User:BaronBifford/Chocolat

Chocolat was the stage name of Rafael Padilla, a clown who performed in a Paris circus around the turn of the 20th-century. Rafael was of Afro-Cuban descent and was one of the earliest successful black entertainers in modern France. He was the first black clown to play a lead role in a circus pantomime act, and with his longtime partner George Foottit they revolutionized the art of clowning by pairing the sophisticated white clown with the foolish auguste clown.

Early life
Rafael was born in Cuba sometime between 1865 and 1868. He was likely born a slave, which would explain why his birth was not registered. If so, he was probably born before September 17, 1868, because in 1870 the Spanish government emancipated all slaves born from that date onwards (see the Moret Law). He was born without a surname; "Padilla" was but one of several he would adopt later in life. Rafael had no memory of his biological parents. He was raised by a poor black woman in the slums of Havana. When Rafael was still a boy, she sold him to a Spanish businessman named Patricio Castaño Capetillo for 18 ounces of gold.

Castaño brought Rafael to his family's household in the village of Sopuerta in northern Spain. Cuba had banned the slave trade in 1862, and under international law Rafael technically ceased to be a slave at all the moment he set foot on European soil, but nonetheless the Castaños treated him like one. The Castaños, like many Spaniards with colonial connections, were anti-abolitionists and flouted the law by declaring Rafael a "servant". Rafael was the only black person in the village, and was mistreated both by the Castaños and the villagers. They made him sleep in the stables, and gave him no education.

At around the age of 14 or 15, Rafael fled the Castaños. He worked in the quarries of the Basque Country, then moved to Bilbao where he worked odd jobs, such as dockworker, then as a porter at the train station. In Bilbao he met Tony Grice, a travelling English clown, who hired him as an assistant and domestic servant. Grice would occasionally incorporate Rafael into his acts, such as in his parodies of American minstrel shows, but didn't make Rafael an apprentice. Rafael did not enjoy this life: on several occasions he deserted Grice, then returned when he could not find employment elsewhere.

Paris
In September 1886, Grice took Rafael with him to Paris. Grice began work at the Nouveau Cirque ("New Circus"), an upscale circus owned by Joseph Oller (it has since been demolished). At first Rafael continued working mostly as a servant and stage-hand, with occasionally very minor roles in Grice's skits. He picked up some pantomime skills by observing the other performers during rehearsals and mimicking their motions in his spare time.

A rising star at the Nouveau Cirque was the English clown George Foottit. Foottit gave Rafael a role in a pantomime skit where Foottit played a stationmaster and Rafael played a third-class passenger who impudently tries to board the train ahead of the first-class passengers. Foottit literally kicks him back to the barrier to the amusement of the audience. This was Rafael's debut as a clown. Rafael chose the stage name "Chocolat", after the French word for chocolate. In 19th century France, it was also a derogatory word for black people.

In 1887, Grice performed a bullfighting skit where Rafael played the picador. This role made a good impression and got Chocolat his first mention in the press in a March 26, 1887 article in Le Figaro.

The general manager of the circus, Henri Agoust, saw potential in Rafael and convinced the circus owner to cast Rafael in the lead role of a new pantomime act he was developing. This was a bold move: no circus had ever cast a black man in such a role, and Rafael was relatively inexperienced and spoke little French. But Agoust thought that a black lead would give the act an interesting exotic flair.

Rafael trained intensively in dance and pantomime in preparation for the role, neglecting his servant duties to Grice's family. One day around the beginning of 1888, Rafael arrived late to serve at the baptismal feast of Grice's youngest son. In his haste, he accidentally spilled a sauce boat on Grice's wife, and was fired on the spot. Rafael had to move out of his lodgings at the circus and rent an apartment down the street.

In early January 1888, Agoust began rehearsals for his pantomime act, La Noce de Chocolat ("The Wedding of Chocolat"), in which Rafael played a groom whose wedding is disrupted by hooligans. La Noce de Chocolat premiered on March 19, to great success. It's run lasted to the end of the season in June.

In May 1888, Joseph Oller resigned as director of the Nouveau Cirque and was replaced by Léopold Loyal, who managed the stables and the horse riders. More than half of the program for the 1888-1889 season was given over to equestrian acts. This naturally came at the expense of the clowns; there were no major roles for Chocolat. The press reacted negatively to the new program, as equestrian acts were going out of fashion, so towards the end of the year Loyal added more exotic acts such as minstrel shows. These too were poorly received, and in early 1889 the shareholders forced Loyal to reintroduce older acts, including La Noce de Chocolat, which ran until March 15.

In March 1889, Agoust cast Rafael in a bullfighting pantomime act, but the bulls would be real rather than stuntmen in a costumes. During a rehearsal, a bull struck Rafael in the jaw with its horns. Although the bull's horns had been tipped with cork for safety, Rafael's jaw was broken and permanently deformed.

From May to October 1889, Paris hosted a world fair, and the Nouveau Cirque stayed open all summer to capitalize on the surge in tourism. Chocolat's fame increased greatly during these months.

In June 1889, Oller replaced Loyal with Raoul Donval as director of the circus, and also hired the clown Geronimo Medrano. Donval had all the performers of the circus, including Rafael, sign written contracts. This was Rafael's first contract, and it obliged him to work exclusively for the Nouveau Cirque and perform in equestrian acts as well as in pantomime acts anywhere in the country or abroad. His pay started at seven francs a day. By the 1890s, Rafael was earning around 800 francs per month. He was among the highest-paid performers at the circus.

Rafael typically partnered with other clowns in his acts. His first partner was Geronimo Medrano in 1889. They were the first clown duo of the Nouveau Cirque. In 1890, he partnered with Kesten. On January 16, 1893, Chocolat starred in a mock combat with a boxing kangaroo. This was his first solo act.

In 1894, Donval decided to pair Chocolat with his other biggest star, Foottit. The two clowns resisted this pairing at first. Foottit did not want to be named alongside

Their first act as a duo was a spoof of the William Tell legend, performed in December 1894 and was a hit with the critic. Nonetheless, the two clowns resisted this forced pairing and at first refused to regularly perform at the Nouveau Cirque. They mostly performed at special occasions such as fundraisers and official parties.

In early 1896, Charles-Émile Reynaud filmed Foottit and Chocolat performing their William Tell sketch with his latest invention, the Photo-Scénographe, an early motion picture camera. Reynaud colored the frames by hand, making it perhaps the first live action motion picture in color. The film was shown regularly at the Musée Grévin from 1896 to 1900, to over 500,000 spectators in total.



In popular culture

 * In the movie An American in Paris, Gene Kelly performs a dance sequence while dressed as Rafael based on a drawing by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

Chapter 4
Life for Rafael was tough in Paris, but strangely he never rebelled against his lot in any way like he did in Spain.

On the first day of the new circus season, Léopold Loyal instructed the performers on their dress code.

Rafael was also subject to these codes, which was a sign that they had accepted him into their group.

At 8h, Loyal inspects the performers. At 8:30, he makes he entrance into the arena, accompanied by music. He is impeccably dressed.

Tony Grice and Charlie the horse follow. Clown acts have traditionally been used to tide the public over while the stage hands prepared the next act.

Rafael and Antonio pushed the horse into the arena. After an introductory act, Rafael put a monkey on the horse's back. After the horse and monkey did a few laps, Antonio took them off-stage.

Another horse act by a different performer was done. Just as this act ended, a clown with an English accent burst on stage and bragged that he could do a better job. After the stage hands dragged him off, he came back disguised as a woman, then jumped on the horse's saddle, but facing backwards. Paris had more circuses than any other city in Europe and thus the audience was tough.

But they roared with laughter at this comic twist. This clown was far more agile than Tony Grice. His name was George Foottit, and this was the first time Rafael saw him.

Another act which greatly impressed Rafael were the Hanlon-Volta acrobats.

After the trapeze act, Tony Grice performed his bullfighting sketch. Rafael and Anotonio dressed themselves in a bull costume; Rafael was the rear legs.

Finally, the performers all bowed to the audience. Rafael helped clean up the arena. Rafael felt he belonged in the circus, whose colorful atmosphere reminded him of Havana.

The Nouveau Cirque employed hundreds of people, most of them full-time. The acrobats, horse-riders, and clowns were roughly equal in size. The horse-riders practiced in the morning, and everyone else in the evening.

Léopold Loyal, Oller's manager, was himself a horse-rider. He and his two sons ran the stables. He forced Rafael to help clean the stables, which must have been a painful reminder of his enslavement in Spain.

Rafael also had to help Loyal's rehearsals. Loyal thought that horses were stupid and could only be trained with the carrot-and-stick approach.

Rafael's chores in the stable as well as being a domestic servant for Grice's family left him little time to train his clown skills. Mrs Grice would often have Rafael follow her around Paris. A black manservant was a status symbol. Rafael hated this because the people in the street disrespected him.

Rafael's chores in the circus took his mind off these insults. He studied the rehearsals of the horse-riders, making a distinction between those who performed routine stunts (panneau) and those who performed more sophisticated acts with a flair of artistry (haute ecole).

Rafael also imitated some of the motions that the other artists rehearsed. The kinder ones among them even gave him tips.

Tony Grice and his entourage arrived in Paris only two days before the start of the season, which gave him no time to develop new acts. He instead performed those he had performed in Spain. But the audiences in Paris did not think much of them, so he took a hiatus to develop something new. A newspaper tidbit on Oct 26 said that Tony Grice would eventually return to the circus "with his Negro, his monkey, and his pig." This was the first time that Rafael was mentioned in the press.

Grice was vying for the position of lead clown. His biggest rival was Foottit. Grice supposedly met him in Spain in 1885. Foottit also had a bullfighting sketch, which the crowds in Paris liked.

Foottit had a new act entitled Le Chef de gare (the Stationmaster). He performed it at the Nouveau Cirque for two years to great popularity.

The sketch involved three passengers trying to board a train. The first passenger has a 1st class ticket and is courteously escorted to his seat. The second has a 2nd class ticket and is hushed back to the barrier. The third is played by Chocolat and he has a 3rd class ticket. He is literally kicked in the rear back to the barrier. Sometimes the blows Chocolat suffered were strong.

This role was not auspicious but it finally brought Rafael into the limelight. Rafael was now a clown.

In an 1886 magazine illustration of the aquatic show La Grenouillere, Chocolat can be seen as a background character.

This illustration reminded Noiriel of a famous Monet painting.

In winter, heavy snowfall and icing caused Parisians to stumble clumsily through the streets, which amused Rafael.

Rafael decided he would make the most of his lot. He would embrace his name Chocolat.

In January 1887, the Nouveau Cirque began the pantomime show Feria de Séville. Napoleon III's marriage to a Spaniard sparked public interest in bullfighting. Neither Tony Grice nor Loyal had the skill to write and stage a pantomime, so Oller hired Henri Agoust.

Circus mimes have always been considered a minor genre, and thus there is little literature covering their history. Luckily, Noiriel found a the synopsis of the pantomime acts of the Nouveau Cirque in the archives of the government. At the time, censorship laws required theatrical performers to submit copies of their scripts to the government ahead of performance.

In these records, Noiriel found a script for one of Grice's acts, in which he played a bullfighter and Chocolat was his picador. This was a step up for Rafael. Now, his stage-name was mentioned in the posters, and he was no longer hidden in a bull costume.

This act raised Chocolat's profile. He even outshone Grice's other assistant, Antonio.

The other clowns in the circus, who had never gotten a mention in the press, were jealous of Chocolat. They mocked him by dressing a mannequin up as him and laughing at it, as if to demonstrate that a mannequin could do Chocolat's job.

Rafael took these insults in stride, even laughed at them. Despite their jealousy, Rafael felt a certain solidarity with them because they had a common enemy.

The principal enemy of the clown was the horseman. The horsemen were angry that the all-day clown performances meant he could not rehearse with his horses in the arena, which made them unmanageable.

This enmity occasionally led to brawls. In June 1887, a horseman file an assault complaint against Tony Grice. Chocolat participated in the assault on the horseman. This endeared him somewhat to his fellow clowns, though he still was apart from them because he didn't speak French.

Chapter 5
At the start of 1888, Rafael got his breakout role with La Noce de Chocolat (The Wedding of Chocolat).

