David Wright
Emily Lane
College Writing 1
4/17/15 Vaudeville
(Where theatre all began) Many people love watching musicals, and plays but they were uncertain on where it all started. The answer to that is Vaudeville. Vaudeville is defined as a theatrical genre of variety entertainment. It was very popular in the United States and Canada from the early 1880’s until the early 1930’s. When you think of a typical vaudeville performance it is usually known as a series of separate unrelated acts grouped together. Some vaudeville performances would include including freak shows, dime museums and the ever most known the literary American Burlesque. History of Vaudeville Many people are unclear of when the history of Vaudeville first started and …show more content…
Vaudeville had a continuous growth of performances and theatres that were being built all the way up until 1910 which then lower priced cinemas gave vaudeville a run for their money. Cinemas were first showed in vaudeville halls. The first known public showing of a cinema aka a silent film was first projected onto a screen which was in Koster and Bial’s Music Hall in 1896. As a lot of these actors that were seen in cinemas had greater salaries and less difficult working conditions, the people who worked in theatre’s had lower salaries and harsh working conditions which often made some of the people quit. Many actors in cinemas such as Al Jolson, W.C. Fields, Mae West and many others had took their talent into cinema, these actors had very little screen time and basically which that was the equivalent of an act that would have kept them at a steady salary and on tour for years. Many of the actors who had entered Vaudeville in its later and final years only had used it as a start to their careers. They had left the live performance right before becoming celebrities in cinema. Which may or may not have been there greatest idea? By 1920, Vaudeville had included a clean selection of cinema, all the top Vaudeville stars that had turned to film for their one time pay off had helped to speed up the death of vaudeville. In just a small amount of time when theatres offered big time performers on screen a nickel a seat which then was fairly cheap for the big time actors. The newly formed RKO studios, aka Paramount Studios, had taken over the ever so known Orpheum and the Vaudeville circuit had turned it into a chain of movie theatres. Vaudeville was then wiped out in under four years. Inevitably managers had cut down costs by clearing out live performances and turning them into cinemas. By the 1930’s the majority of performances had been wired for sound and were no longer
Emily Lane
College Writing 1
4/17/15 Vaudeville
(Where theatre all began) Many people love watching musicals, and plays but they were uncertain on where it all started. The answer to that is Vaudeville. Vaudeville is defined as a theatrical genre of variety entertainment. It was very popular in the United States and Canada from the early 1880’s until the early 1930’s. When you think of a typical vaudeville performance it is usually known as a series of separate unrelated acts grouped together. Some vaudeville performances would include including freak shows, dime museums and the ever most known the literary American Burlesque. History of Vaudeville Many people are unclear of when the history of Vaudeville first started and …show more content…
Vaudeville had a continuous growth of performances and theatres that were being built all the way up until 1910 which then lower priced cinemas gave vaudeville a run for their money. Cinemas were first showed in vaudeville halls. The first known public showing of a cinema aka a silent film was first projected onto a screen which was in Koster and Bial’s Music Hall in 1896. As a lot of these actors that were seen in cinemas had greater salaries and less difficult working conditions, the people who worked in theatre’s had lower salaries and harsh working conditions which often made some of the people quit. Many actors in cinemas such as Al Jolson, W.C. Fields, Mae West and many others had took their talent into cinema, these actors had very little screen time and basically which that was the equivalent of an act that would have kept them at a steady salary and on tour for years. Many of the actors who had entered Vaudeville in its later and final years only had used it as a start to their careers. They had left the live performance right before becoming celebrities in cinema. Which may or may not have been there greatest idea? By 1920, Vaudeville had included a clean selection of cinema, all the top Vaudeville stars that had turned to film for their one time pay off had helped to speed up the death of vaudeville. In just a small amount of time when theatres offered big time performers on screen a nickel a seat which then was fairly cheap for the big time actors. The newly formed RKO studios, aka Paramount Studios, had taken over the ever so known Orpheum and the Vaudeville circuit had turned it into a chain of movie theatres. Vaudeville was then wiped out in under four years. Inevitably managers had cut down costs by clearing out live performances and turning them into cinemas. By the 1930’s the majority of performances had been wired for sound and were no longer