Many of the 20th century top stars came from vaudeville, Bob Hope, Cary Grant, James Cagney, George Burns, Gracie Allen, W. C. Fields, Jack Benny, Milton Berle, Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Buddy Ebsen, Bert Lahr, Morey Amsterdam and many more began their careers performing in vaudeville.
Who are some famous people that did vaudeville?
Other performers who entered in vaudeville's later years, including Jack Benny, Abbott and Costello, Kate Smith, Cary Grant, Bob Hope, Milton Berle, Judy Garland, Rose Marie, Sammy Davis, Jr., Red Skelton, and The Three Stooges, used vaudeville only as a launching pad for later careers.
What is another name for a vaudeville performer?
A vaudeville performer is often referred to as a "vaudevillian". Vaudeville developed from many sources, also including the concert saloon, minstrelsy, freak shows, dime museums, and literary American burlesque.
What happened to old vaudeville performers?
As the genre declined, most performers left the theatre. The child tap dancer Ray Wollbrinck, once called "the cleverest buckdancer on the vaudeville stage", later became a bandleader and ended his days as a bank teller.
What is a vaudeville theater?
Vaudeville was more than an assembly of ragtime pantaloons, topical monologists, eccentric dancers, barrel house songbirds, ventriloquists, tumblers and jugglers, and more than a coast-to-coast network of once-gilded theaters now shambling into plaster dust.
Who is a famous vaudeville?
Eddie Cantor (New York, January 11, 1892 - Beverly Hills, California October 10, 1964) was one of the most popular, enduring entertainers of the 20th century who was famous for vaudeville, Broadway, records, movies and television.
What are vaudeville performances?
vaudeville, a farce with music. In the United States the term connotes a light entertainment popular from the mid-1890s until the early 1930s that consisted of 10 to 15 individual unrelated acts, featuring magicians, acrobats, comedians, trained animals, jugglers, singers, and dancers.
Where was vaudeville performed?
This form of stage entertainment was based on popular acts that could be seen in British music halls and bar rooms during the nineteenth century. Vaudeville had made its way to the United States in the 1870s, when acts were performed in theaters in New York, Chicago, and other cities.
Who started vaudeville?
Benjamin Franklin Keith, however, earns the distinction of "the father" of American Vaudeville. Keith began his career in show business working variously as a grifter and barker with traveling circuses in the 1870's, and for dime museums in New York.
What is vaudeville example?
Late-night Shows. Late-night shows are prominent examples of the vaudeville style coming to television. For example, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson was one of the most famous talk shows in the United States.
How did people get into vaudeville?
In 1881 Tony Pastor, a ballad and minstrel singer, created a variety show for families. Other managers recognized that a wider audience meant more money and followed his lead. With an influx of recent immigrants and quickly growing urban populations, vaudeville soon became a central point for American cultural life.
What ended vaudeville?
The standardized film distribution and talking pictures of the 1930s confirmed the end of vaudeville. By 1930, the vast majority of formerly live theatres had been wired for sound, and none of the major studios were producing silent pictures.
Does vaudeville still exist?
But vaudeville itself is gone. It was a magical era when people around the country could see a potpourri of talent that included some of the biggest names in the business.
What really killed vaudeville?
Top screen stars made lucrative personal appearance tours on the big time circuits. So what killed vaudeville? The most truthful answer is that the public's tastes changed and vaudeville's managers (and most of its performers) failed to adjust to those changes.”
What is another word for vaudeville?
In this page you can discover 17 synonyms, antonyms, idiomatic expressions, and related words for vaudeville, like: vaud, variety-show, skit, theater, show, entertainment, cabaret, entr-acte, bawdeville, revue and music-hall.
What was vaudeville and why did it become popular?
Vaudeville was a type of inexpensive variety show that first appeared in the 1870s. Vaudeville performances consisted of comic sketches, song and dance routines, magic arts etc. There was nothing else like it anywhere in the world so it attracted many people. How did movies change during this period?
