Ernest Hogan

Ernest Hogan, born Ernest Reuben Crowdus in 1865 in the Shake Rag District of Bowling Green, Kentucky, was a Broadway performer, comedian, musician, and book writer whose stage career spanned from 1906 to 1907. He is recognized as the first Black American entertainer to produce and star in a Broadway show, a distinction tied to his 1907 production of The Oyster Man. He died on May 20, 1909, in Lakewood, New Jersey, of tuberculosis.

Little is known about Hogan's childhood, but as a teenager he joined a traveling minstrel troupe called the Georgia Graduate, where he worked as a dancer, musician, and comedian. He adopted the surname Hogan in place of his birth name, Crowdus, reportedly because Irish performers were popular at the time. He also claimed the name honored Judge Hogan of Bowling Green, for whom his mother had worked as a cook. After establishing himself in solo acts in New York City, Hogan went on to build a career that encompassed performance, composition, and theatrical production.

In 1895, Hogan composed a song called "La Pas Ma La," based on a comedy dance of the same name that involved a walk forward with three steps back. That same year he wrote "All Coons Look Alike to Me," a song he developed after hearing a pianist in a Chicago salon perform a piece titled "All Pimps Look Alike to Me." Hogan substituted the word "coon" for "pimp" and incorporated ragtime syncopation with the help of composer Max Hoffman. The song eventually sold over a million copies. When the ragtime championship was held as part of the 1900 World Competition in New York, semifinalists performed the song to demonstrate their skill. Hogan also wrote "The Phrenologist Coon" in 1901.

The publication of "All Coons Look Alike to Me" generated significant controversy among African Americans, and its success spawned a wave of imitations that became known as "coon songs" for their reliance on racist and stereotypical depictions of Black people. The controversy surrounding the song contributed to Hogan being underrecognized as one of the originators of ragtime. His songs were among the first published ragtime compositions and the first to use the term "rag" in their sheet music. Fellow Black musician Tom Fletcher credited Hogan as the "first to put on paper the kind of rhythm that non-reading musicians were playing." Shortly before his death, Hogan reflected that the song, despite the trouble it caused, introduced a new musical rhythm that opened opportunities for both Black and white songwriters.

Hogan's Broadway credits included the play Madge Smith, Attorney, the musical Rufus Rastus, Southern Enchantment, and The Oyster Man, for which he also served as book writer. In January 1908, he collapsed onstage in New York and subsequently again in Boston while performing in The Oyster Man, forcing him to leave the production. He spent the final period of his life attempting to recover his health but did not succeed, dying on May 20, 1909.

Hogan was believed to have married twice. His first wife was Mattie Wilkes, a soprano who performed with him in vaudeville, with the marriage taking place around 1901 or 1902. He was later reportedly married to a woman named Louise, who assisted him in organizing concerts in the early 1900s. The precise dates of both marriages are unknown, and Hogan had no children with either wife.