Vaudeville and the Making of Modern Entertainment, 1890–1925

David Monod

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9781469660554
  9781469660547
• eBook ISBN:
  9781469660561
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

Today, vaudeville is imagined as a parade of slapstick comedians, blackface shouters, coyly revealed knees, and second-rate acrobats. But vaudeville was also America’s most popular commercial amusement from the mid-1890s to the First World War; at its peak, 5 million Americans attended vaudeville shows every week. Telling the story of this pioneering art form’s rise and decline, David Monod looks through the apparent carnival of vaudeville performance and asks: what made the theater so popular and transformative? Although he acknowledges its quirkiness, Monod makes the case that vaudeville became so popular because it offered audiences a guide to a modern urban lifestyle.

Vaudeville acts celebrated sharp city styles and denigrated old-fashioned habits, showcased new music and dance moves, and promulgated a deeply influential vernacular modernism. The variety show’s off-the-rack trendiness perfectly suited an era when goods and services were becoming more affordable and the mass market promised to democratize style, offering a clear vision of how the quintessential twentieth-century citizen should look, talk, move, feel, and act.

INDEX

Page numbers in italics refer to illustrations.

acrobat, 12, 13, 25, 31, 52, 53, 70, 73, 76, 133, 146, 152, 204, 208

Adgie (Castillo), 178

advertising, 4, 39–43, 49, 64, 91, 141, 142, 176, 179–80, 185, 199, 224; banned from acts, 23

Albee, Edward Franklin, 21, 25; biography, 163–63, 194–95; business, 30, 97, 110, 168, 170–71, 172–74, 180, 183–84, 190, 199, 212; opinions, 23, 188, 196, 202, 217. See also Keith, Benjamin Franklin

Alexander the Great, 111

Anderson and Goines, 178

animal trainers, 2, 12, 53, 76, 92, 105, 125, 224

Antheil, George, 86

Aronson, Rudolph, 27–28

audience: actuality and, 52, 124–26, 143–144; African American, 37–38, 96–97, 99–100, 177, 193; attention and engagement, 13, 63, 66, 93–95, 100, 103–4, 107, 110–11, 113–16, 131–32, 205, 207, 224–25; behavior, 21, 32, 94, 96–98, 109–10; class, 6, 25–26, 28–29, 35–37, 39, 99–100, 150, 154, 163, 194, 216, 154, 156; ethnicity, 35–37, 83, 96, 150; female, 13, 25, 27, 30, 48–49, 54, 70, 98–100, 121, 133, 136; matinee girls, 33–34, 98; music hall, 25–29, 31, 39, 55, 59, 94, 96, 99, 130, 164; relationship with stars, 39, 41–42, 49, 54, 70, 107, 110–11, 114, roof garden, 27–29, 31, 53, 155, 156, 164, 214; tyranny of, 61, 63...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Figures
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• One. The Vogue for Vaudeville: Urbanity, Comfort, and Celebrity
• Two. Ragging Style: Presenting the Modern American
• Three. Grabbing Attention: Making Good with the Distracted Audience
• Four. Vaudeville Modernism
• Five. The Business of Mass Entertainment
• Six. The Hook: Vaudeville Makes Its Exit
• Notes
• Index