An additional acknowledgment is due to David Hoffman, who initially took the research lead on this project and introduced me to many of the indispensable individuals who generously shared their discoveries and collections. Hoffman’s historical insights also helped shape the narrative I created, and served as a valuable jumping-off place for my research. Our discussions reinforced my belief that context is necessary to give meaning to facts.
A list of factual and contextual sources follows. Chapter notes mainly cite quoted sources, though I have referenced general and background sources. My interviews (author’s interview abbreviated as AI) were conducted either in person, on the phone, or via written correspondence. A detailed time line for Beautiful Jim Key’s performances can be easily constructed from the newspaper headlines that are listed by date in the sources. It should be noted that some newspaper clippings and some items of correspondence from the William Key scrapbook (WKsb) and Albert Rogers scrapbook (ARsb) were faded or partial, or did not have dates or newspaper names available.
In mapping these chronological and geographic journeys, I hope to present a travel guide to Jim Key archaeological sites that still invite more digging.
1. Prehistory
For the account of the meeting between Alice Roosevelt and Beautiful Jim Key, I relied on the narrative supplied by Albert Rogers in his “Information Regarding Jim Key” (various drafts, 1913–1945, unpublished article/manuscript).
For detailed description of Opening Day, Louisiana Purchase Exposition, see generally: Clifton Daniel, editorial director, Chronicle of America 542, “Ice cream cones, iced tea at World’s Fair”; Caro Senour, Master St. Elmo: The Autobiography of a Celebrated Dog; David Francis, The Louisiana Purchase Exposition; Mark Bennett, The History of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition; from www.boondocksnet.com/expos extract from Marshall Everett, The Book of the Fair, chapter 7, “Wonders of the Pike”; St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 5/1/1904: “The Greatest of World’s Fairs Impressively Opens” (1a), “Cooler and Perhaps Rain” (1a), “Birdseye View and Key of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition” (6–7a), “The Crowd Rushing onto the Pike Eager to Spend Money” (9a), “Truly Biggest Show That Ever Came Down the Pike” (9a), “Free Entrance to Pike Shows” (1d).
For background on Alice Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Nicholas Longworth, I relied generally on Hermann Hagedorn, The Roosevelt Family of Saginaw Hill, and on Betty Boyd Caroli, The Roosevelt Women; www.politicalgraveyard.com (Theodore Roosevelt, Nicholas Longworth); The 20th Century: Year by Year, general editors Fiona Courtenay-Thompson and Kate Phelps, “White House’s Black Guest,” 15, “Teddy Bears (and Teddy Roosevelt),” 19.
“Open ye gates!”: David Francis, The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, 174.
“Alice, where art thou?”: Chicago Tribune cartoon in Hermann Hagedorn, The Roosevelt Family of Saginaw Hill, 187.
“slender, supple lissome figure”: referenced in Hagedorn, 265, San Francisco Call.
“I can do one of two things”: Roosevelt to friend Owen Wister in Betty Boyd Caroli, The Roosevelt Women, 400; Hagedorn, 186.
“comin’ down the Pike”: St. Louis Dispatch, 5/1/1904, 9a.
“crime equal to treason”: Chronicle of America, “Booker T. Washington, White House Guest,” 535.
“Can he spell Alice Roosevelt?”: Rogers, “Information Regarding Jim Key.”
“Grin, Jim”: Caro Senour, Master St. Elmo, 146; Essie Mott Lee, Dr. William Key: The Man Who Educated a Horse, 51.
“Nicholas Longworth!”: Rogers, “Information Regarding Jim Key.”
“Alice Roosevelt Longworth”: Ibid.
given the underlying prehistory: David Hoffman AI, 3/3/2003; Hoffman’s Riding for America; for early horse prehistory, generally see Anne Charlish, A World of Horses: Evolution, History, Breeds, Sports, and Leisure; IMAX film Horses.
PART ONE OF THE HISTORY
Unless otherwise noted, all quoted conversations in chapters 2 through 5 between Dr. Key and Albert Rogers come from publicity materials generated for the 1897 first edition of “He Was Taught by Kindness,” later renamed “Beautiful Jim Key: How He Was Taught.”