Noiriel wondered whether Chocolat made it big because he was a curiosity or because he had real artistic talent. Noiriel came across a synopsis of La Noce de Chocolat.

For the new season in 1887, Nouveau Cirque planned to bring back La Grenouillere and the horse acts. Henri Agoust was now the general manager.

Tony Grice, still looking to get a permanent contract, looked for new acts. He noted that the public liked skits that involved Chocolat. He read an article in the papers about a human zoo featuring African tribals.

The zoological garden showed mostly animals, but this year the curator put "primitive people" on display, in this case a group of Achanti in their native dress. They were a huge hit with the public, and Grice felt he had to capitalize on this interest.

Noiriel imagines that Rafael was taken to see the exhibit. He probably felt no connection to the Achanti, because Africa was as diverse and fractious as Europe. The crowds would toss coins to the Achanti to have them dance.

Rafael feared that Grice would make him do this act. Luckily, the act was much simpler: Rafael, dressed in loincloth, had to jump into a barrel of flour and then exclaim "I'm cold!", to which Grice would reply "Saint Hilaire!"

"Saint Hilaire" was a pun using the name of the zoo's curator, but Rafael didn't know this. But he did make the audience laugh.

Up to this point, Noiriel could not figure out why Rafael was given a lead role in a skit, but Henri Agoust probably had something to do with it.

Noiriel went into the digital archives of the Gallica library and, being old-fashioned, was much disoriented by the technology.

Henri Agoust was an aspiring mime. He traveled to America, where he partnered with the Hanlon-Lees acrobat troupe. He directed pantomime acts for them. One of the pantomime skits they did was about a guy who asks for a woman's hand in marriage, but the parents refuse, so he disguises himself as a barber, cuts off their heads, glues them back on, and a bunch of other things until they finally consent.

This act had a lot of great comic gags. Clowns would eventually adopt the comic aspects of these pantomime acts into their skits. (Perhaps clowns are pantomimes who specialize in comedy).

In 1876 in France, the troupe performed an Le Voyage en Suisse that was so successful it got the Hanlon-Lees the attention of the theatre world.

The height of their career was "Do, mi, sol, do" at the Folies Berges in 1878. Henri Agoust ran the show.

Agoust's American wife sued him because he remarried in England without first divorcing her. Agoust broke up with the Hanlon-Lees, accusing them of wanting to kill him. The Hanlon-Lees continued without him and had great success in America.

In 1883, l'Eden Theatre hired him to direct their clowns. Two years later he became the general manager. It was the second biggest theater in Paris. It's performances showcased foreign cultures.

He invited the Japanese group Yeddo, oversaw the choreography of a "Persian ballet", and wrote a big Spanish-themed spectacle. This is what got him the attention of Joseph Oller. His taste for cultural diversity makes it understandable that he gave a black man a starring role.

The black people Agoust put on show were not exhibited like zoo animals but put in proper stage performances.

The exploitation of blacks by society varied. One charlatan shopkeeper kept a black man outside his shop, dressed in loincloth and feathers, chained, and pretended he was a "dangerous African cannibal". This attract customers to his shop.

To understand why Rafael was given the lead role in La Noce de Chocolat, Noiriel investigated the peculiar expectations of Nouveau Cirque's audience, and he found answers in a recorded dialogue between Agoust and Oller.

In this dialogue, Agoust proposes to Oller to cast Chocolat as the lead in a pantomime. Oller is astounded. Agoust reminds Oller of Delmonico, a black animal tamer who brought in a lot of money for the Fantaisies Oller (a show Oller ran in the 1870s). Oller thinks Rafael has no talent, but Agoust thinks Rafael has potential.

Oller thought about it. He would be the first circus owner to make a black man the star of a pantomime. It was a big risk.

Oller finally agreed, but he asked Agoust to prepare a backup act in case La Noce de Chocolat flopped.

Noiriel imagines that Agoust immediately summoned Rafael to tell him the news. Rafael tried to explain that Foottit and Grice were bigger than him and deserved the role. Rafael still barely knew any French.

Agoust told Rafael that in a pantomime there is no speaking, only gestures.

That an inexperienced black man would get a lead role probably outraged the more experienced clowns. Noiriel could not find any mentions of Tony Grice and Antonio in Nouveau Cirque programs from March 1888, which suggests they quit indignation. Noiriel thinks that Foottit accepted this because Agoust promised him a lead role in the next pantomime act for the fall of 1888.

Noiriel found a synopsis of La Noce de Chocolat.

Noiriel believes Agoust first had Rafael demonstrate what he knew of dance, because classic dance was considered the foundation of circus training.

Noiriel imagines that Rafael explained that in Havana, dancing was not an individual activity, nor was it practiced apart from daily life. It was inseparable from music and pantomime. There were no dance halls, nor did anybody devote time exclusively to dance. To simply dance, alone, to the rhythm of a tambourine was alien to him.

Rafael performed a dance that was popular with the slave community of Havana: the dance of the grass-snake. It had singing and dancing.

Noiriel thinks that Agoust trained Rafael intensively.

Agoust was an excellent clown and must have taught Rafael a lot of tricks.

Above all Agoust focused on teaching Rafael gymnastics, which were a big part of the act.

Agoust also probably had Rafael attend performance at the Hippodrome au pont de l'Alma. It featured grandiose pantomime acts such as chariot races and knight jousting.

One noteworthy act at this Hippodrome was Abachi and Mazus, who invented the Egyptian Pyramid act.

Gugusse was a clown who performed there. He wore oversized clothes and shoes and had a red nose. He was very clumsy. Whenever he tried to hit his partner Bob, he would miss and hit himself instead.

Gugusse's real name was James Guyon. It was he who introduced the red-nosed clown to Paris circuses.

Rafael admired Gugusse, but Agoust told him that the upper class patrons of the Nouveau Cirque found him too vulgar.

Minstrel shows were inspired by the dance and song styles invited by black slaves in America. The first was based around the character of Jim Crow.

Minstrel shows were really popular in America and London but not in France. The French found them too vulgar.

As censorship laws relaxed, café concerts multiplied, but despite this the only minstrel show that was a big hit in France was Mason and Dixon.

Agoust visited Louisiana before the American Civil War, and probably witnessed slave performances and blackface minstrel shows.

American scholars have condemned minstrel shows for their racism, but nonetheless it was through them that the people of Paris discovered the culture of black slaves in America.

The most popular singer in France was a guy called Paulus who performed minstrel shows.

Henri Agoust may have cast Rafael as the lead because Rafael lacked classic dance training and Agoust hated classic dance because it was a stiff art.

Agoust may have told Rafael the tale Deburau the mime. Deburau once killed a street ruffian for insulting his wife. During his trial, he stayed silent because that's what a mime does, and this help him get acquitted.

Chapter 6
Between Christmas and New Year, the Nouveau Cirque held daily afternoon matinées for children. By the start of 1888, the staff was exhausted, and to reward them Oller organized a raffle. Tony Grice and Antonio were there.

Rafael, afraid of disappointing Agoust, practiced his routines like a demon. This caused him to neglect his duties as a servant to the Grice family. One day, Rafael arrived late to dinner, and he accidentally spilled a gravy boat on Mrs Grice. He was fired instantly.

He was forced to move out of their lodgings. By 1895 he was living at 338 Rue Saint-Honoré, a diverse neighborhood.

Most of the tenants of his building were women. 4 in 10 were domestic servants. The neighborhood had a lot of foreigners.

Urban servants had better lives than rural ones but they were still subject to the whims of their masters. They were obliged to wear uniforms. Because their masters didn't like their presence, they were made to sleep in quarters on the top floor.

At the start of January 1888, Agoust assembled to tell them the plot of La Noce de Chocolat: The skit takes place in a restaurant on an island in the Seine. Chocolat and his bride enter the restaurant. They have booked the ground floor for their wedding. Three students enter the restaurant and occupy the first floor. They begin to harass the wedding guests, eventually forcefully taking the bride up to their floor to dine with them. Chocolat and the wedding guests start a big fight. Punches are thrown, furniture and even foods are tossed. The bride flees from the scene, chased by a terrified pig that some peasants brought in. She falls into the water, and everybody tries to save her.

Because this was an aquatic act, Agoust couldn't use any fancy stage equipment, so he told the actors that they would juggle utensils to create a spectacle.

Agoust went over the motions. The students would throw plates, the guests tried to storm the staircase, etc.

Agoust made sure to instruct the actors to not do any vulgar gestures. They were not in a minstrel show, the were at the Nouveau Cirque, a classy venue.

After sorting out the gestures, Agoust began working on the rhythm. The fight scene would be a little chaotic, and Chocolat would set the tempo.

Agoust knew that Rafael worked best in a team, and so he made Rafael the "conductor of the orchestra".

Rafael would have to tremble with fear, do some dancing, some tumbles, etc.

Next Noiriel examined the poster for the event. Show business was waking up to the power of advertising. They needed ever more money to get the best artists. Posters needed to be both eye-catching and communicate the spirit of the piece.

Alfred Choubrac was hired to draw for La Noce de Chocolat. He founded one of the first graphic art agencies in Paris.

The back-up act Agoust prepared in case La Noce de Chocolat flopped was a horse-riding bear called Caviar.

After much rehearsal, the actors had great synergy and had really grown into their roles.

Circus performers often travelled from town to town pursuing invitations, but their community was linked by the classified ads newspapers to which the cafés subscribed to. The artists of the Nouveau Cirque often visited the café Perdrix.

Noiriel imagines Agoust taking Rafael to the Perdrix and instruct him on the importance of reading these ads to keep tabs on the community and make connections.

March 19, 1888 was the premier of the play. Rafael was in his dressing room mentally preparing himself.

At 8h sharp, the actors all lined up for inspection by Loyal. He then announced the names of VIPs in the audience as they went to their seats.

Loyal was proud to entertain the upper crust of French society.

At 8h30, the orchestra started. The show opened with the horse acts.

After the intermission, the arena was filled with water. Then Chocolat and his co-stars performed their skit. Then there was the final parade. Chocolat got a standing ovation.

This was very emotional moment for Rafael. The fugitive slave was now applauded by the elite of Paris.

Once he was the butt of innumerable humiliations, now he was the toast of Paris.

Nothing in La Noce de Chocolat was racist, not even in allusion.

La Noce de Chocolat ran for weeks, every Thursday and Sunday in the afternoon and evening.

On April 11, Oller told the assembled staff that they had made more than 100,000 francs in 20 days.

Oller extended LNdC's run to the end of the season.

Black people were so rare in Paris that Agoust knew simply casting a black lead would draw attention.

The play was so unconventional that journalists had trouble describing it.

Chapter 7
At the end of April, Oller announced his resignation as director of the Nouveau Cirque. The circus' shareholders were summoned to attend a May 7 meeting to pick a new director.

Henri Agoust and Leopold Loyal were vying for the position. Rafael was worried that if Loyal, the master of the horses, won, the clowns would be marginalized and he'd wind up back in the stables.

Oller was quitting because he wanted to go manage a new rollercoaster park in Paris, and Nouveau Cirque rules forbade him from managing another establishment. This was news because everyone thought the owner of the rollercoasters was Charles Zidler.

Loyal was chosen. Agoust would stay on to manage the pantomimes, but he'd be subordinate to Loyal.

In the programme for the 1888-1889 season, horse acts now comprised more than half of the show.

The clowns were the big losers here, although Foottit got preferential treatment because he could ride a horse and had a dual act with a horse-rider.

At the start of the season, Foottit was the star of a new pantomime act Lulu, written by Félicien Champsaur, a young anarchist and bohemian.

These writers had a subversive style of humor, and struggled to get their work published. Hypocritically, they had to curry the favor of the powerful to get published.

These marginal writers and the nobility shared a hatred for the bourgeoisie, which brought them together. The nobles supported the circus so that they could snub the café-chantants and vaudeville, which were for the masses. There was a movement among conservative writers and artists to revive the traditional French style of Pierrot against the eccentric Anglo-Saxon styles.

Champsaur gained the patronage of the upper class through flattering editorials. In the Molier cirucs, he had this pantomime act that was not a big hit, but the audience were intrigued by the secondary character Lulu, so Champsaur made her the star of a new act. This act is about a love triangle between Lulu (played by Massoni), a Pierrot named Arthur Schopenhauer (Agoust), and a dandy named Arlequin (Foottit).

