1 00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:02,000 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I 2 00:00:02,080 --> 00:00:15,720 Speaker 1: Heart Radio, Hello, and welcome to This Day in History Class, 3 00:00:15,720 --> 00:00:19,239 Speaker 1: a show that raises the curtain on everyday history and 4 00:00:19,360 --> 00:00:23,439 Speaker 1: lets it take about I'm Gay, Bluesier and today we're 5 00:00:23,480 --> 00:00:26,680 Speaker 1: looking at the rise and fall of Vaudeville. A fusion 6 00:00:26,760 --> 00:00:30,480 Speaker 1: of song and dance, comedy and novelty acts the delighted 7 00:00:30,520 --> 00:00:38,360 Speaker 1: audiences at the turn of the twentieth century. The day 8 00:00:38,800 --> 00:00:45,320 Speaker 1: was February eight three, one of the earliest vaudeville theaters 9 00:00:45,360 --> 00:00:48,559 Speaker 1: in the United States, opened on the second floor of 10 00:00:48,600 --> 00:00:53,519 Speaker 1: the Gaiety Museum in Boston, Massachusetts. In the years ahead, 11 00:00:53,760 --> 00:00:57,520 Speaker 1: its operator B. F. Keith would grow the business into 12 00:00:57,600 --> 00:01:01,800 Speaker 1: an empire, launching a chain of aaudeville theaters all across 13 00:01:01,840 --> 00:01:05,959 Speaker 1: New England. His success helped establish this new form of 14 00:01:06,040 --> 00:01:10,120 Speaker 1: mainstream entertainment, something that would later be called the heart 15 00:01:10,319 --> 00:01:14,679 Speaker 1: of American show business. If you're under a certain age, 16 00:01:14,959 --> 00:01:18,800 Speaker 1: I won't say which one, you're probably wondering what exactly 17 00:01:19,080 --> 00:01:23,160 Speaker 1: is vaudeville. In simplest terms, it's a form of variety 18 00:01:23,319 --> 00:01:28,520 Speaker 1: entertainment performed live on stage. A vaudeville show was typically 19 00:01:28,520 --> 00:01:32,360 Speaker 1: made up of a series of separate unrelated acts covering 20 00:01:32,400 --> 00:01:36,080 Speaker 1: a wide range of performing arts. In a single show. 21 00:01:36,200 --> 00:01:42,080 Speaker 1: You might see singers, dancers, comedians, ventriloquists, jugglers, magicians, you 22 00:01:42,200 --> 00:01:46,360 Speaker 1: name it, everything from trained animal acts to dramatic readings 23 00:01:46,480 --> 00:01:50,520 Speaker 1: to acrobats. It was all on the table. Variety was 24 00:01:50,560 --> 00:01:54,600 Speaker 1: the selling point, and variety is what you got. This 25 00:01:54,720 --> 00:01:58,320 Speaker 1: grab bag approach to entertainment got its start in France 26 00:01:58,400 --> 00:02:02,120 Speaker 1: and the late nineteenth century, albeit with much more refined 27 00:02:02,160 --> 00:02:07,160 Speaker 1: acts than their Transatlantic counterparts. In the eighteen eighties, the 28 00:02:07,160 --> 00:02:10,359 Speaker 1: theater style made its way to Canada and the United States, 29 00:02:10,600 --> 00:02:13,240 Speaker 1: where it became a popular brand of entertainment for the 30 00:02:13,320 --> 00:02:18,080 Speaker 1: next fifty years. The term vaudeville can be traced back 31 00:02:18,120 --> 00:02:22,360 Speaker 1: to two possible origins, both of them French. The first 32 00:02:22,560 --> 00:02:26,080 Speaker 1: is the phrase Val de Vie, or the valley of 33 00:02:26,120 --> 00:02:29,480 Speaker 1: the River Vie. That's an area of France where a 34 00:02:29,520 --> 00:02:34,359 Speaker 1: famous satirical songwriter lived in the fifteenth century. His songs 35 00:02:34,400 --> 00:02:39,080 Speaker 1: mocking village life and local residents later became synonymous with 36 00:02:39,120 --> 00:02:43,440 Speaker 1: the region itself. That association may have given rise to 37 00:02:43,600 --> 00:02:46,720 Speaker 1: vaudeville as a kind of catch all term for any 38 00:02:46,760 --> 00:02:51,600 Speaker 1: type of playful live performance. The second possibility