AN AMERICAN MUSICIAN
Reuben Ernest Crowdus was born in the ‘Shake Rag’ district of Bowling Green KY, likely in 1865. His father (also Reuben) had served in both the Confederate and Union armies, getting a pension from the latter; Kentucky claims him as their first black sheriff.
We find young Ernest playing a clown - Boneless Man - in a circus the local children put on; he first got on a professional stage as a black child in William H. Crane’s touring production of ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ when it came to town. He joined Pringle's Georgia Minstrels as a singer/dancer, learned to play banjo. Around 1880 he joined another youngster named Hogan, and toured from Washington D.C. to San Francisco as the comic singing ‘Hogan Brothers.’ By 1889, again a solo act (but retaining the Hogan name), he had become a featured artist, closing shows at S.F.’s Bella Union as a comic. He also was a major draw on-stage as a singer and dancer, and excelled in cakewalk competitions. He had a lengthy relationship with Lillian E. Todhunter, the white daughter of a Sacramento rancher, and they married in Chicago in 1895.
He began writing music with Billy Kersands, who introduced him to publishing sheet music with their popular "What am You Gwine to Tell Massa Peter When You Meet Him at de Gate?" In 1895 he published the music he used for a dance number as ‘La Pas Ma La’; in 1896 he came out with ‘All Coons Look Alike to Me.’ Along with Ben Harney’s ‘You’re A Good Old Wagon’, these are the earliest documented ragtime music. ‘Coons’ was included in the Broadway success ‘The Widow Jones’, reputedly sold a million copies of the sheet music, and was among the first wax-cylinder records.
His songwriting success was extremely welcome, coming during the four year long economic depression that followed the Panic of 1893. In an interview a dozen years later, Hogan discussed ‘All Coons Look Alike to Me,’ saying it "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. (Ragtime's) popularity grew and it sold like wildfire..."
Hogan spent a season with the Black Patti Troubadours, billed as ‘the Unbleached American,' then some months appearing in Cole & Johnson plays. In 1898 he was the star in ‘Clorindy: The Origin of the Cakewalk’ written by classical violinist Will Cook and poet Paul Laurence Dunbar - the first African-American show on Broadway.   The play ran in New York for three months, and another three on tour; many of the songs were published and sold well to whites.
Over the next decade he starred in several other popular shows, even leading an African American troupe on a tour of New Zealand, Australia, and Hawaii (where they were stranded after the steamship company refused to let them board to return to the States and wouldn't refund their prepaid reservations). Returning to New York, his marriage deteriorated; he and Lillian divorced in 1900. In August, he was among the targets of a crowd of rioters as he left the theatre near Times Square.
After marrying again, Ernest continued to write, produce, and appear in successful shows with other members of New York's black enetertainment world, but before 1907 he began a battle with tuberculosis. In 1908, he collapsed on stage on several occasions. His progress toward recovery was reported in the NY press, but he succumbed to the disease early in 1909, and after a funeral in the Bronx was buried in Bowling Green.
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Ramona Baker performs "La Pas Ma La"
https://youtu.be/8R16RopwyvE