Vaudeville-era African American entertainment
Black Vaudeville is a term that specifically describes Vaudeville-era African American entertainers and the milieus of dance, music, and theatrical performances they created. Spanning the years between the 1880s and early 1930s, these acts not only brought elements and influences unique to American black culture directly to African Americans but ultimately spread them beyond to both white American society and Europe.
Vaudeville had what were known as "circuits", venues that booked touring entertainers. Racism made it difficult for a black performer to be accepted into the white circuits of the day, though some performers had crossover appeal. The Theater Owners Booking Association (TOBA) was created for Black performers to get steady bookings in theaters that served Black audiences. Eventually, TOBA was replaced in the 1930s by "chitlin' circuits", which emerged to link black performers and entertainment opportunities.
Background.
American Vaudeville began in the early 1880s, at the end of Reconstruction, and ended with the rise of talking cinema and the Great Depression in the early 1930s. Vaudeville's popularity first started in Northeastern states, then quickly spreading West until there was a centralized American Vaudeville circuit in the 1890s. Each Vaudeville show contained a number of different acts, which might feature singing, juggling, acrobatics, dancing, comedy, and novelty acts. With its roots in variety and Minstrel Shows of the mid-19th century, it was common in Vaudeville for white performers to perform racist stereotypes of Black Americans, using Blackface, minstrel songs, and coon songs, in their acts.
Talented Black Americans saw working in Vaudeville as a more profitable and satisfying alternative than the laboring and domestic jobs that were available to them in the 19th century (See: Chattel Slavery). The salary for Vaudeville performances were mainly based on the popularity of the performer but ranged from ~$36 for a single act to ~$200 for a well-known weekly acrobatic performance. Though some early Black performers worked within the stereotypes, using Blackface and writing coon songs themselves, others challenged these stereotypes with irony and humor, or performed and produced acts that were more authentic to their talents and experience. Playing to both white and black audiences, as well as 'mixed' audiences with segregated seating, they were paid less than their white counterparts by national booking agencies and encountered discrimination in lodging and booking. Even though these theatres were mixed, this did not mean Black audience members got the same treatment as White counterparts, black theatergoers would be forced to sit in the back of the theater, in disheveled seats. Shows for white audiences were limited to just one Black act per show out of around 20 performances, though a white actors strike in 1901 opened doors for African American performers. In order to bring less attention to Black performances, African American acts were usually given one of the first or last acts, as theatre managers knew those were the least busy times of the night. Some Black performers opted to work only for Black audiences;
others formed their own touring companies, labor organizations, booking agencies and theater circuits.
Pat Chappelle: An early pioneer.
Before 1912, when Sherman H. Dudley put together the Colored Consolidated Vaudeville Exchange, Vaudeville's major circuits usually included only the managers of theaters serving white audiences. But early Black entrepreneurs like Pat Chappelle organized travelling shows and smaller circuits for black and white audiences and helped pave the way for African American performers.
Chappelle (1869–1911) was a black showman from Jacksonville, Florida. He learned the show business ropes from his uncle Julius C. Chappelle, who allowed him to meet Franklin Keith and Edward F. Albee, producers of Vaudeville. Pat ended up working for Keith and Albee as a piano player. During his Vaudeville debut, he met Edward Elder Cooper who was a journalist interested in black entertainment and the first to write a journal about the African American race in 1891.
In 1898, Chappelle organized his first traveling show, the Imperial Colored Minstrels (or Famous Imperial Minstrels), which featured comedian Arthur "Happy" Howe and toured successfully around the South. Chappelle also opened a pool hall in the commercial district of Jacksonville. Remodeled as the Excelsior Hall, it became the first black-owned theater in the South, reportedly seating 500 people.
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 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. The Buckingham Theatre 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". In December 1899 Chappelle and Donaldson opened a second theatre, the Mascotte, closer to the center of Tampa. A different reporter said, “These theaters have proven themselves to be miniature gold mines.”
His next project was a touring show called "A Rabbit's Foot". The difference between this tour and previous ones was, the cast was sixty people, and all performers would be comfortable. If a black performer was able to tour in a white circuit, they would not be allowed to sleep in the hotels when they stopped to rest, because the hotels would not allow it. They slept on the bus because it was better than the floor. On Chappelle's tour, The "Freeman" described their travel accommodations as “their own train of new dining and sleeping cars, which ‘tis said, when finished, will be a ‘palace on wheels.” Like his Famous Imperial Minstrel show, "A Rabbit's Foot" contained minstrel and a variety of acts while maintaining the expected Vaudeville staging flare. Chappelle offered a show for everyone.