What is the difference between burlesque and vaudeville?
The word vaudeville originated in France and probably derived from the topical songs of the Vau de Vire, the valley of the Vire River in Normandy. Burlesque began as comic parodies of well-known topics or people.
What is the meaning of vaudevillian?
1 : a light often comic theatrical piece frequently combining pantomime, dialogue, dancing, and song. 2 : stage entertainment consisting of various acts (such as performing animals, comedians, or singers)
Which performances are present in a bodabil?
The typical bodabil shows would feature a mixture of performances of American ballads, torch songs and blues numbers; dance numbers featuring tap dancers and chorus girls and jitterbug showcases; and even the occasional kundiman.
What is the difference between burlesque and vaudeville?
The word vaudeville originated in France and probably derived from the topical songs of the Vau de Vire, the valley of the Vire River in Normandy. Burlesque began as comic parodies of well-known topics or people.
What is another word for vaudeville?
In this page you can discover 17 synonyms, antonyms, idiomatic expressions, and related words for vaudeville, like: vaud, variety-show, skit, theater, show, entertainment, cabaret, entr-acte, bawdeville, revue and music-hall.
What is a vaudeville performer?
A vaudeville performer is often referred to as a "vaudevillian". Vaudeville developed from many sources, also including the concert saloon, minstrelsy, freak shows, dime museums, and literary American burlesque. Called "the heart of American show business", vaudeville was one of the most popular types of entertainment in North America ...
What is the genre of Vaudeville?
Vaudeville. For other uses, see Vaudeville (disambiguation). Vaudeville ( / ˈvɔːd ( ə) vɪl /; French: [vodvil]) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century.
Why did the Vaudeville medium die?
Some in the industry blamed cinema's drain of talent from the vaudeville circuits for the medium's demise. Others argued that vaudeville had allowed its performances to become too familiar to its famously loyal, now seemingly fickle audiences.
What is a typical North American vaudeville performance?
In some ways analogous to music hall from Victorian Britain, a typical North American vaudeville performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill. Types of acts have included popular and classical musicians, singers, dancers, comedians, trained animals, magicians, ventriloquists, strongmen, female and male impersonators, acrobats, clowns, illustrated songs, jugglers, one-act plays or scenes from plays, athletes, lecturing celebrities, minstrels, and movies. A vaudeville performer is often referred to as a "vaudevillian".
Why did the Vaudeville industry decline?
Vaudeville also suffered due to the rise of broadcast radio following the greater availability of inexpensive receiver sets later in the decade. Even the hardiest in the vaudeville industry realized the form was in decline; the perceptive understood the condition to be terminal. The standardized film distribution and talking pictures of the 1930s confirmed the end of vaudeville. By 1930, the vast majority of formerly live theatres had been wired for sound, and none of the major studios were producing silent pictures. For a time, the most luxurious theatres continued to offer live entertainment, but most theatres were forced by the Great Depression to economize.
Why is vaudeville considered an American entertainment?
In addition to vaudeville's prominence as a form of American entertainment, it reflected the newly evolving urban inner-city culture and interaction of its operators and audience. Making up a large portion of immigration to the United States in the mid-19th century, Irish Americans interacted with established Americans, with the Irish becoming subject to discrimination due to their ethnic physical and cultural characteristics. The ethnic stereotypes of Irish through their greenhorn depiction alluded to their newly arrived status as immigrant Americans, with the stereotype portrayed in avenues of entertainment.
Who designed the Gilded Age theatre?
The most striking examples of Gilded Age theatre architecture were commissioned by the big time vaudeville magnates and stood as monuments of their wealth and ambition. Examples of such architecture are the theatres built by impresario Alexander Pantages. Pantages often used architect B. Marcus Priteca (1881–1971), who in turn regularly worked with muralist Anthony Heinsbergen. Priteca devised an exotic, neo-classical style that his employer called "Pantages Greek".
