What Is Vaudeville?
Vaudeville is a specific genre of entertainment that was extremely popular from 1880 to 1930 in the United States and Canada. Vaudeville acts were basic variety shows, each one made up of a number of short, unrelated acts. These acts spread across the entire spectrum of entertainment at that time and included plays, short films, musical acts and dances. Many of the acts that made up vaudeville shows were borrowed from circus acts, freak shows or other similar types of entertainment.
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Features
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Vaudeville shows were unique because of the sheer variety that was seen in them. There were certainly variety shows in the past, though they never included some of the acts that vaudeville shows did. Some of the more typical acts to cross the vaudeville stage involved musicians, dancers and actors. These were interspersed with stranger acts, though, such as trained animal shows, male and female impersonators and street magicians. These acts were never connected to each other, making vaudeville shows typically random for the audience.
History
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Vaudeville was born from variety shows of the past and catered toward a middle-class, mixed gender audience. In the 1870s and 1880s, it began to solidify itself as a separate entertainment industry from saloon shows and variety halls that inspired it. Vaudeville became so popular that by the 1890s there were acts in nearly all sizable cities and towns, and buildings were created just to house vaudeville shows. Cinemas began to pop up in the early 1900s that were cheaper than vaudeville acts, and when the Palace Theater in New York converted to a cinema in 1932, it is thought that the killing blow was delivered to vaudeville.
Significance
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Vaudeville played a significant role in the evolution of entertainment. Before vaudeville, most variety shows and acts catered to the wealthy men of society, while the middle class and poor chose to go to traveling circuses and freak shows or dime shows. Vaudeville took the acts that appealed to these people and created a stage on which to show them in a variety show format. It created a wildly popular and important era in entertainment.
Effects
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Vaudeville had various effects on the world of entertainment and the communities in which vaudeville shows were aired. For one, major vaudeville producers built hundreds of theaters specifically for vaudeville shows. After vaudeville died out, these theaters were converted in cinemas and other entertainment venues, which spurred post-vaudeville entertainment. Vaudeville also introduced "clean" entertainment, which showed that acts that were not offensive and where alcohol was not served could be highly popular.
Considerations
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Although vaudeville disappeared fairly quickly, many of the performers that were made famous on its stages made a transition into the new era of entertainment. This was mainly into the realm of cinema. While many performers were able to continue their lives through a mix of various stage work that was still available and roles in cinema, the talents of many performers did not translate well onto the big screen, and these performers were forced into middle class jobs to continue to live.
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