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3/4 Novelty Grahams: 1910
This picture shows the "Four Novelty Grahams" acrobatic performers at the Victoria Theatre, Philadelphia. The father is 23 years of age. Willie Graham is 5 years of age, and Herbert Graham is 3 years of age. At 9 P.M. on June 10th, 1910, these children were performing on the stage. Four times daily they do a turn which lasts from 12 to 14 minutes. Herbert Graham, the youngest, was said by the father to have commenced performing on the stage as an acrobat when he was 10 months of age. Willie, now 5, is said to be the youngest acrobat in the world. The mother of these boys was formerly a school teacher, and is now performing with this trio on the stage. The children are bright and strong, but have a playfulness about them which shows them to have forgotten the best years of childhood. Photo by Lewis W. Hine, 1910. View full size.
The Aristocrats
Wasn't there a Mom in this act as well?
playfulness = forgotten childhood?
Does this sentence make sense to anyone else?
"The children are bright and strong, but have a playfulness about them which shows them to have forgotten the best years of childhood."
Lake Wobegon!
Ah, I think the gentleman is Garrison Keillor's grandpa....
I'm very impressed, I dont
I'm very impressed, I don't like boxing but love Max Schmeling (look up his story as well) and through him I am now brought back to this fantastic story.
If only Willie hadn't died so young, can you imagine how amazing his biography would have been had he lived long enough to write it?
More about Willie
http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-1992
More about Willie.
Where's Mom?
Unfortunately there's only the one picture in the Lewis Hine collection in the Library of Congress.
Little Willie, as it turns out, grew up to be a heavyweight boxer. He lost in a title bout against German fighter Max Schmeling in 1931. His real name was William Lawrence "Young" Stribling Jr.
As part of the "Novelty Grahams" act Willie and Herbert would put on over-sized gloves and fight each other while Dad acted as referee. Eventually Willie would take on audience members. He had his first professional fight at age 16.
Stribling died in 1933 at the age of 28 in a motorcycle accident while traveling to visit his wife and baby son in a Macon hospital.
The family that plays
The family that plays together, stays together.
I'd love to see more pictures of them!
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