The structure and time line for chapters 2 through 5 was drawn from notes and correspondence from the Annie Mott Whitman Collection of Jim Key Materials (ARsb, WKsb). Posterity has been fortunate that Rogers had an abundance of carbon paper.
2. Inauspicious Beginnings
August 7, 1897: Lee, Dr. William Key: The Man Who Educated a Horse, 31.
train depot on the corner of Church and Walnut: Sherman, A Thousand Voices, 12.
eighteen-year-old Stanley Davis: Dick Poplin AI 4/3/2004; Marie Davis Harris letter to Dick Poplin 2/6/1985.
Jim’s instincts were to trust the stranger: Monty Roberts, The Man Who Listens to Horses, 15.
“mother wit”: generally defined as common sense, horse sense, sixth sense; for connection to folk medicine, see as a general reference John Lee and Arvilla Payne-Jackson, Folk Wisdom and Mother Wit: John Lee, an African-American Herbal Healer (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1993).
“a liniment which I called ‘Keystone Liniment’”: more on the subject from Thomas Johnson AI 3/27/2003 and Keystone Liniment label press.
heyday of the patent medicine era: see generally Brooks McNamara, Step Right Up; David Hoffman AI 11/11/2002; “From Patent Medicines to Prescriptions,” 1969 Historical Edition Shelbyville Times-Gazette.
lynchings were on the rise: see generally Howard Zinn, A People’s History, 203–10.
a gray mare standing: Lee, 11.
Arabian blood was valued for other traits: see generally George Conn, ed., The Arabian Horse in Fact, Fantasy and Fiction.
“tongue of oil”: Key and Rogers in “He Was Taught by Kindness,” 1897 edition.
“Give the preference”: E. Daumus, “The Horse of the Sahara,” 1863, in Conn, The Arabian Horse in Fact, Fantasy and Fiction, 49.
“Sell, Lauretta?”: Key and Rogers, various editions “How He Was Taught.”
“’Twas a moment”: Ibid.
“drawing such crowds”: Ibid.
using pins and sharp tacks: David Magner, Magner’s Art of Taming and Educating Horses, 334–37.
“All men are equal”: attributed to Lord George Bentinck, cited in Robertson, The History of Thoroughbred Racing in America, 43; also Kevin Conley, Stud, 82, “The connection between wealth and horses goes back to the beginning of civilization.”
geological fluke of equality: see generally for bluegrass regions, Robertson, 41; Conley, 26.
two varieties of limestone: 1988 Shelbyville Times-Gazette compilation, “Early Bedford County—Where We Live,” 8; Bob Womack sample formulation; Womack AI 3/6/2003.
options in his home state: Tennessee as leader in Thoroughbred world, see Robertson, 41–44, 131, 282; Belle Meade Plantation Museum, visit 3/3/2003, special exhibit; Annie Whitman AI 3/7/2003 (Dr. Key links to Robert Green, famous black jockeys); Herman Justi, ed., Official History of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition, “The Negro Department,” 193–204.
Standardbred turf heroes: materials from Gail C. Cunard, Harness Racing Museum; Conley, 121–22; Stanley Dancer, introduction to chapter on harness racing in Anne Charlish, A World of Horses, 340–41.
Hambletonian was an elite name: on story, see www.harnessmuseum.com; Anne Chunko, USTA, research; Catherine Medich research; Bob Womack, The Echo of Hoof Beats, 39.
“both fine ones and fast steppers”: “Keystone Driving Park,” Shelbyville Gazette, 6/23/1887.
“bountiful repast of substantials”: Ibid.
“The doctor is doing”: Ibid.
Kentucky Volunteer: Catherine Medich research.
Webb School: Shelbyville Times-Gazette 1969 Historical Edition, “‘Old Sawney’ Established Nationally Known Webb Preparatory School in Bell Buckle”; Shelbyville Times-Gazette Bicentennial Edition 1988, “Early Bedford County Communities and Their Histories,” “Bell Buckle Strives to Retain 1800s Charm.”
“raggle-taggle, trashy man”: Lee, 15 (quoting various press versions).
“gotten above his raisin’”: Bob Scruggs AI, 3/28/2003.
