Patrick Henry Chappelle (January 7, 1869 – October 21, 1911),[1][2] was an American theatre owner and entrepreneur, who established and ran The Rabbit's Foot Company, a leading traveling vaudeville show in the first part of the twentieth century.

He became known as one of the biggest employers of African Americans in the entertainment industry, with multiple tent traveling shows and partnerships in strings of theaters and saloons.

Chappelle was described at that time as the "Pioneer of Negro Vaudeville" and "the black P. T. Barnum," and was the only African American to fully operate a traveling show solely composed of African-American entertainers.

After slavery was abolished, they left South Carolina with their relatives and other freed slaves to help construct the suburban neighborhood of LaVilla in Jacksonville, which became a center of African-American culture in Florida.

"[11] In 1899, following a dispute with the white landlord of the Excelsior Hall, J. E. T. Bowden, who was also the Mayor of Jacksonville, Chappelle closed the theatre and stripped out its tiled floor and fixtures.

He moved to Tampa, where he – with fellow African-American entrepreneur R. S. Donaldson – opened a new vaudeville house, the Buckingham, in the Fort Brooke neighborhood, using the Excelsior's fittings.

The Buckingham Theatre's Saloon opened in September 1899, and within a few months was reported to be "crowded to the doors every night with Cubans, Spaniards, Negroes and white people".

[1][8] In 1901, the Buckingham Theatre Saloon was advertised as offering fine imported wine, liquors, beer, and cigars, and when the theater was renovated, it had its grand opening on December 23, 1901, that made the next day's front page of the Morning Tribune in Tampa.

In May 1900, Chappelle and Donaldson advertised for "60 Colored Performers.... Only those with reputation, male, female and juvenile of every description, Novelty Acts, Headliners, etc., for our new play 'A Rabbit's Foot'.... We will travel in our own train of hotel cars, and will exhibit under canvas...".

[7] In October 1901, the company launched its second season, with a roster of performers again led by Arthur "Happy" Howe, and toured in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and Florida.

[14] Nevertheless, by 1902 it was said that the Chappelle Bros. circuit had full control of the African-American vaudeville business in that part of the country, "able to give from 12 to 14 weeks [of employment] to at least 75 performers and musicians" each season.

[7] In the periodical Crisis: A record of the darker Races a piece on "Along the Color Line Jim Crow" reported that Chappelle won a discrimination suit against the Louisville and Nashville Railroads.

"[1] As his business grew, he was able to own and manage multiple tent shows, and the Rabbit's Foot Company would travel to as many as sixteen states in a season.

[21] Pat's father Lewis Chappelle helped out as boss of the company since it had doubled in size, including the brass band that went from ten to twenty players.

The show was reported to include minstrel performances, dancers, circus acts, "daring aerialists," comedy and musical ensemble pieces.

Two of its most popular performers were singing comedian Charles "Cuba" Santana and trombonist Amos Gilliard, though the latter defected to Rusco and Holland's Georgia Minstrels and claimed that Pat Chappelle and his brothers had threatened him at gunpoint before throwing him off the company train.

[7] In August 1908, one of the Pullman Company railroad carriages used by Chappelle burned to the ground in Shelby, North Carolina, while several of the vaudeville entertainers were asleep.

[24] Pat and Rosa traveled in Europe, one aim being to see the celebrations of the coronation of King George V in England in June 1911,[1] and were on the RMS Lusitania, according to U.S. passenger records.

[14] Decades later in 1940, McGill was still known as a winning lawyer when he won the United States Supreme Court case Chambers v. Florida that overturned the conviction of four innocent African-American men that were sentenced to death.

[7] His cousin Mitchell Chappelle became an African Methodist Episcopal Church minister, and held positions with civic organizations dedicated to helping African-Americans.

[26] A white carnival owner, Fred S. Wolcott, bought the business in 1912 and kept The Rabbit's Foot Company successfully on tour, but it was no longer an authentic negro vaudeville and was thought of as more of a popular minstrel show with some blackface entertainers that would be considered demeaning by today's standards.