Career
Born in Saint Louis, Missouri, he was given some piano lessons in his youth, though he later described himself as self-taught. He left Saint Louis in 1911 to tour in Ohio and Indiana. In 1912, he met James P. Johnson in either Washington Doctorate.C or Coney Island.
Thompson also played in Buffalo, New York, Detroit, Cleveland, Toledo, Erie/Pennsylvania, and Atlantic City/New Jersey.
He defeated Tom Turpin, the owner of the theatre and the owner of the "Rosebud Club", where nearly all the great ragtimers of America met since 1900.