carries a 39 00:02:51,680 --> 00:02:55,680 Speaker 1: similar meaning, but is much more straightforward. The French phrase 40 00:02:56,040 --> 00:02:59,960 Speaker 1: vois de ville means voice of the city, which works 41 00:03:00,040 --> 00:03:03,600 Speaker 1: pretty well as a description of Vaudeville. The types of 42 00:03:03,639 --> 00:03:07,640 Speaker 1: acts that characterized American Vaudeville had their roots and other 43 00:03:07,760 --> 00:03:12,520 Speaker 1: working class sources of entertainment, including concert saloons, freak shows, 44 00:03:12,880 --> 00:03:18,240 Speaker 1: strip tease acts, and minstrelsy. However, unlike those forms of 45 00:03:18,280 --> 00:03:22,440 Speaker 1: traveling theater, Vaudeville shows tended to be more family friendly 46 00:03:22,639 --> 00:03:27,720 Speaker 1: and less exploitative of different cultures. For example, Vaudeville actually 47 00:03:27,800 --> 00:03:32,880 Speaker 1: welcomed racially diverse actors instead of resorting to blackface representations 48 00:03:33,520 --> 00:03:37,000 Speaker 1: as you might expect. This attracted a different and more 49 00:03:37,120 --> 00:03:41,080 Speaker 1: civil kind of crowd, the type that didn't heckle performers, 50 00:03:41,120 --> 00:03:45,320 Speaker 1: demand encores, or hurl shoes and tomatoes at the stage. 51 00:03:46,080 --> 00:03:50,960 Speaker 1: In this way, Vaudeville was what you might call middlebrow entertainment. 52 00:03:51,320 --> 00:03:55,080 Speaker 1: It wasn't lewd, crass, or offensive, but it wasn't exactly 53 00:03:55,200 --> 00:03:59,000 Speaker 1: high minded either, so not a strip show, but not 54 00:03:59,080 --> 00:04:02,440 Speaker 1: the opera either. One of the first people to take 55 00:04:02,520 --> 00:04:06,200 Speaker 1: this cleaner approach to variety theater was a man named 56 00:04:06,200 --> 00:04:10,360 Speaker 1: Tony Pastor He had been a comic singer since age six, 57 00:04:10,560 --> 00:04:13,840 Speaker 1: when he first appeared at P. T. Barnum's American Museum 58 00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:17,560 Speaker 1: in New York City. As an adult, Pastor opened his 59 00:04:17,640 --> 00:04:20,839 Speaker 1: own theater in the city. It was called the Fourteenth 60 00:04:20,960 --> 00:04:24,880 Speaker 1: Street Theater, and Pastor build it, as quote, the first 61 00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:29,640 Speaker 1: specialty and vaudeville theater of America. Catering to polite tastes, 62 00:04:29,920 --> 00:04:34,240 Speaker 1: aiming to amuse and fully up to current times and topics. 63 00:04:35,440 --> 00:04:38,800 Speaker 1: The theater would group up to a dozen acts together 64 00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:42,920 Speaker 1: into different sets or bills, and then run through those 65 00:04:42,960 --> 00:04:47,040 Speaker 1: sets continuously all day long for up to twelve hours. 66 00:04:47,640 --> 00:04:50,760 Speaker 1: That way, if you missed a performer you wanted to see, 67 00:04:51,040 --> 00:04:53,479 Speaker 1: they'd be on again a few hours later, and in 68 00:04:53,520 --> 00:04:57,200 Speaker 1: the meantime you could catch a completely different show We're Two, 69 00:04:57,640 --> 00:05:03,080 Speaker 1: We're Three. Two years later, Benjamin Franklin Keith adapted this 70 00:05:03,160 --> 00:05:06,920 Speaker 1: business model when he brought vaudeville to Boston. The New 71 00:05:06,920 --> 00:05:10,520 Speaker 1: Hampshire native had broken into show business as a carnival barker, 72 00:05:10,839 --> 00:05:14,400 Speaker 1: traveling with shows from town to town. He later worked 73 00:05:14,400 --> 00:05:17,840 Speaker 1: in the popular dime museums of New York City, where 74 00:05:17,920 --> 00:05:21,039 Speaker 1: visitors would pay ten cents to view all manner of 75 00:05:21,120 --> 00:05:27,599 Speaker 1: curious exhibits, including