1950s programs for Harlem Globetrotters & Magicians

The table was covered with trays of beautifully illustrated color souvenir programs for Philadelphia Eagles games from the 1940s and 1950s. The fronts had white players in traditional gridiron poses along with mascot matchups.

The back row held a tray of three programs that were different from the others. The earliest of them – the only color was a large round globe – bore images of two black players in comical form whose depictions were rather stereotypical. The program was for a team called the Harlem Magicians, whose antics on the court apparently were similar to those of the better-known Harlem Globetrotters.

The other two programs were in color and were caricatures, too, but much more presentable.

Although I normally stay away from such images, I was drawn to these programs because of the history. I had never heard of the Harlem Magicians and was curious about who they were.

The first article in the program told the story of why two of the Globetrotters’ most famous players at the time, Reese “Goose” Tatum and Marques Haynes, had recently left Abe Saperstein’s famous band of basketball entertainers and formed the Magicians. He was paying them less than he publicly touted, they contended, while he disagreed. Haynes says in the program that he and Tatum had formed the Magicians after the salary dispute.

The other two programs were for the 30^th and 33^rd years of the Globetrotters team, which had been around since the 1920s. How it got started seems to be a matter of debate.

According to the Harlem Globetrotters website, the team was founded in 1926 by Saperstein, then a 24-year-old who was also its coach. Its name was the Savoy Big Five, after the Savoy Ballroom in Chicago. A year later, the team’s name was changed to the Harlem New York Globetrotters.

Wikipedia noted that the Savoy did not open until 1927, and that the Savoy Big Five – made up of players from the same neighborhood in Chicago – entertained guests at the ballroom before the dancing commenced. By 1929, Saperstein was touring with a professional team he called the New York Harlem Globetrotters. Saperstein chose the name to align it with Harlem, which at that time was the “it” place in African American culture.

History.com gave this history: The Globetrotters were formed by Saperstein in Chicago. He became coach of the Savoy Big Five, which had played its earliest games at the Savoy. He decided to call them the Harlem Globetrotters to make clear that the players were black (African Americans were forbidden to play on professional basketball teams). Saperstein sewed their jerseys himself, adding the word “New York.”

They played their first game in 1927 in Hinckley, IL, in front of 300 fans and made a total of $75, according to the Globetrotters website. They played night games in three states in the Midwest, with Saperstein himself filling in for injured players. Over the next decades, they added more states and many many more games.

The Globetrotters were a serious basketball team, just as professional as any of the white teams. By 1939, though, their comic routines on the court started to figure into more of their games. When Tatum joined the Globetrotters in the early 1940s, he helped create most of those routines, according to the team website. Saperstein had no problems with them clowning around but only if they had a strong lead in the game.

They played in their first professional tournament in 1939, lost, but came back year after year as winners.

By the mid-1940s and 1950s, the team was riding high, racking up wins against some notable basketball teams, getting their own theme song, “Sweet Georgia Brown” (a version recorded by Brother Bones and His Shadows in 1949), appearing on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and in Life magazine, meeting the Pope and Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev, and even having a movie made in which they played themselves (and featuring Dorothy Dandridge), “The Harlem Globetrotters” in 1951, and another titled “Go, Man, Go” featuring Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee in 1954.

Saperstein struggled to find and retain players in the 1950s when the NBA opened up to black players. Meadowlark Lemon came on board in 1954, and four years later, Wilt Chamberlain played for one season. It was 1968 before the Harlem Globetrotters played a game in their namesake community in New York. In 2002, the team was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Marques Haynes, a master ball-handler who could dribble a ball six times in a second, joined the team in 1947 and stayed until 1953 when he left after the dispute with Saperstein over money. He turned down a $35,000 offer from the Philadelphia Warriors and started his own team called the Harlem Magicians. Goose Tatum was also on the team, which was seemingly a mirror-image of their old team. Haynes would return to the Globetrotters later as a coach and player.

It was interesting to learn that the Magicians were owned by African Americans, given the images on the cover of the program at auction. There was no date on the program, but the cover stated that this was the “First Annual Tour” of Tatum, Haynes and the Magicians, so it apparently dated to their first season, 1953-1954. Tatum, who also had played in the Negro Leagues, is credited with inventing the hook shot.

The other two programs were Globetrotters’ from the same decade, and were more colorful and slick. It’s obvious who had the money and who didn’t.

One was for the 30^th season, possibly 1956, with Saperstein recounting the history of the team and its famous players. The cover image on the 33^rd-year program from 1959 was taken from the book “Go, Man, Go” (1952) that became the second movie about the team. The image is a nice caricature of three players doing what the Globetrotters do best – put on a show.