Vaudeville

In the 1950s, every Monday night nearly 16 million Americans throughout the country interrupted their daily schedules to tune in to the timeless family show, I Love Lucy. Lucille Ball and her crew explored the possibilities of television and its untapped potential that would forever alter America’s entertainment industry. Prior to Lucille Ball’s work, there were very few television shows in existence. The television business was risky, few people had a television within their home and even…

Harry Houdini didn’t want to be a typical entertainer and many people can agree that he succeeded. He had done things unthinkable at the time, breaking away from the basic, boring amusement. He gave entertainment a jolt, making it bigger, and better than ever before. Entertainment, especially magic, may not be the way it is today without him. Not only did he break away from his poor, immigrant background, but also he inspired other people to do it too. Entertainment throughout 1874-1929 was the…

“The Galloping Ghost” was a wide-known name given to Red Grange from a famous sportswriter by the name of Grantland Rice. Harold “Red” Grange was born on June 13, 1903, as a farm-boy in Forktown, Pennsylvania (Hickok). Harold was a third child parents of his parents Sadie and Lyle. When Harold was only five, his mother, Sadie, passed away. Grange was also diagnosed with a heart murmur early in his life. The Grange family went into a new struggle with no money, so they were forced to move to…

including Australia and New Zealand, sharing his great roping skills with the world. In the United States, he was featured at the World’s Fairs in both St. Louis and New York City (BIOGRAPHY). In 1904, Will began presenting his roping skills on the vaudeville circuits (Will Rogers Biography). Well recognized American theatre manager, Willie Hammerstein, was impressed by his talented and proceeded to sign him for his theatre acts. Soon after, he became a flawless star with his natural ability and…

Isidore Witmark was selling water filters. Leo Feist sold corsets, and Joe Stern and Edward B. Marks had sold neckties and buttons. The music houses in Manhattan had a steady flow of different types of musicians. There were people from vaudeville and broadway shows and other musicians constantly coming and going. Up and coming songwriters often came to Tin Pan Alley with the hope of selling their sheet music to the big time producers. Usually all rights to the songs were bought for a flat…

While most films offer a sort of distraction from reality, musicals are often a utopia of wealth and happiness (Belton, 2009). Through dazzling song and dance, they make routine look like pageantry and loneliness feel like individuality. Even the most conservative of musicals transform the everyday into a spectacle, transitioning dramatic tensions into a melodic fanfare. Singing liberates the characters to express themselves in a way that mere words never could, giving them a freedom from the…

Commedia dell’Arte of the 17th century was popular in Italy. According to Winifred Smith’s The Commedia dell’Arte, the major characteristics of Commedia dell’Arte was “improvised dialog on an outline plot, set speeches, and masked clowns.” According to La Commedia Inglese, by Talia Felix, the literature of which they used was a theme of which told the outline of the story and the actors had to act according to the given theme. There were no playwrights for Commedia dell'Arte, the performers were…

The American working class was greatly influenced throughout the late 19th and 20th centuries by the perpetual struggle of the sin of idleness. It was a time where leisure was beginning to be discovered and seen as a reward for Americans, as they worked their daily lives. For the American culture, the flow between working and playing provided longterm tension and led to disproportionate levels in the social and cultural norms in the 19th and 20th centuries, yet was the preceding factor to the…

12).” Aesthetic film history is certainly part of the discourse of Chaplin, but the movie also identifies institutional and cultural contexts that informed Chaplin and his movies. For example, the film features scenes of Chaplin’s transition from vaudeville to cinema, as he joins Mack Sennett’s film production studio. During these scenes, the role of cinema as entertainment and business is highlighted, and for the most part identifies their contributions to Chaplin’s move towards producing his…

Madonna’s rise of fame involved hardships and some help from her people. Madonna wasn’t just a singer she was also a songwriter, actor, and businesswomen. Madonna had raised six children, she even adopted children out of the six. Madonna’s music had a little pop, dance, and electric rock into it. On August 16, 1958 Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone was born in Bay City Michigan, but raised in Detroit suburbs of Pontiac and Avon Township (wiki/Madonna_entertainer). Madonna was born into a…