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Vaudeville and American Culture

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             It is understandable then that this form of entertainment was geared mainly towards a male audience, with most women staying at home with their children "unless they had been disgraced or willing to risk disrepute" (Cullen xii). Vaudeville would eventually "surpass variety in appeal and influence, but until the 1870s, saloons provided the usual venue and set the (low) standard for variety" (Cullen xvi). Saloon and other theatre owners motivated by the prospect of attracting wider customer appeal which would increase their profit, attempted to clean up their reputations. This idea of the morality of entertainment helped with the transition to vaudeville as managers saw that "to court family patronage, neutralize censors and encourage favorable press, it was critical to set apart vaudeville from the course and common entertainments of the concert saloons, the dime museums and the circus" (Cullen xvii). Many saloons were converted to restaurants or theatres, stopped selling alcohol, and began booking more suitable entertainment appropriate for women and children. Vaudeville combined various aspects of the differing theater types and regulated and legitimatized them in order transition away from "lower class" entertainment and to appeal to the growing middle class who desired clean family entertainment. .
             The success and expansion of vaudeville into a full-blown industry can be credited to a few entrepreneurial pioneers who helped set the stage for what vaudeville would later become. Tony Pastor a former circus entertainer turned manager/performer aided in the transition to vaudeville. He actively tried to build up the untapped family audience market that other variety acts were unable to attract by catering to the morals of the expanding middle class. Pastor cleaned up the material in his shows and employed other gimmicks to entice respectable patrons such as offering prizes like sewing machines.


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