Vaudeville and the making of modern entertainment, 1890-1925 /
Today, vaudeville is imagined as a parade of slapstick comedians, blackface shouters, coyly revealed knees and second-rate acrobats. But vaudeville was also America's most popular commercial amusement from the mid-1890s to the First World War. At its peak, five million Americans attended vaudev...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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Chapel Hill :
University of North Carolina Press,
[2020].
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| Summary: | Today, vaudeville is imagined as a parade of slapstick comedians, blackface shouters, coyly revealed knees and second-rate acrobats. But vaudeville was also America's most popular commercial amusement from the mid-1890s to the First World War. At its peak, five million Americans attended vaudeville shows every week. Telling the story of this pioneering art form's rise and decline, David Monod looks through the apparent carnival of vaudeville performance and asks what made the theater so popular and transformative? Although he acknowledges its quirkiness, Monod makes the case that vaudeville became so popular because it offered audiences a guide to a modern urban lifestyle. |
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| Physical Description: | xiii, 269 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9781469660547 1469660547 9781469660554 1469660555 |