ABSTRACT

ALL THE WORLD LOVES A CLOWN: THE HUMBLE BEGINNINGS, GLORIOUS PEAK, AND SLOW DEATH OF THE ETHIOPIAN CLOWNS

The Ethiopian Clowns were founded by a white theater producer, Syd Pollock, in the early 1930s. During the segregation years, there was significant pressure placed on these black baseball clubs to carry themselves in a serious and business-like fashion.

Pollock stressed individuality among his ballplayers. He sold his team to black and white audiences alike not only through the talent on the field, but also through creative sideshows which were racially insensitive at times.

Drawing from his forerunners, the House of David and the Zulu Cannibal Giants, Pollock established a baseball product that drew fans to the field with tremendous success. He effectively balanced the sideshows with baseball where one did not distract or undermine the other. For Pollock’s critics in the black sports press, however, they saw malice in Pollock’s business model. Black players as “clowns” were a threat to their ultimate goal, the integration of white, organized baseball.

The Clowns, who spent much of their first two decades of existence as an independent outfit, were granted entrance into the Negro American League in 1943 and won the league championship in 1950. They were possibly the longest surviving black baseball team, operating as a strictly black team into the 1960s, long after the organized

Negro Leagues had dissolved along with the highly respected ballclubs in that industry.

However, the Clowns have received little notice from baseball historians and its legacy has rarely been discussed with the seriousness that the ballclub deserves.

John Dominic T. M. Migliaccio May 2020

ALL THE WORLD LOVES A CLOWN: THE HUMBLE BEGINNINGS, GLORIOUS PEAK, AND SLOW DEATH OF THE ETHIOPIAN

CLOWNS

by John Dominic T. M. Migliaccio

A thesis

submitted in partial

fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Arts in History

in the College of Social Sciences

California State University, Fresno May 2020

Copyright © 2020

John Dominic T. M. Migliaccio

APPROVED

For the Department of History:

We, the undersigned, certify that the thesis of the following student meets the required standards of scholarship, format, and style of the university and the student's graduate degree program for the awarding of the master's degree.

John Dominic T. M. Migliaccio Thesis Author

Blain Roberts (Chair) History

Lori Clune History

Julia Shatz History

For the University Graduate Committee:

Dean, Division of Graduate Studies AUTHORIZATION FOR REPRODUCTION

OF MASTER’S THESIS

X I grant permission for the reproduction of this thesis in part or in its entirety without further authorization from me, on the condition that the person or agency requesting reproduction absorbs the cost and provides proper acknowledgment of authorship.

Permission to reproduce this thesis in part or in its entirety must be obtained from me.

Signature of thesis author: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My initial thanks must go to my parents, Anthony and Jane Migliaccio. We have not always agreed on everything, but they have never wavered in their support of me. This thesis and my degree would have been impossible without them. I think about you often and I thank you for everything. The good Lord was very wise by placing those two in my corner. Dr. Blain Roberts has been my advisor since this thesis was nothing more than a poorly written B.A. thesis project from a previous institution. She has read and provided feedback on more drafts of my work than I can count. She is the most brilliant historian that I have ever been around and I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to learn from her. My other committee members, Dr. Lori Clune and Dr. Julia Shatz, have also been particularly helpful with their feedback and general advice. Additionally, thank you to Dr. Brad Jones for giving me my first job in history and for lending me his wisdom during that time.

Cassidy Lent, the Manager of Reference Services at the National Baseball Hall of

Fame Library and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, was of significant help when I conducted research there over the summer. I also have to thank my fellow graduate students in the History Department, particularly Chase Jensen, Emily Rivas, Patricia Brito, and Kurtis Sawtell for helping me relieve the stress of graduate school. I will always cherish the many memories of us sharing a drink at Mad Duck.

Finally, Simon Coderre, Kari Nelson, and Jen Wyatt, three friends of mine who are very dear to my heart deserve a special thanks. I cannot successfully thank you with mere words, but I can say that this thesis is as much your success as it is mine. You have been my rocks and your friendship has enriched my life on a scale of immeasurable value. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page

LIST OF FIGURES ...... vii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ...... 1

CHAPTER 2: THE RISE OF BARNSTORMING BASEBALL ...... 10 CHAPTER 3: THE ADMIRATION AND CONDEMNATION OF THE ETHIOPIAN CLOWNS ...... 32

CHAPTER 4: THE BATTLE FOR BLACK BASEBALL’S SOUL ...... 44

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ...... 52

LIST OF FIGURES

Page

Figure 1. A 1928 advertisement for a House of David game in Galax, Virginia. Located in the Dizzy Dean Scrapbook, Giamatti Research Center, National Baseball Hall of Fame Library and Museum (Cooperstown, NY) .... 11

Figure 2. Effa Manley with one of her ballplayers. Photo from The New York Post, May 14, 1938. Found in the Effa Manley Scrapbook, Giamatti Research Center, National Baseball Hall of Fame Library and Museum (Cooperstown, NY) ...... 36

Figure 3. Article from The New York Daily News, February 4, 1935. Located in the Effa Manley Scrapbook, Giamatti Research Center, National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum (Cooperstown, NY)...... 40

Figure 4. Rendering of Ed Davis (“Peanut Nyasses”) as depicted in The Chicago Defender, May 30, 1942. Found in the Dr. Lawrence Hogan Research Papers, Box 2, Folder 12, Giamatti Research Center, National Baseball Hall of Fame Library and Museum (Cooperstown, New York)...... 42

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

“Baseball is not the stuff upon which successful careers in history are normally made.” -Jules Tygiel1

The success and appeal of American baseball were built on the shoulders of barnstorming baseball clubs. Whereas the New York Yankees had a tremendous impact on growing baseball in urban areas, the hundreds of barnstorming ballclubs that existed in the first half of the twentieth century had a similar impact on rural America.

Barnstorming teams operated as a type of traveling troupe that entered many rural communities across the country and competed against the various local and often semi- professional teams in those communities. It was a benefit for all parties involved. The barnstorming teams pulled in most of their revenue from the gate receipts and also built their own pedigree. For the fans in these rural communities, this was their chance to see their local outfit compete against an honest professional baseball organization. On the occasional instance that their local team triumphed over the barnstorming club, that achievement became a point of pride. In the years before white organized baseball’s integration, the segregated Negro Leagues thrived as barnstormers.

In 1985, nearly four decades after the integration of Major League Baseball, the historically all-black Indianapolis Clowns were doing all they could to keep the tradition of barnstorming baseball alive. Firmly in their twilight years (they dissolved in 1989), the

Clowns continued as they had for over half a century. The team continued to travel by bus, playing games wherever they went, although the attention they received was nowhere near where it was prior to Jackie Robinson’s breaking of the color barrier in

1947. The team was more of a baseball academy than a professional outfit. Players

1 Jules Tygiel, Baseball’s Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1983), viii. 2 2 received money for travel expenses rather than paid salaries. The Clowns had integrated with the rest of major league baseball. By 1985, survival was the main goal, but their status was that of a slow death. As columnist Dan Carpenter noted, their average attendance numbers had dwindled to between 500 to 1,000 spectators each game.2 They outlasted all of the black and white barnstorming teams that came before them, but their triumph was a hollow one which doomed them to die in obscurity.

What had worked in the past no longer worked in the final two or three decades of their existence. From the 1930s to the early 1950s, the Ethiopian Clowns, as they were originally named, thrived on their ability to splendidly mix sideshows with baseball. The result was a goofy but competitive ballclub that rarely failed to put up a great fight against the best in barnstorming baseball. They presented themselves as care-free clowns, but the product on the field was as competitive and professional as any other black professional or barnstorming ballclub. By the 1980s, all of their classic rivals had long since stopped operating. Black baseball suffered the same fate as many Jim Crow institutions. Nevertheless, the Clowns were not the final survivor of the black baseball teams; they were a mere shadow of a black baseball industry and barnstorming tradition that had died decades before, and that shadow was soon to be snuffed out, leaving only memories of what the Ethiopian/Indianapolis Clowns had once been.

In the early 1930s, just over a decade prior to integration of baseball, a very different perception of the Clowns existed. The sports press discussed the Ethiopian

Clowns with a much greater frequency and often presented them as the must-see attraction when they came to town. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Clowns were a smaller community’s greatest chance to see a genuinely professional team face off against the local, semi-professional ballclub. Of course, the Ethiopian Clowns were only

2 Dan Carpenter, “Indianapolis Clowns still playing,” Indianapolis Star, September 22, 1985. 3 3 one of many barnstorming teams that toured the country, but their appearance and sideshows offered something that very few ballclubs possessed. While their two contemporaries, the Zulu Cannibal Giants and the House of David, were similar in their sideshows’ range of popular appeal, the Clowns’ success at drawing fans, both white and black, to the ballpark appeared to be unmatched. An Ohio newspaper, The Mansfield

News-Journal claimed that the Clowns were smashing attendance records previously established by the House of David and the Cannibal Giants.3 The glory years of the Ethiopian/Indianapolis Clowns lasted roughly from the

1930s to the early 1950s. Clowns owner Syd Pollock was the architect of this success.

Even his loudest critics could not deny the extent of his influence. Drawing from the all- white House of David’s previously successful business model, Pollock adjusted that formula to fit a black baseball team. Even with the integration of white, organized baseball from the late 1940s and into the 1950s, Pollock possessed enough intuition to recognize the changing political climate within the sport and altered his business formula so that his organization might survive.

Contrary to the implications of prominent black sportswriters, the Ethiopian

Clowns did not likely have any significant impact on hindering the integration of white, organized baseball. However, there is evidence to suggest that baseball’s integration impacted the Ethiopian Clowns. As integration grew nearer, the Ethiopian Clowns rebranded themselves as the Indianapolis Clowns, and their business model adapted to accommodate the changing political climate which required their sideshows to temper the insinuated racial undertones. While the integration of white baseball signaled the death of black baseball, because of Pollock’s business acumen and foresight, the Clowns remained afloat and provided a temporary home for black ballplayers to develop until they were

3 “Ethiopian Clowns Present Odd Appearance on Diamond,” Mansfield News-Journal, May 28, 1936. 4 4 inevitably scooped up by Major League Baseball (MLB) franchises. Much of the black baseball industry was rapidly failing. Pollock’s strategy, and his intensely loyal ballplayers, assured that the now-Indianapolis Clowns would remain a welcome and stable home for talented black ballplayers searching for their start in professional baseball.

Pollock’s success was due in large part to how effectively he incorporated sideshows in his ballgames. Sideshow entertainment was a very integral part of pre- integration professional baseball. Beginning with the House of David, a white team, and continuing on to the Zulu Cannibal Giants and Ethiopian Clowns, both black, theatrics proved to be an efficient tool in promoting the national pastime across the United States and Canada. A blending of sideshows with baseball was central to cementing an ideal formula that allowed such a ballclub to thrive. The House of David and the Ethiopian

Clowns were very successful in this regard. The failure of the Zulu Cannibal Giants, however, was a testament to the need for an appropriate balance between sport and sideshow. Their overemphasis on minstrelsy demonstrated that baseball spectators expected to see a serious competitive team composed mainly of professional athletes when coming to the ballpark. Although sideshows were generally accepted by the fans, one thing remained clear: the baseball diamond was not a circus.

There were many moving parts in the composition of the Ethiopian Clowns that made them into a successful enterprise. It is true that a Clowns player embraced a particular comedic role, but more often than not, this role was freely chosen. There are numerous examples in the sports newspaper pages detailing star players for the Clowns being pursued by the more reputable black ballclubs and, in many instances, these players chose to continue playing for the Clowns rather than taking employment elsewhere. It was relatively common to encounter the owner of an organized black baseball team attempting to poach the talent from teams outside the ranks of organized baseball like the 5 5

Clowns. Loyalty for the organization was engrained in many ballplayers and tied them to proudly serving as a Clown for many years. Some players dedicated the bulk of their professional career to this organization.