3. The Human Who Could Talk Horse
For Jim’s early training, I relied on Key’s accounts in various press and looked at Magner’s Art of Taming and Educating Horses, chapter 14, “Dialogue Between Man and Horse,” 449–56. Generally Magner didn’t espouse horse whispering techniques; also, I drew generally from Roberts’s “The Man Who Listens to Horses,” which echoed so much of William Key.
My main source of information for conditions affecting people of color in these years was Chase Mooney’s Slavery in Tennessee; the HBO Documentary Unchained Memories provided an emotional anchor for Mooney’s statistics. Marilyn Parker’s genealogical and other research was indispensable to my telling Bill Key’s early story.
Marilyn Parker AI 10/3/03: “To me the will of John Key of Albemarle, son of Martin Key, I should say the tenor and implications of its contents express of possessiveness of family I have rarely seen. ‘If you don’t have any heirs—what you have or received from me is to go to those we do!’”
“Sit”…“Good dog”: ARsb, interview with Rogers; retold to Nashville American, 2/12/1899.
reporters to note: “Jim Is Highly Educated—Can Both Spell and Figure,” Post-Standard, 9/7/1902.
“Must be one of the boys”: Key retelling episode to Rogers, “He Was Taught by Kindness,” various editions.
“Doctor, Doctor!”: Ibid.
Busbey, Offutt, and Rarey: Magner, 449–56.
special status: Marilyn Parker research; Annie Whitman AI 3/7/2003.
“as a feme solo”: divorce book, Sumner County, Marilyn Parker research.
Richard Houston Dudley: “Chesterfield Among Horses,” Nashville American, 2/12/1899.
“dangerous niggers”: Mooney, 95.
“nigger gibberish”: Ibid., 96.
“don’t mind them darkeys”: Ibid., 94.
the rabbit’s foot: www.luckymojo.com.
Underground Railroad: on Dr. Key’s knowledge of routes references to guiding “another darkey” north, “How He Was Educated”; Shelbyville Times-Gazette 1969 Historical Edition, “Union Underground Railroad Operated in Bedford County.”
extremes of living: for a look at the treatment of animals and slaves, see Marjorie Spiegel, The Dreaded Comparison: Human and Animal Slavery.
a doctor of color: Herbert Morais, History of the Afro-American in Medicine, 16–17, 21–25.
slave-holding increasingly distasteful: Shelbyville Times-Gazette 1969 Historical Edition, “Study of Early Politics Explains Secession Vote”; Mooney, “Anti-Slavery Sentiment,” 66–85.
4. War Stories
Several sources were extremely helpful in my understanding of the context in which Bill Key’s war stories took place. For dates and statistics, I referred frequently to the Web site state.tn.us/environment/hist/PathDivided. The Ken Burns documentary series The Civil War provided visual texture to the famous battles on Tennessee soil. For the war’s impact on Middle Tennessee, I was guided by the Shelbyville Times-Gazette 1969 Historical Edition’s entire Civil War coverage, and Bob Womack’s Call Forth the Mighty Men, based on diaries of Middle Tennessee Confederate soldiers. Bedford County historian Dick Poplin’s writing on this era was also significant.
Marilyn Parker’s genealogical and other research provided details of the military service of John W. Key’s sons, as well as insights from documents pertaining to other Key family members. The name Merit appears with different spellings in different records.
Doc Key paid attention: McNamara, 21–45.
“You are dying, Sir!”: Ibid., 45.
“bots and colic”: 1890s descriptions found in Magner, 886–94, 912–15, and Bell’s Handbook to Veterinary Homeopathy, 11, 29.
The first to secede: on sequence of secessions, Chronicle of America, 1861, “One by One States Join Confederacy,” 364; Zinn, 189.
“an unconditional Union man”: Shelbyville Times-Gazette 1969 Historical Edition, “Anti-Secessionist ‘Parson’ Brownlow Detained Here by Rebel Soldiers.”
stubbornness as with his humanity: Clara Singleton Nelson, “My Civil War Connection,” Shelbyville Times-Gazette, 2/17/2003; Clara Singleton Nelson AI 3/28/2003.
