This entry on Clarence Duval is the first in a series of short biographies of the members of the Spalding World Tour of 1888-1889. I hope to accomplish two things. First, fans of my Clarence Duval series of books will have a chance to learn more about the real lives of the characters in the first two books. Second, some of these people have a very interesting life story while others, sadly, experienced tragic deaths.
My biographies of the members of the Spalding World Tour begins with young Clarence Duval because he is, after all, the narrator of my novels My Australian Adventure and The World Traveler. (Should you wish to read about his adventures, the above links will allow you to purchase the paperback book I wrote about him.)
In addition, if you want to read about Clarence, my first novel about him is free as an ebook!
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Clarence Duval & Mascots
Prior to embarking on the Spalding Tour, Clarence Duval had been the mascot of the Chicago White Stockings. In the nineteenth century mascots had one purpose: to bring luck. They also carried bats for the players and did other duties, but even stacking bats was an art form designed to bring luck to the bat’s owner. Generally, a mascot remained the mascot only as long as his luck held. That is also how people became mascots in the first place. They’d attract attention by doing something unusual, the team would win, and the players then voted to adopt the mascot.
Photograph of the Spalding Tourists. Clarence Duval is at lower left.
There’s one thing about 1880s mascots that’s somewhat disturbing, however. Often, the qualification for mascot duties was unusual physical features of some kind, such as physical deformities, missing fingers from an industrial accident, crossed eyes, and so forth. Skin color played a role, too, with African Americans a popular choice, as was the case with Clarence Duval.
Clarence Duval – His Early Life
Sources seem to differ about how old Clarence actually was during his mascot days. An 1891 article in The Pensacola News claims he was seventeen in that year and born near Bowling Green, Kentucky. I made him a couple years younger in my novels and given how much disagreement there seems to be about Clarence’s real age I suppose that’s okay. It’s too late to change it now, anyway.
In any case, what brought Clarence Duval to the attention of the Chicago White Stockings was his skill as a bandleader. He led them onto the field before home games while dancing and tossing a baton (a wooden rod with a croquet ball attached to the end) to draw attention and delight the spectators. It appears Clarence was exceedingly good at this. Even White Stockings captain Cap Anson, a man of fierce racial prejudice, complemented Clarence on this skill, although he despised the young man in all other respects.
The White Stockings bought Clarence a band uniform so he could perform his duties more effectively, and he also received a regular suit of clothes for his help. (This was one side benefit of being a mascot at the time. Generally, they were poor street kids, so a new suit of clothes was very valuable.) Before the parade began Clarence would stand in front of the ballplayers, shout “dress ranks there,” and then off they’d go.
The Acting Career
Besides his role on the Spalding World Tour that’s the subject of my two novels, the one other thing we know with certainty about Clarence is that he participated in various touring shows. In fact, he got himself into trouble with the White Stockings during the summer of 1888 when he left them to join the troupe led be a woman named Veronica Jarbeau. He stayed with this group until late October, when they abandoned him in Omaha, Nebraska. This is the point in Clarence’s life where My Australian Adventure begins. I won’t go into everything that happens to him on the Spalding Tour; for the fictional version of that, my books will do, and for the factual version the reader can always dig up Harry Palmer’s accounts of the tour in 1888 and 1889 issues of The Sporting Life.
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Spalding Tourists at the Roman Colosseum in 1889. Clarence Duval is seated in the center.
We also know that Clarence eventually gave acting another try. After his mascoting days were over, he briefly performed with two African Americans named George Walker and Bert Williams in their traveling show. They titled one of their performances The Gold Bug and it featured the character Jim Crow, a name that we forever associate with segregation in the South. Despite what that suggests, however, sources credit Walker and Williams with attempting to give their audiences a balanced view of African Americans by subtly challenging the stereotypes of the day. In fact, Booker T. Washington once wrote of Williams, “He has done more for our race than I have.” Duval’s role was to play a drum major named “Lord Barnie.”
Afterward
The last mention I’ve found of Clarence Duval is an appearance at West Side Park in Chicago in 1898. In fact, other mentions of Clarence are hard to come by. Several newspapers reported him dead in 1892 after supposedly being run over by a train in Illinois while asleep on the train tracks, but those reports were incorrect, at least regarding Clarence’s demise. He had a few brushes with the law for gambling and begging, not surprising given his transitory way of life. Then, to my knowledge, he disappears from the record after 1898. Perhaps someday we’ll learn more about his real life, but until then, my series featuring him as the primary character will have to do.
If you’d like to check out my fictional account of Clarence’s adventures on the Spalding Tour, just click here for links to My Australian Adventure or The World Traveler.
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(This blog post owes a debt of gratitude to Jarred Stewart, who was generous enough to share several newspaper articles mentioning Clarence with me. Thank you!)