Long before the formation of the Ethiopian Clowns, minstrelsy was a popular form of entertainment in American culture. Blackface minstrel shows can be traced back to antebellum American society, specifically in the northern states. Many northern whites viewed the enslaved status of African Americans as the nation’s foremost moral and economic disease. At the same time, the great number of escaped slaves and freedmen that migrated to the North was considered a hindrance to progress.4 As Stephen Johnson, author of Burnt Cork: Traditions and Legacies of Blackface Minstrelsy, argues, the

“blackface character” is a representation of everything that white elites thought about their black counterparts: unintelligent, prone to anger like a savage, and lacking in emotional control. Combining these elements made minstrelsy an efficient teaching tool to maintain the existing racial hierarchy. In the mid-nineteenth century, while politicians like John C. Calhoun espoused slavery as a “positive good,” theatres indoctrinated white spectators with ideas of white racial and intellectual superiority and simultaneously assured black spectators that their subhuman status was for their own benefit.5

By the time that slavery was abolished, minstrelsy had been featured in many

American theatres for nearly half a century. The early American theatrical definition of blackness focused on restricting the social mobility of African Americans.6 Black bodies, even in a theatrical setting, demonstrated a lack of freedom and emphasized the supposed righteousness of a racial divide that permeated throughout American society.

4 Douglas A. Jones, Jr., The Captive Stage: Performance and the Proslavery Imagination of the Antebellum North (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2014), 1. 5 Stephen Johnson, Burnt Cork: Traditions and Legacies of Blackface Minstrelsy (Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 2012), 7. 6 Jones, Jr., The Captive Stage, 19. 6 6

Historian Eric Lott, in Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American

Working Class, provides the clearest picture of minstrelsy and its impact on the course of

American history. Lott asserts that minstrelsy’s major function was to unite numerous social classes into one setting and to strengthen their interactions by celebrating the exploitation of black bodies.7 Lott also argues that whites involved in blackface performances were actually intrigued by black cultural practices and were occasionally troubled by the offensiveness of their performances.8 Lott emphasizes the danger of dismissing minstrelsy out of hand as a relic of the most disgusting pro-slavery elements of a white society, as Frederick Douglass had once done.9 This understandable impulse frequently led well-meaning individuals to ignore minstrelsy’s impact on American society and simply express revulsion that the phenomenon ever existed in the first place.

Lott’s analysis is useful for understanding like the Ethiopian/Indianapolis Clowns. We might assume that their representation of black athletes was nothing more than derogatory, and while the depiction of these players was at times less than ideal, the

Clowns were nevertheless more of an asset than a detriment to the African American community.

Black baseball mirrored American history, its culture, and racial relations in a way that demonstrates how the sport became segregated. Segregation permeated baseball at around the same time that American society itself was segregating. Baseball’s first color barrier was established by the National Association of Base Ball in 1867.10

Baseball’s color barrier persisted until Jackie Robinson’s debut with the Brooklyn

7 Eric Lott, Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 67. 8 Lott, Love and Theft, 234. 9 Lott, Love and Theft, 15. 10 Tygiel, Baseball’s Great Experiment, 13. 7 7

Dodgers in 1947.11 As American society was undergoing a societal transformation under segregation, baseball was embracing that change as well.

Black baseball as a segregated institution did not greatly differ from other segregated institutions such as schools and public facilities. The greatest players in black baseball leagues were generally considered by their contemporaries to possess nearly equivalent talent as their white counterparts. Yet, even Negro Leaguer Ted “Double

Duty” Radcliffe assessed the average Negro National League (NNL) club as equivalent to that of a Triple-A team, the highest tier in minor league baseball.12 As historian Jules

Tygiel pointed out, black ballplayers were at a disadvantage. Black ballclubs carried fewer players on their rosters than white major league teams, black players were not normally taught the fundamentals of the game, and black players did not have the benefit of a spring training period prior to the regular season. The legendary feats of black ballplayers such as Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige, and James “Cool Papa” Bell can overshadow the deficiency between the average white and black ballplayer.13

Historian Jules Tygiel, who is generally regarded as the father of modern baseball history, redefined baseball scholarship in 1983 with his study, Baseball’s Great

Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy. He argued that Jackie Robinson’s Major

11 Jack Roosevelt “Jackie” Robinson. Played from 1947 to 1956 for the Brooklyn Dodgers (now the Los Angeles Dodgers). Career batting average .311, 1,518 career hits. Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 1962, induction on first ballot receiving 77.5% of the vote (threshold to earn induction is 75%). 12 Tygiel, Baseball’s Great Experiment, 20. 13 Josh Gibson, Catcher, played from 1930-1946 in the Negro National League for the Homestead Grays and the Pittsburgh Crawfords. Also played periodically in the Mexican League for the Veracruz Azules. Said to have hit an estimated 800 home runs in the Negro Leagues. Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 1972, voted in by the Negro Leagues Committee. First player inductee to have never played in the major leagues. Died from complications over a stroke in January 1947, three months before Jackie Robinson debuted with the Dodgers (some fellow black players believed his death was linked to alcoholism and/or drug abuse, exacerbated by his anger over being overlooked as a candidate to integrate baseball). James Thomas “Cool Papa” Bell, Outfielder, played in the Negro Leagues from 1922-1946 for the St. Louis Grays, Pittsburgh Crawfords, Homestead Grays, Kansas City Monarchs, Chicago American Giants, and the Chicago Wolves. Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 1974, voted in by the Negro Leagues Committee. 8 8

League Baseball debut in 1947, which broke the generations-old color line, was a uniquely American victory that had a long-lasting impact on the advancement of the civil rights moment.14 He also asserts that the emergence of baseball and racial segregation coincided with one another.15 Therefore, it can be argued that the history of the baseball industry and postbellum U.S. race relations share a common origin story, and baseball can then be viewed as a reflection of a racialized society struggling to find harmony between whites and blacks in the aftermath of the abolition of slavery. Following Tygiel’s study, an explosion of reputable scholarly works on baseball have surfaced and morphed the sport into a focal point on examining the impact of recreation on U.S. culture. Historian Rob Ruck’s study, Sandlot Seasons: Sport in Black

Pittsburgh (1987) was the first to demonstrate how an analysis of an urban area—in this case, Pittsburgh—could be the ideal backdrop as to how black baseball functioned in the

United States. With Pittsburgh as the setting, ballplayers were exposed to the injustices of an industry that had undergone “Jim Crowism” in a northern city.

Ruck’s ability to recognize agency in African American individuals who were either involved or otherwise invested in the black game was another of his lasting impacts on the relevant historiography. As had begun with Tygiel and then continued by Ruck, baseball was slowly turning into a useful tool that historians could utilize to analyze its central position in the lives of many Americans, whether they were ballplayers, executives, coaches, or even spectators.16

This study will examine the role that sideshows had on professional baseball in the pre-integration years and, in turn, the impact that black ballclubs like the

14 Tygiel, Baseball’s Great Experiment, viii. 15 Tygiel, Baseball’s Great Experiment, 12. 16 Rob Ruck, Sandlot Seasons: Sport in Black Pittsburgh (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1987), 3-4. 9 9

Ethiopian/Indianapolis Clowns had on baseball’s integration. The Clowns, as black baseball’s most successful example of this phenomenon, will be the focus of analysis, though it is important to understand the groundwork that made it possible for the Clowns to succeed as a baseball enterprise. To that end, the House of David and the Zulu Cannibal Giants need to be a part of this conversation as well. The success that the House of David had in employing its sideshows offered a new method of marketing baseball to audiences that might not typically have been receptive to the sport. The Zulu Cannibal Giants provide a clear example of how sideshow and spectacle descended into minstrelsy.

The overall legacy of sideshows in baseball demonstrates how traveling ballclubs connected with rural and suburban communities whose only previous exposure to the game was from the boxscores and general summaries found in newspapers. In the case of the Ethiopian/Indianapolis Clowns, their success with sideshows allowed them to connect with various African American communities and thereby build a loyal following that which many black Americans could find a release from the social and economic stressors that many of them experienced on a regular basis.

It is very likely that, without learning from the House of David and the Cannibal

Giants, the Clowns might have received very little fanfare over their interpretation of the national pastime. Furthermore, because of their maligned reputation in the black press, the Clowns received very little recognition for advancing baseball into a state where a more racially equitable game was possible. A close examination of the Clowns demonstrates that the ballclub were not a minstrel troupe and that charges of “Uncle

Tomism” were unfair. Although criticisms over their depictions of black ballplayers were likely deserved, the Ethiopian Clowns distinguished themselves from the expectation that black ballclubs must be a relentlessly serious entity and that any deviation from those standards did a grave disservice to black baseball as a tool to enact racial progress.

CHAPTER 2: THE RISE OF BARNSTORMING BASEBALL

“Looking back on it, the idea of playing with the [Zulu] Cannibal Giants was very demeaning.” -Buck O’Neil17

The Ethiopian/Indianapolis Clowns’ successful baseball and sideshow formula did not materialize out of nowhere. The House of David and the Zulu Cannibal Giants served as the key predecessors and contemporaries for Syd Pollock, the Clowns’ owner, to learn from and create his ideal baseball organization. The House of David, a white team that rose to and maintained national prominence throughout the 1920s, demonstrated that sideshows could become an effective entertainment device for barnstorming baseball teams (Figure 1). By contrast, the Zulu Cannibal Giants, an African American team, were a representation of the shamelessness inherent in their sideshows and physical presentation to depict an unflattering image of black ballplayers.

Their story was a lesson to all-black ballclubs that sought to employ their sideshows in a way that did not descend into minstrelsy. With these two examples of sideshows in baseball before them, the Ethiopian Clowns grew from a startling reimagination of the national pastime to one of the longest enduring black ballclubs in the segregated industry’s history.

The Israelite House of David, a traveling white baseball club, enraptured audiences with their odd sideshows. This ballclub originated from a religious commune based out of Benton Harbor, Michigan. The group’s founder, Benjamin Purnell, believed he was the seventh messenger from the Book of Revelation and built a following to prepare for Christ’s second coming.18 Among their many tenets, they highly valued

17 Buck O’Neil, Steve Wulf, and David Conrads, I Was Right on Time: My Journey from the Negro Leagues to the Majors (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996), 70. 18 Larry Tye, Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend (New York: Random House, 2009), 88-89. 11 11

Figure 1. A 1928 advertisement for a House of David game in Galax, Virginia. Located in the Dizzy Dean Scrapbook, Giamatti Research Center, National Baseball Hall of Fame Library and Museum (Cooperstown, NY)

12 12 physical fitness and formed a baseball team that barnstormed across the United States and

Canada to showcase their talent on the baseball diamond. In addition, their members took oaths of celibacy and refrained from vices such as consuming alcohol and taking narcotics. On the baseball field, they were a unique sight, sporting whiskers between four and five inches long with hair that was reported to be as long as thirty-six inches.19 Their appearance also led them to be referred by the sarcastic nickname: The “Bearded

Beauties.”20 Their bizarre appearance and eccentric comedy acts alone were enough to attract many casual baseball fans to the stadium out of sheer curiosity.