Vaudeville Performers - Description
From the Victorian Era through to the Great Depression, captivating min-routines, sketches, and performances were part of live shows known as Vaudeville. The shows were generally 2-4 hours long and consisted of 10-15 acts in a wide variety of family-oriented entertainment.
Vaudeville Performers - History
Historians cite various beginning and ending years for Vaudeville. Some say Vaudeville began as early as the mid-1850s, ending around the 1950s. However, the general professional consensus is that Vaudeville's golden years were from early 1881 until late 1932.
Vaudeville Performers - Identification & Value
Unlike cinema history, which is well documented and preserved, Vaudeville history items and memorabilia are scarce. However, an avid collector may discover playbills, scripts, and posters. Because many Vaudeville entertainers became film stars, fans can find their autographed photos, magazine clippings, marketing materials, and other memorabilia.
Vaudeville Performers - Autographs
Vaudeville memorabilia is often not distinguished by a maker’s mark. It is generally identified by its relationship to the individual or performance venue. A trustworthy, detailed provenance is often the best method of authentication.
When was vaudeville popular?
Vaudeville was a form of variety entertainment which was very popular in the United States, Canada and England from mid-1800s until the 1950s.
Is vaudeville the same as burlesque?
Vaudeville has often been confused with burlesque, however they are quite different. Burlesque is similar to vaudeville but is a form of adult entertainment performed on stage featuring strippers, risqué comics and novelty acts.
When was the first Vaudeville?
The first known instance in the USA of an entertainment called ‘vaudeville’ occurred when a French troupe arrived in 1819, but the name didn’t achieve consistent currency until 1840 when a Boston actor-producer, Wyseman Marshall, staged a summer season of eleven weeks of short plays, recitations and decorous song and dance at Boylston Hall, renamed the Vaudeville Saloon.
When did the Vaudeville show end?
By 1932 big-time vaudeville was dead except for a handful of big city venues, but small time vaudeville lingered here and there into the early 1950s when a dozen television shows put vaudeville into our parlors. Today, vaudeville acts, old or new, skilled or clumsy, grace or litter the virtual cloud awaiting the touch of fingertips to summon them into personal devices.
What is Vaudeville Museum?
Vaudeville was America’s first big-time show business, a coast to coast enterprise that at its height reached as many as 5000 theatres and employed as many as 50,000 people full- or part-time as entertainers and a nearly equal number in related business and crafts.
When did the vaudeville industry start?
Some early shows presented by Frank Rivers or Tony Pastor were so popular that they toured to other cities, and thus started the thirty-year growth of the vaudeville industry that flowered in the 1880s, crested in the 1910s but began fading during WWI as the public shifted its patronage to phonographs and silent films during the 1920s, then to free network radio and inexpensive talking pictures after the economic collapse of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression of the 1930s.
Who is Frank Cullen?
Frank Cullen, Founder/Director, American Vaudeville Museum. A vaudeville show comprised a series of unrelated variety acts such as comedy, singing, dancing, juggling, acrobatics, illusion, ventriloquism, puppetry performed solo or in groups. Variety had been part of American entertainment in the colonies, offered in place of drama ...
What happened to the variety saloons after the Civil War?
After the Civil War, reform elements joined to purge the variety saloons. Canny owners, tired of paying graft and protection, and seeing profit in potential family audiences, ran off the gamblers, con men and ‘hostesses’, and spruced up their theatres. The name ‘variety’ was tarnished so managers adopted the little claimed name of ‘vaudeville’ (it sounded French, thus must be classy), and presented ‘polite vaudeville’ fit for the whole family.
What was Bob Hope's first job in vaudeville?
Bob Hope, like most vaudeville performers, gained his professional training in these small time theaters. Within five years of his start in vaudeville Bob Hope was in the “big time,” playing the expensive houses where the most popular acts played.
When did Lester Hope and George Byrne perform in the small time vaudeville theaters?
