(855) 4-ESSAYS

Type a new keyword(s) and press Enter to search

Vaudeville and American Culture

.
             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.


Essays Related to Vaudeville and American Culture

1. Harlem Renaissance

More than a literary movement, the Harlem Renaissance elevated the unique culture of African-Americans and redefined African-American expression. ... The Harlem Renaissance transformed African-American identity and history, but it also transformed American culture in general. Never before had so many Americans read the thoughts of African-Americans and embraced the African-American community's productions, expressions, and style. ... In Harlem in the 1920's many people, both African-American and white, attended vaudeville shows, dramas, and Broadway plays performed by African-America...

  • Word Count: 824
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

2. American Blackface Minstrelsy

However, those performers created an inimitably American art form which until then had not existed in antebellum America. ... Not possessing an explicitly American culture and not producing any cultural products such as music or art until then, Americans faced the problem of always being influenced by Europeans which they actually wanted to prevent. ... Hence a new all-American art form was brought into being. ... As was mentioned before, William Henry Lane was one of the first and at the same time highly successful African-Americans to participate in minstrel shows in antebellum America. ....

  • Word Count: 969
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

3. Early Film - Cinema of Attraction

Rather, it was an approach that took into account the industry, culture, and technology of the time as it related to the diverse nature of the cinema audience at that time. The Library of Congress (www.loc.gov) uses the term "actuality film" and indicates that it was significant that the movies of the time began to be shown in vaudeville and burlesque theatres. ... Between 1890 and 1917 there was a significant transformation in the history of American film. ... The films were aimed at white American audiences (historymatters.gmu.mse/film-p1.). ... The use of American made projection ...

  • Word Count: 925
  • Approx Pages: 4

4. The Inner War Period 1914-1945

America's outstanding symbol of dominance in mass culture and entertainment was Mickey Mouse. By 1945, mass culture had been introduced and was thriving in the culture and its citizens in all advanced societies. Through mass culture the novel evolved. ... By the mid 1920s they had become the most popular mass entertainment, drawing larger audiences than the theater, vaudeville, and the music halls. The American film director D.W. ...

  • Word Count: 1172
  • Approx Pages: 5

5. Discussion Essay

Discussion Essay In this essay, I will discuss Neil Postman's essay "Future Shlock- and I will explore whether or not I believe the Internet is another technological advance with which we are trivializing culture or whether or not the Internet is reversing the tide of show business news with serious public discussion. ... Although he believes that American scholars will never be forced to flee, he goes on to say, "A culture does not have to force scholars to flee to render them impotent-. ... "Although the film was made years before a movie actor became President of the United States,...

  • Word Count: 1043
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

6. I Love Lucy, Too

She turned herself in to more than the sex symbol she started out as; she became the off the wall comedienne who won the hearts of Americans of all races, all social classes, and all cultures (repetition). ... Lucy was named "The Queen of B rated movies", and then she moved to the radio sitcom "My Favorite Husband" where her true talent as a comedienne bloomed, then to television starring in the "I Love Lucy" show and in vaudeville productions with Desilu Productions. ...

  • Word Count: 636
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

7. Black New World

In terms of culture the 1920s are often characterized as a period of American prosperity and optimism. ... Within one decade African-American culture was completely altered and also caused drastic changes in white culture as well. ... Harlem created a growth of African-American culture which gave rise to a community exploding with art, politics, energy, and racial pride. ... However, it was also discussed that Van Vechten`s contribution to African-American culture was fake or at least not fully honest. ... In the 1920s, African-American vaudeville shows on Broadway experienced a rebirth of po...

  • Word Count: 2511
  • Approx Pages: 10

8. A Bernard Malamud Reader

A Bernard Malamud Reader Seen against the crumbling of Yiddish culture, Bernard Malamud is the most enigmatic, even mysterious, of American Jewish writes. ... He has been appraised as a special sort of genre- writer, dealing with the "laughter through tears," the habits of life, exotic to outsiders, of immigrant Jews, an ethnic group considered to stand in a marginal relation to American sciety at large. ... Of all Malamud's stories, surely the most masterful is "The Magic Barrel," perhaps the best story I have read written by an American writer in my recent years...

  • Word Count: 1189
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Grade Level: High School

9. Black Faces in Early Hollywood

BIBLIOGRAPHY 24 INTRODUCTION Film images reflect and illuminate American culture in a characteristic way. ... Films featuring Afro-Americans, throughout the period from 1895, the starting year of commercial cinema, to the 1960s, pretended to be about the Afro-Americans, about Afro-American culture, their themes and problems. ... This research will provide an overview of the black images in American film culture from 1895 to 1927. ... This essay demonstrates the stereotypes in black portrayals in American film culture and the limited changes that occured over the years. 1.1. ... Th...

  • Word Count: 5565
  • Approx Pages: 22
  • Has Bibliography

Got a writing question? Ask our professional writer!
Submit My Question