The House of David consisted of more than just bearded men. They were also known to employ premier ballplayers, including some who were African American, to headline their barnstorming tours. Future Baseball Hall of Fame inductees Grover

Cleveland Alexander, Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown, Dizzy Dean, and Negro Leaguer

Satchel Paige played for the House of David at one point in their careers.21 If the sight of an entirely bearded baseball team was not enough to attract people to the ballpark, these

19 “House of David Team to Play Cardinals in Night Game Here,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 1, 1933. 20 “Bearded Beauties are the Originals,” Jackson Clarion-Ledger, March 28, 1929. 21 Pete Grover Cleveland Alexander. Pitcher. Played from 1911-1930 for the Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Phillies, and the St. Louis Cardinals. Career win-loss record of 373-208 and 2,198 career strikeouts. Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 1938, voted in on his third ballot receiving 80.92% of the vote. Mordecai Peter Centennial “Three Finger” Brown. Pitcher. Played from 1903-1916 for the Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Terriers (Federal League), Brooklyn Tip-Tops (Federal League), St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Whales (Federal League), and the Cincinnati Reds. Career win-loss record of 239-130 and 1,375 career strikeouts. Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 1949, voted in by the Old Timers Committee. His nickname originates from his three-fingered throwing hand (he lost two fingers after an accident in his youth when his hand was caught in the blades of his family farm’s feed chopper). This handicap enabled him to pitch a particularly deceptive curveball. Jay Hanna “Dizzy” Dean. Pitcher. Played from 1930-1941 and 1947 for the St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, and the St. Louis Browns (now the Baltimore Orioles). Career win- loss record of 150-83, 1,163 career strikeouts. 1934 NL MVP. Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 1953, inducted on his ninth ballot receiving 79.17% of the vote. Leroy Robert “Satchel” Paige. Pitcher. Played in the major leagues from 1948-1953 and 1965 for the Cleveland Indians, St. Louis Browns, and the Kansas City Athletics (now the Oakland Athletics). Also played in the Negro Leagues mainly with the Kansas City Monarchs and the Pittsburgh Crawfords. Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 1971, voted in by the Negro League Committee. First player to be inducted to have spent the majority of his career in the Negro Leagues. 13 13 men also provided baseball fans with the opportunity to see some of the most idolized ballplayers in action. One newspaper account credited the House of David’s nightly turnout of between six and ten thousand to Grover Cleveland Alexander as a “drawing card.”22 Yet the spectators’ enjoyment was not due entirely to the appearance of the team or the talents they possessed.

The sideshows were another important element that contributed to the House of

David’s mystique. The exact reasons why the House of David incorporated such sideshows into their appearances at local fields and stadiums across North America are unknown. However, some sportswriters appeared to hold a rather condescending opinion of the baseball-viewing public, believing that people would not simply be satisfied by the game itself, no matter how much talent was on display.23 Fans who went to their local stadium to watch the House of David, and later the Zulu Cannibal Giants and the

Ethiopian Clowns, came to recognize that the sideshows were a required element of the baseball viewing experience.

The House of David performed various sideshows over the years, but its popularization of the “pepper game” had the longest lasting impact. This game consisted of one player hitting the ball “to three teammates who flipped the ball over their backs and between their legs with such speed that it seemed to disappear.” 24 The pepper game was typically a prominent point of emphasis among newspapers promoting a House of David game. One Minnesota newspaper promotion remarked that the pepper show was

“just about worth the price of admission by itself.”25 Alan Pollock, who authored a highly

22 “Old Pete in New Start,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 27, 1931. 23 “Champ Clowns, Davids Tangle in Twilighter,” Munster Times, May 28, 1942. 24 Tye, Satchel, 88. 25 “House of David to Play Saints Friday Evening,” St. Cloud Times, June 10, 1931. 14 14 favorable account of his father’s black ballclub, the Ethiopian Clowns, even credited the

House of David as the original innovators of the pepper game.26

Some sideshows, like the pepper game, were intended to both awe spectators and to showcase the House of David’s significant level of talent. Others appealed to the crowd’s interest to witness absurdity on the diamond. One such sideshow was known as

“donkey baseball.” In this sideshow, position players were seated on donkeys of differing speeds and colors. When the batter hit the ball into play, he would then mount a donkey and round the bases seated on the animal. At the same time, the fielder had to reach the ball while staying seated and was only allowed to leave the donkey when he reached the ball. One endorsement praised the show as “intensely exciting and is without a doubt the greatest novelty ever introduced into the national pastime.”27 These sideshows did not interfere with the game itself, but were put on as additional entertainment for fans either before the game or in between innings. The House of David even extended their sideshows to include ballplayers of the opposite sex. When Virne Beatrice “Jackie” Mitchell’s contract with the Chattanooga

Lookouts was loaned to the House of David in 1933, a heated conversation about women’s participation in professional baseball began.28 Her experience with the bearded ballclub reveals the inherent disadvantages that women faced within the national pastime and the barriers that ensured they could not enjoy a sustainable professional career as a ballplayer. When she arrived with the House of David, Jackie Mitchell had been in the

26 Alan J. Pollock, Barnstorming to Heaven: Syd Pollock and His Great Black Teams (Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 2006), 14. 27 “Rapids Will Play Bearded Ballclub,” Marshfield News-Herald, June 21, 1934. 28 The loaning of a contract served as a sort of trial period for the player. In the case of Jackie Mitchell, her contract was loaned out to the House of David for the 1933 season. If the ballclub was satisfied with their play then they could attempt to buy their contract from the organization that held it (Chattanogga). Otherwise, the player would be returned to the original ballclub to fulfill the terms of the existing contract. 15 15 national spotlight for several years after striking out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition game.29 Among historians, suspicion surrounds this feat’s validity since several believed it was a vaudeville stunt. Nonetheless, this accomplishment legitimized her in the eyes of the press. Her ability to play baseball at a high level was authentic; nobody in the press could deny her that. Yet, to say that she was treated with an equivalent level of respect that was reserved for the traditional male baseball athlete would be to mischaracterize the facts. Whereas Jackie Mitchell’s teammates and opponents were considered ballplayers, the public always considered her a woman first and a ballplayer second. In the newspapers, she was referred to as “Miss Mitchell” rather than by her full name. Any sort of praise that was reserved for Jackie was of a condescending nature. Sportswriters were quick to ensure that her “feminine” qualities accompanied analysis of her feats on the diamond.30 The most likely explanation for this was due to the reputation that the House of David had established by the early 1930s. It was seen as a performance troupe as much as it was a serious baseball team. Jackie Mitchell—who, according to her father, aspired to find employment in the major leagues with either the Washington Senators or the St.

Louis Cardinals—was the unfortunate victim of a sensationalized media machine that sought to capitalize on her dreams for the community’s economic purposes.31 Mitchell

29 George Herman “Babe” Ruth. Outfielder and pitcher. Played from 1914-1935 for the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, and Boston Braves (now the Atlanta Braves). 1923 AL MVP (until 1932, rule stipulated that a player could only win the MVP award once). Career .342 batting average, 714 career home runs. Continues to hold all-time record in slugging percentage (SLG%) and on-base plus slugging (OPS). Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 1936 receiving 95.13% of the vote (inaugural induction class). Henry Louis “Lou” Gehrig. First Baseman. Played from 1923-1939 for the New York Yankees. Career .340 batting average, 2,721 career hits. 1927, 1936 AL MVP. Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 1939, voted in by a Special Election. Hall of Fame usually has a five-year waiting period after a player’s retirement, his was waived because he was dying from ALS (later also became known as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease”). 30 Gordon Williams, “In the Realm of Sports,” Reading Times, July 18, 1934. 31 “Jackie Mitchell is Both Modest and Attractive,” Muscatine Journal and News-Tribune, September 22, 1933. 16 16 was just another sideshow in the House of David’s arsenal. Just as some fans wanted to see the pepper game or donkey baseball, others yearned to witness a shy, blonde woman playing baseball with teammates that looked like cavemen.

The House of David, never one to shy away from its theatrical brand, included Jackie Mitchell in some of its sideshows. One newspaper account recounted that “upon reaching the mound…[Mitchell was] to bring out her mirror, rouge stick and powder puff and delay the game for a brief period while she applied the cosmetics.”32 It is fair to conclude that none of her heavily-bearded teammates were required to pretty themselves up in full view of the ballpark’s crowd before they could participate in the sport that they had signed up to play.

Headlines and photographs of Jackie Mitchell reveal a great deal about how perceptions of gender determined how women were treated within the context of the national pastime. Because the national press preferred to see Mitchell as a woman first rather than a ballplayer, most photographs of her, as printed in the newspapers, were not of her in her baseball uniform but instead dressed up like a “proper lady”: hair curled, makeup on, and wearing a dress. One image from the Hartford Courant is indicative of the kind of treatment she received from the national press. It has her in a lady’s attire with the headline: “Shows Curves in Stadium Game.”33 Such a headline is a double-sided reference. First, it refers to her noted curveball, which Mitchell herself stated was one of the pitching lessons from her mentor, Dazzy Vance.34 Second, and more importantly, it alludes to her physical appearance and suggests that men who come to the ballpark would benefit from more than simply viewing worthwhile talent on the field.

32 Ray J. Gillespie, “Girl Hurls Scoreless Innings Against Cards as House of David Club Wins,” St. Louis Star and Times, September 13, 1933. 33 Hartford Courant, August 17, 1934. 34 Ray J. Gillespie, “Girl Hurls Scoreless Inning Against Cards as House of David Club Wins,” St. Louis Star and Times, September 13, 1933. 17 17

The sexualization of Jackie Mitchell was not much different from what later iterations of baseball minstrelsy offered in teams like the Ethiopian Clowns and the Zulu

Cannibal Giants. Minstrelsy and sideshows in baseball fed off demeaning depictions of the often-excluded race and sex to appeal to an audience of mostly white men. Although it was rarer to see women within the crosshairs of baseball writers than black athletes, it was not unheard of, and they were victims of the same sort of exploitative tactics that banished black ballplayers had been subjected to since their initial exclusion from organized baseball in the late nineteenth century.

The House of David’s appearance, along with their famous comedy acts, presented a new vision of the national pastime as a spectacle that captivated the many communities they entered. However, their insistence on performing sideshows marginalized the very real talents of the ballplayers involved, many of whom were sought after by major league organizations.35 They were the predecessor to teams that viewed baseball as a form of entertainment in addition to being a competitive sport. The House of

David demonstrated that the baseball diamond was a different type of theater that the public could attend and see ballplayers as both the purveyors of spectacle and sport.

Simultaneously, baseball maintained its purity as an American, male-dominant game that enforced long-standing societal standards.

Although all of the ballplayers on the House of David baseball team were white, they welcomed black players on their team in a temporary capacity so long as they possessed adequate playing ability. The bearded ballclub was known to sporadically include great black players when they barnstormed, but their most publicized inclusion of a black ballplayer on their team was during The Denver Post tournament in 1934. The impressive performance by black newcomers in that year’s tournament highlighted the

35 “Synder Picks Ball Club for Game With House of David Nine Here Sunday,” Great Falls Tribune, June 3, 1927. 18 18 marketability of integrated competition. A 1997 Denver Post article by Jerry Crasnick referenced a local Denver historian, Jay Sanford, who credits the 1934 tourney as “the beginning (of integration).”36 The increased visibility for black ballplayers following this tournament marked a starting point for discussions over the merits of integrating white, organized baseball.

The House of David and the Ethiopian Clowns, two teams that heavily relied on sideshows and typically performed well in these tournaments, deserve some degree of credit for hastening the baseball world towards desegregation. The House of David showed how just one black ballplayer could excel against white competition.37 In addition, the House of David, as well as other sideshow-centric ballclubs, were responsible for bringing black baseball to white audiences and thereby got baseball fans and writers thinking about what integration could bring to the white game. The 1934

Denver Post tournament was merely the first example of black ballplayers distinguishing themselves on a national stage, but without Satchel Paige’s dominance against white opponents in this event, black ballplayers as a collective group might have been deemed unworthy of taking the field against and alongside whites.