shrunken heads and captured mermaids. Eventually, Keith 76 00:05:27,680 --> 00:05:31,000 Speaker 1: moved to Boston and opened his own collection of oddities 77 00:05:31,240 --> 00:05:36,120 Speaker 1: known as the Gayety Museum. But Keith had grander ambitions 78 00:05:36,200 --> 00:05:39,960 Speaker 1: than phony side shows. He saw the success of newer 79 00:05:40,040 --> 00:05:43,479 Speaker 1: vaudeville acts like the one at Pastor's Theater and thought 80 00:05:43,480 --> 00:05:45,960 Speaker 1: they would be a big hit in Boston, which at 81 00:05:45,960 --> 00:05:49,719 Speaker 1: the time was still a very puritanical town. In fact, 82 00:05:50,080 --> 00:05:53,960 Speaker 1: Boston was so well known for its wholesome sensibilities that 83 00:05:54,120 --> 00:05:57,800 Speaker 1: traveling performers would often prepare a cleaned up version of 84 00:05:57,839 --> 00:06:02,680 Speaker 1: their acts known as a Austin version. To cash in 85 00:06:02,760 --> 00:06:06,279 Speaker 1: on this family friendly market, Keith opened a second floor 86 00:06:06,360 --> 00:06:10,680 Speaker 1: theater at his museum and began hosting vaudeville shows. The 87 00:06:10,760 --> 00:06:14,280 Speaker 1: venture was a huge success, and two years later Keith 88 00:06:14,360 --> 00:06:17,640 Speaker 1: had his eyes set on opening a second, dedicated theater 89 00:06:17,760 --> 00:06:20,960 Speaker 1: in Boston. He partnered with an old friend from his 90 00:06:21,000 --> 00:06:25,400 Speaker 1: circus days named Edward Franklin I'll be, and together they 91 00:06:25,480 --> 00:06:30,360 Speaker 1: leased the famous Bijou Theater for more vaudeville shows. Less 92 00:06:30,360 --> 00:06:35,000 Speaker 1: than a decade later, in eight the business partners decided 93 00:06:35,040 --> 00:06:38,960 Speaker 1: to ditch their lease and open their very own vaudeville venue. 94 00:06:39,640 --> 00:06:45,040 Speaker 1: It was called, appropriately enough B. F. Keith's Theater. Tony 95 00:06:45,160 --> 00:06:48,279 Speaker 1: Pastor may have been the first to introduce vaudeville to 96 00:06:48,360 --> 00:06:51,800 Speaker 1: American audiences and clean up its act, but it was 97 00:06:51,960 --> 00:06:55,719 Speaker 1: Keith who turned it into a national sensation, not to 98 00:06:55,760 --> 00:06:59,839 Speaker 1: mention a highly lucrative business. He and Albi went on 99 00:07:00,040 --> 00:07:04,080 Speaker 1: to establish a chain of lavish theaters, not just in Boston, 100 00:07:04,279 --> 00:07:08,400 Speaker 1: but all throughout the northeastern United States. With a network 101 00:07:08,480 --> 00:07:11,640 Speaker 1: of theaters in place, Keith was able to make regional 102 00:07:11,840 --> 00:07:16,200 Speaker 1: and national contracts with performers, setting up tours of scheduled 103 00:07:16,240 --> 00:07:19,800 Speaker 1: shows for them at all of his various venues. By 104 00:07:19,920 --> 00:07:23,920 Speaker 1: nineteen hundred, the Keith I'll Be Vaudeville circuit was the 105 00:07:23,960 --> 00:07:28,800 Speaker 1: most well known and financially successful in the country. Through 106 00:07:28,840 --> 00:07:32,360 Speaker 1: all that success, Keith then I'll Be never lost sight 107 00:07:32,440 --> 00:07:36,160 Speaker 1: of the moral standards that set their theaters apart, even 108 00:07:36,200 --> 00:07:38,840 Speaker 1: if some of their performers would have liked a little 109 00:07:38,880 --> 00:07:43,040 Speaker 1: more leeway for their routines. But the idea of inoffensive 110 00:07:43,160 --> 00:07:47,160 Speaker 1: entertainment was considered so crucial to vaudeville that managers at 111 00:07:47,280 --> 00:07:51,080 Speaker 1: Keith I'll Be Theaters would frequently reject scripts that were 112 00:07:51,120 --> 00:07:56,280 Speaker 1: deemed too impolite or unrefined. Those rejected ideas would then 113 00:07:56,280 --> 00:07:59,520 Speaker 1: be sent back to the performers who submitted them. The 114 00:07:59,640 --> 00:08:03,120 Speaker 1: use of blue envelopes for this practice led to the 115 00:08:03,200 --> 00:08:08,080 Speaker 1: phrase blue material, which refers to body or obscene content. 