Lulu was more traditional than La Noce de Chocolat, but it was still a little subversive because Lulu had masculine characteristics and Arlequin was a little effeminate.

Lulu would go on to inspire a play, a movie, and an opera.

Foottit's father founded a circus in England and his mother was a horse-rider. He made his debut in Paris in 1884.



Chocolat's name disappears from the programs after Loyal's takeover, which suggests he was marginalized. Still, he was famous, and he chose to bide his time rather than quit.

Contemporary newspaper article that says Grice is looking for a new Negro because he feels lost without Chocolat.

Grice must have fallen on hard times. His contract at the Hambourg circus was not renewed and he fell back into obscurity, so in desperation he looked for a replacement black man to spice up his act again.

The press reacted badly to Loyal's new program. They called it "old hat". Loyal thought he was being true to the real essence of the circus. His father taught him all the equestrian traditions going back to Louis XIV. His grandfather was the first clown of Paris. What pedigree! And now he was "old hat".

Loyal thought horse riding and stunts was a science, but only fellow scientists like him could appreciate it fully. The masses now wanted silly antics.

In December 1888, he instructed Agoust to prepare a new pantomime act of Agoust's choice. A South American plantation owner makes his Negroes dig a well. When they hit water, they dance in celebration. Then, monkeys.

This new act was pretty racist, so it turns out that Agoust was not the great progressive Noiriel thought.

Rafael must have been offended too.

The end-of-the-year program included fewer equestrian acts and more "exotic" acts, perhaps as a reaction to the negative press about the opening program. Loyal added a minstrel show. It and Agoust's monkey island act were poorly received.

The shareholders were upset with Loyal's leadership and moved to replace him. Agoust's monkey island act was dropped and replaced by older successful acts, including La Noce de Chocolat.

The Universal Expo of 1889 was important for France because it signalled that it had recovered from the defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. It also gave Chocolat the opportunity to relaunch his career.

He probably visited the Expo and marvelled at the exhibits.

Rafael probably felt at home now because of all the diverse cultures on display, and the cosmopolitan nature of Paris in general.

There was a "negro world" exhibit where lots of African cultures were showcased.

La Noce de Chocolat ran until March 15, 1889. In late February, Agoust cast Rafael in a bullfighting pantomime act, but it would be with a real bull! During a rehearsal, the bull struck him in the jaws with his horns and they were broken and permanently deformed.

Because there were a lot of tourists in Paris that year, the circus stayed open all summer. Aside from making a lot of money, it also gave Chocolat a lot of exposure, and eventually he became famous among all classes, not just the aristocracy.

Chapter 8
Chocolat was very novel and difficult to classify. He was unlike anything the Parisians had seen before. He wasn't really even thought of as an auguste in his day, despite what later books think of him

Perrodil couldn't really classify Chocolat because like many French he wasn't familiar with the artistic culture of blacks across the Atlantic. But he understand that Chocolat was something new and unpredictable.

Despite the success of that summer, the mood in the circus was a little low. Loyal seemed sick and Agoust seemed aloof.

Agoust and Loyal had been working their respective fields (pantomime and riding) for decades, but their feud over which was better was becoming obsolete, because both their arts were now being overshadowed by the latest fashion: the music-hall singer.

Joseph Oller had resigned director but he was still an influential shareholder in the circus. The Folies Bergers had hired a director named Marchand who had gathered the best music-hall singers from New York and London and showed them to the Paris crowd. It was a huge hit among the Paris elite.

This café-concert became the cabaret Le Chat Noir and featured a very diverse program.

A lot of these avant-garde artists became collaborators with Courrier francais, a satirical magazine.

Oller and Zidler noticed that these artists had invented a subversive genre that appealed to both to the masses and to the elite.

Louise Weber was a cancan dancer.

She made a big splash when she made an erotic gesture to some really rich people at one party that included at Rothschild.

Oller and Zidler realized that the elite were socially conservative but morally subversive. They enjoyed such insolent displays so long as they remained in their place (showbiz).

Oller and Zidler decided they had to set up a business here and make connections with the local artists and musicians. Oller bought a ballroom called Reine Blanche, put Zidler in charge, and named it Moulin Rouge.

There was a clown at the Fernando circus called Geronimo Medrano, one of the biggest stars of Montmartre.

Oller hired Medrano. On June 16 1889 it was announced that Raoul Donval was the new director

Donval was a failed painter and artist who later became the manager for his singer wife.

Oller hired Donval because he wanted to open the circus to the world of the café-concert. But Donval was a "commoner" and owned no horses, which must have displeased some shareholders. So Donval was forced to promise that Loyal would remain as manager of the horses. He also hired an account who had the artists all sign model contracts.

Medrano was hired for two years. He, Foottit and Chocolat were considered the finest clowns ever.

For the first time in his life, Rafael signed a contract. The contract required Rafael to play in horse acts and pantomime acts whether in France or abroad, and he could not ask for a raise or damages.

It also required him to work exclusively for Nouveau Cirque on penalty of fine.

It details the conditions under which Rafael could be fired.

His salary was first seven francs a day. By the start of the 1890s, Rafael was getting 800 francs per month, equal to an experienced engineer. He was one of the best paid arists at the circus.

Rafael was cast in an act where he plays an African prince who gets kidnapped by Sioux and is rescued by some clowns.

Literacy and newspaper readership was growing fast in those days.

Lots more journalists too!

The play of the African prince was to mock the pretentiousness of black people.

Chocolat was used in political satire. The monarchists, for instance, used him to mock republicans who had nominated candidates of foreign descent for the elections.

In the program that announced Paris au galop, it listed "Entrée clownesque: Medrano ET Chocolat". This was a first. Usually clown's assistants don't get mentioned.

In exchange for agreeing to play the African prince, Chocolat must have demanded the opportunity to do a clown act. Medrano and Chocolat was the first clown duo of the Nouveau Cirque. Their act was called "The parody of the elephant".

Rafael knew he had to diversify his talents to stay on top. Animal acts were still popular. Rafael was probably still traumatized by the Castanos and that bull that broke his jaw.

Rafael had to overcome this to do The 28 Days of Chocolat, wherein he played a clumsy horse-rider who had to do a pirouette on a horse.

In April 1890, he was bitten in the should by a lion when he foolishly tried playing with one.

Rafael also had to learn the art of small talk, because the circus visitors enjoyed mingling with the artists.

The Nouveau Cirque was a popular hangout for monarchists.

Chapter 9
Noiriel found no records indicating Rafael was arrested for getting into fights while in Paris.

Having been operating from october 1888 to june 1890 without interruption, the staff was exhausted so Donval closed the circus for the summer.

Rafael always had an attraction for beautiful clothes.

At the start of September 1890, Donval asked Astruc and Levy to prepare a new equestrian revue modeled after Paris au galop. The acts had dialog that necessitated better French than what Foottit and Chocolat could manage.

Donval hired a fat Italian named Pierantoni and a stuntman named Saltamontès.

For the 1890-1891, Foottit was the lead clown.

Foottit could speak French fluently and a lot of his lines were spoken with a perhaps deliberately exaggerated accent, perhaps as a form of rebellion.

Donval hired a clown called Kesten which he paired with Chocolat.

La Noce de Chocolat ran during the 1890-1891 season. On Oct 2, Prince Henri d'Orleans came to see it.

In November, Foottit and Chocolat were cast together in the pantomime À la cravache, though they had not formed a duo at this point.

Chocolat's role was demeaning but he wasn't the type to self-pity.

The act ended with Chocolat singing a verse.

In learning to sing, Chocolat kept pace with the competition from café-concerts.

À la cravache gave Foottit to refine his profile as an "actor".

Rafael and Foottit also costarred a parody of Anthony and Cleopatra (the Shakespeare play that was running in Paris at the time).

This sequence was the favorite of the revue and raised Foottit's profile in the theatre world.

Donval attracted both the high life and the middle class to the circus by showing equestrian acts and café-concert style acts. Rafael was cast in a play that parodied the saloon called Garden Party, where he played an African prince riding on a donkey and Foottit was his servant riding on a horse.

Rafael didn't care much about this particular denigrating role because the duo he formed with Kesten was growing in popularity.

Under Donval, the Nouveau Cirque flourished. Only Folies Bergère matched its profitability.

Donval increased the workload of the staff. Per their contracts, they could not demand overtime pay.

Donval also appealed to the young crowd by holding extra shows on school holidays.

This was good for Rafael because Chocolat was really popular with the kids.

In Jan 1892, the colleges and schools of Paris rented the Nouveau Cirque for a show for schoolchildren, and one student was invited to drive the king's chariot.

Rafael played a minor role in one of the acts (Le Roi Dagobert).

A journalist praised Chocolat for suffering abuse with a smile, which really revolted Rafael because it was racist. The stereotype of the submissive black slave who is happy with his lot.

Chapter 10
Chocolat may have had a lover at the Moulin Rouge called la Goulule.

[...]

The Moulin Rouge was dedicated to dance. It was inaugurated on oct 5 1889.

Rafael wasn't invited because he was busy at the circus, clowning.

Oller took the job managing Zidler's roller coasters because the neighborhood was a good place to open a café-concert.

On April 11, 1893, Oller opened l'Olympia, a music-hall built to replace the theme park. Rafael was not invited, so this was not the occasion he met la Goulule.

The Olympia and Moulin Rouge had similar shows to Nouveau Cirque (with dance acts in lieu of horse acts). Donval saw this as competition, so he forbade his artists from performing there.

It was certainly not Oller who helped Rafael make connections with the artists of Montmartre.

Blackface minstrels were displacing classic pantomime acts in the music halls.

Donval wanted to do a collaboration with Adolphe Willette and Caran d'Ache. The play they wrote was Pierrot soldat

Willette and Caran d'Ache were big anti-semites.

Foottit played the lead role and made a good impression with the public.

Foottit was also liked because he played female roles as well. This was especially appreciated by gays like Jean Lorrain.

The collaboration between Nouveau Cirque and Montmartre was good for Foottit but bad for Rafael because he had no big roles. So this was not how he met la Goulule

Noiriel then investigated the carnival of Lent. The participants would elect a queen of the carnival from among the candidates nominated by the laundresses.

La Goulule was a big participant in the carnival, dancing on a float.

In 1893, the students entered the scene. Since the second empire, their numbers doubled. They were now more than 17,000 in the Latin Quarter. Students from the school of fine arts, remembering that a number of famous artists of Courrier francais had frequented their establishment, proposed to Willette to organize a ball at the Moulin Rouge for the Lent festivities. They chose to call it the ball of four arts because it encompassesd the architecture, sculpture, painting, and engraving departments of the school. Before the ball, the students organized a parade that made a scandal because some young girls paraded in skimpy attire. The student who organized the ball was fined 100 francs, and the girls got a reprieve.

This sanction enraged the students. At the start of July, a demonstration on the plaza of Sorbonne united thousands of participants wearing paper fig leaves. The brutality of the police repression had dramatic consequences because a young man who just happened to be there died of his wounds. This caused an uproar in Paris. The prefect was forced to resign a few days later.

Considered victimes, the students were honored the following year to the point of becoming major actors, with the wash-houses and markets, of the the big parade organized in the capital. The enthusiasm of the Paris public for the carnival incited all the entertainment moguls to give special shows. The New Circus decided to show their new pantomime act: The Virtuous Maiden of Charenton, a nautical act.

It was agreed that they would come by omnibus from the latin quarter to participate in the show of the New Circus, disguised as crusades. As in all pantomimes, the plot was very thin. A party was organized in honor of the maiden of the neighborhood, but in the middle of the official ceremony, a prince of Dahomey (Chocolat) intruded, accompanied by an English journalist (Foottit). The prince wanted to see the party because he was the inventor of black soap. The journalist having sowed chaos with the washerwomen, the mayor said to the police: Take that man to the station with his servant. Chocolat responded "A prince! Not a servant! The mayor replied: A prince? He must a be a spy of Behanzin.

Wanting to get in the prince's good graces, because he hoped for a decoration, the mayor offered him a cigar, which Chocolat eats. Imprisoned with Foottit, the two men escape. The washerwomen, cops, and the mayor chase them, Finally, the official platform, sawn by the infamous Chocolat, collapses into the water.