Satchel Paige, idolized by the black community for his pitching prowess but virtually unknown by white baseball fans, joined the House of David team for the 1934

Denver Post tournament along with his teammate on the Pittsburgh Crawfords, Cy Perkins. This was not the only time that Paige collaborated with the House of David in this tournament; however, this instance was the most consequential. Unlike the East-West

All-Star Game, which was a competition between black ballplayers alone, The Denver

36 Jerry Crasnick. “Post tourney preceded Robinson.” Denver Post. 14 April 1997, Box 2, Folder 12, Larry Tye Research Papers, Giamatti Research Center, National Baseball Hall of Fame Library and Museum. 37 Pam Hays to Larry Tye, 17 April 2006, Box 3, Folder 4, Larry Tye Research Papers, Giamatti Research Center, National Baseball Hall of Fame Library and Museum. 19 19

Post tournament offered an opportunity for black teams and players to see how they stacked up against their white counterparts. Black ballplayers were under tremendous pressure to prove that they belonged on the field that had for so long been denied to them.

Coincidentally, the championship game of the 1934 tournament featured the House of David facing off against what many considered the greatest team in black organized baseball at the time, the Kansas City Monarchs, who were also new to The

Denver Post tournament. When the House of David’s manager, Grover Cleveland Alexander, selected Paige as his starting pitcher, Ross Parsons of The Denver Post lauded the matchup as “The greatest Negro pitcher in the world pitching against the greatest

Negro club!” Going into the tournament’s final game, both Satchel Paige and the Kansas

City Monarchs had proven themselves against the remaining white competition. Paige had struck out thirty-two batters in nineteen innings, surrendering only one run. The championship game would be his third game started in five days.38 He lived up to tales of his pitching prowess with the support of an admirable durability. The Kansas City

Monarchs, making their tournament debut, triumphed over their four opponents prior to the championship game, demonstrating that they could thrive against white competition.

The Denver Post, a white newspaper, appeared to have no regrets about inviting black participants to their tournament, as they decided to market this game as a battle between a great black pitcher and a great black team rather than as a showdown between the white House of David and the black Kansas City Monarchs.

With both the House of David and the Monarchs undefeated, the championship would be decided in a “best-of-3” series. Satchel Paige faced off against Kansas City’s best pitcher, Chet Brewer, in what everyone expected to be an incredible pitching duel.

38 Ross Parsons, “Only Undefeated Clubs Meet in Fourth Round Tilt,” Denver Post, Box 3, Folder 4, Larry Tye Research Papers, Giamatti Research Center, National Baseball Hall of Fame Library and Museum. 20 20

This game’s account by Leonard Cahn of The Denver Post was published in black newspapers such as the highly influential weekly Pittsburgh Courier. Cahn termed the contest as “the game of games, a standout of standouts in the 19-year history of the Little

World Series.” Within forty minutes of opening the stadium gates, every seat at small Merchants Park was occupied. Just over an hour after that, the gates were closed and thousands of fans yearning to see The Denver Post championship were left outside with only the roar of the crowd to leave hints as to what was going on inside. The game’s attendance was “a record-breaking crowd of 11,120 occupying every available inch inside Merchants park.”39 For a tournament that had been historically white, many observers seemed conscious that they were witnessing something that could indicate change in the overall baseball landscape.

Fans were deprived of seeing another complete game shutout from Paige, as an error ended his consecutive scoreless inning streak at 23. For a game headlined by two of black baseball’s best pitchers, this was a moderately high scoring game, with the House of David winning by a 7-3 final score. Neither the fans nor the sportswriters covering the event seemed to care much. Satchel Paige had done his job; this was his third recorded win in five days and he struck out another 12 batters to finish with 44 strikeouts in 28 pitched innings, the latter of which established a tournament record.40 Satchel Paige’s unprecedented performance demonstrated to the public that black players belonged in what had been a historically white tournament. Two of Paige’s black teammates on the

House of David, Cy Perkins and Turkey Stearns, also performed admirably in their roles.

39 Leonard Cahn in The Denver Post, “’Satch’ Wins 3 in Five Days in Big Denver Tourney: Perkins’ Catching Sensation,” Pittsburgh Courier, Box 3, Folder 4, Larry Tye Research Papers, Giamatti Research Center, National Baseball Hall of Fame Library and Museum. 40 Leonard Cahn in The Denver Post, “’Satch’ Wins 3 in Five Days in Big Denver Tourney: Perkins’ Catching Sensation,” Pittsburgh Courier, Box 3, Folder 4, Larry Tye Research Papers, Giamatti Research Center, National Baseball Hall of Fame Library and Museum. 21 21

It is important to remember that this triumph was not the work of one black player, but the collective success of multiple black ballplayers and the willingness of one white team to demonstrate the results that incredible talents could produce regardless of race.

The game that secured the tournament championship for the House of David practically went unnoticed in comparison to games pitched by Satchel Paige. The club’s manager, Grover Cleveland Alexander, held Paige in reserve so that he might be available for a third game. No third game was necessary, since the House of David’s regular ace pitcher, Spike Hunter, shut out the Monarchs for a 2-0 victory and The

Denver Post tournament championship.41 However, this essential performance received little more than an honorable mention in the story of the 1934 tournament. For a team that was referred to as “the Bearded Beauties,” the tournament’s true heroes were the members of the ballclub that did not wear a beard. Satchel Paige and, to a lesser extent,

Cy Perkins, had sliced through the tournament’s white semi-professional teams to meet the most respected team in organized black baseball and took care of them in an identical fashion.

The House of David were frequently derided as a mockery of the national pastime, a group of religiously fanatical bearded buffoons, but this reputation did not stop them from proving their baseball prowess on the field and, most importantly, offering an opportunity for black ballplayers to expedite the integration discussion. The Denver Post tournament was instrumental to building a case for the eventual integration of Major

League Baseball. While it is true that the East-West All-Star game was an excellent opportunity for white teams to scout black talent, this impact was not truly felt until after Jackie Robinson broke the game’s color barrier in 1947. If not for The Denver Post

41 Walter Judge, “Kansas City Monarchs Lose Championship Game, 2 to 0: Paige Held in Reserve in Case Davids Had Lost First Game; Spike Hunter Pitches Good Ball to Stop Monarchs in Tight Spots,” Denver Post, 14 August 1934, Box 3, Folder 4, Larry Tye Research Papers, Giamatti Research Center, National Baseball Hall of Fame Library and Museum. 22 22 tournament, white baseball fans might never have become aware of the considerable talent in black baseball, among both the organized and barnstorming teams.

Yet, for all the positive contribution and opportunities that teams like the House of David and the Ethiopian/Indianapolis Clowns provided for disadvantaged athletes shut out from the major leagues, there were others that saw their sideshows as nothing more than a vehicle for profit. This was due to the fact that some teams neglected their air of professionalism and fully embraced minstrelsy aspects in their team’s composition. One such team was the Zulu Cannibal Giants, an independent black ballclub out of Louisville,

Kentucky. There is no firm start or end date to their lifetime, but they are believed to have mainly operated in the 1930s and ‘40s. The Cannibal Giants were unique in that they pushed the limits of minstrelsy in the sport past the perceived point of sensibility.

There was no subtlety or confusion with how the Cannibal Giants presented themselves on the baseball diamond. Clad in grass skirts and sporting war paint as well as African- themed head dresses, the Cannibal Giants represented what many prejudicial whites felt about black ballplayers, that they possessed a savagery that was unfit for a proper place in such a gentlemanly game.42 The usage of tribal names from African folklore over the player’s legal name was not unique to the Cannibal Giants; the Ethiopian Clowns also adopted this practice. Their uniforms, however, were a distinguishing feature of the team.

The Ethiopian Clowns were said to only dress in their red clown wigs on special occasions or when they were performing a comedy acts. The Zulu Cannibal Giants, on the other hand, were commonly identified by their signature grass skirts. While every other team wore pants and cleats, the Zulu Cannibal Giants played every game, from beginning to end, in impractical grass skirts and without footwear. The ludicrous appearance was their trademark.

42 “Unusual Nine to Play Here,” Dayton Daily News, August 1, 1937. 23 23

For black ballclubs that dabbled in minstrelsy, they had to demonstrate a respectable level of talent to be taken seriously. The Zulu Cannibal Giants likely were the most susceptible to this expectation considering the degree by which they endorsed minstrel imagery. Many newspaper accounts often listed their win-loss record which was almost always an impressive statistic. Before a game in Owensboro, Kentucky, a local newspaper columnist claimed that the Zulus record stood at 236 wins and 15 losses.43 A newspaper promotion for a charity benefit game between the Cannibal Giants and the Bacharach Giants in Tallahassee, Florida states that the Zulus of Detroit held a record of

100 wins and 29 losses.44 Those who did not state the Zulus’ record otherwise articulated the team’s talent level to their readers. One sports columnist emphasized that many of the

Zulus formerly played in the Negro American League (NAL) and that the team possessed

“some of the best baseball talent of the nation.”45 It is also important to note that this particular sportswriter neglected to mention the race of the players when describing the talent level of the Zulu ballplayers. Although this is likely an example of promotional hyperbole, this rhetoric exemplifies much of the playing ability that was overlooked as a result of the Zulu Cannibal Giants’ lack of subtlety in their appearance.

The Zulus’ inability to maintain a successful operation was largely due to their failure to effectively balance minstrelsy with baseball. The House of David and the

Ethiopian Clowns were long-term successes because they realized that a profitable ballclub started with the talent. Minstrelsy and sideshows were only viable if the team had enough talent to sell that kind of entertainment as an additional perk for coming to the ballpark. The Zulus either lacked sufficient talent to make their playing ability the

43 “Game Monday: Zulu Cannibal Giants to Play House of David Here,” Owensboro Messenger, September 11, 1938. 44 “Zulu Cannibals Benefit Game to Aid Band,” Tallahassee Democrat, May 1, 1949. 45 “Zulus Will Be Here Thursday: Famed Cannibal Giants Play Escanaba Bears at City Diamond,” Escanaba Daily Press, July 23, 1947. 24 24 primary selling point or did not realize that minstrelsy could not lead the sales pitch to a baseball crowd.

From examining newspaper accounts, the Zulus prioritized their appearance and comedy acts above all else. In the summer of 1941, they showed up in Benton Harbor, Michigan, home of the House of David, to play the Grocers, a local semi-professional baseball team. The Benton Harbor newspaper suggests that local citizens come to the ballpark to see the Cannibal Giants play. The columnist noted that the Zulus had a record of 76-8 in their previous season, but that fact appeared to only be a secondary attraction of the team.46 The main appeal was in witnessing a team in grass skirts and war paint play baseball. Although the Zulus were granted permission to play this game on the House of

David’s field, they were not deemed worthy of taking the field against the bearded ballclub. Any number of reasons could account for why they did not have the opportunity to compete against perhaps the most famed white professional barnstorming team. The Zulus, perhaps because of the reputation they held, had to settle for playing against local, semi-professional teams and black ballclubs of limited prestige. Their public image frequently excluded them from competing against the more popular or respected barnstorming ballclubs.

Most of the media coverage on the Zulus circulated around their numerous

“benefit games.” One such contest was held in Indianapolis at Perry Stadium. A reported 4,000 children were on hand to attend the game. The majority of these children came from a local orphanage, the Juvenile Detention home, and the Indiana State School for the Deaf. All of these children were admitted free of charge along with any high school or grade school students who also happened to show up.47 In continuance of an existing

46 “Kritt’s Host Sunday to Cannibal Clown 9: Grass Skirted Aces in 1st Appearance Here at 2:30,” Benton Harbor News-Palladium, June 7, 1941. 47 “4,000 Children Have Fun Watching Stadium Game,” Indianapolis Star, May 29, 1938. 25 25 trend, the Zulus were not given the opportunity to take the field against Indianapolis’s premier white professional squad or even against the black ABCs who played many of their home games at Perry Stadium. Even though the game was hosted by Norman A.

