 According to one account, he was sent to reform school after chasing his stepmother with a carving knife.In newspaper profiles, he claimed that after running away from boarding school at the age of 15, he "hopped a freight" and came to New York City, where, in 1911, he began a blackface song and dance act, named Prinz and Buck, with a young black man he met along the way.Later that year, he told interviewers, he went on a ship to Europe as a cabin boy, jumped ship, and traveled around Europe "introducing the American strut step" in return for meals and lodging.