Vaudeville

Vaudeville was a uniquely American entertainment phenomenon. In the beginning, vaudeville was simply a more polite version of dance-hall entertainment. It was designed to attract audiences from the middle class. The upper class attended the opera and the ballet, while the middle class attended vaudeville.

Vaudeville was a mixed bag of entertainment genres. A single vaudeville show might include musicians (both classical and popular), dancers, comedians, trained animals, magicians, female and male impersonators, acrobats, one-act plays or scenes from plays, athletes, and the celebrities of the day.

Over time, vaudeville developed into a show that traveled circuits and performed in varying-size halls. Standardized bookings became common, and a large pool of skilled performers became available. The public loved it! There was a huge and loyal national following of vaudeville.

The capital of big-time vaudeville was New York City's Palace Theater. "The Palace" was the slang that denoted the place. In entertainment circles, if you had "played the Palace," that meant that you had arrived at the pinnacle of an entertainment career.

The Palace Theater was built by Martin Beck in 1913, and it was operated by B.F. Keith. "The Palace" featured a bill novelty acts, national celebrities, and the acknowledged masters of vaudeville performance like the comedian and trick roper Will Rogers.

The movies are what finally did in vaudeville. Movie admission was cheap, and the medium was new enough to be exciting. Even the Palace quit vaudeville in favor of film. Many very famous Vaudeville entertainers like W.C. Fields, Buster Keaton, the Marx Brothers, Edgar Bergen, and Jack Benny parlayed their vaudeville success into successful careers in the movies — the pay was better, and you only had to "get it right" once.

Today vaudeville is remembered fondly, and its place in entertainment history is solid.