Ê- Fred Allen, Much Ado About Me (1956)
Vaudeville borrowed liberally from the varied forms of native American variety entertainment, as exemplified in the minstrel or medicine show, circus concert, dime museum, town hall entertainment, beer hall or honky-tonk, even, in later years, from the legitimate stage, concert hall, grand opera, ballet, musical comedy and pantomime. Ethnic stereotypes performed in blackface were a vaudeville staple.
Essentially, there were two kinds of shows - the more vulgar and sexual ones for men only and family entertainment for mixed audiences.
The term vaudeville was derived from the name of a valley in France (vau de Vire) that gave rise to a type of humorous drinking song. Later the name was corrupted to voix de ville ("street voices") and to its most recent form in the 19th century.
| Late 1840s | First vaudeville house opens in New York. |
| 1881 | Tony Pastor opens his 14th Street theater with a show which cleaned up variety and transformed it into an entertainment for ladies, gentlemen and children. |
| 1913 | The Palace Theater opens, the premiere vaudeville house. |
| 1919 | There were reported to be more than 900 vaudeville theaters in the country. |
| 1927 | The first talking picture "The Jazz Singer" opens. |
| 1932 | The curtain comes down on the last straight vaudeville show at the Palace Theater. |
[Back]
Copyrighted
2001, United States
of America
Anita Gonzalez & Ian Granick