Vaudeville: The Heart of Entertainment The 19th century was a mark of new things to come about in different countries, these new things were music, theater, and other forms of entertainment. Because of the many wars fought during this time there was much depression and people needed a relief. We all know theater has been around for many decades, but it really started to scatter during this time, people needed entertainment and something to look forward to. Of course, music halls and minstrel shows were present but there was nothing that contained both of the features that these theaters had, and then came about vaudeville. Vaudeville highlighted many famous people’s careers and even helped started many of these stars’ careers. It grew as years progressed and became a loved entertainment for many years to come. Vaudevilles’ creation was the start of our current forms of entertainment and is the heart of the American entertainment industry in the 19th century. Before vaudeville even got its name it was called variety shows in previous years. Variety shows had been around for a long time but as years progressed it became more diverse and had more acts included in it. Tony Pastor (known as the father of vaudeville) was one of the men credited for these variety shows. In 1881 Pastor established a variety theater in New York (“Vaudeville”). He had many different acts performed in his theaters, especially for family entertainment. He focused on very high standards of
Broadway was one of the first forms of entertainment. Before there were television programs, or movies, there was Broadway. Broadway originated in New York in 1750, when actor-manager Walter Murray built a theatre company at the Theatre on Nassau Street. A musical would show about once every weekend. The shows were very male based, and would commonly show a relationship between young boys and their fathers. Women were slowly integrated into Broadway, and as society changed its point of view on women, so did theatre.
At the start of the 20th century, the popular vaudeville shows that crossed the nation became
In Vaudeville shows there is no book or story plot as opposed to musical theatre. There may be a common theme between the acts but there is no formal plot. Also in Vaudeville there is change of content between shows. Depending on popularity of the performer an act can be cut or added. In contrast musical theatre productions are final cuts in terms of the content of the show. The addition of Vaudeville acts into the show brings about the purpose of the show. Sassy entertainment!
* At the turn of the century, professional baseball, Vaudeville Theater and amusement parks became popular.
America has always been searching for new types of entertainment. In the early twenty-first century, cutting-edge technology and pastimes were introduced. Nightlife was increased due to flappers and jazz music, and the invention of the radio provided amusement and paved the way for more technology. Entertainment provided a way to relieve stress in the Roaring Twenties. Even sports offered a time of leisure for the busiest individuals.
In the 1920’s, musical theater was “roaring” just like the economic situation in the United States. Florenz Ziegfeld was at his peak, buying shows and catapulting them to the forefront of pop culture. The most popular songs on the radio were songs that were written and performed in broadway shows.
During this time period, America was in the middle of its Industrial Revolution. It was the beginning of the growth of the infrastructure for factories and distribution of goods (Gunning 1). I believe that the business men in the 1800’s really set up the base of how America runs today. Also invented in the 1800’s, were many important things for the theatre. The film projector was made in 1820 by John Ayton Paris (Gunning 2). In technology, optical illusions were in high demand (Gunning 11). These “physiological toys” were designed to mess with people’s minds and manipulate their perception (Gunning 9).
