Going Out

The Rise and Fall of Public Amusements

David Nasaw

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Year: 1999
• Print ISBN:
  9780674356221
• eBook ISBN:
  9780674417595
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

David Nasaw has written a sparkling social history of twentieth-century show business and of the new American public that assembled in the city's pleasure palaces, parks, theaters, nickelodeons, world's fair midways, and dance halls.

The new amusement centers welcomed women, men, and children, native-born and immigrant, rich, poor and middling. Only African Americans were excluded or segregated in the audience, though they were overrepresented in parodic form on stage. This stigmatization of the African American, Nasaw argues, was the glue that cemented an otherwise disparate audience, muting social distinctions among "whites," and creating a common national culture.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1 Introduction
• Chapter 2 Dollar Theaters, Concert Saloons, and Dime Museums
• Chapter 3 “Something for Everybody” at the Vaudeville Theater
• Chapter 4 “The Best Smelling Crowd in the World”
• Chapter 5 The “Indecent” Others
• Chapter 6 The City as Playground: The World’s Fair Midways
• Chapter 7 “The Summer Show”
• Chapter 8 The National Game
• Chapter 9 “Laughter and Liberty Galore”: Early Twentieth-Century Dance Halls, Ballrooms, and Cabarets
• Chapter 10 Talking and Singing Machines, Parlors, and Peep Shows
• Chapter 11 “The Surest Immediate Money-Maker Ever Known”
• Chapter 12 The First Picture Shows
• Chapter 13 “The Pernicious ‘Moving Picture’ Abomination”
• Chapter 14 Combination Shows, Stars, and Features
• Chapter 15 Waving the Flag
• Chapter 16 Palaces for the People
• Chapter 17 Decline and Fall
• List of Abbreviations
• Notes
• Index