“I have learned the name”: for John Gumm’s 4/8/1862 diary entry at Corinth, see Womack, Call Forth the Mighty Men, 126.
In this hell: for the pattern of the three battles observed by Key, see Louis Menand, The Metaphysical Club, 49:
The Civil War was fought with modern weapons and premodern tactics. The close-order infantry charge, a method of attack developed in the era of the musket, a gun with an effective range of about 80 yards, was used against defenders armed with rifles, a far deadlier weapon with a range of 400 yards. The mismatch was responsible for some of the most spectacular carnage of the war. In Pickett’s charge at Gettysburg, whose failure broke the back of Lee’s army, 14,000 Confederate soldiers advanced in a line a mile wide across open fields against Union guns, and only half came back. But the tactic was responsible for a lot of unspectacular carnage as well, and one of the reasons the North finally triumphed was that it found in Grant a commander unafraid to throw wave after wave of troops at entrenched Confederate positions. The North had the bigger army, but the South, for the most part, defended, and in most battles the advantage was with the defense. The Civil War was therefore an unusually dangerous war for every soldier who fought in it.
“keeping a close watch”: ascribed to A. W. Key by Dr. Key to Rogers in “He Was Taught by Kindness,” various editions.
When Sherman began cutting: R. W. Best AI 3/24/2003, Nashville, oral history of the Civil War.
“about 12 years old”: 5/19/1865 diary entry of Samuel Foster, in Womack, Call Forth the Mighty Men, 512.
“mens minds can change so sudden”: Ibid., 537.
“upon their return”: notes from Mayor Dudley for 2/13/1899 Nashville American interview, WKsb.
townspeople and relatives: Lee, 6; various interviews in Shelbyville: Annie Mott Whitman, Dick Poplin, Bob Womack, Thomas Johnson, the week of 3/26/2003.
“When I ran my restaurant”: WKsb, New Jersey newspaper clipping.
Most of the black citizens: Annie Mott Whitman AI 3/31/2003, Nancy Campbell Barnett AI 3/28/2003.
“any action looking”: Freedmen’s Bureau report published in Shelbyville Times-Gazette 1969 Historical Edition, “Social and Political Unrest Reflected Change During Reconstruction Period.”
he had transcribed: Thomas Johnson AI 3/31/2004.
5. Higher Calling
For Rogers, I was helped immeasurably by Catherine Medich, New Jersey State Archives research as to genealogy and major biographical events; ARsb correspondence provided much insight into his inner life.
For the details of Nashville’s 1897 Tennessee Centennial Exposition, I relied on the Official History of the Tennessee Exposition, insights from Susan Gordon of Tennessee State Library Special Collections, and materials from the Parthenon Museum in Nashville.
Rogers was dismayed: ARsb, correspondence with ASPCA, American Institute Fair.
“I do not know”: http://www.lostmuseum.cuny.edu/class (The Lost Museum Classroom: Letters between P. T. Barnum and Henry Bergh of the ASPCA); also Menand’s chapter on Agassiz, 97–116.
Clara’s social sphere: http://digital.library.upenn.edu/ women/saunders/joe/joe-XIX.htm (A Celebration of Women Writers/women’s reading circles, Bands of Mercy); generally on connection between women’s role in philanthropy, see Jeannette M. Oppedisano, Historical Encyclopedia of American Women Entrepreneurs.
“lover of all animals”: ARsb, Ida Sheehan letter.
one journey to Virginia: this anecdote appears in the Post Standard interview 9/7/1902; other news pieces quoted Dr. Key saying it was Lauretta finding the gold.
Doc Key had seen: Shelbyville Times-Gazette 1969 Historical Edition, “Bedford County Fair Was ‘Biggest’ Event of Year.”
kind of trouble: Cleveland Gazette 5/18/1895:
It will be remembered that at the Columbian Exposition held in Chicago it was utterly impossible for an Afro-American to get accommodation at any restaurant on the grounds under southern management. It was the universal rule not to serve one known to have in his veins “Negro” blood. The Afro-American was tabooed…. The south does not recognize Afro-American gentlemen and ladies. Neither hotels, nor restaurants, nor public places of amusement, nor railroads, nor educational institutions…are open to the man of color common with other men.
a politically risky deal: Sherman, A Thousand Voices: The Story of Nashville’s Union Station, 15.
