Vaudeville

Order of the Show

1. Dumb Act

Acrobats(1907)

Almost any oddity could become an act in Vaudeville.

Roly Poly Dancing Dolly

(1915)Man juggling fire (1902)

2. Singing or Dancing Act

Children sometimes supported their families through their performances.

The Hilton sisters’ claim to fame was that they were conjoined at the hip.

Fred Astaire, possibly the most graceful male dancer ever to star in a film, began his career dancing with his sister Estelle in vaudeville.

3. One-Act Play or Scene

Sarah Bernhardt, the most famous actress in the world

during the early 1900s, played Vaudeville, even though she didn’t speak

English.

(1910)

The famous John Barrymore played vaudeville in scenes and short, dramatic plays.

So did his children, John, Ethel and, Lionel.

Ethel said of vaudeville, “It was demanding — but very rewarding. I learned so much watching the other artists. I found out that you have to be awfully good in vaudeville. It is a real taskmaster because there are so many acts in it, like slack-wire artists, for instance, that require absolute perfection.”

You may be familiar with the Marx Bros. from old movies. They tried out and refined most of the major scenes in their movies on the vaudeville stage, continuing to play live audiences even while making movies.

Long before he became a famous silent movie star,

Buster Keaton performed in

Vaudeville as a child. (1908)

4. Headliner

Comedian Marie Dressler found a hat helpful in 1909.

Ed Wynn was known for his small hats and round glasses, as well as for his use of funny props:

11’ pole for people you wouldn’t touch with a 10’ pole

Overcoat with spikes for riding the subway

Glasses with windshield wipers to wear when eating grapefruit

“I was carrying a jar of jelly wrapped in a newspaper, and I fell on the floor, and it broke. So you should see the jam Dick Tracy’s in today.”

Fred Allen performed as a ventriloquist when quite young.

Here he is later with Jack Benny, a comedian who also got his start in vaudeville.

W.C. Fields started in Vaudeville as a juggler, before performing on radio and in movies.

He was notorious for his drinking and hatred of children, although he was quite affectionate with his own daughter.

(b. 1880; d. 1946)

Fanny Brice worked her way upin vaudeville untilshe was playing

Ziegfield’s Folliesas a singer and

comedian.

1910 (left)1916 (right)

Born in 1891, Brice debuted the character of Baby Snooks in the 1934 Ziegfeld Follies, and

then she moved Snooks to radio in 1938.

Brice played the mischievous Snooks on radio until one week before her death in 1951.

Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy started in vaudeville, but had their greatest success in radio, where they were popular for nearly 20 years. (Think about that for a minute.)

In later years, they appeared on The Muppet Show. Their last filmed appearance, shortly before Bergen died in 1978, was in The Muppet Movie.

5. Intermission

6. Flash Act

The Nicholas Brothers, the tap dancing duo who are credited with inventing show tap, did not “black up.”

The Nicholas Brothers started in vaudeville, but also worked in nightclubs, film, and television.

7. Next to Closing Best spot in the show

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello found success in vaudeville before moving on to radio, television, and film.

Their most enduring routine, Who’s On First, was first performed in vaudeville,

then on radio,

then on film,

and finally on television.

George Burns’ vaudeville career didn’t hit until he teamed up with Gracie Allen. She became his partner onstage and off.

After vaudeville, Burns and Allen found success in both radio and television.

Bert Williams and George Walker were a very successful team on the vaudeville stage early in the 1900s.

George Walker, Bert Williams, and Aida Overton Williams in 1908

“Blacking up” or “putting on the cork” was the only way black actors could appear on stage outside of the TOBA circuit.

As a young girl, Josephine Baker played vaudeville in black face.

She left the United States to become a huge success in Europe, particularly France where her skin color was considered exotic.

Don’t confuse vaudeville with burlesque!

While vaudeville entertainments were selected to appeal to everyone from kiddies to grannies, burlesque was not. With its scantily clad performers and risqué jokes, burlesque was very different from vaudeville.

What happened to vaudeville?

Even those who played vaudeville can’t agree on what killed it.

It probably wasn’t the early short films, because the vaudeville houses just flew in a white drop and added film as an act.

Vaudevillians spent years perfecting one routine, which radio broadcasted into homes all over the U.S. in the time it took to say the words.

Radio was probably most responsible for vaudeville’s demise.

But vaudeville didn’t really die.

Early television variety shows, such as The Ed Sullivan Show, were little more than vaudeville in a new media.

Everyone from athletes to child star Shirley Temple performed on the Ed Sullivan Show.

Few people give Ed Sullivan the credit he deserves for truly integrating this “new vaudeville.”

Elvis Presley & Eartha Kitt

Your Father’s Mustache Band featured people of different races and ethnicities performing together.

Any time you see a show featuring a great variety of performances, you are seeing the shadow of vaudeville.