Chocolat_(clown)

Chocolat was the stage name of Rafael Padilla (ca. 1865/68 – 4 November 1917), a clown who performed in a Paris circus around the 1900s. Rafael was an 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.