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Creator
Cooper, John W. (John Walcott), 1873-1966
Call number
Sc MIRS Cooper 2004-35
Physical description
2 audio_recordings. 1 video_recording
Language
English
Preferred Citation
John W. Cooper audio collection, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division, The New York Public Library
Sponsor
An anonymous donor funded preliminary processing for this collection. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation supported a research library-wide grant for the digitization, and funded the Schomburg for the description and production of the finding aid as part of The Next Century of Black Studies Project.
Repository
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division
Access to materials
Appointment preferred: Request an in-person research appointment.

John Walcott Cooper Jr. (1873-1966) was an African American ventriloquist. The John W. Cooper audio collection consists of two audio recordings and one video relating to his career as a ventriloquist.

Biographical/historical information

John Walcott Cooper Jr. (1873-1966) was a ventriloquist born in Brooklyn, New York City. He was the first African American to play the predominantly white vaudeville circuits and was known as the "Black Napoleon of Ventriloquism." He also performed under the pseudonym Hezekiah Jones.

Cooper was a member of the vocal group the Southern Jubilee Singers from 1886 until about 1890. He debuted as a ventriloquist in the 1895-1896 theatrical season, and gave his first professional show in 1897. He named his main ventriloquist figure Sam Jackson. The figure was crafted by the well-known figure maker Theodore Mack, who worked with many ventriloquists such as Edgar Bergen. In one of his earliest skits, Fun in a Barber Shop, Cooper voiced six different puppet characters all in their barber chairs.

Over the course of his career, Cooper was a member of the Negro Actors Guild of America, the Colored Vaudeville Benevolent Association, and the International Brotherhood of Ventriloquists. He retired in 1960 at the age of eighty-six years old.

Scope and arrangement

The John W. Cooper audio collection consists of two audio recordings and one video, arranged chronologically. Since the collection's original formats are audio cassettes, one of the items contains two parts, one for each side of the cassette. The audio recordings include one of Cooper's skits with his figure Sam Jackson and other notable ventriloquists of the time. The video is an episode of the PBS documentary series History Detectives, featuring a story on Cooper and his daughter, Joan Bacchus Maynard.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Gift of Joan Maynard, 2004.

Processing information

Collection inventoried by Nathan Evans. Collection processed and described by Ornella U. Baganizi, archivist; and Shola Lynch, curator. Finding aid published in 2024.

Separated material

See the Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division for the John W. Cooper collection, Sc MG 743.

See the Photographs and Prints Division for the John W. Cooper photograph collection, Sc Photo John W. Cooper.

See the Art and Artifacts Division for the artifacts including Cooper's ventriloquist figures.

Using the collection

Location

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division
515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY 10037-1801
Third Floor

Access to materials

Appointment preferred: Request an in-person research appointment.