American Vaudeville: A Celebration
Edition: 1
Copyright: 2020
Pages: 468
Edition: 1
Copyright: 2020
Pages: 468
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What was it like to live the life of a vaudevillian in America? Before movies, radio, and the Great Depression transformed the entertainment world there was vaudeville. David Soren grew up as a featured performer on CBS and ABC television kiddie shows, in gangster-run nightclubs, and with crooked carnival grifters when he was not singing doo-wop on Philadelphia street corners. Here is a very personal take on the entertainment world that existed in America before the modern era. Interweaving American history, popular culture, and the story of American music, this book is intended for general audiences seeking to know about the entertainment form that influenced many of the shows we have today.
Preface
By Frank Cullen
CHAPTER 1 Introduction: My Life in Vaudeville
CHAPTER 2 What Was Vaudeville?
CHAPTER 3 The Beginnings of American Popular Music
By Victoria Damore
CHAPTER 4 Riverboats, Dime Museums, and Other Early American Diversions
CHAPTER 5 Vaudeville Begins
Tony Pastor: The Clean Entrepreneur by Victoria Moses
CHAPTER 6 Vaudeville as Big Business
By Frank Cullen, Anna Jennings, and Christopher Vasquez-Wright
CHAPTER 7 The Great Variety Acts
The History of Juggling by Emilio Rodríguez-Alvarez
Plate Spinning by Victoria Esposito
CHAPTER 8 The Great Dramatic Acts
CHAPTER 9 Early Mega-Stars of Vaudeville
CHAPTER 10 The Amazing and Unique Eva Tanguay
The Salome Dancing Craze: Backstory by Brandon Neth
CHAPTER 11 The March King and His Followers
CHAPTER 12 The Belle Story
By Katherine Raymer
CHAPTER 13 The Age of Al Jolson
CHAPTER 14 Black Vaudeville
By Kevin Byrne
CHAPTER 15 The Emergence of Dance in America
CHAPTER 16 Vaudeville in World War I
CHAPTER 17 Fads, Gimmicks, and Scandals
Evelyn Nesbit: The Girl on the Red Velvet Swing by Kacie Lillejord
All-Girl Orchestras by Erica Collins
CHAPTER 18 Behind the Scenes
Bibliography
Index
Dr. David Soren is Regents Professor of Classics with the University of Arizona and Director of the Orvieto Institute in Umbria. He holds a B.A. in Greek & Roman Studies from Dartmouth, and an M.A. in Fine Arts and Ph.D. in Classical Archaeology from Harvard University. His specialties include Roman Archaeology, and the making of documentaries. He has done extensive field work in Cyprus, Portugal, Tunisia and Italy, is widely published, and has received numerous honors and awards for his work (see his listing on Wikipedia).
Regents Professor Soren was honored with the 2005 Excellence in International Service Award.
Professor Soren founded and continues to direct the Orvieto Study Abroad Program in Italy, now the University's largest study abroad program.