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Theatre in a Package

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2009

Frederick E. Snyder
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Extract

The theatrical fare that eventually became known as American vaudeville began as a random assortment of acts staged whereever there was space large enough for people to gather. It was called, appropriately enough, “variety,” and was an undisciplined affair consisting of routines pilfered from practically every element of theatrical convention: the drama, the circus, the standup comic, burlesque, the ministrel show, the omnibus act of the touring trouper.

Type
Research Article
Information
Theatre Survey , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , May 1971 , pp. 34 - 45
Copyright
Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 1971

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References

Notes

1 McLean, Albert Jr., American Vaudeville as Ritual (Lexington, Ky., 1965), p. 88Google Scholar.

2 Green, Abel and Laurie, Joe Jr., Show Biz from Vaude to Video (New York, 1951), p. 3Google Scholar. This figure is based on Variety's 1910 poll of small-time hinterland theatres.

3 McLean, op. cit., p. 39.

4 Green and Laurie, op. cit., p. 6.

5 For a good discussion, see Hornblow, Arthur, A History of the Theatre in America (Philadelphia, 1919), II, 318 ffGoogle Scholar.

6 Laurie, Joe Jr., Vaudeville: From the Honky-Tonks to the Palace (New York, 1953), p. 345Google Scholar.

7 Grau, Robert, “The Vaudeville Booking Agent,” New York Dramatic Mirror, October 2, 1912, p. 5Google Scholar.

8 Spitzer, Marian, The Palace (New York, 1969), p. 72Google Scholar.

9 Ibid., p. 74.

10 Ibid.

11 Gilbert, Douglas, American Vaudeville (New York, 1940), p. 126Google Scholar.

12 Royle, Edwin Muir, “The Vaudeville Theatre,” Scribner's Magazine, XXVI (10 1899), 490Google Scholar.

13 See the capsule histories of these and other theatres in the Oxford Companion to the Theatre, ed. Hartnoll, Phyllis, (London, 1951)Google Scholar.

14 A reprint is available in an unsigned article, “Psychology of the American Vaudeville Show,” Current Opinion, LX (04 1916), 257–258Google Scholar.

15 Ibid. p. 257.

16 Ibid.

17 Ibid.

18 Ibid.

19 Ibid., p. 258.

20 Ibid.

21 Ibid.

22 Ibid.

23 Ibid.

24 Ibid.

25 Ibid.

26 As is indicated by a brief perusal of the bills as listed in the pages of the New York Clipper during these years.

27 McLean, op. cit., p. 93.

28 Spitzer, op. cit., p. 95.

29 New York Clipper, April 8, 1916, p. 11.

30 Ibid.

31 Ferguson, Otis, “Daughters and Others,” The New Republic, XLIV (01 18, 1939), 315Google Scholar.

32 Ibid.

33 Beuick, Marshall D., “The Vaudeville Philosopher,” The Drama, XVI (12 1925), 92–93Google Scholar.

34 Royle, op. cit., p. 495.