“About the center”: Ibid.
“These occasions mark”: Herman Justi, ed., Official History of the Tennessee Exposition, speech of Professor Council, 196–98.
“Here are gathered”: “Vanity Fair,” Nashville American, 5/1/1897.
Rogers teased the press: Bobby Lawrence, Tennessee Centennial Nashville 1897, 86–87.
“because of his high office”: Justi, 233.
“Everyone appreciated”: Ibid., 236.
“Philadelphia, the pioneer”: Ibid., 238–40.
“knightly chivalry”: Ibid., 242.
“in fine, is a gem”: Ibid., 245.
“Mr. President”: Ibid., 251.
Jim Key for last: Ibid.; Rogers, “Information Regarding Jim Key”; Nashville Sun and New York newspaper (ARsb, probably New York Sun) 6/13/1897.
“It was during”: Shelbyville Times-Gazette, 10/13/1945 (one alleged source is Mr. McGrew, from whose parents Dr. Key purchased the 240 acres for $5,000 on Himesville and Tullahoma roads).
A second version: Lee, 31.
“While at the Nashville Exposition”: “He Was Taught by Kindness,” 1897 edition.
“BEAUTIFUL Jim Key”: ARsb clippings 8/15/1897 from New York Sun and New York Herald.
PART TWO OF THE HISTORY
When quotes from press accounts have been attributed in the text, they are not included in chapter notes below.
6. Key, Key, and Rogers
For background on the animal welfare movement and biographies of Henry Bergh and George Angell, I drew mainly from Gerald Carson, Men, Beasts, and Gods: A History of Cruelty and Kindness to Animals; also James M. Jasper’s “The American Animal Rights Movement” in Animal Rights: The Changing Debate, Robert Garner, ed. The MSPCA-Angell’s Web site provided further information on its founder.
an invitation to Glenmere: Catherine Medich research.
sixteenth-century castle: Google search, various travel sites, including “Palace and Park of Fontainebleau. Used by the kings of France from the twelfth century, the medieval royal hunting lodge, standing at the heart of a vast forest in the Île-de-France, was transformed, enlarged and embellished in the sixteenth century by François I, who wanted to make a ‘New Rome’ Italianate palace combining Renaissance and French artistic traditions.”
a new press release: ARsb, press release; quotes from Sun and World, 8/15/1897.
“Dear Sir”: ARsb, Fynes letter.
most popular drama: William Lawrence Slout, Theatre in a Tent: The Development of a Provincial Entertainment, 39.
“Absolutely not”: ARsb, correspondence.
“remarkable new play”: Ibid.
“could have heard”: ARsb, Thomas to Rogers.
“The perfection”: ARsb, press materials, House of Refuge Dir. testimonial.
“Houchee Couchee”: ARsb, Tomkins testimonial.
“The only trouble”: ARsb, Williams to Rogers.
Stanley found more: ARsb, Dr. Stanley Davis to Rogers, recalling Glenmere stay.
“trained Southern horse”: “Beautiful Jim Key, the Educated Horse and His Wonderful Feats,” Orange Journal, 9/18/1897; “Beautiful ‘Jim Key,’” Orange Chronicle, 9/18/1897.
showed guests around: evening at Glenmere reconstructed from Catherine Medich research; ARsb correspondence; also “Beautiful Jim Key, the Educated Horse and His Wonderful Feats,” Orange Journal, 9/18/1897; “Beautiful ‘Jim Key,’” Orange Chronicle, 9/18/1897; “At the Waverly Fair,” Newark Evening News, 9/9/1897; Newark Daily Advertiser, 9/8/1897.
“prominent Orangeites”: ARsb, press release, Hathaway testimonial.
“I have been twice”: ARsb, press release, Major Pond testimonial.
“A good BARKER”: “Beautiful Jim Key at the Inter-state Fair,” Trenton Sunday Advertiser, 9/26/1897.
“has the services”: Lee, 58, quoting Pittsburg clippings, WKsb.
