From Vaudeville Venues to Motion Picture Palaces
Vaudeville
Between 1870 and 1930, vaudeville grew to become the most popular form of entertainment in America. More than 25,000 performers took the stage during those years; it employed nearly 12,000 people at its peak.
Performers came from concert saloons, variety halls, burlesque, Wild West and minstrel shows. Playbills consisted of several usually unrelated acts grouped at a common venue. Such acts might include acrobats, athletes, clowns, dancers, impersonators, jugglers, magicians, musicians, singers, scenes from plays or lecturing celebrities. As one historian put it, “Basically anyone that could keep an audience’s attention for more than 3 minutes.”
The primary focus of most acts was comedy. Vaudeville was one of the earliest U.S. entertainment forms that crossed social and class boundaries. Material was often based on the immigrant experience, so it became a type of assimilation as performers popularized their cultures and represented their heritage in their routines.
The attempt to appeal across socioeconomic classes led to the catchphrase, “Will it play in Peoria?” In other words, will the material appeal to the mainstream public? To protect this public from risque content and appeal to “polite” society, some early forms of censorship emerged…