Perry, owner of the Indianapolis Indians, the Zulus’ opponent was the Kingan Reliables, a semi-professional club made up of employees from a local meat-packing company. For children who were likely unable to often enjoy competitive baseball, it must have been an unexpected sight to watch meatpackers play against black ballplayers dressed in grass skirts. The greatness of the Zulus, despite their attire, probably escaped the children’s recognition when the Kingan ballclub defeated the Zulus in a 6-0 shutout victory. The benefit games served an advantageous purpose for both parties. For the community, it brought heightened media attention to groups and organizations that were in desperate need of financial support. For the Zulus, these games built their prestige as a professional ballclub although this impact depended on the quality of their opponent. Unlike other black baseball teams like the Ethiopian Clowns who insisted that their team was a vehicle for the advancement of black baseball, the Zulu Cannibal Giants were very transparent in their desire to appeal to white audiences. When promoting a

Zulus game, the white newspapers fully embrace the stereotypical narrative that their physical presentation suggested. One sportswriter stated that, “Although the Cannibal

Giants have never pushed a war canoe down the Congo…they resemble the primitive savages in dress and actions.”48 Their abilities as baseball players were only hinted at, whereas their ludicrous appearance was implied as the only real reason to see the Zulus play. This article made it difficult to separate the Zulu Cannibal Giants from a more traditional sports entertainment troupe such as the Harlem Globetrotters. The Harlem

Globetrotters were an all-black basketball troupe who entered various African American

48 “Cannibal to Try Tigers on Local Diamond,” Muncie Star Press, September 28, 1935. 26 26 communities to bring their comedic take on the sport to spectators. They focused their competitive energy on entertaining fans rather than on playing for wins and championships.

Any semblance of the Cannibal Giants’ competitive nature was stripped away, making them appear more circus than professional sports club. However, in the case of the Harlem Globetrotters, there was no pretension on their part that they were something other than a performance troupe. Their opponents were as much of a performance troupe as they were. In the case of the Zulu Cannibal Giants, they clung to notions of professionalism despite their outward appearance. Their opponents were either professional or semi-professional and viewed as such. When the press began to take the

Zulus’ appearance seriously, the grass skirts and war paint became a greater feature than professional baseball in its eyes. Their opponents, who had always viewed themselves as primarily competitive, were now willing participants in a minstrel circus rather than in a contest between two professional ballclubs.

The matchup between the Zulu Cannibal Giants and the Colored House of David in Owensboro, Kentucky is perhaps the most substantial piece of evidence that the popularity of these two clubs was built by appealing to white audiences. The Colored

House of David was not associated with the all-white, bearded ballclub in any way. They were simply imitating the once highly successful “Bearded Beauties” and likely thought that a black version of the team would replicate the phenomenon. To the sportswriters in

Owensboro, a matchup between the black “Bearded Beauties” and the grass-skirted aces must have seemed like a spectacle that was impossible to match. An advertisement in The Owensboro Messenger stated that half of the ballpark’s grandstand was reserved for whites, indicating that the teams expected for at least a majority of the paid patrons to be 27 27 white.49 Regardless of the game’s outcome or its official paid attendance, relying on a white audience to support black baseball was a losing strategy.

The Zulu Cannibal Giants, because of their outrageous appearance on the diamond, toiled in relative obscurity during the 1930s and ‘40s. They were never significant enough to draw the ire of black sportswriters, but the baseball media was certainly aware of their existence. Their inability to equally balance minstrelsy with baseball created an organization that was unsure of its professional identity. The Zulus’ formula of selling black baseball to a white audience failed because the white press and communities already possessed their own sports organizations that meant more to them than a racially charged spectacle. Once the spectacle ran its course, there was nothing left to keep white baseball fans attracted to the Zulus.

The Ethiopian Clowns, by contrast, were successful because their fanbase drew heavily from various black communities. It is for that same reason that influential black sportswriters felt the need to attack the Clowns for supposedly embracing minstrelsy in the form of sideshows. By itself, sideshows could not sustain a successful black baseball organization. The combination of talent, ballplayers and show performers, an ability to build a majority black fanbase, and entertaining sideshows was what made the Ethiopian

Clowns a success and the Zulu Cannibal Giants a failure from both a business and social standpoint. During the 1930s, the Ethiopian Clowns flourished as a prominent black barnstorming ballclub. Like the House of David, they captured the attention of the communities they entered during the summer months. One such occasion was when they visited Greenville, Pennsylvania in June 1936. The town’s local newspaper, The

Greensville Record-Argus, provides a colorful description of this team. Dressed like

49 “The Cannibals are Coming!” Owensboro Messenger, September 11, 1938. 28 28 stereotypical tribal savages from African folklore, the Ethiopian Clowns entered the playing field wearing clown suits and bushy red wigs although this was likely an occasional occurrence and never played an entire game in this attire. This ad spot contains an image of the team in their unique outfits accompanied with images of “warriors” wielding shield and spear.50 This newspaper article repeated a common theme found throughout many of the publications that published stories about the Clowns performing in their town: they were an odd sight, a startling representation of the national pastime. Nevertheless, the sports media welcomed their brand of black baseball and, even more, they recognized that teams like the Ethiopian Clowns possessed authentic playing ability which could not be ignored despite the controversial intertwining of a treasured national institution with the exploitative nature of these players’ portrayal on the field.

If the Ethiopian Clowns are viewed as a royal court, three key components can be identified: a king, his nobles, and the court jester. The nobles were athletes like Buster Haywood who executed their king’s will and brought his vision to life. The court jester operated in much the same way as the nobility, following the dictates of their king. In this scenario, the Ethiopian Clowns’ court jester was men like King Tut. His real name was

Richard King, but everyone knew him as Tut. As Buster Haywood explained, Tut’s only job was to “clown.”51 He was not the team’s only performer, but he sticks out as the one most adored by fans of the Clowns and most discussed by critics. To detractors, Tut was the symbol of the Clowns’ tendency to racially denigrate professional black baseball. To hear Alan Pollock, son of Clowns owner Syd Pollock, explain King Tut, he was universally beloved by the fans and Alan Pollock labelled Tut the “heart and soul” of

50“Ethiopian Clowns to Exhibit Wares Here,” Greenville Record-Argus, June 6, 1936. 51 Brent Kelley, The Negro Leagues Revisited: Conversations with 66 More Baseball Heroes (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2000), 111. 29 29 black baseball.52 Alan Pollock’s book about his father’s team is filled with many instances of such hyperbole. From his perspective, though, his father was not exploiting racial stereotypes for his own financial advantage. He believed that his father—as well as

King Tut and all performers and ballplayers on the Clowns—were an expression of freedom in this segregated profession.53 Because blacks were barred from white baseball, there was this notion among the many black ballclubs that they could not have fun playing baseball, that playing the segregated game was only for presenting a public image of black ballplayers as serious athletes. Syd Pollock embraced the image of the black clown and viewed racial stereotypes as a vehicle of individuality among his black athletes rather than to allow the reality of segregation to drain all of the creativity and joy from his athletes and performers.

In an interview with author Larry Tye, former Clowns player and manager Buster

Haywood was one of several subjects that spoke about their experience with the Clowns. Haywood compared the Clowns to the Harlem Globetrotters, and he was hardly the first one to make that comparison. Haywood noted their similarity in drawing power and the circus elements. Along with their top-billing performer King Tut, the Clowns also employed a dwarf called Be Bop who frequently worked with Tut. In their infancy, every member of the Clowns would paint their faces like the Clowns for their fans in

Cincinnati. As a catcher, Haywood was exempt from having to wear face paint. Unlike the Harlem Globetrotters, however, the Ethiopian Clowns were a competitive team that played against white semi-professional teams and black teams in the organized Negro

Leagues. As Buster Haywood stressed, the Clowns’ drawing power was predicated on their ability to win games. In his mind, the clowning element was a secondary function of

52 Alan Pollock, Barnstorming to Heaven: Syd Pollock and His Great Black Teams (Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 2006), 8. 53 Pollock, Barnstorming to Heaven, 21. 30 30 the team. While certain players and employed clowns enjoyed their time as performers, the ballplayers recognized that it was their ability to effectively compete against the best teams in black baseball that kept fans interested in seeing the Clowns play baseball.54

Although we have several examples of talented Clowns ballplayers partaking in the clowning activities, one player, Andy Porter, claimed that no professional ballplayer on the Clowns ever did any clowning. He asserted that “special people” who called themselves clowns were the only ones who performed any of their comedy acts. He went on to state that if any ballplayer was requested to perform then they would have quit playing on the team immediately.55 This statement indicates the Clowns’ public image transformation in their later years of operation. Porter joined the Clowns in 1948 in the twilight of his career after spending eleven recorded years with the Baltimore Elite

Giants. By then, the Clowns had removed “Ethiopian” from their team name and designated their hometown of Indianapolis as its substitute. The Clowns had also been granted a spot in the Negro American League. By rolling back the minstrelsy elements and assigning comedy performances to professional clowns and other performers, the

Clowns were able to survive as a baseball organization for several more years.

In December of 1948, the NNL folded due to financial issues which spelled the end for many cornerstone black baseball franchises.56 Effa Manley, owner of the Newark

Eagles and once a loud critic of the Ethiopian Clowns team name, was forced to find a new home for her ballclub in organized black baseball. The Homestead Grays were also impacted by this development. Their former owner, Cum Posey, who had once been

54 Larry Tye interview with Buster Haywood, [n.d.], Box 2, Folder 8, Larry Tye Research Papers, Giamatti Research Center, National Baseball Hall of Fame Library and Museum. 55 Larry Tye interview with Andy Porter, [n.d.], Box 2, Folder 8, Larry Tye Research Papers, Giamatti Research Center, National Baseball Hall of Fame Library and Museum. 56 Wendell Smith, “Negro National Loop Folds; AL Takes Over,” 1 December 1948, Wendell Smith Papers, Manuscript Archives Collection, National Baseball Hall of Fame Library and Museum. 31 31 similarly critical of the Ethiopian Clowns’ team name, had died two years prior to the

NNL’s dissolution. The Newark Eagles moved to Houston and ceased operations after another two years. The Homestead Grays met an identical fate after the conclusion of the

1950 baseball season. All the while, the Ethiopian Clowns rebranded themselves into the Indianapolis Clowns and continued operating until 1962, making them among the last black ballclubs in existence and certainly the oldest surviving black ballclub by that point. It speaks great volume to their overall legacy that they were able to survive, for a time, baseball’s integration and the demise of the Negro Leagues.

CHAPTER 3: THE ADMIRATION AND CONDEMNATION OF THE ETHIOPIAN CLOWNS

“The [Ethiopian] Clowns rank as the colored champions of the independent baseball ranks and are in demand in every part of the country. They…have the reputation of never having failed to keep an engagement.”57 -The West Schuylkill Press and Pine Grove Herald (Tremont, PA), July 7, 1939

Many of the same elements within traditional minstrelsy are detectable in the case of the Ethiopian Clowns. However, while these elements can be found, the Clowns were more of a baseball team that enhanced their entertainment value with sideshows than they were a simple minstrel troupe. Over a century after blackface was introduced to

American playgoers, black athletes dressed like clowns drew praise from both the black and white press. Most vocal among these were several black writers at The Pittsburgh

Courier. The Courier often directed their coverage of black ballclubs towards safer and less controversial entities like the Pittsburgh Crawfords, Homestead Grays, and Kansas City Monarchs. However, the Courier did not refrain from covering the Clowns when they competed against the more respected black ballclubs. After defeating the Chicago

American Giants in 1938, the Courier gleefully acknowledged that this triumph further boosted the Clowns’ claim to the so-called “Independent Colored World Championship” for supposedly triumphing over every black ballclub in the country, as well as defeating many white semi-professional teams across the United States and Canada.58 A couple years later, this publication noticed the Clowns’ impressive performance in The Denver

Post tournament, stating that their playing ability was rivaled by few, and that their

57 West Schuylkill Press and Pine Grove Herald, July 7, 1939. 58 “Clowns Top Chicago Nine by 4-3 Score,” Pittsburgh Courier, August 13, 1938. 33 33 ability to outdraw even the House of David indicated that they were the most popular team competing outside of organized, professional baseball.59

Although promotions for the Ethiopian Clowns in the black newspapers were few, there are some examples in which the Clowns were enthusiastically promoted, indicating that, despite their controversial tendencies, sportswriters were capable of identifying their value to the black game. Even the New York Age, a black publication that rarely discussed sports, mentioned the cozy relationship that Syd Pollock and the NNL shared with one another.60 The Pittsburgh Crawfords lured catcher Thadist Christopher—better known as “Wild Bill” Tarzan, his stage name for the Clowns—away from the Clowns.

