A hobo named “Happy Hooligan” was one of the most popular

and influential comic strip charac-ters in American history. The strip, which debuted in March 1900 in the New York Journal, was the creation of Frederick Burr Opper, a pioneer of American newspaper comic strips. A recent MNHS acquisition of drawings, photos, and a costume associated with Fred J. Lowe, a Minneapolis entertainer on the vaudeville circuit, introduces another possibility: that a Minneapolis artist and illustrator named Oscar Bradley created the cheerful tramp with tattered clothing and a tin can on his head, and that Lowe, who sometimes billed himself as the “Original Happy Hooligan,” was the inspiration.1

Lowe exhibited athletic ability at an early age. Born in England in November 1878, Lowe immigrated with his parents to the United States the following year. By May 1887 the eight- year- old was performing as part of an acrobat class at an amateur athletic competition held at the Min-neapolis Gymnasium. Young men performed on the horizontal bars

Jennifer Huebscher

and flying rings, showcasing physical strength, acrobatic agility, and artistic movement. Lowe caught the atten-tion of a writer for the Minneapolis Tribune, who noted, “Little Fred Lowe was ‘too cute for anything’ and easily the favorite of the audience.”2

This was not Lowe’s first mention in the press. He had made his debut a year earlier at the age of seven, partnering with an 11- year- old boy. The Minneapolis Sunday Tribune declared, “notwithstanding their age and lack of experience, they would put an old professional to shame. The whole company was convulsed with laughter at their antics which com-bined the child with the professional athlete.” The boys were students of Professor C. O. Duplessis, a Minne-apolis gymnastics instructor who himself competed in indoor athletic entertainment and regularly featured his students.3

facing: The New Grand Theatre, 621 Hen-nepin Avenue in Minneapolis. Fred J. Lowe performed here in 1918, around the time this photo was taken.

Handmade sign promoting Fred Lowe’s comedic acrobatics on a wire, undated. He portrays himself as the popular comic strip figure “Happy Hooligan.” below: Costume worn by Lowe as a child, part of the donation to MNHS.

Who Was the

Original Happy Hooligan?

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Little Fred Lowe went on to have quite the career as an acrobat and wire walker. His name appears in connection with acrobatic perfor-mances in numerous articles from Minnesota papers in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Performing under his own name and the moniker the “Original Happy Hooligan,” as well as part of “The Imperial Trio” and “Lowe & DeMarle,” Lowe appeared at vaude-ville theaters, amusement parks, and small- town street fairs. In Red Wing he and his partner, Raymon, were promoted heavily for an upcoming fair: “They will perform the most dif-ficult feats known, on high wire, two men walking at the same time on one wire, passing each other on the wire, etc. One of them will do his wonderful ‘Slide for Life’ act. He will slide down

a wire, stretched from the top of the St. James hotel, to the opposite corner of the street, suspended in mid air, holding only by his teeth.”4

A 1918 Minneapolis Tribune arti-cle reflects on other feats of daring attempted by Lowe that relate directly to the recently acquired materials. “Mr. Lowe will be remembered by hundreds of the earlier Minneapol-itans as the man who used to make balloon ascensions out at the Falls,” it said. “In June 1889, he walked across above the Minnehaha Falls on a wire and was also carried across on the back of Frank LaMondo, a well- known

wire walker in those days.” Among the photographs donated to the Min-nesota Historical Society is a cabinet card featuring LaMondo balancing precariously on a wire above Min-nehaha Falls. A second cabinet card included with the donation features performers demonstrating balloon ascensions; Lowe’s likeness is super-imposed on one of the balloons.5

A popular attraction at carnivals and fairs, balloon ascensions brought crowds to the edges of their seats. A trapeze was suspended from the balloon, and acrobats would perform as the balloon rose. The performer

left: Wire walker Frank LaMondo above Minnehaha Falls, undated. In June 1889 Lowe wire-walked across the falls himself, and was also carried over the falls on LaMondo’s back.right: A promotional piece advertising balloon ascensions, with Lowe’s face superimposed on one of the balloons, undated.

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would then parachute back to Earth. Unfortunately, balloon ascensions could be unpredictable, and it was not uncommon to read a grisly news-paper report recounting an acrobat falling from a great height or getting tangled in the parachute.

Though early press mentions highlight acrobatics, Lowe evolved his routine to combine thrills with comedic hilarity, better suited to a more intimate audience. He even-tually gravitated to the vaudeville circuit. Later mentions are related to performances in theaters rather than outdoor carnivals. As part of the Imperial Trio, for example, Lowe performed in 1912 at the Empress in Duluth. The reviewer appreciated the nuances of the act, writing, “Their performance, while bordering on the hazardous contains a degree of artisticness [sic] which gives them a decided advantage over their com-petitors. Their feats are for the most part new and are accomplished with vim and precision which makes them doubly entertaining.” Lowe had also appeared as a solo act at the Empress a few days earlier, receiving another glowing review: “Not only is Lowe a wonder on the wire, but he is a come-dian of note and his funny bumps and falls convulse the audience with laughter.” Owatonna’s People’s Press

described Lowe’s act as “unsurpassed for grotesque comedy and marvelous originality.”6

Despite the different names he used, Fred Lowe seemed to favor the “Original Happy Hooligan.” One newspaper account from 1918 cred-its the origin of the name to Lowe’s encounter with illustrator Oscar Brad-ley, who attended a masked ball at Minneapolis’s Normania Hall where Lowe was dressed as a tramp. Inspired by the costume, Bradley told Lowe he would send an illustration of him in costume. The account maintains that Bradley made the drawing famous in

the New York World— an interesting claim given that the character of the Happy Hooligan is attributed to car-toonist Opper. One could speculate that the two cartoonists crossed paths and that Bradley may have shared his drawing of Lowe with Opper, who used it as the basis for a new cartoon strip.7

We do know that after winning a scholarship from the Minneapolis School of Fine Art, Bradley arrived in New York in November 1899 to attend the Chase Art School. He had a diffi-cult time adjusting, often being short on funds and subsisting on rye bread

Balloon ascension by unidentified man, Red Wing, 1897.

