The Newsies fandom likes to ship the characters of Spot Conlon and Race Track Higgins. This is amusing from a historical perspective, because it is entirely possible that they were the same kid. Let me explain.
To start with, most of the newsboys in 1899 had many nicknames that had nothing to do with their real names. Strike leader Louis Balletti, for example, also went by Kid Blink, Blind Diamond and Muggsy McGee. So the fact that the names “Spot Conlon” and “Race Track Higgins” are nothing alike doesn’t mean as much as people generally assume.
Spot Conlon is only mentioned in two articles, on
consecutive days, both in the Tribune, right at the beginning of the
strike. In the first article, he crosses into Manhattan, asks to speak to Blind
Diamond (Kid Blink), tells him he’s Spot Conlon the Grand Master Workboy of Brooklyn,
promises to send over two thousand guys to help with the strike the next day,
then leaves, all while wearing pink suspenders. The second article just briefly
says he sent a guy over to say sorry that he couldn’t send the boys, they’re
needed for other strike business in Brooklyn.
After those two articles, Spot disappears. He is never mentioned again in any articles from any paper. And a
few days later, Race Track Higgins is leading a parade of 2000 boys across the
bridge to attend the rally and declaring that he is the leader of the Brooklyn union. From then on, any time a leader of Brooklyn was mentioned,
it was always Race Track Higgins.
There are three possibilities here:
- The newspapers said Spot Conlon was the leader of Brooklyn when he
wasn’t. As I’ve mentioned before, newspapers at this time weren’t very good at fact checking. - Spot Conlon was the leader of Brooklyn at the time this article was written, but then he stepped down and
Race Track Higgins took over. - Spot Conlon and Race Track Higgins were two different
nicknames for the same kid.
So were Spot Conlon and Race Track Higgins the same boy? It may not be likely. But it’s also certainly not impossible. In any case, they held the same role during the strike, and Disney’s version of the character of Spot Conlon is much closer in importance and role to the historical Race Track Higgins than the historical Spot Conlon. And that alone is enough to make me find the fact that they’re often shipped together amusing.
Newsboys of 1899 