In mid-1900, Chappelle decided to put the show into theatres rather than under tents, first in Paterson, New Jersey, and then in Brooklyn, New York. In October 1901, the company launched its second season, with a roster of performers again led by comedian Arthur "Happy" Howe, and toured in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and Florida. The show grew in popularity throughout the early years of the century, and played in both theatres and tents. Trading as Chappelle Bros., Pat Chappelle and his brothers, James E. Chappelle and Lewis W. Chappelle, rapidly organized a small Vaudeville circuit, including theatre venues in Savannah, Georgia, as well as Jacksonville and Tampa. 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.
Chappelle stated that he had "accomplished what no other Negro has done - he has successfully run a Negro show without the help of a single white man." 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. The show included minstrel performances, dancers, circus acts, comedy, musical ensemble pieces, drama and classic opera, and was known as one of the few "authentic negro" Vaudeville shows around. It traveled most successfully in the southeast and southwest, and also to Manhattan and Coney Island.
By 1904, the Rabbit's Foot show had expanded to fill three Pullman railroad carriages, and advertised as "the leading Negro show in America". For the 1904–05 season, the company included week-long stands in Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Maryland. Two of its most popular performers were singing comedian Charles "Cuba" Santana and trombonist Amos Gilliard. Another performer, William Rainey, brought his young bride Gertrude (later known as "Ma" Rainey) to join the company in 1906. That year, Chappelle launched a second traveling tent company, the Funny Folks Comedy Company, with performers alternating between the two companies. The business continued to expand, though in August 1908, one of the Pullman Company railroad carriages used by the show burned to the ground in Shelby, North Carolina, while several of the entertainers were asleep. Chappelle quickly ordered a new carriage and eighty-foot round tent so the show could go on the following week.
Pat Chappelle died from an unspecified illness in October 1911, aged 42, and the Rabbit's Foot Company was bought in 1912 by Fred Swift Wolcott (1882-1967), a white farmer originally from Michigan, who had owned a small carnival company, F. S. Wolcott Carnivals. Wolcott maintained the Rabbit's Foot company as a touring show, initially as both owner and manager, and attracted new talent including blues singer Ida Cox who joined the company in 1913. "Ma" Rainey also brought the young Bessie Smith into the troupe and worked with her until Smith left in 1915. The show's touring base moved to Wolcott's 1,000-acre Glen Sade Plantation outside Port Gibson, Mississippi in 1918, with offices in the center of town. Wolcott began to refer to the show as a "minstrel show" – a term Chappelle had eschewed – though one member of his company, trombonist Leon "Pee Wee" Whittaker, described him as "a good man" who looked after his performers. Each spring, musicians from around the country assembled in Port Gibson 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' traveled 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 its annual tours through the 1920s and 1930s, playing small towns during the week and bigger cities at weekends. The show provided a basis for the careers of many leading African American musicians and entertainers, including Butterbeans and Susie, Tim Moore, Big Joe Williams, Louis Jordan, George Guesnon, Leon "Pee Wee" Whittaker, Brownie McGhee, and Rufus Thomas. Wolcott remained its general manager and owner until he sold the company in 1950, to Earl Hendren of Erwin, Tennessee, who in turn sold it in 1955 to Eddie Moran of Monroe, Louisiana, when it was still trading under Wolcott's name. Records suggest that its last performance was in 1959.
Sherman H. Dudley.
Sherman Henrey Dudley (1872-1940) was an influential figure to early 20th century American entertainment. Dudley was born to Margret and Alford Dudley and grew up in Bossier County, Louisiana. Dudley was first introduced to the entertainment industry as a traveling performer for medicine shows, with his initial routine being an advertisement for a "Kickapoo" cure.
By the late 1890s, Dudley became an active member in the Texas entertainment scene by using his comedic talent developed in his medicine show performances to gain traction. Not only was Dudley's showmanship being recognized, but his talent for business managing gave him a distinct edge. In 1895, Dudley joined his first black minstrel show at The People's Theater in Houston Texas. In these minstrel shows, whether the performer was white or black, they were masked in blackface while they performed songs and dances about black slaves. These performances highlighted negative stereotypes about African Americans, depicting them as ignorant, unreliable members of society. Even though minstrel shows were aiding in the degradation of African Americans, most talented black singers, composers, writers and dancers joined for the opportunity at creating a stable income in entertainment.
Through Dudley's success at performing in minstrel shows, he gained traction for his talent at performing and his business-oriented mind. Reviews for his comedic performances were outstanding, with one person saying "without a doubt, S.H. Dudley is one of the best comedians on the stage. His droll wit, his genuine humor and refreshing eccentricities, is exemplified in everything he says or does, and he compels his audience to laugh in ‘self defense’"
Sherman H. Dudley increased his notoriety between 1903-1912 through his involvement with the entertainment industry, both on and behind the stage. During this time, Dudley started putting forth plans to open up his Black theatre circuit idea. In 1912, Dudley wrote to The Freeman, a newspaper