They demanded that his old contract be torn up if the Clowns were to play any more games against NNL ballclubs. This threat implied that the heads of the NNL recognized the Clowns as a legitimate organization with real talent rather than as pure circus.

Eventually, however, the black ballclub lost its support from influential black sportswriters and was denounced as an organization that impeded racial progress. To these critics, the Ethiopian Clowns possessed no redeeming qualities and only tarnished the public view of black ballplayers. A closer look, however, shows that the reality was more complicated than that. Albert “Buster” Haywood joined the Ethiopian Clowns in

1940 to play in the Denver Post tournament. Going up against the bulwarks of barnstorming baseball such as the House of David, Kansas City Monarchs, and the Homestead Grays, Haywood distinguished himself by leading the Clowns to the tournament’s championship and was voted the Most Valuable Player.61 For the catcher who became known for his exemplary throwing arm, it was the beginning of a tenure with the Clowns that would last for over a decade. Having entered black professional

59 “Clowns in Denver Tourney,” Pittsburgh Courier, August 10, 1940. 60 “Spearman and Christopher Expected to Join Craws,” New York Age, May 29, 1937. 61 Brent Kelley, The Negro Leagues Revisited, 109. 34 34 baseball at the late age of thirty years old, his playing career ended in 1948, and he immediately transitioned to a managerial role. In his seven years as the club’s manager,

Haywood led the Clowns to a respectable 252-215 record. In 1952, he recruited a young man from Mobile, Alabama named Hank Aaron to play for the Clowns.62 Haywood played an integral part in the first chapter of a career that included Aaron breaking the career home run record set by American icon Babe Ruth. As an established ballplayer with legitimate talent, Haywood could have signed with a more respected team that did not partake in silly sideshows. Instead, he committed the bulk of his professional career to a team that many believed marginalized their players with racial stereotypes and cheap comedy acts. Haywood was only one out of the hundreds of black ballplayers who consented to the clowning antics of their ballclub, and acquiesced to this depiction of their talent and playing ability.

While the Courier’s general coverage of the Clowns promoted them as a talented black ballclub, the publication’s sports editorials were far more critical of the organization and of Syd Pollock in particular. The first call to remove “Ethiopian” from the Clowns team name originated from Homestead Grays owner Cum Posey’s column in

The Pittsburgh Courier. Although the Ethiopian label preceded the Italian invasion of that country by several years, Posey—along with prominent members of the black sports press and baseball—agreed that continuing to include that name in a black ballclub constituted insensitive behavior towards a suffering nation and that it was improper to profit off their subjugation. He asked that editors of black newspapers across the United

States to keep any mention of those teams off their score sheets.63 Newark Eagles owner

62 Henry Louis “Hank” Aaron. Outfielder. Played from 1954-1976 for the Atlanta and Milwaukee Braves. Career .305 batting average, 755 career home runs. Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 1982, inducted on his first ballot receiving 97.83% of the vote. 63 Cumberland Posey, “Posey’s Points,” Pittsburgh Courier, September 28, 1940. 35 35

Effa Manley made the same objection about the Clowns. She even credited herself and her husband, Abe Manley, with enticing Pollock to eventually change the team name to the Indianapolis Clowns. However, when she heard that the Clowns were to play a game at Yankee Stadium, her opinion of the Clowns transformed into something infinitely more positive. In an interview with Larry Tye, she said:

[N]obody in the park laughed harder than I did. I really enjoyed it. The antics were something else. They, while it was comedy, it was really nothing you could object to. The name was a big problem and at one time I think they wore funny looking uniforms, that was before I saw them too, but the day I went to Yankee Stadium, I had one of the pleasantest days of my life. I just laughed my head off and everything. They were doing all kinds of impossible things with the ball, well, due to the fact they were just great athletes, they could just maneuver and manipulate like that.64

Effa Manley was a woman of unquestioned integrity in the black baseball world.

Abe Manley officially owned the Newark Eagles, but Effa was the face of the ballclub.

She was the architect of a Newark club that won the 1946 Negro World Series and developed several Hall of Fame players. Effa Manley was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006, twenty-five years after her death; she remains the only woman to hold a place in Cooperstown. Her solution to the Clowns was to see them play and judge for themselves. She had the same misgivings as many African Americans until she saw them play. Her opinion was that they were not a minstrel troupe performing “Uncle Tom” antics. She echoed the same sentiments as Syd Pollock’s son, Alan, did in his publication: Clowns games were innocent fun, a “glimpse at universal love.”65 Nevertheless, Effa

Manley’s joyous attitude towards the Clowns was not expressed until decades after the fact (Figure 2).

64 Larry Tye interview with Effa Manley, [n.d.], Box 2, Folder 8, Larry Tye Research Papers, Giamatti Research Center, National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. 65 Alan Pollock, Barnstorming to Heaven, 7. 36 36

Figure 2. Effa Manley with one of her ballplayers. Photo from The New York Post, May 14, 1938. Found in the Effa Manley Scrapbook, Giamatti Research Center, National Baseball Hall of Fame Library and Museum (Cooperstown, NY)

37 37

It is also important to discuss the team’s owner, who the black press viewed as the culprit of the demeaning element that existed within black baseball. Syd Pollock, the man behind the Clowns, was the most influential force in establishing minstrelsy as the trademark of his ballclub. In his son’s view, Syd was a visionary, a baseball mind that was unique and a nearly infallible figure that made close to no mistakes when it came to the Clowns’ baseball operations. In describing his father, Alan Pollock lauded him as a man who “sought harmony, adjustment, and ecumenism. He viewed all as companions, not as competitors.”66 It is not very surprising that Alan Pollock presented his father as such an appealing individual considering that this publication emphasizes the degree of extreme closeness he shared with his father. However, it would also be irresponsible to disregard Alan’s point of view simply because of his familial connection. Without any substantial testimonies from Syd Pollock himself, it helps to weigh what contemporaries said about the Clowns’ owner in order to learn more about the man and the value of the Clowns to the black community during the era of segregated baseball.

Observers as well as persons directly associated with the Clowns admired

Pollock. In his obituary, an unidentified journalist described Syd Pollock in a similar vein as his son later did. He was credited with developing talent that would go on to distinguish themselves in the major leagues—Hank Aaron was of course the first ballplayer mentioned in this category—insisting that Syd’s ballclub impacted the recognized circuit of professional baseball for the better. The many minstrel shows were not ignored in this obituary but were instead rebranded to sound more innocent and less exploitative of their black ballplayers and performers. They praised Pollock’s philosophy of mixing “baseball with the best of entertainment” to seem as if the Clowns promoted a

66 Pollock, Barnstorming to Heaven, 44. 38 38 welcoming family environment instead of a derisive minstrel show.67 Flowery obituaries like these were not enough to draw a posthumous induction into the Baseball Hall of

Fame, but were sufficient in memorializing Syd Pollock as a great baseball mind with an incredible business acumen after his death. Wendell Smith, sportswriter for The Pittsburgh Courier, was actively influencing the public perception of the Clowns as a relic of minstrelsy. From the aftermath of the

Italian invasion of Ethiopia to the eve of Jackie Robinson’s debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers, the editorial section of The Pittsburgh Courier aired their grievances against

Syd Pollock and his Clowns. Wendell Smith was the Courier’s loudest and most frequent critic of Pollock’s business tactics. It was from Smith’s editorials that the Ethiopian

Clowns began being described, at least in part, as a minstrel show. Smith indicted Pollock as a baseball dictator and accused Pollock of not only exploiting his ballplayers for profits, but additionally for being a poor representative of the game. He decried the Clowns as a gong show that put the interests of Syd Pollock ahead of that of his players and his paid audience. To Wendell Smith, the only solution was for the Clowns to terminate all baseball operations.68 Smith was mostly offended by Pollock’s supposed pretensions as the team’s owner. The Clowns’ owner saw himself as a pioneer of black baseball by devising a unique way to celebrate the majesty of the institution in a sport subject to Jim Crow restrictions. Smith viewed Pollock’s worldview as a delusion that was too much to stomach. To Smith, Syd Pollock was baseball’s chief hypocrite and the present of black ballplayers as “clowns” was a further indication of why blacks in white, organized baseball remained out of their reach.

67 “Syd Pollock Dies in Florida; Originated Indianapolis Clowns,” Poughkeepsie Journal, November 26, 1968. 68 Wendell Smith, “Smitty’s’ Sports Spurts,” Pittsburgh Courier, July 15, 1944. 39 39

The verdict over who bore responsibility for the lack of black ballplayers in white, organized baseball was a matter of debate even following baseball’s integration in 1947.

In 1953, one sportswriter for the Courier pushed back against the idea that “clowning” prevented integration, but ultimately argued that this marketing strategy was resented by the great black ballclubs even if it was an obviously effective method for selling tickets.69

The Courier’s black sportswriters wanted to put a white face on the persistence of baseball segregation and to also stress that these white faces were present in both white and black baseball. In Wendell Smith’s condemnation of Syd Pollock’s exploits as the

Clowns owner, Pollock tried to distance himself from his own club by claiming that his business partner, an African American named Hunter Campbell, was the Clowns’ true owner. In a blistering response, Wendell Smith doubted that there was any truth behind

Pollock’s claim. He argued that if there were any truth to what Pollock said then Hunter

Campbell was betraying his own people for financial gain and spearheading a venture that only demeaned the baseball potential of African Americans. In a dramatic ending to his editorial, Smith declared that if Hunter Campbell, a black man, was guilty of owning the Clowns, then he should be dubbed: “The Fifth Clown-ist of the Negro Sports

World!”70

Black athletes and performers were thrust into a unique situation in the eyes of black sportswriters. Since they were constantly in the public eye, they were seen as the representatives of a race of 13 million Americans that endured a commonly segregated existence. Every one of them was expected to serve in the interest of racial advancement, a purpose that far exceeded their personal ambitions. This is when black athletes and performers began being regarded as “race men,” where they should not allow greed or

69 Ric Roberts, “Sixty-Year Curse!” Pittsburgh Courier, June 6, 1953. 70 Wendell Smith, “Smitty’s Sports Spurts: Syd Pollock Denies Ownership of Ethiopian- Cincinnati-Miami Clowns,” Pittsburgh Courier, May 30, 1942. 40 40 personal interest to enter into the equation of their decision making. Their careers were not an escape from poverty or a more sustainable way of living, but as a means to achieve the end of racial separation (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Article from The New York Daily News, February 4, 1935. Located in the Effa Manley Scrapbook, Giamatti Research Center, National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum (Cooperstown, NY). 41 41

Despite Wendell Smith’s indignation at the Clowns’ business model, black sportswriters and newspaper publications were not always echoing unanimous outrage.