Though early press mentions highlight acrobatics, Lowe evolved his routine to combine thrills with comedic hilarity.

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and water. When Bradley collapsed on the streets of New York, his plight made the local papers and was soon picked up by the Minneapolis Tribune in a May 1900 article headlined “Oscar Bradley’s Struggle To Live on 5 Cents a Day.” As a result of this unexpected publicity, he received enough funding to continue his studies. The “Happy Hooligan” cartoon debuted, as we have seen, in March 1900.8

Fred Lowe continued to use the “Original Happy Hooligan” moniker throughout his career, perhaps as a nod to Oscar Bradley. Bradley’s career as a cartoonist in New York was ulti-

mately unsuccessful, and a few short years after his art school experience, in 1906, he was admitted to the state hospital in Rochester, Minnesota, suf-fering from chronic mania. His family attributed his behavioral changes to being struck in the head with a baseball, but it is not unreasonable to speculate that the stress and compet-itive nature of his chosen career path was perhaps too much for him, partic-ularly if he did indeed see his “Happy Hooligan” drawing made famous by another artist.9

The name “Happy Hooligan” became a byword in American culture for decades and is familiar even today. In the early twentieth century the comic strip inspired a touring musical play and the nickname was adopted by everyone from a petty criminal in St. Paul to a town drunk in Stillwater. It is possible that Lowe added “Orig-inal” to distinguish himself from others who billed themselves as the “Happy Hooligan.” For example, after viewing a 1902 performance at the Bijou in Minneapolis, J. S. Lawrence

Lowe, right, as part of the Imperial Trio, undated.Lowe may have inspired artist Oscar Bradley to originate the “Happy Hooligan” cartoon. Success eluded Bradley, however, as this headline in the Minneapolis Journal, Feb. 27, 1906, shows.

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wrote, “Happy Hooligan is more for-tunate than his audiences for, while ‘Happy’ seems to have escaped the gloom which hangs over the piece bearing his name, his audience is less dexterous and cannot get away from the air of sadness which pervades the production.” There is no mention of a wire act in this poorly received affair, so it would be essential for Lowe to distinguish himself from other actors and their routines.10

Though he performed over sev-eral decades and garnered many positive reviews, Lowe did not often receive top billing, nor was he a full-

time entertainer. It was increasingly difficult for local performers like Fred Lowe who did not possess the level of talent needed to be signed to the national Orpheum or Pan-tages circuits to make a living in vaudeville. Lowe supplemented his entertainment earnings by working as a press feeder for a printer, a job he held long after his vaudeville career ceased.

In 1903 he married Mary Sieh. The union produced a daughter, Florence, but the marriage was an unhappy one and the couple separated and later divorced. (Descendants of Lowe’s

ex- wife’s sister donated the materials to MNHS.) The 1930 US Census rec-ords note that Lowe still worked for a printer and lived with his elderly mother in Minneapolis. He later moved to White Bear Lake and died on July 19, 1950, age 71, due to compli-cations from pneumonia.

Notes1. On the Happy Hooligan cartoon, see,

for example, “Comic Strip Character ‘Happy Hooligan’ in His Little Tin Can Hat,” https://www .collectorsweekly.com/stories/195967-comic -strip-character-happy-hooligan-i.

2. “Amateur Athletes: Fourth Annual Exhibi-tion of the Minneapolis Gymnasium,” Minneapo-lis Tribune, May 4, 1887, 4.

3. “A Great Athletic Entertainment,” Minne-apolis Sunday Tribune, March 28, 1886, 4.

4. “Some Great Attractions,” Pine Island Record, Sept. 4, 1902, 2.

5. “Original Happy Hooligan Is Coming to New Grand,” Minneapolis Morning Tribune, March 3, 1918, 6.

6. “At the Empress,” Duluth Herald, June 1, 1912, 20; “Amusement Notes,” Duluth Herald, Feb. 9, 1912, 3; “At the Empress,” Duluth Herald, Feb. 3, 1912, 20; “Will Liven Up The City: Strong Amusement Program Will Be Presented With Band Concerts Daily,” People’s Press (Owatonna), Sept. 10, 1909, 9.

7. “Original Happy Hooligan Is Coming to New Grand.”

8. “Oscar Bradley’s Struggle to Live On 5 Cents a Day,” Minneapolis Tribune, May 10, 1900, 12.

9. “Tragic: Man of Brilliant Talents as an Artist Must End Days in an Asylum,” Minneapolis Tribune, Feb. 27, 1906, 6; “Artist Hopelessly Mad: Oscar Bradley is Committed to Rochester Hospi-tal for Insane, A Mental Wreck,” Minneapolis Jour-nal, Feb. 27, 1906, 6.

10. “A Daring Daylight Robbery Shocks Vic-tims: Jimmy Gillespie and Renowned ‘Happy Hooligan’ Perpetuate a Hold-up Under the Walls of People’s Church and Get Away With the Swag,” St. Paul Globe, March 14, 1903, 10; “Death of ‘Happy Hooligan,’” Stillwater Messenger, July 9, 1904, 4; “‘Happy Hooligan’ at the Bijou,” Minne-apolis Journal, Dec. 23, 1902, 4.

All photos are from MNHS collections.

Lowe with unidentified partner, undated.

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