The team of Lester Hope and George Byrne achieved considerable success from 1925 to 1927, touring the small-time vaudeville theaters with a dance act that they expanded to include songs and comedy.
When did Bob Hope tour the Orpheum?
Bob Hope's national Orpheum circuit tour of 1930 and 1931 included options for extension. The tour resulted in the February 1931 engagement at the Palace Theatre in New York of his mini-revue, Bob Hope and His Antics.
When was the Stratford Theater advertisement?
Advertisement for the Stratford Theater from the Chicago Daily Tribune, August 23, 1928. Detail of advertisement. Reproduction. Bob Hope Collection, Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division, Library of Congress (34A)
Who were the twins on the 1926 tour?
Hope's 1926 Vaudeville Tour. In 1926 Lester Hope and George Byrne were booked on a tour in which the headliners were eighteen-year-old siamese twins Daisy and Violet Hilton. The Hilton Sisters's show featured the twins telling stories of their lives, playing saxophone and clarinet duets, and dancing with Hope and Byrne. Enlarge.
Who was the first person to perform at the Palace Theatre?
In February 1931, Bob Hope performed for the first time at the Palace Theatre. Comedienne Beatrice Lillie and the band of Noble Sissle also appeared on the bill. Hope took out two ads in Variety for that week; the ledger entry shows that the cost of these ads was deducted from his salary.
Who was Bob Hope's first touring partner?
In 1924, Bob Hope and his first touring partner, Lloyd “Lefty” Durbin, were booked in “tabloid” shows on the Ohio-based, small-time, Gus Sun circuit. “Tab” shows were low-budget, miniature vaudeville shows and musical comedies, which played in rural areas and small towns.
How were movies linked to vaudeville?
Movies were linked to vaudeville from the time they began to be exhibited to paying patrons. Even before motion pictures presented stories on the screen, many people saw their first films at the close of a vaudeville bill. Those early exhibited films were primitive in technique. Moviemakers had barely begun to explore the possibilities of editing and continuity, and the available cameras, usually mounted on tripods, required a steady focus and stable source of light to properly capture images. Cameras were repositioned only between scenes. Lacking plot, the most entertaining subjects for film were events—an automobile race, a gushing geyser in one of the new national parks or a locomotive steaming into a station, seemingly headed right into the audience’s laps.
What was the Vaudeville?
Vaudeville was more than an assembly of ragtime pantaloons, topical monologists, eccentric dancers, barrel house songbirds, ventriloquists, tumblers and jugglers, and more than a coast-to-coast network of once-gilded theaters now shambling into plaster dust.
Where did vaudeville take place?
As a motley of specialty acts, vaudeville was an itinerant enterprise without name that, over many centuries, could be found in the marketplaces of Africa, Asia , Europe. It spread around the world to the last frontiers of the Americas and Australia. Performers worked where they could and where their acts seemed most suitable: saloons, fairgrounds, circuses. A certain cachet attached to performing in inns, saloons and public houses after their owners added stages and audience pits separate from the tavern.
Was Vaudeville a culture?
Vaudeville was a people’s culture. Some folks have made the case that vaudeville acculturated more immigrants than our national system of public libraries and public schools. Not everyone went to night school or felt comfortable in the majestic reading rooms of Andrew Carnegie’s monuments.
Who was the most powerful man in Vaudeville?
Edward Franklin Albee was the single most powerful man in vaudeville for 20 years. In 1884, Albee brought great ambition and vision to the infant enterprise of Benjamin Keith’s and George Batcheller’s dime museum on Washington Street in Boston. Like Keith, Ned Albee was a hard-nosed, wary New Englander who had served an apprenticeship in the circus.
Where did the Balasis perform?
The Balasis performed all over Europe, making frequent tours, including the Keith- Orpheum circuit in 1923 in the USA, where father Victor and mother Paula retired in 1925. Grown, Alfred and Victor, Jr. continued the family act with Alfred’s wife, Maria, although the father would occasionally join them as an acrobatic clown.
