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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 theatre 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, Ragged but Right: Black Traveling Shows, 'Coon Songs,' and the Dark Pathway to Blues and Jazz (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2008), passim, .
A native of Bowling Green, Kentucky, Hogan worked in traveling 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 song," because of their use of racist and stereotype 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, , pages 119-20.
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. , 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, , 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). 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 "" because of their use of highly racist and stereotype 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,
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