His parents, Karl and Carrie Laubin, were musicians, and they encouraged Reginald to pursue a career in music.
The Great Depression made it difficult to earn a living as an artist, but Laubin found a niche by marketing the show as education.
The duo appeared on stages for local civic clubs, school groups, museums, Scout troops, and churches.
In a typical show, Laubin performed several carefully choreographed interpretations of Plains Indian dances while Gladys accompanied him on the tom-tom and occasionally sang.
Most shows also included recorded orchestral music, an array of props and backdrops, and pyrotechnic blasts of smoke and fire.
[2] A turning point in Laubin's career came in the summer of 1929 when the couple traveled to Wyoming to visit Ralph Hubbard at his Ten-Sleep Ranch.
Hubbard took the Laubins to local Indian events, taught them songs and dances, and helped them purchase props and costumes for their show.
There, the Laubins watched an Indian parade and war dance, but the performance by Native Americans disappointed the couple.
Laubin claimed that One Bull took the drawing as a sign that the couple had been sent by a higher force to represent Sioux people.
[2] After the Laubins performed at Times Hall in New York City in December 1947, they began to be regarded as serious artists.
The Spurlock Museum, opened in 2002, named its Laubin Gallery of American Indian Cultures in the couple's honor.
John Martin wrote for the New York Times, "Theoretically there is little to be said in defense of dancers who go about doing 'authentic' dances of other races.