Thompson ran away from home at the age of fourteen. After working as a cook in the Mighty Hagg Circus found a job dancing in a medicine show. Thompson started his career in the traveling Gillie and Medicine shows in the 1910's and eventually worked his way up to the Keith Vaudeville shows in the 1920s.

   Thompson got his nickname by doing a remarkable slow motion dance routine. He was an excellent Tap and Acrobatic dancer as well. The New York Times called him 'Jumpin Jack' in their critic of the Plantation Revue. Thompson met a young singer and dancer named Florence Mills (1895-1927) while he was the dance director of the show 'The Tennessee Ten'.

   In 1918 Thompson was drafted by the U.S. military in W.W. I. and served overseas in France. After his return home, he rejoined with the Tennessee Ten and Mills. The two later married in 1921 (Mills 2nd

marriage) and Thompson became a very devoted husband and manager until her tuberculosis related death in 1927. He later married Curtis who was the widow of Cecil Mack. Thompson died in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1990.