During this period, Rafael had to play the same kinds of stereotypical roles in several other pantomimes. In Ball of Siam, he was Eye-of-Perdrix, a negro prince in love with the daughter of Rajah Singapore. The rajah wanted to marry his daughter to a European. Two travelling businessmen, an Englishman (Foottit) and a Frenchman (Medrano), moved by Eye-of-Perdrix's desperation, succeed in whitening his face. Rajah Singapore agrees to marry his daughter to him now. A big nautical party was organized to celebrate this marriage that featured elephants.

Reading this synopsis, I recall another passage by James Baldwin. "Soon in small theatres here and there, I played roles written by white men.

Without a doubt, if was difficult for Rafael to constantly play roles that reminded people of his otherness. During the Carnival of Paris, he must have remembered nostalgically the parties of Kings of Havan. There, he was a member of the slave community and he never questioned his place. Maybe he should have feared more the public growing bored with him always playing a slave or a servant. They wanted novelty.

It was thus more and more vital for him to diversify his roles. His room to maneuver was obviously narrow, but not zeo. In the equestrian and nautical act title Paris-Clown, presented on Feb 10 1893, Rafael played the role of the gossip, with a blonde wig. Chocolat became Ms Chocolat, on the place of the Concorde. In another scene of the same show, he/she appeared as a Spanish ballerina, playing the tambourine, then he transforms into Charlotte Corday by throwing his bonnet over the guillotine facing Dalton (Pierantoni) and Robespierre (Saltamontès). It was the first time Rafael cross-dressed. It also gave him a chance to show off his dancing talent.

The next year, in Express-Revue, the new end-of-year show concocted by Surtac and Alevy, Rafael could not escape the role of Behanzin, because this made headlines in preceding months. But he also played in another scene, which reminded one of the extraordinary succes that the American dancer Loie Fuller found at the Folies Bergere. Raoul Donval imagined a number where Brunin, a café-concert artist who did not need to kneel to scrach his toes, mimed the serpentine dance before a circle of admiring lions. Rafael agreed to play the role of tamer. The lions were certainly chosen for their docility, but he certainly needed to know how to handle the whip to make them obey. For Rafael, who was bitten by one of the beasts the previous year, this was a challenge. He once again came out with flying colors.

All the efforts our hero made to familiarize himself with the circus animals were bearing fruit. Rafael certainly dreamed of performing solo to deserve the title of clown. Medrano and Donval knew of this desire. They nonethless noted that when Rafael had no partner, he felt lost and confused. One day, the director had an idea. He had hired for several months a dresser named Captain Williams. He had an act with a boxing kangaroo. Donval proposed to Rafael a clown entrée - a boxing match between Chocolat and the kangaroo.

He had to place himself in front of the animal in a boxer's stance to look believable. Rafael knew that the kangaroo could eviscerate have a dozen dogs with one claw strike. The first time he face the animal, it's easy to imagine that our hero was not sure of himself. His legs trembled even more than in the stationmaster skit. When he moved his arms the kangaroo stood on his hindlegs and tail. He was two meters tall. The animal started move and flurrying his forelimbs. Rafael felt his breath on his face. The trainer put boxing gloves on the kangaroo, but Rafael could sense huge claws under the gloves. He was convinced that if the animal touched him, he could say goodbye to what was left of his jaw. At the start, Rafael was content with just facing the kangaroo. Once the kangaroo got excited, he moved to give way to Williams. Little by little, he grew confident, familiarizing himself with the movements of the animal. And finally, on Jan 16 1893, he did his number before the public, do a few arm movements in front of the angry kangaroo, before letting the tamer calm it with a candy.

Even if everyone forgot it today, that number was very impressive in the day. David Widhopff, who was an illustrator for Courrier francais thirty years earlier, painted this scene in 1924 for the decor of the old Cirque-Theatre of Limoges. This painting is preserved today at the Museum of Fine Arts of the city.

To diversify his roles, our hero worked a lot also on his clown acts with his colleage Kesten. Their duo was considered superior to Pierantoni and Saltamontès. In March 1894, Courrier francais dedicated a page to Kesten and Chocolat, illustrated by a big drawing. "The two lead clowns of the Nouveau Cirque are known: they hold the manna of daily joy that they give each evening to the public." The journalist added that Kesten was a clown of the old school used to

Six years after the premier of La Noce, Rafael's image changed a lot. His manner was not considered, strange, demonic, epileptic, or simian. His qualities as a dancer doing the sarabande was no passed under silence, because the critics now highlighted his impassivity and bewilderment. I am convinced that Rafael dedicated these years of work to erase traces of his origins. He did not want to be compared to a monkey. He disciplined his body. He became the example of the immobile clown, cultivating the art of expression. As if his desire to assimilate, his will to escape the stereotype s of black drove him to pull the rope in the other direction. In the duo of Kesten and Chocolat, it's the White who moved and the Black who stayed impassive. Observers described his entrées as oblique and hesitant, his few words stammered with follow-up, his monocle that fell and which he put back again again, he sleeves which he dusted, the slaps he received and sometimes gave, when he thought he was stronger. '''In a few years, Rafael played an essential role in the transformation of the status of the auguste. Thanks to him, the stuntman, the jack-of-all-trades of the cirucs, became the real partner of the clown, recognized as an artist, to the point that his name was now printed on the program.'''

In my search for info on the duo Kesten and Chocolat, I discovered finally how Rafael succeed at showing at other places other than Nouveau Cirque. In 1892, the general manager of the theatre of the Gaite founded and association of mutual support integrating the entirety of the personnel and not just the artists as before. In an age where there was no social security, nor unemployment benefits, nor pension fund, the workplaces had to self-organize relief funds by donations, but also thanks to revenues of shows given by friendly aritsts. One June 1 1892, a nice morning was organized wit participation of a big number of actors, of opera and café concert singers. Kesten and Chocolat brought their contribution to this initiative. For the first time in his life, Rafael showed himself on the theatre scene. Even if nobody remembers today, especially in the theatre community, the clown Chocolat was one of the first artists to participate in the development of the mutal movement that would rapidly swallow most of the personnel of live shows.

Two years later, the duo was solicited again, but this time by the director of a café-concert, l'Elysee-Montmartre, to animate an evening of goodwill organized for the benefit of the conductor of the establishment. This demonstration united a lot of artists from all sort of establishments. Kesten and Chocolat were the sole representatives of the circus that evening. That is how our her could finally connect with the artists of the Butte. The moment they passed through the doors of the Elysee-Montmartre, the two men preceived certainly the gigantic scrap metal negro that was installed near the entrance. When on slides two coins in his abdomen a dial appeared with a needle indicating zero kilos. The spectators were invited to measure their strength by punching the target, with the needle measuring up to 200 kilos. I imagine that Kesten turned to Rafael and said to him with a wink: shall we try? Rafael declined. He already dispatched Ad el-Kader witha revolver, he was not going to punch a negro in the belly. Assimilation had limits!

Chapter 11
"Chocolat for his part delights the public. He is the clown of the mmoment, the personality essential to all intermediaries and all festivities.  His black face replaces the acrobatics and the face of the thin Pierrot.  Chocolat triumphs.

The man who wrote these lignes was Jules Claretie. He had a regular column in Le Temps - equivalent of Le Monde of today. Claertie was without doubt the most important figure of French cultural life at the end of the 19th century: the general administrator of the Comedie-Francase, academic, president of the Society of Letters, influential journalist, author of certain essays; he was a great connoisseur of the circus scene, to which he devoted several novels and articles.

I cited this commentary because many today think I exaggerate when I say that Rafael was one of the most celebrated artists in France in his day. This text is remarkable, also, because it makes no reference to Foottit. Despite this, all the books, articles and dictionary entries on Chocolat associate him systematically with Foottit. And most most say that Chocolat began his carreer as the whipping boy of the English clown, which is totally false because when the two artists teamed up, Rafael had worked for nine years at Nouveau Cirque. Before that point he had already paired up with every other clown in the establishment.

To understand when the collective memory could falsify the truth to this degree, I had to dismantle the machine of forgetfulness. Very quickly, I realized that the disaster that dropped our hero into obscurity happened suddenly, at the start of 1895.

Since George Foottit played his mime role in Pierrot soldat, the Parisian press talked more and more about him. I learned that he fell in love with the young Russian dancer who was his partner in this pantomime. Foottit was 30 years old. He married at 18 with a woman who gave his four children. He was no longer an adolescent, but passionate love literally transformed him. This man, normally withdrawn and taciturn, became exhuberant. He confided to anyone who cared to listen that he could no longer stand his wife. He wanted her to return to London with their children, or he would be the one to leave. Despite Donval threatening to sue him for breach of contract, Foottit, having just signed a commitment for the whole summer for the circuse Ciriselli of St Petersburg with his lover, quit the Nouveau Cirque.

Some months later, a new rumor circulated Paris. Foottit was not well at all. On November 20 1893, a journalist of the The 19 Century newspaper, who investigated the affair, publicized the info: "Foottit is at this moment sick, struck by a sickness more painful than serious that makes him almost immobile. After all sort of shake-ups, disillusioned and penniless, he lay himself in a hospital bed, heartbroken." Even if it was not said, we could think that Foottit had fallen into depression. His love affair had not lasted long. The Russian public did not welcome him with as much enthusiasm as he had hoped. And the tribunal of the Seine just ordered him to pay a forfeit to the director of the Nouveau Cirque. That was a lot for one man.

Foottit had quit the Nouveau Cirque believing that Donval would take him back readily. This was not the case. The director had hired new clowns for the 1893-1894 season, notably Sydney and Emilio. The artists of the troupe took advantage of Foottit's absence to make a name for themselves. It is precisely during this absence that Rafael triumphed with his number with the boxing kangaroo and in his duo with Kesten. Foottit's defection also motivated Donval to strengthen his connection with the café-concert by hiring another English artist, Harry Fragson, who was starting to make a name for himself in the pop song scene. In "L'Agence Bidard", the pantomime created in the spring of 1894, Fragson played some of his piano tunes, while Rafael parodied Caroline Otero, "the woman of diamonds", a hedonistic Spanish dancer who was big at the Folies Bergere. That number was a big hit.

The Nouveau Cirque could thus do without Foottit. Nevertheless, the English clown made a sensation in the papers because of his sentimental misadventure. The "press people", as we say today, was being born. The romantic liason between a circus star and a Russian dancer was a good to raise sales. Even the "serious" newspapers covered the affair.

The legend of Foottit was born then and there. La Revue illustrée, a widely circulated magainze, published a whole dossier on him, with photos showing his expressions, his shows and even a reproduction of his calling card: "Georges Foottit, actor". The article said that Foottit was a child of showbiz. A peerless horseman, il presented himself before the queen of England, but one evening in Bordeaux, he lost his horse. He then became a clown, and his genius quickly made him famous. He nevertheless gave up on glory for the love of a young dancer. Other newspapers brooded on the misadventures of the Shakespearan clown referencing Hamlet holding in his hands the king's jester: "Alas, poor Foottit".

The media circus motivated Raoul Donval to extend the season to the end of June. He asked Foottit to play a small pantomime title Le Réveil du clown, an ironic title to those who know history's last word. And since the season coincided with the tourist surge, he asked Rafael to resume La Noce de Chocolat.

On May 20 1894, Le Matin, one of the most widely-read daily newspapers in France, published on the front page an interview with Foottit titled: "Loves of clown". In the lead, the journlaist tells he was witness to this scene:

Foottit: Here, Chocolat!

Chocolat: Sir, I forbid you from calling me by my little name.

Foottit: And this? Do you recognize this?

He slaps him, then a second time, followed by a big kick. "It's him!" screams Chocolat sentimentally: He embraces him

This scene, invented by the journalist based on a real incident, was evoked by Franc-Nohain several years later in Les Memoires de Footit et Chocolat. When the English clown returned to the Nouveau Cirque, a membe of the troupe joked about his trip. Foottit punched him hard, which discouraged others from bringing up the subject. The fictional anecdote that the journalist pulled from this incident gave Donval the idea that pairing these two clowns was a great way to capitalize on their respective notorieties.