“best draw we ever had”: ARsb, West Pennsylvania Exposition Society testimonial.
“side show”: WKsb, Pittsburg clippings.
“Not a Side Show”: Ibid.
“I cannot refrain”: Sousa’s testimonial in Rogers, “He Was Taught by Kindness.”
“F-R-U-I-T-L-E-S-S”: “Jim Is Highly Educated—Can Both Spell and Figure,” Post-Standard, 9/7/1902.
“what about your claim”: Orange Journal, 9/18/1897, WKsb clippings. This exchange quoted as printed.
“Those who desire”: WKsb, ARsb, program excerpts as printed.
“Speech alone”: New York Mail and Express, 10/25/1897; also Jim’s 1897 success in Cincinnati clippings: “Little Ones: From House of Refuge and Children’s Home,” “Odeon, Beautiful Jim Key,” “Auditorium, Beautiful Jim Key,” “A Wonderful Horse.”
“In my province”: ARsb, Lykens’s testimonial.
“A free show”: Lee, 194.
between 1896 and 1906: David Hoffman research, inventions of the era.
“Take care of the pigs”: Dickens cited in Gerald Carson, Men, Beasts and Gods, 77.
hindered the efforts: see generally James M. Jasper, “The American Animal Rights Movement,” in Animal Rights, Robert Garner, ed., 130–31.
“a private matinee”: ARsb, correspondence, Rogers to Connelly.
In the meantime: ARsb, correspondence, Rogers to John Haynes of AHS, George Angell of AHA.
“Ohio Humane Society”: ARsb, correspondence, Rogers to Angell.
“I for one”: Carson, 107, citing Angell’s letter in Boston Daily Advertiser, 2/23/1868.
“a lady’s name”: Ibid., 108; also Jeannette M. Oppedisano reply to query, confirming role of women in shaping animal welfare movement.
“Patience”: Rogers, “He Was Taught by Kindness.”
7. Service to Humanity
Charles Eliot: Menand, 117.
lawyer made a gift: Thomas Johnson Collection, inscribed book copies.
“an animal act”: ARsb, correspondence, rejection letter from American Institute Fair.
“mouth is all wet”: Cincinnati clippings, “Beautiful Jim Key, Odeon”; retold in Senour, 147; retold in Lee, 55.
“What makes this horse”: Rogers, “He Was Taught by Kindness”; ARsb, Philadelphia news clipping.
“most faithful man”: Rogers, “He Was Taught by Kindness.”
“Dear Sir”: ARsb, Key to Rogers.
“P-H-Y-S-I-C-S”: ARsb, Baltimore news clipping.
had been kidnapped: ARsb, correspondence between Rogers and Key; Annie Mott Whitman AI 3/31/2003.
“rains last two weeks”: ARsb, correspondence. The original letter, not a carbon, was apparently not mailed, and no other record of Albert’s friend Louise could be located.
Sam Jones Union Tabernacle: for Nashville Humane Society correspondence with Reverend Jones, I relied on ARsb; Mayor Dudley’s notes were found in WKsb; history of Tabernacle at Ryman Auditorium and Museum visit 4/4/2004; also, Jim Key as first solo entertainer at Ryman’s Web site time line; “Object Lesson to Humanity,” Nashville American, 2/11/1899; “Chesterfield Among Horses,” Nashville American, 2/12/1899; “Jim Key the Famous Horse,” Nashville Banner, 2/18/1899.
Pittsburg Press welcomed: press articles: “Humane Society Endorses the Press Animal Ambulance Fund,” 10/24/1900; “Pittsburg Heartily Praises Fund,” 10/25/1900; “Need of Animal Ambulance Recognized,” 10/26/1900; “No City Needs Ambulance More,” 10/1900; “More Money Than Was Originally Asked For,” 10/1900.
“square roots?”: ARsb.
“with all eyes”: “Exposition Notes,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 10/8/1899.
“‘Charge of the Light Brigade’”: “Jim Key Does Sums for 8000 People,” Minneapolis Journal, 4/4/1906.
“Jim!”: “Captured the City, He Broke All Records,” St. Joseph Star Special Jim Key Edition, 3/23/1906 (Dr. Key recalled the Philadelphia 1899 incident).