The Chicago Defender, a publication that commanded a similar level of influence as the

Courier, continued to promote the Clowns as a worthy black ballclub on a consistent basis. One of their promotions featured an image of Ed Davis, better known by his playing name, “Peanut” Nyasses (Figure 4). Unlike King Tut and Buster Haywood,

“Peanut” Nyasses might have been the truest representation of Syd Pollock’s formula. Whereas Tut and Haywood were purely clowns and athletes, Nyasses juggled both and excelled in each area. For a time, he was regarded as the Clowns’ best pitcher and took full part in the team’s various comedy acts. The Defender described him as “a Stepin

Fetchit and a Satchel Paige all in one.” This phrase was employed in a way that highlighted his athletic and show-performance abilities. To this sportswriter, Nyasses was a brilliant performer that brought fans to the ballpark rather than a powerless tool of Syd Pollock’s half-minstrel show, half-baseball team phenomenon. Additionally, this sportswriter noted that Nyasses’ primary occupation was as a lawyer in New York City, implying that he has sufficient intelligence to grasp the risks that this public image could cost him in the black community that yearned to see a black player in white baseball.71

Unfortunately, there is no significant testimony from Wendell Smith and other critical black sportswriters on Peanut Nyasses specifically. Much of their anger was directed towards Syd Pollock since he was the man who ultimately decided to incorporate comedic sideshows into his ballclub. Smith believed that none of this would have existed in the first place if not for Syd Pollock. However, the reality is that the Ethiopian Clowns successfully molded sideshows with baseball to create an operation that flourished and even survived longer than many of the respected, serious black baseball teams. This team

71 “Baseball’s Funniest Man,” Chicago Defender, 30 May 1942, Box 2, Folder 12, Larry Tye Research Papers, Giamatti Research Center, National Baseball Hall of Fame Library and Museum. 42 42

Figure 4. Rendering of Ed Davis (“Peanut Nyasses”) as depicted in The Chicago Defender, May 30, 1942. Found in the Dr. Lawrence Hogan Research Papers, Box 2, Folder 12, Giamatti Research Center, National Baseball Hall of Fame Library and Museum (Cooperstown, New York).

43 43 might have been Pollock’s vision, but the devotion of professional clowns (King Tut), serious ballplayers (Buster Haywood), and the hybrids (Peanut Nyasses) developed his vision into a profitable component of black baseball. Despite Wendell Smith’s accusations, Pollock was not a baseball tyrant. He possessed a cast of considerably talented and loyal players that prioritized staying with the Clowns over leaving for a place on a more generally respected black ballclub. Since they played outside of organized black baseball for much of their existence, the players had the opportunity to pursue a higher paycheck on an organized team although many chose to stay. A ballplayer on the Clowns had a clearly defined role, but he possessed the autonomy to go elsewhere if he felt diminished by Pollock’s brand of baseball. It was the players’ choice to clown, and most seemed to enjoy that aspect. For those who were more serious ballplayers and did not clown, they appeared to be content with the combination of baseball and minstrelsy that the Ethiopian Clowns represented.

CHAPTER 4: THE BATTLE FOR BLACK BASEBALL’S SOUL

“Mr. [Syd] Pollock appears to be a well bred white man, but one of those white men who believes that the only way to ‘sell’ Negro entertainment to the public is to compel his hired hands to go into a song and a dance, to forget the original script and resort to cotton pickin’ routines.” -Wendell Smith72

Syd Pollock was considered the leading culprit in the supposed damage that clowning had inflicted on the advancement of black baseball. The issues that Wendell

Smith raised against Syd Pollock boiled down into a difference in philosophy over what is an appropriate image for black baseball. Wendell Smith preached dignity and a persistent seriousness in black ballplayers. Pollock’s team was in direct defiance of

Smith’s expectations. The Clowns espoused individuality in their ballplayers, even going so far as to adopt the name, and occasionally, the appearance of circus performers. In any other setting, this would be quickly dismissed as minstrelsy, but in baseball, things were more complicated than that. Pollock argued that he embraced the racially charged image of the African American as a clown in a way intended to render the derogatory image of the black clown powerless and add power to his black athletes.

Wendell Smith’s impact on black baseball as a whole cannot be understated. He led the crusade to integrate Major League Baseball and formed a close relationship with Jackie Robinson as he broke the color barrier. His condemnations of Syd Pollock’s business practices demonstrate how seriously he treated any measure that he deemed harmful to baseball’s eventual integration. While it would be an overstatement to claim that integration would have been impossible without the Clowns, it is accurate to claim that the Clowns posed no unique threat to baseball’s integration and were likely as beneficial to integration as any of their respected contemporaries. In pursuing integration

72 Wendell Smith, “Smitty’s Sports Spurts: Clowns Clown Once Too Often,” Pittsburgh Courier, July 1, 1944. 45 45 at all costs, Wendell Smith also played a part in the demise of the black baseball industry.

His influence was so widespread that he ignited many discussions that would be had by the nation’s other black sportswriters. The matters that he stressed were soon echoed by the other sport sections in African American newspapers. As the black baseball leagues were rapidly failing, Smith and his contemporaries rarely mentioned the dilemma and offered no solution on how the “Negro Leagues” might be saved. The press no longer recognized black baseball in the leagues where they had existed for several decades. Black baseball’s future laid in white, organized baseball where only black ballplayers of supreme talent and mental fortitude had a place as a full-fledged professional.

The NNL’s dissolution returned the spotlight to Wendell Smith and his growing indifference towards the deterioration of the organized Negro Leagues. His association with Jackie Robinson as integration was underway and his continued interest in bringing more star black ballplayers to Major League Baseball left many black players of average playing ability to rot in a professional league that was rapidly declining. While advocating for the further integration of white baseball was commendable, his decreasing attention to the traditional black baseball leagues was indicative of the black sports press’ collective lack of worry about what awaited the black leagues in post-integration baseball. Organized black baseball ceased to be a league that black Americans could call their own; it was, instead, transformed into a feeder league for the integration of white baseball.

It would be giving Wendell Smith more credit than is perhaps warranted to argue that he might have saved the Negro Leagues from financial ruin if he focused more on the institution’s troubles following integration. The mere inclusion of black players in white baseball initiated the unstoppable demise of the Negro Leagues and ended the necessity for segregated black baseball leagues. Nevertheless, Wendell Smith’s impact on the progression of blacks in baseball and his overall legacy cannot be understated. Two years 46 46 after Smith’s death in 1972, Jerome Holtzman of The Sporting News argued in his article examining Smith’s decade-long crusade to integrate white baseball that “…students everywhere, should fasten themselves to his memory. Wendell Smith was not a man to be forgotten.”73 Many scholars and historians echo a similar sentiment. Greene Farmer, Jr. wrote in his dissertation that Smith was “unquestionably the foremost advocate and crusader for the integration of the national game.”74 Ric Roberts, Smith’s successor at

The Pittsburgh Courier, wrote that a history of the color ban’s demise cannot be recorded without Wendell Smith’s voice as a primary actor in the saga.75 Smith is viewed, both historically and by his contemporaries, as arguably the most influential voice in the black sports media. His lack of interest in black baseball leagues following integration demonstrated a pattern of behavior among black sportswriters that these leagues were no longer relevant and that black baseball fans should commit themselves to fully integrating baseball rather than clinging to a relic of segregation in sports. From the beginning of his sports journalism career, Wendell Smith devoted his career to getting a black player in white baseball. Integration, or the widescale presences of black ballplayers in major league baseball, was Smith’s ultimate goal. For instance,

Commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis, long perceived as the unshakeable roadblock towards racial reform in white baseball, once spoke on the record that he would not personally oppose a black individual on a major league team. In response, Smith questioned the honesty of Landis’s statement, but also noted that what Landis said on the record was of primary importance. With black ballplayers still years away from a white

73 Jerome Holtzman, “Wendell Smith—A Pioneer for Black Athletes,” The Sporting News, 22 June 1974, Box 2, Folder 12, Jules Tygiel Papers, Giamatti Research Center, National Baseball Hall of Fame Library and Museum. 74 Greene Farmer, Jr., “Social Implications of Black Professional Baseball in the United States,” Ph.D. diss. (United States International University, San Diego, 1975), 26. 75 Ric Roberts, “Pop Anson’s 60-Year Ban: The ‘Nil’ Business,” Pittsburgh Courier, June 6, 1953. 47 47 baseball team, he called on the fans and owners to take responsibility for the enduring color line and perhaps asked the latter party to summon the courage to end segregation in baseball.76 Even his criticism of the Ethiopian Clowns centered mainly around how black baseball and athletes might be perceived by this depiction. He appeared to consider that the Clowns’ existence as another barrier to integrating baseball. It is not significantly surprising that once the integration process is underway in 1947, there are very few instances of Smith even discussing the Clowns. It could even be argued that the Clowns rebranded themselves in order to gain entrance into the Negro American League and to survive the financial ramifications that integration would have on black baseball, and not as the result of any backlash that sportswriter like Wendell Smith heaped upon the

Ethiopian Clowns team name.

It was not only the black players of average ability that saw their livelihoods crumble as a result of the financial collapse of organized black baseball. Bill Veeck, who was the general manager for the Cleveland Indians and the St. Louis Browns during the integration years, discussed in a 1960 news article the challenges that black players still face in an integrated game. Even at the time of the interview, Veeck stated that for a black player to be given a fair shot in the major leagues he had to be perceived as superior in talent to that of the average white major league player.77 The learning curve that came from transitioning from black to white baseball might depend on the personality of the player, talent level might not greatly factor into the equation. For every

Jackie Robinson or Roy Campanella that found immediate success in major league

76 Wendell Smith, “Smitty Sports-Spurts Newspaper Column,” Pittsburgh Courier, 25 July 1942, Wendell Smith Papers, Manuscript Archives Collection, National Baseball Hall of Fame Library and Museum. 77 Bill Veeck and Louie Robinson, “Chicago White Sox president discusses whether tan stars will dominate sport as they do boxing,” 1960, Box 4, Folder 5, Jules Tygiel Research Papers, Giamatti Research Center, National Baseball Hall of Fame Library and Museum. 48 48 baseball, there were many other black players who did not succeed for a vast number of reasons and had to retreat back to the Negro Leagues. Many of these players, likely too talented to be playing in a failing league, saw their baseball ambitions dwindle into a lost dream. The unfortunate fate of many of these ballplayers eluded Wendell Smith’s radar as he and the many black sportswriters devoted most of their advocating to fully integrating white baseball.

With Wendell Smith leading the charge, the onslaught of criticism against the Clowns also stressed that the club threatened black baseball as a respectable institution.

Following a disputed play in Memphis that ruled in favor of the Memphis team, Clowns manager Hoss Walker was so incensed by the umpire’s ruling that he ordered his players off the field and refused to play the rest of the game. The Clowns opted to forfeit the game. Smith, angered not just by the Clowns’ antics but also by the Clowns’ refusal to deliver on the promise that the 8,000 paid attendants in Memphis that they would have a great baseball show, stressed that this was not the first time that the Clowns had robbed fans of their enjoyment at the ballpark.78 He referenced an incident from a few weeks prior in Kansas City when they held up a game for 37 minutes because they objected to

Willard Brown—an enlisted soldier in the U.S. Army who obtained a weekend furlough to play in Sunday games—being in the Monarchs lineup.79

Smith urged Dr. J. B. Martin, president of the Negro American League, to discipline the Clowns for their conduct. To Smith, inaction would only reinforce that the

78 Wendell Smith, “Smitty’s Sports Spurts: Clowns Clown Once Too Often,” Pittsburgh Courier, July 1, 1944. 79 Wendell Smith, “Smitty’s Sports Spurts: Part of the Clowns’ Act,” Pittsburgh Courier, July 1, 1944. (Willard Brown began his career in black baseball in 1934 with the Monroe Monarchs. Two years later, he signed with the Kansas City Monarchs and established himself as one of black baseball’s premiere power hitters. He signed an MLB contract with the St. Louis Browns and struggled there, playing in only 21 games before his release. He returned to the Kansas City Monarchs and stayed with them until his retirement in 1950. He died in 1996 and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006 by way of the Negro Leagues Committee.) 49 49

Clowns’ antics and sideshows were, at best, begrudgingly endorsed by the Negro

American League (NAL). This was a matter of survival and continued prosperity, that if nothing was done then “Negro baseball is going to take a fancy nose dive, sure as hell!” 80

Although Smith did not directly mention the perceived threat that the Clowns posed to the future integration of white baseball, that was the most disastrous consequence that allowing the Clowns to run amok in their league could inflict on them. The respectability of the institution was at stake. The goal was not for the black baseball leagues to overtake white baseball, but for ballplayers to prove that they belonged and could thrive in the white game.

