Vaudeville

Origin
Vaudeville is a type of theatrical genre. It was a popular genre that was popular during the 1880s until 1930s in America and Canada. A vaudeville performance would normally consist of a series of separate acts which are normally unrelated. There were a lot of different acts:

• Classical musicians
• Singers
• Dancers
• Comedians
• Trained animals
• Magicians
• Female and male impersonators
• Acrobats
• Illustrated songs
• Jugglers
• One act/scene from plays
• Athletes
• Lecturing celebrities
• Minstrels
• Movies

The birth of vaudeville was on 24th October 1981 at New York's Fourteenth Street Theatre. Tony Pastor aimed to draw a potential audience from women and families. Vaudeville also banned the sale of liquor in his theatres, eliminated bawdy material from shows and offered gifts of coal and hams to attendees. After Pastor's first show (which was an experiment), it was a success and other theatre managers soon followed this set-up.

B.F Keith started in Boston where he built an empire of theatres and bought Vaudeville to other parts of the US and Canada.

A performance of bill for Temple Theatre, Detroit, 1st December 1902:
1) Burt Jordan and Rosa Crouch. "Sensational, grotesque and 'buck' dancers. A good act..."
2) The White Tscherkess Trio. "A man and two women who do a singing turn of the operatic order. They carry special scenery which is very artistic and their costumes are original and neat. Their voices are good and blend exceedingly well. The act goes big with the audience."
3) Sarah Midgely and Gertie Carlisle. "Presenting the sketch 'After School.' ... they are a 'knockout.'"
4) Theodor F. Smith and Jenny St. George-Fuller. "Refined instrumentalists."
5) Milly Capell. "European equestrienne. This is her second week. On account of the very pretty picture that she makes she goes as strong as she did last week."
6) R. J. Jose. "Tenor singer. The very best of them all."
7) The Nelson Family of Acrobats. "This act is composed of three men, two young women, three boys and two small girls. The greatest acrobatic act extant."
8) James Thornton. "Monologist and vocalist. He goes like a cyclone. It is a case of continuous laughter from his entrance to his exit."
9) Burk and Andrus and Their Trained Mule. "This act, if it can be so classed, was closed after the evening performance."


Decline
With the continued growth of lower-priced cinema in the early 1910's, Vaudeville took a heavy blow. Theatres started to show the cinema films in theatres. Vaudeville started to only be used as a launch pad to later careers for stars like Judy Garland. They found fame quicker than earlier vaudeville stars for leaving live performances earlier.