VaudevilleAlex Myers and Erica Weisman

Honors US History

Mr. GreenbergPd. 3

Background Variety of entertainment 1880’s- early 1930’s It includes concerts,

shows, one-act plays, comedy, and short movies

Females and males were involved

In the United States and Canada

Beginnings New York City Theatres After Industrial Revolution,

people were focused on developing their towns and cities

Members of middle class societies

Drug and alcohol free theatres as a change from past

Known as “Polite Vaudeville” Affordable entertainment

Beginnings (continued)

Bridged a social gap that divided American citizens and brought them together

Before the 1880’s, shows were too violent for women and children

People wanted to establish something for everyone to watch

Beginnings (continued)

As years went by, there was a larger variety of performances people admired.

Started with Shakespeare plays, acrobats, singers and dancers

People became eager to go and watch these acts to see what they were in for

Popularities Circuits were chains of

vaudeville houses Earned the world of vaudeville

lots of money Some were small while others

were very large “The Palace”, New York City’s

Palace theatre, was the center point of vaudeville

Filled with many jobs and national celebrities

The Life of a Vaudevillian It wasn’t very easy The acts and plays toured for

almost a year The actors never got to see their

loved ones Demanding schedules The late night acts prevented many

from getting enough sleep

The Life of a Vaudevillian (continued)

Women and children that had skills and talents were the ones that succeeded in earning money

At first, the theatres were not up to high standards

Great salary; much more than an average factory worker

What Killed It The publics changed their

tastes in way of entertainment Nothing was done to make the

shows better Many people didn’t show

interest anymore Less number of people that

performed in the shows each day

Became expensive and hard for middle class citizens to afford these live shows

Final years People only went out of

boredom to kill time It appealed more to younger

children in the end Their best audience was at

night They were too tired to care

whether it was good or not

Final Years (continued)

Palace soon closed as the acts were not found interesting anymore

The life of entertainment was dead for a while

The palace reopened later on to become a movie theatre

Final Years (continued)

At the closing performance, a vaudeville veteran, George Jessel, came on stage and explained to the people that talent will never die

He tried to keep encouraging people to come see the shows so it wouldn’t end

As vaudeville died, people got rid of files on old vaude performers

Legacy Numerous attempts to bring back

vaudeville Moments of recognition of past

performances TV and the radio were what the

Vaudeville's legacy lives on through

People could watch the shows back and enjoy them after it ended

Comedy acts today are influenced by the old Vaudeville

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