“get the eight of clubs”: “The King of All Horses, Beautiful Jim Key,” York Press, 10/4/1898.
local equine gait: see generally Bob Womack, The Echo of Hoof Beats; also Marilyn Parker horse research: “Bell Buckle Horse History” by Betty Sain and Benvis Beachboard, compiled by Parker; Bob Womack AI 3/30/2004; Kathryn Kerby Tolle AI 4/3/2004; Shelbyville Times-Gazette, 1969 Historical Edition, “Heritage of Tennessee Walking Horse.”
“Jim Key Brand”: WKsb, Robinson-McGill order forms, ads; ARsb, endorsement deal ads and brochures, including office sales of Beautiful Jim Key Amberg Imperial Cabinet Letter File (Chicago, London, New York).
“In all my travels”: ARsb press materials, Lew Parker testimonial.
“Pan American??”: ARsb, Key to Rogers.
Key told reporters: WKsb, clippings Boston Globe, Traveler, Evening Transcript; October–December 1901.
name started moving up: Ibid.
“scrub colt”: WKsb, clipping.
“paper should be read”: “A Letter from Jim Key,” Our Dumb Animals, vol. 34, no. 7, 12/1901.
both leaders were right: for background on era, Washington, and DuBois, see Zinn, 209–10.
race riots exploded: Allan Morrison, “One Hundred Years of Negro Entertainment,” in Anthology of the Afro-American in the Theatre, ed. Lindsay Patterson, 5.
“be the main feature”: “Last Chance to See Beautiful Jim Key,” Boston Traveler, 11/1/1901.
“Probably no amusement line”: Slout, 23, quoting A. R. Rogers in Billboard Magazine on electric parks and street railway journals.
“This special ticket”: WKsb.
“my people are as proud”: WKsb, original copy of Booker T. Washington speech.
“Kindness has accomplished”: WKsb, program of Providence benefit.
“most interesting features”: Rogers, “He Was Taught by Kindness.”
“Jim likes to hear”: Ibid.
“The weather is very fine”: ARsb, correspondence, Key to Rogers, circa spring 1902.
“I am in fine health”: Ibid.
8. The Horse Who Could
For the history of African-Americans in popular entertainment, I relied on Langston Hughes and Milton Meltzer, Black Magic: A Pictorial History of the Negro in American Entertainment, along with Lindsay Patterson, ed., Anthology of the Afro-American in the Theatre; also Howard L. Sacks and Judith Rose Sacks, Way Up North in Dixie.
For the account of how Rogers obtained a concession at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, I drew from his “Information Regarding Jim Key”; his press materials and financial records were also instructive.
Information about the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition came from a variety of sources including: David Francis, The Louisiana Purchase Exposition; Mark Bennett, The History of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition; www.boondocksnet.com/expos; and coverage in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on both 4/30/1904 and 5/1/1904; general background on world’s fairs came from the Web site for CSU Fresno Library’s World’s Fair Donald G. Larson Special Collection.
Caro Senour, Master St. Elmo, 118–51. A detailed description of the fair and of Jim’s show.
Background on Walt Disney, the Carousel of Progress, and Disney’s connection to the St. Louis World’s Fair was gleaned during a visit to Epcot 6/27/2003, supported by many biographical pieces on Disney.
Walt consciously remembered: Epcot staff AI, noting pervasive influence on nation and especially on young boy growing up in Missouri in fair’s wake; compare also with observation by Erik Larson, Devil in the White City, 153, 373, on the 1893 Chicago Fair’s “lasting impact on the nation’s psyche” and Disney.
indebted to the animator: Epcot staff AI on importance of animals to Disney. It should be noted on the other hand that parts of Dumbo reinforced some of the racial stereotypes emerging in the early 1900s.
theatre was shunned: Slout, 2.
advent of melodrama: Shelbyville Times-Gazette, 1969 Historical Edition, “Activities of Thespian Club…in 1888,” 218: “The presence of Dr. J. P. Dromgoole here…reminds me of the way back when we had a Thespian Club in our town that gave a weekly performance in a hall then in the rear of Evans & Shepard…a great deal of prejudice against the theatre and so we called it the Thespian Hall.” Space had shifting scenery, trapdoors, drop curtain. Members of the company were Edmund Cooper, Dr. R. F. Evans, and Jos. H. Thompson; Cooper got all the leads, best actor and he remembered his lines, could “weep or cry at will.”
