shows at the African Grove Theatre preceded it by generations) and helped to popularize the musical genre of ragtime.Lynn Abbott & Doug Seroff, [https://books.google.com/books?id=u4rc-BKNCyoC&dq=Ragged%20but%20Right%3A%20Black%20Traveling%20Shows&pg=PA6 Ragged but Right: Black Traveling Shows, 'Coon Songs,' and the Dark Pathway to Blues and Jazz] (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2008), passim, {{ISBN|1-57806-901-7}}.

A native of Bowling Green, Kentucky, Hogan worked in traveling minstrel shows as a dancer, musician, and comedian as a teenager. In 1895 Hogan composed several popular songs, including "La Pas Ma La" and "All Coons Look Alike to Me." The success of the latter song created many derogatory imitations, known as "coon songs," because of their use of racist and stereotypical images of black people. Hogan also wrote "The Phrenologist Coon" in 1901.

Hogan was considered one of the most talented performers and comedians of his day.Tap Roots: The Early History of Tap Dancing by Mark Knowles, McFarland & Company, 2002, {{ISBN|0-7864-1267-4}}, pages 119-20.

Early years

He was born Ernest Reuben Crowders in the Shake Rag District of Bowling Green, Kentucky, in 1865.{{cite book|last1=Jasen|first1=David A.|last2=Jones|first2=Gene|title=Spreadin' Rhythm Around: Black Popular Songwriters, 1880-1930|date=1998|publisher=Schirmer Books|isbn=0028647424|page=[https://archive.org/details/spreadinrhythmar00jase/page/31 31]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/spreadinrhythmar00jase/page/31}} Little to nothing is known about his childhood, but as a teenager, he traveled with a minstrel troupe called the Georgia Graduate, performing as a dancer, musician, and comedian. He changed his name to Hogan because "Irish performers were in vogue." He would also claim that he took the name to honor Judge Hogan of Bowling Green, for whom his mother had worked as a cook.Philip Hale. "Singer's Husband Hit with Right". Boston Herald, May 30, 1909, p. E5. A few years after changing his name to Hogan, Ernest started finding success in solo acts in New York City. He likely performed in blackface as he sometimes did later in his career.

Family life

Ernest Hogan was believed to have been married twice. He was first wed to a youthful singer named Mattie Wilkes. She was a popular soprano performing in vaudeville shows with him; they married around 1901 or 1902."Musical Matters". (Washington D.C.) Colored American, August 30, 1902, p. 11. Hogan was later reportedly married to a woman named Louise, who helped him organize concerts in the early 1900s. The specific dates of these marriages are unknown; Hogan did not have children with either of his wives.{{cite web|url=http://www.anb.org/articles/18/18-03811-print.html|title=Hogan, Ernest (1860-1909), minstrel show and vaudeville entertainer and songwriter - American National Biography|publisher=|accessdate=11 January 2018}}

His earliest ragtime composition

File:Allcoonslookaliketome.jpg

File:Las ma la.jpg

File:Las pa ma la sheet music.jpg

File:The Missionary Man sheet music 1902.jpg's Smart Set Co. in Enchantment (Mattie Wilkes, "The phenomenal soprano")]]

During this time, Hogan created a comedy dance called the "La Pas Ma La," which consisted of a walk forward with three steps back. In 1895, he wrote and composed a song based on this dance called "pasmala." The song's chorus was:

:Hand upon yo' head, let your mind rollback,

:Back, back back and look at the stars

:Stand up rightly, dance it brightly

:That's the Pas Ma La.

Hogan followed this song with the hit "All Coons Look Alike to Me." Hogan was not the originator of the song's lyrics, having appropriated them after hearing a pianist in a Chicago salon playing a song titled "All Pimps Look Alike to Me."Ragging It: Getting Ragtime into History (and Some History into Ragtime) by Loring White, iUniverse, 2005. xiv, 419 pp. {{ISBN|0-595-34042-3}}, pages 99-100 Hogan merely changed the words slightly, substituting the word "coon" for "pimp"Ragtime: A Musical and Cultural History by Edward A. Berlin, 2002, {{ISBN|0-595-26158-2}}, page 35. and added a ragtime syncopation to the music thanks to the contribution of the composer Max Hoffman.Dvorak to Duke Ellington: A Conductor Explores America's Music and Its African American Roots by Maurice Peress, Oxford University Press, 2003, page 39. The song eventually sold over a million copies.(23 July 1896). [https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85040310/1896-07-23/ed-1/seq-2/ From Thursday's Daily], The Telegraph Courier (Kenosha, Wisconsin), p. 2, col. 2 (reporting on appearance of Georgia University Minstrels on July 22, 1896 at Rhode Opera House in Kenosha: "The best song of the evening was 'All Coons Look Alike to Me,' composed by him a few days ago. The song was swing and go to it and ought to make considerable money for the author.")

Hogan's use of the racial slur "coon" in the song infuriated many African Americans. Some black performers made a point of substituting the word "boys" for "coons" whenever they sang it. In addition, the success of this song created many imitations, which became known as "coon songs" because of their use of highly racist and stereotypical images of blacks.

The controversy over the song has, to some degree, caused Hogan to be overlooked as one of the originators of ragtime, which has been called the first truly American musical genre. Hogan's songs were among the first published ragtime songs and the first to use the term "rag" in their sheet music copy. While Hogan made no claims to having exclusively created ragtime, fellow black musician Tom Fletcher said Hogan was the "first to put on paper the kind of rhythm that non-reading musicians were playing." When the ragtime championship was held as part of the 1900 World Competition in New York, semifinalists played Hogan's "All Coons Look Alike to Me" to prove their skill.The Music of Black Americans: A History by Eileen Southern, W W Norton & Co Inc, 1983, page 317.

As Hogan said shortly before he died,

{{blockquote|(That) song caused a lot of trouble in and out of show business, but it was also good for show business because, at the time, money was short in all walks of life. With the publication of that song, a new musical rhythm was given to the people. Its popularity grew and it sold like wildfire... That one song opened the way for many colored and white songwriters. Finding the rhythm so great, they stuck to it ... and now you get hit songs without the word 'coon.' Ragtime was the rhythm played in backrooms and cafes and such places. The ragtime players were the boys who played just by ear their creations of music which would have been lost to the world if I had not put it on paper."}}

Death

In January 1908, Hogan collapsed onstage in New York and again in Boston while performing in The Oyster Man. Forced to leave the show, Hogan spent the remainder of his life trying but failing to recuperate. He died of tuberculosis in Lakewood, New Jersey, on May 20, 1909.{{cite book|last1=Jasen|first1=David A.|last2=Jones|first2=Gene|title=Spreadin' Rhythm Around: Black Popular Songwriters 1880-1930|date=1998|publisher=Schimer Books|location=New York|isbn=0028647424|pages=[https://archive.org/details/spreadinrhythmar00jase/page/40 40–41]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/spreadinrhythmar00jase/page/40}}