Vaudeville’s Brightest African-American Juggling Stars: Part 1

Rowland1911

By David Cain

I’ve worked diligently to find information about some of the African-American jugglers of the late 1800s and early 1900s. Some of the jugglers I’ve researched have eluded my investigations, but I was successful in finding information about a few. Here are two Black jugglers from the age of Vaudeville who were important contributors to juggling history. We’ll examine more African-American juggling pioneers in Part 2.

George Rowland

GeorgeRowland

George Rowland

George Rowland was considered by many of his peers to be the greatest African-American juggler of the Vaudeville era. He was born George Watkins Rowland on March 1st, 1885 in Water Valley, Mississippi. His parents were circus performers who passed away when George was ten years old. George continued to live with the circus and became a very talented juggler. He stated that he never went to school a single day in his life. He worked with balls, knives, plates, parasols, ping pong balls, cigar boxes, and a 16-pound bowling ball that he told the audience was a 35-pound cannonball. He would do a neck catch with this ball, which eventually caught up with him, resulting in a broken vertebra in his upper spine.

George was usually just billed as “Rowland – Tramp Juggler”, but sometimes as “the Brainstorm Juggler”.

Rowland appears to have made his stage debut outside the circus around 1907. His reviews were consistently very positive.

George Rowland

George Rowland

 

George Rowland 1911

1932

During his career, he performed in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. He married a ballet dancer named Clara Catrina Rowland. They had a daughter named Georgina. In their old age, George and Clara lived in the Actors Fund Home in Englewood, New Jersey, a retirement home for show business performers. He was known to still juggle at the age of 80. Although I can’t be 100 % certain, it appears that George passed away in 1978 aged 93.

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Coy Herndon

Coy Herndon
Born in Palatka, Florida in 1892, Coy Herndon premiered on the Vaudeville circuit in 1909 as a hoop rolling juggler. He was dubbed “the youngest hoop roller on the stage” and kept “his audience spell-bound with his ghost-walking hoops.” He performed to audiences, black and white, across the United States between 1910-1928 and became the manager of the Nashville Students Co., a touring group of African-American performers.
Herndon was drafted in 1918 and was assigned to Battalion Replacement Training Center at Camp Lee, Virginia. A local newspaper reported that Coy was among a group of soldiers at Camp Lee that performed at a wedding there in August of 1918. The article mentions that Herndon’s wife, Eva White, whom he married in May of that year, performed with him at the camp. There is no record of him serving overseas during the war. His skills as an entertainer were likely in high demand at one of the Army’s largest WWI training camps. He earned the rank of Sergeant.
Coy Herndon
Coy was honorably discharged on December 20, 1919. He returned to the Vaudeville circuit, performing and managing various African-American Vaudeville and blues acts across the United States. He toured with the notable group Silas Green from New Orleans, which included the famous Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, and Muddy Waters. At the same time, Coy began writing a column for the Chicago Defender newspaper titled Coys Cogitates where he reviewed Vaudeville performances and traveling shows traversing the southern belt. His columns often comedically revealed racial tensions in the South towards “tent performers,” but mainly highlighted the leading acts of the time.
In July 1926, while waiting for his train on the platform of Fort Pierce Station in Florida, Coy was asked by a white attendant to present his ticket. According to eyewitnesses, Coy presented his ticket, was called a liar, and was severely beaten while onlookers stood by idly.
Coy Herndon – 1914
Coy Herndon – 1914
Coy Herndon – 1914
In addition to being a world-class hoop roller, show business manager, soldier, writer, and chiropractor, Coy also claimed to be the first black person to ride in an airplane, doing so in 1916.
Coy Herndon retired from Vaudeville in 1928 and by the spring of 1930 established himself as the first African-American chiropractor in Miami, Florida. The 38-year-old earned the distinction at the time as being the only black man to pass the Florida Board of Examiners test for the field.
Coy Herndon died March 19, 1938 at the Tuskegee Veterans Medical Center in Macon County, Alabama.
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Part 2 of this series will include some other remarkable jugglers.

David Cain is a professional juggler, juggling historian, and the owner of the world's only juggling museum, the Museum of Juggling History. He is a Guinness world record holder and 16 time IJA gold medalist. In addition to his juggling pursuits, David is a successful composer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and singer as well as the author of twenty-six books. He and his children live in Middletown, OH (USA).

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