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How Vaudeville Gave Birth to Modern Entertainment
Stage, screen, and television all derive from early 20th Century variety shows
Whether you are a fan of live performances, motion pictures, television shows or online video, the entertainment you enjoy has deep roots in vaudeville. From the early 1880s through the early 1930s, vaudeville was a leading form of entertainment in the United States and Canada. It also came to Europe. Vaudeville featured an endless, eclectic collection of live acts on one stage and for one price. It exposed audiences in both big cities and small towns to an incredible variety of entertainment, launching the careers of numerous personalities who went on to become big stars in their own right.
Bawdy Beginnings
As early as the 1830s, variety shows were popular. Traveling circus shows, medicine shows, minstrel shows, dance shows and Western shows were well liked. Acts of varying quality appeared in music halls and saloons. In general, early shows drew working class men, not women and children, because the content of each show was bawdy if not downright vulgar. No one thought twice about minstrel acts that included white men in black face or comedy acts that made fun of foreigners. Drinking, prostitution and fisticuffs during the shows gave early entertainment a bad…