“America’s Best Bad Actor”: Slout, 19.
“halls and reception rooms”: “Last Day of Mechanics Fair,” Boston Traveler, 10/30/1902.
Clever Hans, and his story: David Hoffman AI 10/11/2002, re: correspondence with Hanne Wolf on Wilhelm von Osten, Clever Hans, Morocco; 2002 Skeptical Inquirer, “Psychic Pets and Pet Psychics” on Pfungst.
would be dismissed: Portia Iversen AI 3/17/2004, about investigating/teaching alternate forms of communication with autistic students.
Time magazine: quote attributed to Time in Essie Mott Lee’s Dr. William Key, 117, attributed it to “a magazine near the turn of the century.”
“I then asked”: ARsb, Palmer’s letter to Ohio Humane Society.
“change two bits”: ARsb, clipping.
real Negro play Uncle Tom: Langston Hughes and Milton Meltzer, Black Magic, 36.
“Dear Lincoln”: ARsb, the World’s HDC, 11/21/1903, letter of introduction.
ten million readers: ARsb, press materials extract of AP story “read by ten million.”
new Union Station: These details were informed by interviews with staff at Union Station Hotel in Nashville, where I stayed during the weeks of 3/3/2003 and 4/2/2004; also I relied on Joe Sherman, A Thousand Voices.
“The phenomenal success”: ARsb, press materials.
“Every nation”: WKsb, original speech a gift from Booker T. Washington to Dr. Key, 6/30/1904.
“The telephone”: Senour, 146.
“I hope that after”: Ibid., 147.
“A painful condition”: Bell’s Handbook, 25.
“my horse”: ARsb, press materials; also it’s interesting to note that after St. Louis, Rogers sometimes billed Jim as Wonderful Jim Key.
“truly a wonderful horse”: “Beautiful Jim Key a Wonderful Horse,” Chicago Daily Journal, 5/27/1905.
“I take it for granted”: ARsb, correspondence, Stillman to Rogers.
“She is like a person”: ARsb, correspondence, Rogers to Angell.
whopping $2,300: ARsb, financial records.
“Dear Sir”: WKsb, ARsb, Key to Rogers.
One newspaper: ARsb, clippings, 1906.
9. All Horses Go to Heaven
For the falling-out between Rogers and the AHA, and MSPCA, I relied on correspondence between him and George Angell, as well as other officers.
“Bonner the Great”: ARsb, WKsb.
“Mr. Rogers”: ARsb, correspondence, Key to Rogers.
“I appreciate”: ARsb, Rogers to Colby.
German Coach Horses: WKsb, flyer.
opened his newspaper: “Soldier of Peace: George T. Angell 1823–1909,” Boston Traveler, 3/20/1909.
honored its founder: MSPCA-Angell Web site.
clipped out an article: ARsb, clipping: “Tell of Mind Link to Horses and Dogs,” New York Times, 10/1/1927.
“smart little horse”: ARsb, correspondence between Stanley Davis and Rogers.
Harvard’s president, Charles Eliot: WKsb, clipping: “Dr. Eliot’s Five Foot Library,” Chattanooga Times, 6/29/1909.
“I am not the father”: Will of Dr. Wm. Key, 3/14/04.
a kind of amnesia: Rogers, “Information Regarding Jim Key,” and correspondence between Rogers and Stanley Davis.
“it was feared”: Rogers, “Information Regarding Jim Key.”
“everything that love”: Ibid.
“they treatin’ you”: Annie Mott Whitman AI 4/3/2004; Nancy Barnett AI 3/28/2003.
a third version: Dick Poplin research, letter from Marie Davis Harris to Poplin.
“out with all ease”: ARsb, correspondence, Stanley Davis to Rogers.
journalists present: rough draft of news piece, attributed to Mr. McGrew or to W. McGill; Bob Womack AI 4/3/2004; these quotes from that draft.