Very often, the commentaries of journalists on the programs of the circuses parroted word for word the press releases. This is why the same formulas appear in one newspaper after another. In June 1894, when the Nouveau Cirque announced it was reprogramming La Noce de Chocolat, all the newspapers of Paris mentione. This phrase was concocted by Donval as a test. The duo of Foottit and Chocolat was not year formally launched, but the association of these two artists was already forming. The troupe played to packed houses.

On June 14 1894, while the workers rolled up the carpet to make way for the water, the manager announced to the public that they were celebrating that evening the 200th showing of La Noce de Chocolat. At the end of the showing, when Rafael brought his troupe, still drenched, in a final medley, there was a great standing ovation. After the pantomime, I imagine that the whole troupe was united in the artists' foyer to savor champagne. Donval informed the troupe that he planned to open a cabaret, on the first floor of the Nouveau Cirque, that would be entertained by the dissidents of Chat noir. He added that he just rented the Rapp galery, on the ground floor of the Palais de Beaux-Arts, to install a circus-hippodrome open during the summer when the Nouveau Cirque closed. Medrano would manage it, but Donval wanted his two famous clowns to star as a duo.

Foottit refused this proposal vigorously. Since he became the lead clown of the Nouveau Cirque, he had never wanted to be associated with another clown in a program. Certainly, he had wanted to be aided by a stuntman, but their names were not mentioned on posters. Reading interviews with Foottit in the press during ths period, I am convinced that at the start the English clown felt hostility towards Rafael. To his eyes, the illiterate slave that Tony Grice brought form Madrid was not, and would never be, a real artist. He owed his success to the ravings of a few journalists who did not understand the circus. It was thus inconceivable for Foottit to see his name associated with Chocolat. If Donval really wanted them both, he would accept it if the program said "The clown Foottit and his auguste Chocolat". This was Foottit's reply to the director of the Nouveau Cirque.

This solution was obviously unacceptable for Rafael. He had respect for Foottit, he admired his talent and genius, but they each had their own ranges. Rafael found his liberty by breaking with Tony Grice. He had no reason to go back. Over previous years, he had already played in several clown entrées with Foottit. He was ready to do so again occasionally. But it was out of the question that he appear in the programs as the auguste of the white clown.

Donval expected negative reactions. By becoming managing of an entertainment hall, he learned to wield the carrot and the stick. He reminded the artists that they signed a contract that allowed him to use them as he saw fit. If he did not comply to the director's will, Rafael could lose his place. Foottit could not object to Donval either. His trip to St Petersburg had placed him in a delicate situation. The tribunal of the Seine ordered him to pay a forfeit to the Nouveau Cirque. Since he had not the means to honor this debt, Donval had promised to organize a fundraiser for his benefit. If Foottit refused to partner with Chocolat, the project would fall apart.

Donval nevertheless wanted to stay on good terms with his biggest stars. To not upset things, he proposed to test their association with a clown act of their choice. If the result was good, the two clowns would star together at the hippodrome of Champ-de-Mars next year. Until then, Foottit would continue to star solo at Nouveau Cirque and Rafael woudl pair with Mazzoli, alternating with the duo of Pierantoni and Saltamontès.

It was the examination of the programs of the Nouveau Cirque and the hippodrome of Champ-de-Mars that provided me the material to imagine this discussion between the director of Nouveau Cirque and the two clowns. The same source taught me that the first opening act that they presented together was "Guillaume Tell." I am convinced that Rafael did not want to inaugurate his duo with Foottit by the stationmaster sketch that reminded him of his days under Tony Grice. He was convinced that every time he would play this number with a white clown, his past as a stuntman would catch up with him. The choice of William Tell was a good compromise. Rafael accepted that Foottit would have the lead role, but in exchange the English clown agreed that their two names would be mentioned on the poster: "Foottit et Chocolat"

In the drama written by Friedrich Shiller, from an old german legend, the baillif Gessler, who rule despotically over the villages of a Swiss canton, obliged William Tell the shoot an apple placed on the head of his own son. This scene, passed into collective memory, was adapted and transformed into a clown act by Billy Hayden. Il was a solo act, centered on the figure of William Tell; the role of the son was played by a stuntman. The revival of this clown act by Foottit and Chocolat brought a radical change, because from now on it was not the performance of the star clown that was valued, but the relationship between the father and the son. Without knowing, thanks to this clown act, the two clowns would shock the rules of their art, paving the way for the white clown - auguste duo.

At this stage in my inquiry, I was not yet capable of understanding clearly exactly what innovation Foottit and Chocolat brought to the circus world. I hesitated between multiple interpretations. I was convinced, and still am, that the color of Rafael's skin facilitated the changed introudced in this sketch. Presenting the black clown like a big child suited the colonial schema that was emerging. No other clown benefiting from a comparable notoriety to Rafael would have accepte this subordinate position. Yet, the road form solo to duo could also be seen as a considerable progress. Rafael was well placed to know that when an individual enters into a relationship with the world that dominates him, he is not in the situation of chained slave, nor of a captive in a cage. When he worked with Tony Grice, he was good only for receiving blows. Now, he played another role. He ate the apple as he gestured, angering Foottit who finally sprayed him with his water pistol.

This clown act was first mentioned in the program of Dec 1894: "William Tell by the clowns Foottit and Chocolat". It was the only sketch interpreted as a duo by the two artists. Chocolat also played the boxing kangaroo number with Captain Trogow, and Foottit intervened in several other bit of the show, solo and also together with a horsewoman.

Raoul Donval flooded the papers with ads focused on the two clowns: "Nouveau Cirque: Foottit et Chocolat". Given that the circuses paid a lot for these ads, journalists were obliged to write reviews of the shows. Most often, they didn't know what to say, because the circus was to be seen and hard to describe. Donval offered the critics a "pair of spectacles" that would permit them to home in on the strong points of the show.

The desired effect was quick. In Nov 1894, the Nouveau Cirque presented Pirouettes-Revue, the new equestrian review and nautical created for the end-of-year celebrations. The last part was dedicated to shows that recounted events of the year. The final scene of Othello mimed by Chocolat we a horsewoman in the role of Desdemone was a parody of the opera of Verdi based on the play, presented for the first time at the Opera Garnier in the middle of Oct 1894, attended by the president Casimir Perier and Giuseppe Verdi himself. Obviously, the acvt of Chocolat was less glorious. As in all the equestrian and nautical line-ups of the Nouveau Cirque, the area was turned into a pool and thus the tragic destiny of Othello ended in the water.

This scene was an important moment in the career of Rafael, because for the first time in his life, he had the chance to play a theatrical role. Never before had a Paris show cast a black man as Othello. The journalists were laudatory and since they wore the "spectacles" Donval gave them, they insisted on the performance of the new duo. "The fantasy of the clown Foottit and of Chocolat gives free rein.

The burlesque interpretation of Othello that Rafael gave greatly pleased the director of the theater l'Ambigu, a certain Grisier, who was preparing philanthropic show to finance a croup vaccination campaign, founded by Dr Roux to incite mothers to vaccinate their children. This theater, located on Blvd du Temple, was one of the oldest of Paris. It was founded in 1769. Grisier, who had not forgotten the famous parody that Foottit gave of Sarah Bernhardt three years earlier, thought that the two clown would bring a touch of gaiety to this fundraiser, scheduled for Dec 21. All the big establishments of the capital were represented: the Opera, the Comedie-Francaise, Odeon, la Renaissance, le Vaudeville, the Gymnase, les Variétes; and some café-concerts. Sarah Bernhardt, Réjane, Coquelin cadet and the singer Polin would be there. Rafael and Foottit were the only circus artists.

The success of the William Tell sketch, the good press reviews and the presence of two artists

Since the interest of the public for the technical prowess off the arena transforming in a pool started to wane, it was necessary for the technicians to invent new tricks to exploit the nautical character of the Nouveau Cirque. In "The Yacht of Mr Durand", presented on October 1894, one could see a boat sinking. For the following pantomime, Donval imagined the derailling of a train in the pool. America was annoucned as an exotic buffoonery in which we sing, dance we

The action of this pantomime took place in Texas, during the opening of a new railroad. It reconnected with the tradition started by Henri Agoust and the Hanlon-Lees, ... In La Noce de Chocolat, Agoust could not integrate big gags like in Le Voyage en Suisse, because for aquatic acts they were unfeasible. Seven years later, the technique had sufficiently progressed to offer the audience of Nouveau Cirque the scene of a real locomotive derailing in to water.

The Nouveau Cirque managed to renew its shows every two or three months because they were simple. La Noce de Chocolat provided a rich exprience in world of gestures, of rhythm and courses, experience which were put to use in "America". Donval inserted also in this pantomime the gag of the head cut of then glued back, already used in the Ball of Siam. Rafael executed mintsrel dances perfect in previous shows. Since the action of "America" happened in a station, Donval had the idea to use the entrée of Tony Grice where Chocolat played the third class passenger. In one of these scenes, the stationmaster (played by Foottit) proposed to Tom, to barteneder (Rafael), to repace his employee to punch the passengers' tickets. Since Tom had trouble understanding what this was about, the station master pretended to be a voyager to explain to the barman how to do it. Tom played along by slapping the stationmaster. Fed up, he decides to check the tickets himself. It is at this moment that the nubmer created by Tony Grice with the first class travellers, second and third were inserted. Tom reappeared with a third class ticket. Foottit caught him and threw him on the rails. The public understood that this was revenge for the previous blow.

"America", played for the first time at Nouveau Cirque on Jan 8 1895, was well received by critics. Journalists saluted the technical achievements that allowed a real train to fall into water. I was nonetheless intrigued by a document that. It was a drawing published in a little paper, Nib, which I had never heard of before. This drawing showed Foottit trying to give a big kick to the butt to Chocolat, who held his posterior with both hands trying to flee. Nowhere was it said that it was a scen from "America". Nevertheless, since this drawing was published at the end of Jan 1895, it was possible that the artist found his inspiration at the Nouveau Cirque. Foottit was very recognisable with his blonde Tintin tuft; Chocolat was given a monkey-like appearance. In examing the illustration closely, I realized that the artist drew hair on his face to accentuate this face. The drawing had a legend: "Will you fuck off, dirty nigger. You are not Chocolat.  There is but one Chocolat, it's the chocolate POTIN."

I was especially shocked because in no other documents on the clown Chocolat that I studied did I find this insult: "dirty nigger". It was more frequent in that era, though rarer than "dirty Jew". The artist who dared publish such a caricature was Henri de Toulouse-Lautrc. Coming from one of the oldest aristocratic families of France, he was descended from the counts of Toulouse who fought Lous VIII at the start of the Middle Ages. His father was typical of this high life that constituted the privileged public of the Nouveau Cirque. A cavalry officer out of Saint-Cyr, emeritus, he himself showed up several time on the arena of the Molier circus. He frequently brought his son to the circus when he was a kid to show him the prowess of the horsemen. From his youngest age, Henri learned to ride a horse under the eyes of his father who hoped to see him continue the noble family tradition. But at the age of 13, Henri was struck with a bone disease that rapidly deformed his body. His father turned away from him as his disability set in.

The attraction of this painter to the circus was explained by this aristocratic background and tragic childhood. While all the journalists were impressed by the locomotive plunging into the water, TL was completely fascinated by Foottit and Chocolat: these two clowns represented, in his mind, opposite poles of his personality. In one of his self-portraits, he drew himself half Foottit, half-Chocolat. Foottit was his deal. Transposed in the surreal universe of the circus, it was the aristocrat, the master, the prince of clowns; he who was at once a cavalryman without peer, an exceptional acrobat and a great mime, capable of mocking the greats of the world. He identified himself more with Footit for being English because at the moment England was placed at the pinnacle of civilization.

At the same time, TL also identified with Chocolat, who he perceived as the representative of humanity at its lowest, and most primitive. In his eyes, the fact of being black was a sort of defect, comparable to something he suffered. Rafael, old slave of Afro-Cuban origin, was the monster that TL carried in himself because of his illness.

This caricature was representative of the manner in which the painter perceived the world. His portraits of Montmartre society privileged low backgrounds, his caricatures accentuated defects,. As if he wanted to avenge the miseries of his own existence by destroying the dignity of others in his drawings. By drawing Chocolat as a monkey, TL suited the prejudice of the primitive negro.