The presence of a passive audience facilitates the better performance of any show and encourages the performers to do well. In most cases, the success of any show, such as a comedy show, a dancing show, or a singing show depends on the audience. Vaudeville acts were not very famous until Keith and Albee, two entrepreneurs and the main characters in the second chapter, Vaudeville INC., of Robert Snyder’s book the Voice of the city, teamed up and reshaped the style of Vaudeville. In addition to their motivation to increase the popularity of vaudeville theater performances, “the middle class audiences” made a huge impact on vaudeville acts by attending them in great numbers. The development of vaudeville marked the beginning of popular entertainment as big business and demonstrated the changing tastes of an urban middle class audience. Keith and Albee made the tickets for vaudeville acts very inexpensive, ten cents a seat, and attracted the middle class. Shirley Staples, the author of Male-female comedy teams in American vaudeville,
The movie industry unquestionably started to boom by the mid 1920s. Movies had a capital investment of 2 million dollars and had theatres that could fit over 5,ooo. Now do not get me wrong we can not forget about musicals that were just as popular.(Maitland 100-101). Musicals and movie theatres were great ways that people would spend their free time. Also another popular thing going on was the introducing of radio broadcasting in 1920 it was a great way to start off the Decade. Radio broadcasting was a new way for people to keep in touch with what was going on and it was ranked in money of over 600 million by 1929.( Maitland 102-105).Those were just a few of the things that were popular, the 1920s was filled by the start of a lot of new
How did Elizabethan theater affect popular entertainment? It affected popular entertainment massively at the time because it was very different than anything that had been popular entertainment before it and because even though it was popular it attracted a lot of criticism from the English Society. It came about in a time when drama shifted from religious to a secular function in society. The Elizabethan Theater lasted from the end of the 16th century and well into the 17th century. And it set out the stage for some actors very well-known even today.
1920’s Broadway was booming! Due to the changes in song formatting, the modernization of plot line, and with a variety of dance style, The Jazz Age catapulted Broadway to a higher dimension than ever before. Like most hits, the Jazz Age fizzled out due to unforeseen circumstances. The Jazz Age ended with the 1929 stock market crash and the onset of the Great Depression. The country suffered, investments dropped, banks failed, and crashing companies caused massive unemployment rates. Along with the rest of the country, Broadway was negatively impacted by The Great Depression. However, despite the loss of jobs and struggling venues, the decade of the thirties proved to be an enlightening and rich experience for Broadway. Through research, we will open the curtain with the negative effects that The Great Depression had on Broadway during the 1930’s, then venture into the rising action where we will be begin to see the turning point, and finally end the show in the final act with the light at the end of the tunnel.
It is clear that our country 's criminal justice system is the new Jim Crow; with a huge majority of felons being African American, it is obvious that people of color have it harder when it comes to crime sentences. We must acknowledge that mass incarceration and the Jim Crow era are greatly similar. Minstrel shows, which showed black men to be lazy, dumb, and clownish, once justified the oppression of african americans. Many now believe that gangsta rap does just the same and is the modern day minstrel show, by portraying blacks to be drug dealers, angry, and violent men. Though many people believe that gangsta rap reinforces these stereotypes, it’s important for one to realize that this form of expression is not a modern day version of blackface performances.
in the twenties when a man by the name of Charlie Chaplain who was known for his "tramp" look, dominated the silent movie business. He was considered one of the most talented actors of the 20’s. Also during the 20’s radio was the popular for of listening to music and listening to the news. In the later 1920’s the television was created which now aloud people to see a picture in their home for entertainment, but the television did not surpass the radio entertainment wise, because most people were unable to afford it.
One thing that movie entertainment fulfilled was attracting people to the big screen. For example, I can introduce this quote: “In just eight years, from 1922 to 1930, weekly U.S. movie attendance soared from about forty percent to over ninety percent of the population” (americainclass). This shows how in just eight years movie popularity spiked, where as about 40 million Americans went to motion picture theatres on a weekly basis. As the brink of silent films came to society and the evolution of the industry had risen, going to the movie theatre became a weekly event. This transition in entertainment, from stand-up comedy/plays to movies, was remarkable. The huge trend and liking for going to the movies impacted America in the way it had reshaped entertainment. Movie companies like Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros made a lot of money and success. The industry became very rich. Going to the movie theatre in the 20s was classy, fashionable, and it became a
The history of theatre in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries is one of the increasing commercialization of the art, accompanied by technological innovations, the introduction of serious critical review, expansion of the subject matters portrayed to include ordinary people, and an emphasis on more natural forms of acting. Theatre, which had been dominated by the church for centuries, and then by the tastes of monarchs for more than 200 years, became accessible to merchants, industrialists, and the less privileged and then the masses.