The Rabbit's Foot Company
Encyclopedia
The Rabbit's Foot Company, also known as the Rabbit('s) Foot Minstrels and colloquially as "The Foots", was a long running minstrel
and variety troupe that toured as a tent show in the American South between 1900 and 1950. It provided a basis for the careers of many leading African American musicians and entertainers, including Ma Rainey
, Ida Cox
, Bessie Smith
, Butterbeans and Susie
, Tim Moore
, Big Joe Williams
, Louis Jordan
, Brownie McGhee
, Arthur "Happy" Howe, and Rufus Thomas
.
, who had established a small chain of theatres in the late 1890s. In 1900, he commissioned Frank Dumont
(1848-1919) of Philadelphia to write a show, A Rabbit’s Foot, for a new touring company. The show included minstrel performances, dancers, circus acts, comedy and musical ensemble pieces. It was owned and operated totally by African-Americans.
The new "Rabbit’s Foot Company" toured widely and successfully, reaching New York as well as the South, where Chappelle’s gambling and business successes funded the company’s own railroad car and touring circus tents. By 1904 the show had expanded to fill three railroad carriages, and was describing itself as "the leading Negro show in America". The following year, one of the performers, William Rainey, brought his young bride Gertrude
to join the company, and as "Ma" Rainey she soon became one of its leading attractions.
By 1906 Chappelle was able to maintain multiple tent shows on the road. However, growing competition from other companies took its toll, and Chappelle died in 1911. The company was then sold to a white carnival owner, Fred S. Wolcott, who continued with the touring show.
By 1918, Wolcott had moved the show’s headquarters to Port Gibson, Mississippi
. Each spring, musicians from around the country assembled there to create a musical, comedy, and variety show to perform under canvas. In his book The Story of the Blues, Paul Oliver
wrote : "The 'Foots' travelled in two cars and had a 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..."
Louis Jordan performed with the troupe in the 1920s, sometimes with his father, a bandleader. Other performers with the company in the 1930s included the young Rufus Thomas
, George Guesnon
, and trombonist Leon "Pee Wee" Whittaker
, a native of Newellton, Louisiana
. Later on, Maxwell Street Jimmy Davis
also toured with the troupe.
As "F. S. Wolcott’s Original Rabbit's Foot Minstrels", the company continued to tour among southern states until it disbanded around 1950.
, Mississippi
, commemorating the enormous contribution the
The Rabbit's Foot Company has made to the development of the blues
in Mississippi and placing them on the Mississippi Blues Trail
.
's 1970 album Stage Fright
, was written by Robbie Robertson
based on stories Levon Helm
told him about the Wolcott troupe, which had come through Arkansas regularly when Helm was a boy.
Minstrel show
The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface or, especially after the Civil War, black people in blackface....
and variety troupe that toured as a tent show in the American South between 1900 and 1950. It provided a basis for the careers of many leading African American musicians and entertainers, including Ma Rainey
Ma Rainey
Ma Rainey was one of the earliest known American professional blues singers and one of the first generation of such singers to record. She was billed as The Mother of the Blues....
, Ida Cox
Ida Cox
Ida Cox was an African American singer and vaudeville performer, best known for her blues performances and recordings...
, Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith was an American blues singer.Sometimes referred to as The Empress of the Blues, Smith was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s...
, Butterbeans and Susie
Butterbeans and Susie
Butterbeans and Susie were a comedy duo made up of Jodie Edwards and Susie Edwards, née Susie Hawthorne . Edwards began his career in 1910 as a singer and dancer. Meanwhile, Hawthorne performed in African American theater. The two met in 1916 when Hawthorne was in the chorus of the Smart Set show...
, Tim Moore
Tim Moore (comedian)
Tim Moore was a celebrated American vaudevillian and comic actor of the first half of the 20th century. He gained his greatest recognition in the starring role of George "Kingfish" Stevens in the CBS television series, Amos 'n' Andy...
, Big Joe Williams
Big Joe Williams
Joseph Lee Williams , billed throughout his career as Big Joe Williams, was an American Delta blues guitarist, singer and songwriter, notable for the distinctive sound of his nine-string guitar...
, Louis Jordan
Louis Jordan
Louis Thomas Jordan was a pioneering American jazz, blues and rhythm & blues musician, songwriter and bandleader who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "The King of the Jukebox", Jordan was highly popular with both black and white audiences in the...
, Brownie McGhee
Brownie McGhee
Walter Brown McGhee was a Piedmont blues singer and guitarist, best known for his collaborations with the harmonica player Sonny Terry.-Life and career:...
, Arthur "Happy" Howe, and Rufus Thomas
Rufus Thomas
Rufus Thomas, Jr. was an American rhythm and blues, funk and soul singer and comedian fromMemphis, Tennessee, who recorded on Sun Records in the...
.
Formative years, 1900-1911
The company was founded, organised, originally owned and managed by Patrick Henry "Pat" Chappelle (1869 – October 21, 1911). Chappelle was an African-American former vaudeville performer and entrepreneur from Jacksonville, FloridaJacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...
, who had established a small chain of theatres in the late 1890s. In 1900, he commissioned Frank Dumont
Frank Dumont
Frank Dumont was a popular American minstrel show performer and manager., by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania -Life:...