This is why when he attened the nautical buffoonery, TL kep only the sketch of the stationmaster player by Foottit and Chocolat, while no other commentator metnioned it. In his drawing, the painter, who painter most often by memory, had isolted, from this short sequence, the moment most humiliating for Chocolat: the kick to the bum. Today, when we examine this caricature, we don't know the action that inspired it was supposed to be happening in America, and that the kick by Foottit was a response to a slap from Chocolat.

Even if the comparison between blacks and monkeys shocked nobody at the time, the provocative intention of this drawing was evident. In comparing the text of "America" with the caption of the drawing, I noticed that the expression "dirty nigger" was not in the original manuscript. I am convinced that Foottit did not pronounce those words on the floor the Nouveau Cirque, because that vocabulary had been judged "inconvenient" by the aristocratic audience. Moreover, the caricature showing Chocolat holding his buttocks illustrated atypical scene of the burleseque negors that the select public of the NC did not like.

The drawing of TL was meant to shock his readers. It was published in the first issue of the new paper, Nib, a term which mean "don't give a damn". The goal of its founders was without doubt to renew the spirit of anarchism, like the hydropaths or the dont-give-a-damns who flourished in the Latin Quarter 20 years earlier. Nib was not an independent publication. It was a supplement edited by La Revue blanche, created in 1889 by the brothers Natanson, son of a Polish banker and naturalized Frenchman. Unlike most other avant-garde publications, La Revue blance benefit from a large financial base, which allowed it to attract the best authors by compensating them commensurately. The collaborators of the revue flaunted their willingness to break with the conventions of the bourgeoise society and defended great intellectual demands.

At the moment the drawing of TL was published, the secretary of the writing staff of La Revue blance was Léon Blum. Writers like André Gide, Marcel Proust, Jules Renard, Paul Claudel collaborated with this prestigious journal. It also published poems of Mallarmé and of Apollinaire. It brought its upport to the new trends in painting (Bonnard, Vallotton) and to the avant-garde theater. Alfred Jarry, the author of Ubu roi and Aurelien-Marie Lugné, dit Lugné-Poe,the founder of the theater of l'OEuvre. height of symbolic aesthetics, were equally supported by the Revue blanche. It's contents were interdisciplinary with articles on the political situation and the social question, reviews on shows and books, but also on news, poems, and lithographs. Its circulation quickly surpassed 10,000 copies.

This success incited the founders of the journal to edit a supplement in which each issue was done jointly by an artist and a writer. The first delivery of Nib was entrusted to TL and Tristan Bernarrd. The links between the aristocracy and the avant-garde anarchist that I already noted while investigated Félicien Champsaur, appeared again in full light. La Revue blanche attracted authors who were outsiders, notably young Jewish intellectuals and provincials. Many of them had studied at the lycée Condorcet. That was the case of the founder of La Revue blanche. To launch their project, the Natanson brothers mobilized the lycée's alumni network, like TL who frequented the establishment before engaging in a career as a painter at Montmartre. In 1886, he participated at the salon of incoherent arts. A collaborator of Chat noir and Courrier francais, he immediately acquired a great renowkn, in the world of arts, as a poster designer.

To launch the first issue of Nib, the writer of La Revue blanche proposed to TL to associate with another old student of Condorcet, Paul Bernard, but who signed his writings Tristan Bernard. Son of an architect of Besancon, lawyer, industrialist, cycling aficionado and horse races, he belonged to this Jew elite that loved literature. Collaborator with La Revue blanche since its creation, he was 28 years old in 1894, two years less than TL, and could boast several novels.

[...]

In trying to put myself in the shoes of my hero, a question came to me, that no expert in TL ever asked: what emotion could be felt by he who discovers a work where he recognizes himself in a humiliating posture? A passage from Black boy gave me some answers.

"The White had a silent laugh, jiggled a few coins in his pocket, took one out and threw it on the ground. Shorty lowered himself to pick it up, while the White, clenching his teeth, kicked him in the rear.  Sh

This scene confirmed the idea that individuals who had no other choice but to accept humiliations to survive mange to rationalize them away by swalling their pride. When he came to France, eight years earlier, Rafael was obliged to accept the name "Chocolat", but he fought in his manner to mitigate its negative connotations. He invented a game that was no longer perceived as "simian" by circus critics. He had found, in Kesten, a partner with whom he was an equal. And here the phantasms of an iconoclast painter obliterated his efforts. Certainly, he had to recognize that he was somewhat responsible. When they mocked Gugusse, James Guyon could not feel offended, because there was no connection between the clown and the individual who played the role. Rafael, being at the start a slave without a name, accepted as a patronym a sobriquet that recalled his skin color, and this sobriquet became at the same time his clown name. As the term "chocolate" was used by the Whites to designate all black men, the kick to the butt of the white clown symbolically represented the primitive negro expelled by his master out of civilization.

This clown gesture was thus humiliating both for Rafael and all Negroes in general. At the same time, neither TL nor the other collaborators of La Revue blanche were aware of this because, to them, Chocolat was not a real human. He was a clown on the stage just like in the city because he did not change his name nor remove his makeup.

In examining more closely the works of TL, I discovered a lithograph that contrasted the drawing that appeared in Nib. Titled "Chocolat dancing in a bar" appeared in March 1896 in Le Rire, a new biweekly humor magazine. It showed the clown Chocolat doing a dance move before an attentive audience. [...]

George Foottit and Rafael found themselves often in this bar after their show at the Nouveau Cirque to sing. That was where the painter met them. René Peter, one of the wintesses of these evenings, stated that it was also at Reynolds that Claude Debussy met the two clowns and took a liking to "this delicious tandem". If on believe the art critic Gustave Coquiot, a colleague of TL, he also found the two clowns at the bar Achille, on rue Scribe, close to Jockey Club, close to the Opera.

I suppose that Foottit loved this places because he found compatriots and the atmosphere of his native land. Accustomed to these based, Rafael made connections with people who accepted him. With the help of booze, he did not feel obliged to control his movements for fear of being rebuked for dancing the bamboula, like a savage. On the contrary, his manner of moving, inherited from his childhood in Havana, was certainly well appreciated by this joyful band of eccentrics, breaking with established codes.

The lithograph of Chocolat dancing in a bar showed our hero in a classic dance pose [...]

The movements of Chocolat in this lothographe evokes also the minstrels. Yet, it has nothing to do with the grotesque postrues that the white artists in blackface adopted to imitate the burlesque negroes that were seen in the posters of cafés-concerts. In examinign closely this work, I was convinced that TL wanted to come back to the sources of the minstrel show that the actor Thomas Rice perfected inspired by the slave in the port of New York who danced for the eels. I got the idea to compare this lithograph with an old engraving of Jim Crow, the famous character created by Rice. I was stupefied by the resemblance. The movement of the legs and the flexing of the knew were identical, as well as the motion of the arms,.

TL certainly wanted use to understand that the orginality of Chocolat, as a black dancer, was because he successfully fused elements of his Afro-Cuban slave culture with classic dance he learned with Henri Agoust at Nouve Cirque. But this testimony stayed silent until today because our art historians did not know the history of the circus nor that of the music-hall. The only hommage given to the dancing talents of Rafael, we owe to Vincente Minnelli. In a scene of his film An American in Paris, Gene Kelly takes the pose of Chocolat in a bar

[...]

With these two portraits of our hero, published a year apart, TL gave us two contradictory images of the first black artist of the Frence scene, leaving it to his heirs to interpret. These rapidly gave their verdict. The battered but content Negro, humiliated by the white clown, overtook the image of the dancer.

Chatper 12
We all have a civil status. The day we are born, our existence was declared by our parents. And since, our identity is progressively built from this fixed point. We learned to spell our name in writing. "Surname, name, date and place of birth". How many times have we filled these boxes in administrative forms, without thinking, cursing the bureaucracy. But thanks to these procedures, we possess this precious asset which we call a "proper name". This name, which we inherited, connects us to a linguistic and national communities. It says nothing of our physical appearance, nor character, nor personality. Of course, we know today that one's name can be a cause of discrimination in employment and, in all eras, xenophobic parties railed against immigrants who had "names for sleeping outside". Nevertheless, if we did not have a name, it would be impossible to exist in our society.

I often wondered how Rafael could live for more than 30 years in Paris without a proper name. When he was a slave in Havan, he had a legal identity, by why of the master who owned him. He was inserted in a community subject to the same rules of identification as him; this gave his the sense of identity he needed to exist. When he was in the service of Tony Grice, Rafael was trapped in this master/slave relationship which deprived him of liberty but also guaranteed him a sort of personal status. When he began to fly with own wings, he had to confront the question of his civil identity, because it represented a unique case, or at least extremely rare in France, of a man who legally had never been freed from his status of slave.

I think that Rafael was brutally confronted by this problem in 1893. An Aug 8, French deputies adopted in effect a law that marked a turning point in the history of immigration. The treaties of free exchage signed by Napoleon III in 1860 had suppressed the need for passports for travelers having passed these accords with France. Once they came to power, the republicans took this further by renouncing interior passports and workers' booklets. As a surprising as that could appear to us today, until the middle of the 1880s, foreigner could enter into French territory, stay and even work, without any administrative control, because they were not registered anywhere. France was then shaken by a great economic crisis that changed the deal. More voices demanded protection for French workers. It was then realized that the authorities could not estimate the number of foreigners living in the Hexagon.

Rafael, who benefited from the republican liberalism when he arrived in Paris, was confronted by an unprecedented situation. The law of Aug 8, 1893, on the protection of national labor obliged all the foreigners working in France to declare themselves at to their local mayor. For those who resided in Paris, this registration took place at the police prefecture. It was bad news for our hero, but an opportunity for my research. All the historians know that when the administration took an interest in someone, there was a good chance of finding his traces in the arhcives. At the time of my research, I hoped to still find his trail thanks to the name "Rafael Padilla" which was presented, in all the circus stories, as the reall name of Chocolat. Sadly, my investigations at the prefecture yielded no result. I did some last minute research in the register of the commisariats of all Paris. No luck. There was no other solution that do turn to the scenario method. Starting from the documents which described the massive process of identification of foreigners at the end of th 19th century, I could imagine the way these things happened for our hero.

One day while rehearsing the minstrels scene for "America", Raoul Donval asked him to come into his office. "Tell me, Rafael, you were born in Havan, if I recall?. Rafael nodded.  "You are of what nationality?" Rafael did not reply because he did not understand the question.  He was often told of "his race", but he thought the word "nationality" was reserved for Europeans.   Donval insisted.  "I must fill a form indicating the nationalities of my employees. They don't know what else to invent to complicate our lives, these bureaucrats. It look like the deputies just adopted a law forcing foreigners working in France to register at the mayor's office. You must declare your resdiency and they will give you paper that you must keep with care."

Rafael came across more and more demonstrators who cried "France for the French" by demanding a tax on foreign workers. Until now, he was not conerned by this kind of threat. The circus was a cosmopolitan world that lived at its own rhythm, with its own rules. He knew well that many French saw him as a strange being, but he did not consider himself a foreigner in the legal sense of the term.

[...]

It was at this moment that our hero discovered the Moulin Rouge. Édouard de Perrordil, the author of Monsieur Clown!, was very representative of the new generation of aristocrats marginalized from power and business, but still had a big influence on society. Coming from a very old noble family in Tarn-et-Garonne, Édouard had begun by trying his life at politics. He was an unluckly candidate of the conservative party of the 10th arrondissement of Paris, he bifurcated thereafter into literature by pulbishing a collection of poems, then a work on clowns. In the interim, he became a journalist, editor of Petit Journal, which was still the most read daily newspaper in France. Perrodil was also a part of the small community of sportsmen who regularly frequented the Nouveau Cirque. All the same, his speciality was neither riding nor fencing nor gymnastics. It was the velociped. The bicycle was starting to acquire its modern form, nobably thanks to the use of tires. The craze for this new form of transportation gave rise to many local clubs and the birth of a national federation. The word "sport", reserved until then to aristocratic leisures, took on a larger meaning, as well as the word "club". Perrodil had finally discovered the terrain in which he could distinguish himself. In Aug 1892, he went from Paris to Marseille in 67 hours. He also beat the record of Paris-Vienna, then Paris-Milan. Perrodil also made sparks at organized competitions at the velodrome Buffalo, that just opened, porte Maillot. These exploits got him named the official chronometer for the Union of Bicycles of France.

