Vaudeville and the Making of Modern Entertainment, 1890-1925 - by David Monod (Paperback)

About the Book

"Today, vaudeville is imagined as a parade of slapstick comedians, blackface shouters, coyly revealed knees, and second-rate acrobats. But vaudeville was also America's most popular commercial amusement from the mid-1890s to the First World War; at its peak, 5 million Americans attended vaudeville shows every week. Telling the story of this pioneering art form's rise and decline, David Monod looks through the apparent carnival of vaudeville performance and asks: what made the theater so popular and transformative? Although he acknowledges its quirkiness, Monod makes the case that vaudeville became so popular because it offered audiences a guide to a modern urban lifestyle"--

Book Synopsis

Today, vaudeville is imagined as a parade of slapstick comedians, blackface shouters, coyly revealed knees, and second-rate acrobats. But vaudeville was also America's most popular commercial amusement from the mid-1890s to the First World War; at its peak, 5 million Americans attended vaudeville shows every week. Telling the story of this pioneering art form's rise and decline, David Monod looks through the apparent carnival of vaudeville performance and asks: what made the theater so popular and transformative? Although he acknowledges its quirkiness, Monod makes the case that vaudeville became so popular because it offered audiences a guide to a modern urban lifestyle.

Vaudeville acts celebrated sharp city styles and denigrated old-fashioned habits, showcased new music and dance moves, and promulgated a deeply influential vernacular modernism. The variety show's off-the-rack trendiness perfectly suited an era when goods and services were becoming more affordable and the mass market promised to democratize style, offering a clear vision of how the quintessential twentieth-century citizen should look, talk, move, feel, and act.

Review Quotes

"A necessary read for scholars and students of popular music, theatre, and even film studies [that] outlines the historically specific, and in some cases quite unorganized, fashion in which mass entertainment first developed in America. . . . Vaudeville and the Making of Modern Entertainment demonstrates the crucial historic influence of the whole complex medium, not just of a few performers and businessmen, on the industry and conceptions of popular entertainments we enjoy today."--CAML Review

"The history of vaudeville theater is complex and contradictory. . . . In Vaudeville and the Making of Modern Entertainment, 1890-1925, David Monod explores this intricate history with strong research and insightful analysis."--New York History