Clog dancing was popular in England in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was developed by miners who wore Oxford-style shoes with wooden soles. Miners were not highly regarded and since they were easily recognized by their clogs, developing this style of dance was done to instill pride in the wearers. Johnnie Queen joined the Morris Brothers, Pell & Trowbridge Minstrels when he was 19, and teamed up with Dick Carroll. The two were the first men in a minstrel show to perform a double clog dance. They worked together for two years. White actors in minstrel shows blackened their faces and hands with burnt cork to impersonate African Americans. Today this is considered to be stereotypical and highly offensive. Minstrel shows were popular from the 1840s to the 1890s, in both America and England. In the 1880s, Queen’s extraordinarily fast dancing lead to charges of trickery. It is said that in order to prove there was none, Queen would enter the hall in his slippers, pass his dancing shoes around the audience to prove there were no clappers or other gadgets, and then put the shoes on and proceed with the act.
Caroll & Queen’s Double Clog Dance. Oliver Ditson and Company, 1864. Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, American Centuries. https://americancenturies.org/collection/l01-109/. Accessed on October 16, 2024.
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