As Perrodil was also president of the Cycle Club of Tuileries, Raoul Donval, always wanting to expand his public, invited its adherents to a show at the Nouveau Cirque in Oct 1894. Several months later, when the club organized its little annual party, Perrodil asked Chocolat to entertain at the raffle. All the artists who participated at this party were reward by the club's insignia. Rafael was happy. It was his first medal.

Among the invited that our hero met that evening were several actor members of the cycle club "Increvables". To support their relief fund of the Association of dramatic artists, they planned a big show at the Moulin Rouge, entertained celebrities of the scene. Joseph Oller organized several each year, privileging historical subject: "Venice in the 17th century, etc. The redoute of the Increvables would be about bicycles.  As per custom, before the opening of the ball, they presented a show that would be hosted by artists of theaters, of the opera and cafés-concerts.  Foottit and Chocolat, asked by the intermediairies, were once again the only representatives of the circus world.

The success was such that only one part of the public could assist at the show given one the scen of the little theater of the place Blanche. Never had the Moulin Rouge seen such a concentration of gentlemen in short tights and beautiful women dressed as cyclists. Without anything, the fashion of the bicycle made it little contribution to the emancipation of women by encouraging them to give up the traditional corset.

After the show and the distribution of prizes for best costumes, there was the raffle. Then the ball began which lasted until 6 in the morning. Waltzes, polkas, mazurkas, followed a rhythm. Foottit and Chocolat were mobilized for the whole evening. Their gags were particularly appreciated and the press congratulated them for. The responsibles of the powerful Association of dramatic artists were charmed. The revenues surpassed 30,000 francs for a benefit of 9,000 francs.

This show of the Moulin Rouge was an important moment for George Foottit and Rafael because it convinced them that they can star successfully on all the scenes of Paris if they stayed together. Their duo was suddenly placed at the hear of the transformations that affected French society. The democritization of leisure gave birth ot new forms of sociability. Cyclism was an illustration in the domain of sport, but it was also true in the social realm. The constant increase in the number of salarymen gave rise to mutual assistance societies, who needed to organize festive encounters to fill their coffers.

The imperial movement that pushed many profession to structure themselves had also won the press. The association of journalists was one of the most powerful organizations, very courted by republican power; a big number of parliamentaries and ministers were themselves ex-journalists, which eased relations. The annual banquet was the most important moment in the assoc's calender. In 1895, it took place on Mar 13, in the immense hall of honor of the Grand Hotel (now the Intercontinental). Less than a week after their triumph at Moulin-Rouge, Foottit and Chocolat were again invited to animated the evening.

It is doubtful that our hero was nervous when he made his entrance on the scene just before the official tables. [list of VIPs]

The papers dedicated numerous articles to this event. I thus learned that the dinner was livened up by a gypsy orchestra and that the guests were given a show by Foottit and Chocolat. Raymond Poincaré, minister of public instruction, of Fine Arts and Cults, and Georges Leygues, minister of the interior, could not participate at the banquet. But they found their colleagues

On April 22 1895, after having met the celebrities of theater, the tenors of the press, the ministers of the Republic, and a multitude of presidents of all orders, Rafael got to know the elites of French science. During the first months of this same year, the press published numerous articles on the prepartion of the 100 year anniversary of the Ecole normale superieure. I learned that Foottit and Chocolat participated at the memorable event, even if it was never mentioned in the history books.

Several months before, the secretary general of the school normal superior without doubt came to present the program of the anniversary to the director of the Nouveau Cirque in the presence of Foottit and Rafael.

[...]

The two colleagues were surely not happy with being reduced to "nannies". But Raoul Donval absolutely wanted to participate at this commemoration. Since a number of years, he had multiplied the the efforts to get closer to the Frnech intelligentsia. Thanks to the carnival, he had established good relations with the students of the Latin Quarter. He was trying to prepare a special pantomime "The Queen of Bercy", to which they had to interpret un "à propos" titled: "the queen of queens". Donval was also preparing to open the cabaret of Chien noir on the first floor of Nouveau Cirque, and he planned to organize conferences on serious subjects every Tuesday and Friday afternoon. It was not the moment to turn one's back on the Ecole normal superieure. The two clowns were thus forced to comply with their director and found themselves in rue d'Ulm entertaining the brats of French science.

Since I knew a little history of this place, I could imagine the astonishment of Rafael when he found out, on April 22 1895. I suppose he arrived well before [...]

Rafael had trouble understanding why the scientists looked so disillusioned and even seemed to resent him. They had worked hard all their youth to become scientists and were promised bright futures but wound up as mere schoolteachers because the competition for research posts was too intense. Meanwhile, Rafael was born a mere slave and promised nothing yet he was now one of France's biggest stars. It felt unfair.

After much research, I had found the proof that Chocolat showed up at the Moulin Rouge in 1895. Was it then that he met la Goulule? But the dates didn't match. She quit the Moulin Rouge well before that party. To escape Oller, she broke her contract, and he sued her for 10,000 francs, despite her services. She decided then to open a booth at the fair of Neuilly, in front of the menagerie of the tamer Pezon. In June 1894, to attract the public, she entered the lion cage to dance her biggest moves. Big success. I was convinced that the love affair between Rafael and la Goulue was a myth.

Journalists didn't seem interested in covering Rafael's private life, so I learned nothing.

It's the work of Tristan Rémy on clowns that I learned of Marie Hecquet, nicknamed "Mrs Chocolat." I discovered a few tidbits on this woman in the civil registers onluine. She married a customs agent, Giovanni Grimaldi, who gave her two kids. The family lived in rue de Paris.

I got a letter from one of Marie Grimaldi's descendants, who heard stories that she ran off with Chocolat.

I had hoped that publishing my knowledge of Chocolat would encourage people to come forward with info.

Marie Hecquet was born in Dieppe on June 13 1870, and married there in 1888. She divorced on May 9 1895, and the officials said it was her fault.

Giovanni Grimaldi lived a 17 Blvd de la Chapelle, and Marie lived at 338 rue Saint-Honoré - Rafael's place.

A wife who cheated on her husband risked three months to two years in prison. Her illicit lover could also be fined or imprisoned. In practice, no judge at the time would have imprisoned people for adultery, but they could have been punished somehow nonetheless, but I found no document that showed this. The law stipulated that the children would normally go to the spouse who filed for divorce unless the tribunal judged otherwise, whihc was apparently the case because Rafael and Marie raised Eugène and Suzanne.

French law was not as racist as America's. Still, adultery seemed to be punished more harshly when a white wife cheated with a black man. Such mixed unions were still very rare in the Hexagon at the time, but I still found an anecdote in Le Matin. A married woman left the home of her husband to life in a small flat with the old black servant. The husband complained, the was caught red-handed by the police. Even though the wife proved that her husband had numerous mistresses, the court sentenced her to eight days in prison. Astonished by the verdict, Le Matin (not particularly interested in defending human rights), wondered if it was a racist thing.

In the message she sent me, the descendat, said that Marie "left everything for Chocolat"; indicating a family break-up. The follow-up of our correspondance allowed me to assemble info on the society which Marie came from. In the Hecquet family, they were customs agents from father to son. The grandfather of Marie exercised this function at Ponthoile, Somme, where his father was born.

Marie was thus from the lower middle class trying to leave the peasant world through the growing number of functionary jobs in France. She was fairly well-educated for a woman of her day.

Marie's father die July 23 1895. 18 months later, she married Giovanni Grimaldi, a customs agent in Dieppe. She was under 17, he was 32. Probably at the insistence of her father. The witnesses were all customs agents. Giovanni was then promoted. The couple left Dieppe for Paris. The first kid, Eugène was born Feb 1891. Three years later, Marie gave birth to Suzanne Grimaldi.

Young girls in those days wanted a life other than what their mothers and grandmothers had. Marie had certainly heard of Theresa, the first French pop star, daughter of a tailor who moved to Paris. Maybe she dreamed of being a star? Still, she was smart enough to avoid the job agents who duped such girls into prostitution jobs.

The world of Marie Hecquet proved that she was a reasonable woman. The fact that she left her home to live with Rafael and the shame of the divorce indicated real strong love. In 1895, Rafael was about 27 and she was 25. Rafael was already famous. He must have fascinated her.

It is possible that her attraction for Rafael was also exoticism.

Rafael probable had trysts before, but with Marie he could have a family.

After Marie's divorce, Rafael left his little flat for another one at 402 rue saint honoré,. Chocolat's fmaily lived there for 10 years or so. It has since been demolished.

Chapter 13
I came so a surprising conclusion. Donval worked hard to promote Foottit and Chocolat as a duo. Still, at their starts, the two clowns refused to be regularly associated. They accepted only occasional acts for fundraisers and official parties. The duo thus found their first triumphs in theaters, music-halls, and hotel halls where big politicians and journalists were.

How does one xplain the sudden craze of the elite for this duo? Was it TL's caricature? Was the painter already that influential? Did the other collaborators at La Revue blanche share his fascination? I found a review of "Pierrot soldat" from a weeks after TL's drawing. The author, Romain Coolus, praised Foottit's performance but deplored the plot.

Coolus was the pen-name of René Max Weill. 22 years, college-educated, too good for their genius.

Coolus renounced science and went into literature. his first play was staged in 1893, when he was 25. Very active in La Revue blanche, he appeared

Flattered that TL joined their team., Coolus and his friends learned of NC thanks to him. These learned men did not know anything about circuses, beyond what they read in their books. They knew that previous writers like Gautier didn't think much of it. They wanted to break with this tradition.

At the end of Jan 1895, Coolus published in Le Rire the text of a pantomime: "Theory of Foottit on abduction, supposed to renew the genre. Looking at Foottit's taste for cross-dressing on stage, Coolus imagined that he kidnapped a young girl with the aid of Chocolat, disguised as a cop.  Chocolat was presented as Foottit's brother, "victim of an illegitimate union with a northern woman and a coal miner".  "When Cocolat laughs like a fool, they punch him on the nose and he quickly understands what he must do."

The academic successes of René Max Weill made him pretentious to the point of thinking that he could do better than the cirucs pros with his pantomime "of elevated art". His script was saddening, because it was loaded with racist stereotypes, comparing Chocolat to amonkey and saying black skin is a defect.

TL agreed to illustrate this text. One of them was a close-up of Chocolat's face with a monkey head, similar to the Nib drawing. Another showed Foottit and Chocolat disguised as cowboys having a pistol duel. Foottit was recognizable thanks to his tuft of hair and Chocolat in the background was just a black spot with a hat.

Yet, from July 1895 onwards, F&C were shown daily at the hippodrome of Champ-de-Mars, in lieu of Kesten and Mazzoli. In Oct same year, when NC reopened its doors for the big opening show, the two clowns appeared in several clown entrées. Foottit even accepted to play his famous horsewoman parody with Chocolat. From this date one, for six years, these two artists were constantly on NC posters.

Rafael new this was a big change and an immense challenge. He had to admit Donval was right. Without Foottit, he would never have known this incredible adventure over several months in playing before ministers, deputies, theater celebrities, and elite scientists. He had to realize that the English clown was an indispensible ally if we he wanted to be known and recognized outside the Nouveau Cirque. Nevertheless, working in duo with a such a rising star meant he had to launch a new struggle for equality. I imagine that after moving in ewith Marie and her two kids in their house on rue Saint-Honoré, our hero left his reservations at the door. Before joining earnestly with Foottit, he had to consult them again. Since there were no bad omens, he was convinced he could affront this new challenge.

Even if they marked collective memory, the work of TL and the the authors of La Revue blanche taught me nothing on the real contents of the shows of F&C. I had to study their repertoire, but I again rain into the problem that the circus is a visual art, done with movements that leaves few traces. I had found the pantomime scenarios because the circus had to submit them to the censorship bureau, but the clown acts escaped their control.

Happily, an anonymous hand went throught the trouble of transcribing the most famous numbers of F&C; this dactylograph is today conserved in the archives of Arts of Show at the National Library. I could complement this precious source with the reviews published in the press. Also some scenes filmed by the Lumiere brothers at the NC.

At the start, Foottit and Rafael were not talking clowns, unlike Grice, Hayden, Medrano, and Pierantoni. They got their fame as mimes and as dancers. To inaugurate their duo,

[...]