In the following week’s issue of The Pittsburgh Courier, Wendell Smith continued his unfiltered condemnation of the Clowns. He reported that Syd Pollock neglected to file any report with the NAL explaining the decision in Memphis. Pollock added further insult to injury when he advertised yet another game in Memphis. The top sideshow for this game was to be the performance of Pollock’s rhumba dancer. The only issue was that the team never showed up, and three thousand black fans left the ballpark with lighter wallets and no baseball or even a sideshow to justify the cost. To Smith, this development was unsurprising. He felt that Pollock was cheating black fans out of their money, adding that he was “burlesquing baseball,” ruling as a dictator over his black players. Smith sarcastically asked his readers, “Who dares question the dictates of Herr Pollock.” However insulting Pollock’s Clowns may have been, Smith and his colleagues believed that Pollock had built a baseball product which enriched himself and demeaned his black subordinates. Smith was further insulted by Pollock’s insistence that his entertainment strategies were heavily inspired by the Brooklyn Dodgers and the

Cincinnati Reds. For a sportswriter that eagerly pushed for black ballplayers’ acceptance

80 Wendell Smith, “Smitty’s Sports Spurts: President Martin’s on the Spot,” Pittsburgh Courier, July 1, 1944. 50 50 into the professional ranks of white baseball, the idea that the Indianapolis Clowns emulated two of the National League’s oldest and most storied franchises reeked of

Pollock’s “egotism.”81

A week later, Wendell Smith declared victory against the Clowns as President Martin issued his ruling: Syd Pollock was fined $250 and manager Hoss Walker was fined $50. Smith admitted that the penalty was light, classifying it as a “spanking,” but a necessary first action against those who burlesque baseball. In summarizing his thoughts, Smith added that Pollock’s actions as an owner not only damaged the reputation of black baseball, but additionally ridiculed and capitalized off the suffering of the suffering of the

Ethiopian people “in a sadistic manner.”82 Black baseball, to Smith and like-minded sportswriters, operated as a vehicle for racial advancement and Pollock’s Clowns were viewed as detrimental to accomplishing that end. Although they had since changed their name from the Ethiopian to Indianapolis Clowns, Smith had not forgotten that insult. References to the Clowns remained even in the years following the smashing of the color barrier. Ric Roberts, Wendell Smith’s successor at The Pittsburgh Courier, stated that black baseball had always operated as an institution of “dignity and seriousness” until the white Syd Pollock came along and nearly undid all of their carefully constructed progress.83 Roberts makes it sound as if the Clowns came out of nowhere, that it was the invention of one man desiring to capitalize by turning his professional athletes into caricatures from a minstrel blackface show. There is no mention of teams like the Zulu Cannibal Giants who were the Clowns’ forerunners in combining

81 Wendell Smith, “Smitty’s Sports Spurts: Mr. Pollock Stalls On His Report…,” Pittsburgh Courier, July 8, 1944. 82 Wendell Smith, “Smitty’s Sports Spurts: President Martin Spanks the Clowns,” Pittsburgh Courier, July 15, 1944. 83 Ric Roberts, “Pop Anson’s 60-Year Ban: Sixty-Year Curse!,” Pittsburgh Courier, June 6, 1953. 51 51 baseball with sideshows. While the Clowns were certainly guilty of endorsing some offensive racial stereotypes in their comedy acts, it would be accurate to say that they were more akin to the House of David than the Zulu Cannibal Giants. The Clowns fully embraced sideshows and made them an unmistakable part of their product; however, they were a competitive baseball team first and should not be mistaken for a circus or minstrel troupe.

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION

“Forget [Hank] Aaron, [Satchel] Paige, and [Ernie] Banks. What once used to be a team of quality stars denied major league presence because of the color of their skin, is now an all-white team of players that weren’t even considered good enough to be drafted. They now are a team of dreamers.” -Joe Santoro, Fort Myers News-Press, 198584

Jackie Robinson’s debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947 marked a new age for Major League Baseball. From 1949 to 1959, nine of the eleven National League

MVPs were black ballplayers who had migrated from the Negro Leagues. The stars of black baseball thrived in the newly integrated baseball league. For those Negro League veterans who were unable to obtain success in Major League Baseball, their livelihoods crumbled as many cornerstone franchises of black baseball were rapidly failing. The

Indianapolis Clowns were one of the lone exceptions to this rule. Although most black ballclubs felt an immediate impact from integration, the Indianapolis Clowns provided a stable home for black ballplayers and continued to draw fans to the ballpark for another decade. Alan Pollock claimed that from the 1930s to the early 1950s continued to provide good baseball and comedic value to their fans.85

The newspaper accounts support this claim. Their ballgame at Benton Harbor,

Michigan in 1952 drew 1,500 fans, which was the biggest turnout of the season.86 It was a rare opportunity for the people of Benton Harbor to see the Clowns’ seventeen-year old shortstop, Hank Aaron. They were also scheduling high-marquee matchups as the

Clowns, the 1952 Negro American League Champions in Opelousas, Louisiana to face

84 Joe Santoro, “For the Clowns, baseball is far from a barrel of laughs,” Fort Myers News-Press, June 1, 1985. 85 Pollock, Barnstorming to Heaven, 381. 86 “1,500 See St. Joe End Loss String,” Benton Harbor News-Palladium, June 10, 1952. 53 53 off against the Kansas City Monarchs.87 Dick Kelly of The Hagerstown Daily Mail reported that the Clowns had drawn 500,000 fans barnstorming across forty states and

Canada for the 1957 season.88

Syd Pollock continued as the majority owner of the Clowns until the 1964 season, but with each passing year, profits dwindled while expenses grew. Syd and his son hatched several ideas to revitalize the Clowns, but these visions exceeded their financial means and the era no longer accommodated their ballclub. Integration had done what many African Americans wanted: black inclusion in the white major leagues, rendering black baseball obsolete. Barnstorming had also lost its luster in the past decade. Before the advent of television, barnstorming was the only way you could see professional ballplayers compete in person. For most baseball fans living in rural and otherwise small communities, Mickey Mantle, Duke Snider, and Stan Musial were no more than names you heard on the radio or read in the newspapers. Television coverage of the sport brought these persons into their living room. With these insurmountable barriers blocking the ballclub’s prosperity, Syd Pollock sold his share in the Clowns for $3,885 to his business partner, Ed Hamman, on New Year’s Day 1965.89 With Pollock out of the picture, the Clowns began to lose their identity as a ballclub and toiled in obscurity until they finally dissolved in 1989. The final version of the Indianapolis Clowns might have technically been the same organization as Syd Pollock once owned, but the product on the field had no commonalities from the team in its glory years besides the name.

In the years that followed the integration of Major League Baseball, many retrospectives on the Clowns’ legacy were published in various newspapers. In 1958, W.

87 “Harlem Park Battle: Indianapolis Clowns; KC Monarchs Here April 19,” Opelousas Daily World, March 30, 1952. 88 Dick Kelly, “Spotlight on Sports,” Hagerstown Daily Mail, August 27, 1958. 89 Pollock, Barnstorming to Heaven, 380. 54 54

Rollo Wilson of The Pittsburgh Courier remembered the Clowns’ comedy routine as

“stale.” In a letter to Wilson, a man named Mike who was a public relations man for basketball coach Eddie Gottlieb reminded Wilson that, despite their antics, the Clowns were always a team with real talent and that they had sanitized their comedy acts in recent years.90 For the ballplayers, being a Clown was a hard life. It meant baseball nearly every day, limited hours of sleep, and busing around North America year-round. And yet to Jim Davis of the 1965 Indianapolis Clowns, he retained hope that all the struggles would be ultimately worth it. He viewed the Clowns as a respected organization that gave

Hank Aaron a gateway to the major leagues, and that if Hank Aaron were a part of his success, then maybe the same would be true for Jim Davis.91

In the decade following Pollock’s sale of the team, failure and a loss of identity marked the Indianapolis Clowns. Only a year after the sale, the Clowns looked to spice up their performances by adding more antics to the equation. A former wrestler known as Crazy Boy Battles joined the Clowns in 1966 to add more excitement to their performances. An exceptionally muscular individual, Crazy Boy Battles used bats that weighed somewhere between 250 and 300 pounds, a weight that was near equivalent to his own body weight.92 They also added Dero Austin, a 31-inch dwarf, to headline their appearances. Although Austin had a baseball background, the Indianapolis Clowns under new ownership preferred to hire circus performers rather than recruiting professional ballplaying talent.93 This new strategy produced some temporary success as they were

90 W. Rollo Wilson, “They Play Ball Too,” Pittsburgh Courier, July 11, 1958. 91 Dave Matthews, “Ballplayer’s Life on Road: Ridin’, Sittin’, Playin’,” Burlington Free Press, July 30, 1965. 92 “Indianapolis Clowns Have Added Crazy Boy Battles,” Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune, August 16, 1966. 93 “31-Inch Midget To Appear With Clowns Here Saturday,” Richmond Palladium-Item, June 25, 1967. 55 55 able to draw over 10,000 fans to a game against the Muscatine Red Sox at Comiskey

Park in Chicago.94 By 1974, that dream of being the next Hank Aaron remained present in the minds of many Clown ballplayers.95 The reality, however, was that the Indianapolis

Clowns had not been that kind of ballclub for a very long time, perhaps since even before Syd Pollock sold the team. The Clowns had lost their identity as a team that brilliantly mixed sideshows with baseball to create an entertaining product. They had become a circus in the years since Pollock removed himself from the franchise. Although their ballclub’s composition was no longer racially exclusive, they had morphed into Wendell

Smith’s vision of the Clowns. They were a performance troupe whose claim of professionalism was only a lie they told themselves to justify their continued existence.

Throughout their heyday, the Ethiopian/Indianapolis Clowns were a ballclub unlike any team that existed before or since them. They drew from the sideshows of the

House of David, built on them, and provided their fans, many of whom were African Americans, with a baseball experience that enriched many but not all. In a time when many in the African American community demanded that baseball be a tool for racial advancement, the Clowns prioritized fun and individuality where players and performers could be themselves. Of course, some of their sideshows were unsanitary and offensive, especially in their earliest years, they were not damaging to baseball’s eventual integration. Sideshows proved to be an excellent method to bring fans, both white and black, into the ballpark that might not have been particularly impressed by the sport in its purest form. The Clowns were a team that balanced baseball and sideshows with an efficacy that prevented them from becoming a minstrel outfit. At the same time, the team

94 Roger Bates, “11,172 witness close game with the Clowns at Comiskey,” Muscatine Journal, June 22, 1970. 95 Jack Schneider, “These Clowns Played But It Wasn’t Always A Circus,” Indianapolis News, November 9, 1974. 56 56 tapped into a market of African Americans, who found the organization more appealing than traditional black ballclubs who just played the game.

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Tye, Larry. Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend. New York: Random House, 2009. Fresno State Non-exclusive Distribution License (Keep for your records) (to archive your thesis/dissertation electronically via the Fresno State Digital Repository)

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