(1848-1919) of Philadelphia to write a show, A Rabbit’s Foot, for a new touring company. The show included minstrel performances, dancers, circus acts, comedy and musical ensemble pieces. It was owned and operated totally by African-Americans.
The new "Rabbit’s Foot Company" toured widely and successfully, reaching New York as well as the South, where Chappelle’s gambling and business successes funded the company’s own railroad car and touring circus tents. By 1904 the show had expanded to fill three railroad carriages, and was describing itself as "the leading Negro show in America". The following year, one of the performers, William Rainey, brought his young bride Gertrude
Ma Rainey
Ma Rainey was one of the earliest known American professional blues singers and one of the first generation of such singers to record. She was billed as The Mother of the Blues....
to join the company, and as "Ma" Rainey she soon became one of its leading attractions.
By 1906 Chappelle was able to maintain multiple tent shows on the road. However, growing competition from other companies took its toll, and Chappelle died in 1911. The company was then sold to a white carnival owner, Fred S. Wolcott, who continued with the touring show.
Later years, 1912-1950
In 1912, Ma Rainey brought the young Bessie Smith into the troupe, and worked with her until Smith left in 1915. Ida Cox was also a featured woman blues singer.By 1918, Wolcott had moved the show’s headquarters to Port Gibson, Mississippi
Port Gibson, Mississippi
Port Gibson is a city in Claiborne County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 1,840 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Claiborne County.- History :...
. Each spring, musicians from around the country assembled there to create a musical, comedy, and variety show to perform under canvas. In his book The Story of the Blues, Paul Oliver
Paul Oliver
-Biography:Oliver was a researcher at the Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development , and from 1978-88 was Associate Head of the School of Architecture. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Gloucestershire...
wrote : "The 'Foots' travelled in two cars and had a 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..."
Louis Jordan performed with the troupe in the 1920s, sometimes with his father, a bandleader. Other performers with the company in the 1930s included the young Rufus Thomas
Rufus Thomas
Rufus Thomas, Jr. was an American rhythm and blues, funk and soul singer and comedian fromMemphis, Tennessee, who recorded on Sun Records in the...
, George Guesnon
George Guesnon
Creole George Guesnon was an American jazz banjoist, guitarist, composer, and singer....
, and trombonist Leon "Pee Wee" Whittaker
Leon "Pee Wee" Whittaker
Leon "Pee Wee" Whittaker was an African American musician from the Mississippi River delta country of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas who was particularly known as a trombonist of jazz, blues, and rock music. From 1919 until his death, Whittaker performed with minstrel shows, carnival bands,...
, a native of Newellton, Louisiana
Newellton, Louisiana
Newellton is a town in northern Tensas Parish in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Louisiana. The population is 1,227 in the 2010 census, a decline of 255 from 2000. Newellton is some 65 percent African American. It is just west of the Mississippi River on Lake St. Joseph, an ox-bow lake....
. Later on, Maxwell Street Jimmy Davis
Maxwell Street Jimmy Davis
Maxwell Street Jimmy Davis was an American electric blues singer, guitarist and songwriter. He played with John Lee Hooker, recorded an album for Elektra Records in the mid 1960s, and remained a regular street musician on Maxwell Street, Chicago, for over 40 years.He was also known as Jewtown...
also toured with the troupe.
As "F. S. Wolcott’s Original Rabbit's Foot Minstrels", the company continued to tour among southern states until it disbanded around 1950.
Mississippi Blues Trail
A historic marker has been place by the Mississippi Blues Commission in Port GibsonPort Gibson, Mississippi
Port Gibson is a city in Claiborne County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 1,840 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Claiborne County.- History :...
, Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
, commemorating the enormous contribution the
The Rabbit's Foot Company has made to the development of the blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
in Mississippi and placing them on the Mississippi Blues Trail
Mississippi Blues Trail
The Mississippi Blues Trail, created by the Mississippi Blues Commission, is a project to place interpretive markers at the most notable historical sites related to the growth of the blues throughout the state of Mississippi. The trail extends from the border of Louisiana in southern Mississippi...
.
Cultural references
The song "The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show", on The BandThe Band
The Band was an acclaimed and influential roots rock group. The original group consisted of Rick Danko , Garth Hudson , Richard Manuel , and Robbie Robertson , and Levon Helm...
's 1970 album Stage Fright
Stage Fright (album)
Stage Fright is the third album by Canadian-American group The Band released in 1970. Much more of a rock album than its predecessors, it was a departure from their previous two efforts in that its tone was darker and featured less of the harmony vocal blend that had been a centerpiece of those two...
, was written by Robbie Robertson
Robbie Robertson
Robbie Robertson, OC; is a Canadian singer-songwriter, and guitarist. He is best known for his membership as the guitarist and primary songwriter within The Band. He was ranked 59th in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time...
based on stories Levon Helm
Levon Helm
Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm , is an American rock multi-instrumentalist and actor who achieved fame as the drummer and frequent lead and backing vocalist for The Band....
told him about the Wolcott troupe, which had come through Arkansas regularly when Helm was a boy.
External links
- Peter Dunbaugh Smith, Ashley Street Blues: Racial Uplift and the Commodification of Vernacular Performance in LaVilla, Florida, 1896-1916, Florida State University, 2006, pp.42-61