What happened to the Balasis brothers?
As vaudeville declined in the USA, the Balasis brothers decided to refocus the act around Maria’s dancing and they played instruments in the act and still performed their signature acrobatic routines. With the end of vaudeville, the surviving Balasis turned to civilian life, real estate and retirement.
How many songs did Irving Berlin write?
Irving Berlin wrote more than 1500 songs, more than one third of those as vaudeville was still going strong. Vaudeville was, in fact, Berlin’s musical training ground. For more information about Irving Berlin, send for Volume X, Issue #3 of Vaudeville Times or Bound Volume X.
Was Willie Bryant a dancer?
Willie Bryant was highly regarded as an all-around performer although he and Leonard Reed became headliners as a dance act. Like many performers, Bryant had a number of acts and partners. In the Whitman shows long, tall Willie was paired with dancer Princess Pee Wee, barely over three feet tall. He, too, became a bandleader and an emcee at the Apollo Theatre in later years, and when he and Leonard Reed appeared on the same bill they teamed up for comedy.
Is Divine Sarah a vaudeville singer?
The Divine Sarah is not a likely name to find on the rolls of vaudeville performers, but she made several tours with great success. Sarah never looked down on vaudeville, never pandered to its patrons, and the audiences she faced across the USA responded enthusiastically to her despite the fact she played in French, a language few could understand.
Overview
Women
In the 1920s, announcements seeking all-girl bands for vaudeville performances appeared in industry publications like Billboard, Variety and in newspapers. Bands like The Ingenues and The Dixie Sweethearts were well-publicized, while other groups were simply described as "all-girl Revue". According to Feminist Theory, similar trends in theater and film objectified women, an example of male gaze, as women's role in public life was expanding.
Etymology
The origin of the term is obscure but often explained as being derived from the French expression voix de ville ("voice of the city"). A second speculation is that it comes from the 15th-century songs on satire by poet Olivier Basselin, "Vau de Vire". In his Connections television series, science historian James Burke argues that the term is a corruption of the French "Vau de Vire" ("Vire River Valley", in English), an area known for its bawdy drinking songs and where Basselin lived. The O…
Beginnings
With its first subtle appearances within the early 1860s, vaudeville was not initially a common form of entertainment. The form gradually evolved from the concert saloon and variety hall into its mature form throughout the 1870s and 1880s. This more gentle form was known as "Polite Vaudeville".
In the years before the American Civil War, entertainment existed on a different scale. Certainly, …
Popularity
B. F. Keith took the next step, starting in Boston, where he built an empire of theatres and brought vaudeville to the US and Canada. Later, E. F. Albee, adoptive grandfather of the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee, managed the chain to its greatest success. Circuits such as those managed by Keith-Albee provided vaudeville's greatest economic innovation and the princi…
Immigrant America
In addition to vaudeville's prominence as a form of American entertainment, it reflected the newly evolving urban inner-city culture and interaction of its operators and audience. Making up a large portion of immigration to the United States in the mid-19th century, Irish Americans interacted with established Americans, with the Irish becoming subject to discrimination due to their ethni…
Decline
The continued growth of the lower-priced cinema in the early 1910s dealt the heaviest blow to vaudeville. This was similar to the advent of free broadcast television's diminishing the cultural and economic strength of the cinema. Cinema was first regularly commercially presented in the US in vaudeville halls. The first public showing of movies projected on a screen took place at Koster a…
Architecture
The most striking examples of Gilded Age theatre architecture were commissioned by the big time vaudeville magnates and stood as monuments of their wealth and ambition. Examples of such architecture are the theatres built by impresario Alexander Pantages. Pantages often used architect B. Marcus Priteca (1881–1971), who in turn regularly worked with muralist Anthony Heinsbergen. Priteca devised an exotic, neo-classical style that his employer called "Pantages …