Many singers not under contract with Chien noir appeared their every now and then. This is ho Alphonse Allais met Foottit. Upon contact with these singers, Foottit wrote sketches himself

The role that made them really famous was "Chocolat c'est moi"

[...]

Foottit knew that his partner was important in the development of their numbers. Nevertheless he tried to minimize Rafael because he could not look past the fact that Rafael was a negro and not from a circus family.

Some accounts highlighted the importance Foottit placed on makeup. It is without doubt one of the principal ways he used to remind Rafael that only he was a real clown. Makeup was a a symbolic passage from character to character. Foottit sat before his mirror and began to take, from a pot, a bit of white facepaint which he put on his face.

He also reminded Rafael of his fame.

A fundraiser for Foottit to cover his his fine was scheduled for April 18, 1896. In an interview with Le Temps on April 14, he said Rafael was nothing more than a stuntman.

Chapter 14
[...]

A few days before, Joseph Oller installed the Cinematograph Lumiere on the first of floor of the Olympia, near the museum Greven. All those who saw William Tell projected by the Photo-Scenograph were convinced that Reynaud would win the arm wrestling contest with the Lumiere Bros. his career at the Greven museum was relaunched. The management gave him a new project and the scenes of the Photo-Scenograph were presented without stop from Aug 1896 to March 1900. More than 500,000 spectators saw William Tell performed by Chocolat and Foottit.

In the daily life Rafael fought to present the Paris public a good image, this collaboration with Reynaud was an important step. He hoped this project would help him escape the Nouveau Cirque. Contrary to his expectations, his participation in the Moulin Rouge party of 1895 was not the start of a music-hall career because Donval forbade his artists to perform in other establishments run by Oller. TL did nothing to introduce them to the artists of the Butte. He isolated himself more and more in his fiefdom in Montmartre.

Rafael also hoped that the connections he made with the students of the Latin Quarter during the Carnival of Paris would liead to a real collaboration. Dissention between the organizers incited Donval to withdraw from the festivities. At the same time, Rafael and Foottit learned that they would no longer be programmed at the hippodrome of Champ-de-Mars because the 1895 summer experience was inconclusive.

With Saltamontès having quit the NC for health reasons, Pierantoni managed to convince Donval to hire Charles Barbier, nicknamed Bob, a talking clown who was alse a horseman. In August 1896, Rafael learned that NC also hired Antonio, who now called himself Tonito Grice and passed himself off as the son of Tony Grice. Even though they hadn't seen each other for eight years, Rafael understood that Antonio hadn't known that he was eviscerated by La Noce de Chocolat. He dreamed of his revenge.

Foottit meanwhile did not want his name to be systematically linked to Chocolat. He refused to perform in duo with other partners, because he wished to continue playing solo in NC. Donval experimeted with several options. But none of them were satisfying, because the ego clashes between these artists prevented the synergy that was the strength of Foottit and Chocolat.

Without a doubt the failure of the competition was reassuring to Rafael, even if he realized that he depended ever more on his partner, while the reverse was not true. What would happen to him if Foottit left? Foottit had unpredictable mood swings. He had lots of connections in showbiz which would allow his to work in numerous circuses. His sister, Elana Betty, what a renowned horsewoman, who triumphed at the Fernando circus with Gougou Loyal.

At the start of summer 1896, Foottit accompanied Donval to London to tour the music halls. Rafael worried that his partner would find another negro to replace him or fall in love with a new horsewoman. The rumor was Foottit would soon go into theater. Rafael saw him on multiple occasions at the Achilles bar in conversation with a hirsuite man who drank his wine like it was milk. He was Alfred Jarry, and was preparing a crazy play called King Ubu. In a letter, which was recently found, Jarry wrote to a friend: I also considered Foottit for the role of Bordure because the scene was in Poland, so he needs and English accent. Rafael also learned at that moment that Foottit was just hired to play at the mondain Theater, in a spectacle called La R'vue j'm'en Foottit that was programmed for the whole month of May 1897.

Rafael was thus forced to be docile with his partner. He didn't suffer much because this position allowed him to progress in his art. Even if their age difference was not big (4 or 5 years), I am convinced Rafael thought Foottit the father he never had. This collabortaion gave him the feeling of the apprenticeship with Henri Agoust.

Rafael led his mentor lead him around, both on and off the stage. It's thatnks to Foottit that Rafael discovered the night life, the wet evenings with TL, Debussy... Foottit introduced him also to the races, dominated then by the jockeys, the English lads. Blessed with a gamer's spirit, Rafael felt immediately at ease here.

In good moments, Foottit was very expansive. Numerous witnesses said that he loved doing his number in public to maintain his legend. Late

Foottit liked to talk about how he performed since the age of 5.

Foottit was also very insecure. He thought being paired with a black was denigrating, though he acknolwedge Rafael had a better flair for comedy.

[...]

The theme of this short sketch was taken from a fmaous piece by Dorvigny at the end of the 18th century: the beaten pay the fine. Janot, a naive peasant immigrant, files an assault complaint.

The same register was exploited in "Je vais vous gifler". Foottit approached his partner menacingly: "I warn you, Mr Chocolat, if you stole something from me, I will be forced to slap you." [...]

[...]

The decline of horse shows obliged many horsemen to reinvent themselves. Arsène-Désiré Loyal, brother of Leopold, became the first ringmaster of the NC.

The growing notoriety of the duo brought them new outside offers, which had been in a lull after the pic of spring 1895. On Nov 30 1896, Foottit and Chocolat performed for a meeting of the Societe de secours mutuel de l'association tonkinoise, gathering soldiers and colonial functionaries, in the fest hall of the Continental, presided by the deputy of Vendee Gaston Guillement, quastor of the Chamer. They all applauded their clowning. The following moths, they were invicted to perform before the Christmas tree by the management of the newspaper Mode Pratique for the kids and staff. The biweekly was liked by middle class women, who we started to call "housewives", who occupied themselves with the children and the home. Every number contained articles on home economics, kitchen recipes,

On March 21 1897, the two clowns were also invited to the annual banquest of the Association of Paris Journalists, presided by Alfred Mezieres. In total, 1,200 people, the cream of republican France, were gathered.

During the whole meal, the invitees were charmed by the military music of the 24th line and a bunch of other performances. F&C entertained the guests during the intermissions, while the next big number was prepared.

Rafael illiteracy was a big handicap, forcing him to depend on others to read his contracts, press articles, and other info. But thanks to Marie, he became more autonomous. She managed their finances, wrote their letters and read him the newspaper.

Even though he was completely cut off from his roots since having left Havana, Rafael had to know that slavery had been banned in Cuba. Listening to Marie, he could have followed the independence war, wondering if the Americans would intervene to occupy his island of birth. I imagine that these indirect. Ironically, he left for Europe to become a free man ad now all Cubans except him had a civil status.

I frequently noted in the writings of immigrants that these men, who lived alone for many years in strange lands, appreciated finding the family coccoon.

[...]

The growing fame of Foottit and Chocolat did not prevent the decline of the Nouveau Cirque. The revenues had neared a million in 1893, but fell to 760,000 in 1894, and fell faster still. The take fo 1896 was its worst ever: 630,000. The Olympia suprassed the Nouveau Cirque.

All Paris circuses were suffering. But NC declined for internal reasons too. Donval seemed to have lost his enthusiasm. He left Theresa to marry his young mistress. He was often absent and looked tired.

In June 1897, Medrano asked Rafael to redo the parody of elephant. Rafael was surprised because since five years Medrano almost never was a clown, preoccupied with being a manager. If was to be a farewell performance. He had bought the Fernando circus.

NC made a special opening on July 14 1897. Donval annoucned the new director: Hippolyte Houcke.

Chapter 15
Chocolat channeled the nature of the child while Foottit was the stern and violent father.

Donval died on Mar 10 1898. His replacement, Houcke, changed a lot of things at NC. He came froma circus family, Léonard, who spread across Europe. Hippolyte was a cavalryman. This was a reversal of Donval's attempts to bring the NC closer to the cafés-concerts and music halls. The NC wanted to return to its roots: horses, acrobats, and clowns.

Houcke's first decision was to close the Chien noir. It didn't find a public because it was too exclusive. Houcke also abandoned the hippodrome of Champ-de-Mars to concentrate on NC. The departure of Medrano accelerated these chagnes. Medrano also took within Pierantoni, Kesten, and Mazzoli, who had been marginalized by the success of Foottit and Chocolat. Houcke did not bother looking for replacements, since he had the greatest duo of Paris. To avoid quarrels that marked Donval's rule, better to to focus on a stable core.

Donval never looked beyond England and the London music-halls. houcke knew America well. This influence was felt on the importance he placed on publicity. Houcke chose a communications professional to develop his press relations. He was Pierre Lafitte. Born in Bordeaux in 1872, this cycle enthusiast moved to Paris in 1892. After

The "American turn" of the NC was was shown in the first aquatic pantomime made under Houcke's direction, in the opening of Oct 1897. Called "In Texas", it was about cowboys and Indians, straight out of the novels of Fenimore Cooper. They saw lasso acts, horse taming, and native dances. The second part was an aquatic pantomie set in the Far West. The cowboys were after Indians who kidnapped the rancho girl. In the final scnee, the cowboys plunge into the pool

The next year, Houcke tapped this formula against, but now set in a French forest.

Houcke restored the prominence of the horse-riders.

The cream of the aristocracy never accepted that a commoner like Raoul Donval was placed in charge of NC. His ovetures on the café-concert didn't help things. The return of the horseman brought the sportsmen back. To seduce this elite client, Houcke did more symbolic gestures, like orchestral flourishes. The NC flourished again.

Houcke introduced another innovation in the pantomimes of NC

In 1897, the NC's earnings surpassed Olympia once again. The next year the improvements were even more spectuacular. While the other cirucses and music-halls stagnated, NC boomed, and Houcke's contract was prolonged to 1902.

The departure of Pierantoni and the breaking of ties with the café-concert community gave F&C more room to develop their clown style by working on their dialog. Their popularity grew and grew.

The departure of Pierantoni and the breaking of ties with teh café-concert community gave F&C more room to develop their clown style by working on their dialog. Their popularity grew and grew.

On Oct 24 1897 they performed for a big charity party at the Orphelinat des Arts.

They made such a good impression that the Orphelinat asked them to perform at the big festival on Dec 6 to 8 1897, in the salons of Figaro. F&C met Marguerite Duval and Georges Berr.

The pair had learned to adapt their performances to any kind of venue other than the circus

At the end of Dec 1897, Mrs Gould invited F&C to perform at the white ball on Jan 7 in her private salons of Ave Kléber. Foottit and Chocolat were treated like domestic servants: it was the butler, not the lady of the house, who received them. Foottit found this humiliating, but Rafael was accustomed to it and enjoyed Foottit's pain.

F&C were the only artists who could perform on any venue.

Chapter 16
Eugene (Marie's son) went to a school at 28 rue Cambon. Records indicate that Eugene was considered Rafael's son.

Eugene enrolled on Oct 31 1900 and left on March 3 1902. The director commented that he was behind.

Foottit sent his kids to a private school.

Miscegenation was not illegal but stigmatized.

[...]

Rafael forbade his family from using the main staircase of their house. They had to use the service staircase.

This story might have been made up to make Rafael look mean, but then again lots of men in those days behaved like that.

Rafael was rarely at home, consumed by his career. He couldn't relate to aristocrats but nonetheless did his best to stay on good terms because they were his core audience.

Rafael liked to gamble on horse races.

From 1898 to 1900 they added social satires in their acts. Labor movements were a big topic.

New technologies such as the cinema were also having an impact.

By combining satires of society and modernity, the duo created a unique and new act.

[...]

Foottit and Chocolat once did a sketch that mocked militarism, which at the time was a brave thing to do.

As in William Tell, the sketch was about the weak mocking the powerful.

They also did sketches where the powerful are shown as cheats, eg Foottit and Chocolat have a boxing match. Foottit throws a sucker punch, then ends the match before Chocolat can retaliate.

Foottit always played the powerful character, but he was always tragic in a way.

F&C turned the arena into a tribunal against society.

The heirs of F&C abandoned the social satire, which was taken up by the theatres.

Not all of their acts were satirical, and they improvised a lot, like jazz musicians.

Their other favorite area was burlesque humor.

F&C also did product endorsements.