The Rabbit's Foot Company
It was the base for the careers of many leading African-American musicians and entertainers, including Arthur "Happy" Howe, Ma Rainey, Ida Cox, Bessie Smith, Butterbeans and Susie, Tim Moore, Big Joe Williams, Louis Jordan, Brownie McGhee, Rufus Thomas, and Charles Neville.
The company was founded, organized, originally owned, and managed by Pat Chappelle (1869–1911), an African-American former string band guitar player and entrepreneur.
[1] In 1899, he closed the theater and moved to Tampa, where he and the African-American entrepreneur R. S. Donaldson opened a new vaudeville house, the Buckingham, in the Fort Brooke neighborhood, soon followed by a second theatre, the Mascotte.
[6] A Rabbit's Foot had little plot; a newspaper at the time said that it "is an excellent vehicle for the presentation of an abundant amount of rag-time, sweet Southern melodies, witty dialogue, buck dancing, cake walks, and numerous novelties".
[1] 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".
[1] In October 1901, the company launched its second season, with a roster of performers again led by the comedian Arthur "Happy" Howe (1873-1930), and toured in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and Florida.
By 1902 it was said that the Chappelle brothers 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.
"[1] As his business grew, he was able to own and manage multiple tent shows, and the Rabbit's Foot Company traveled to as many as sixteen states in a season.
In his book The Story of the Blues, Paul Oliver wrote:[15]The 'Foots' travelled in two cars and had an 80' x 110' tent which was raised by the roustabouts and canvassmen, while a brass band would parade in town to advertise the coming of the show....The stage would be of boards on a folding frame and Coleman lanterns – gasoline mantle lamps – acted as footlights.
There were no microphones; the weaker voiced singers used a megaphone, but most of the featured women blues singers scorned such aids to volume.The company, by this time known as "F. S. Wolcott's Original Rabbit's Foot Company" or "F. S. Wolcott’s Original Rabbit's Foot Minstrels", continued to perform annual tours through the 1920s and 1930s, playing small towns during the week and bigger cities on weekends.
[18] In 1956, it was reported to be still trading under Wolcott's name and "playing under canvas and making mostly one-day stands... bringing live entertainment of a style most show people don't dream still exists and flourishes.
"[19] The show at that time featured blues singer Mary Smith and comedian Memphis Lewis; it had a payroll of 50, including a ten-strong band.
[20] The company's trucks, buses and trailers were seized and sold by the sheriff of Ouachita Parish in Monroe in 1960, under a writ of fieri facias, to satisfy taxes and debt.
[18] The song "The W. S. Walcott Medicine Show", on the Band's 1970 album Stage Fright, written by Robbie Robertson, was based on stories Levon Helm had told him about the Wolcott troupe.
