Publisher's Synopsis
This study depicts the rise of popular culture in America by recapturing the essence and commercial trappings of one of its most vital forms of entertainment - the vaudeville show. Snyder reconstructs famous acts such as Eddie Cantor, Sophie Tucker, and Weber and Fields; describes the different theatres, from Broadway's famous Palace to local Bronx and Brooklyn venues; and demonstrates how entrepreneurs such as B.F.Keith and E.F.Albee created a near monopoly over bookings, theatres and performers.;First exploring the early transformation of the variety theatre into a more tasteful form of entertainment for middle-class families, Snyder then introduces such influential showmen as Tony Pastor. He takes the reader to the opening of Keith and Albee's theatre on Union Square and describes their efforts to make vaudeville a nationwide industry, along the way offering descriptions of the performance of Maggie Cline, the lusty-voiced "Irish Queen" of Tony Pastor's theatre; Eubie Blake, the ragtime pianist, composer and son of former slaves, and countless others. He also shows vaudeville's decline, with the appropriation of vaudeville audiences by musical comedy, radio and motion pictures, and the effects of the Depression.