116 00:08:09,000 --> 00:08:14,920 Speaker 1: Of course, even with high standards, nothing lasts forever. For vaudevillians. 117 00:08:14,960 --> 00:08:18,400 Speaker 1: The ending came gradually as the arrival of new forms 118 00:08:18,440 --> 00:08:23,720 Speaker 1: of entertainment slowly muscled them off the stage. Broadway reviews, 119 00:08:23,880 --> 00:08:28,000 Speaker 1: silent films, and radio programs kicked off the decline in 120 00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:32,680 Speaker 1: the mid nineteen twenties as actors, dancers, and singers began 121 00:08:32,760 --> 00:08:37,400 Speaker 1: to switch to these less demanding mediums. By the nineteen thirties, 122 00:08:37,520 --> 00:08:41,520 Speaker 1: movies with sound or talkies had become the new dominant 123 00:08:41,559 --> 00:08:46,719 Speaker 1: source of entertainment for Americans. Many longtime vaudeville performers had 124 00:08:46,760 --> 00:08:50,160 Speaker 1: already jumped to film and radio by that point, including 125 00:08:50,360 --> 00:08:54,400 Speaker 1: ed Wynn, Buster Keaton, Jack Benny, and the Marx Brothers. 126 00:08:55,280 --> 00:08:57,800 Speaker 1: They largely carried on the work they've been doing in 127 00:08:57,920 --> 00:09:02,319 Speaker 1: vaudeville shows, just with high or pay and better working conditions. 128 00:09:03,240 --> 00:09:07,520 Speaker 1: As for vaudeville, theater owners, like Keith and Albe, many 129 00:09:07,559 --> 00:09:10,880 Speaker 1: of them eventually bowed to pressure from a changing entertainment 130 00:09:10,920 --> 00:09:15,000 Speaker 1: industry and made the switch from live acts to movie screenings. 131 00:09:15,880 --> 00:09:19,040 Speaker 1: It wasn't all bad. There was actually more profit to 132 00:09:19,040 --> 00:09:23,440 Speaker 1: go around without the added costs of lighting, music, stage hands, 133 00:09:23,520 --> 00:09:26,840 Speaker 1: booking fees, and all the other factors that made hosting 134 00:09:26,920 --> 00:09:31,840 Speaker 1: live performances so expensive. One of the last vaudeville venues 135 00:09:31,920 --> 00:09:35,400 Speaker 1: to switch to a film only policy was the Palace 136 00:09:35,520 --> 00:09:39,680 Speaker 1: Theater in Midtown Manhattan. It had opened in nineteen twenty 137 00:09:39,800 --> 00:09:42,960 Speaker 1: nine and was considered by many to be the flagship 138 00:09:43,040 --> 00:09:47,560 Speaker 1: location of the Keith Albe Empire. The theater shifted to 139 00:09:47,640 --> 00:09:52,080 Speaker 1: film presentations in late nineteen thirty two, marking the beginning 140 00:09:52,200 --> 00:09:57,079 Speaker 1: of the end of Vaudeville's golden age. However, nearly a 141 00:09:57,120 --> 00:10:02,720 Speaker 1: century later, though often uncredited, many of the songs, gags, stunts, 142 00:10:02,760 --> 00:10:06,360 Speaker 1: and pratt falls made famous by Vaudeville still live on 143 00:10:06,440 --> 00:10:10,920 Speaker 1: in other forms of entertainment, including cartoons and film. The 144 00:10:11,000 --> 00:10:14,720 Speaker 1: show must go on, as the saying goes, and thankfully, 145 00:10:14,800 --> 00:10:20,840 Speaker 1: for Vaudeville fans, it's still very much does. I'm Gabe Bluesier, 146 00:10:21,280 --> 00:10:24,320 Speaker 1: and hopefully you now know a little more about history 147 00:10:24,320 --> 00:10:28,720 Speaker 1: today than you did yesterday. If you enjoyed today's show, 148 00:10:29,000 --> 00:10:32,960 Speaker 1: consider following us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at t 149 00:10:33,040 --> 00:10:36,800 Speaker 1: d I HC Show, and if you have any comments 150 00:10:36,880 --> 00:10:40,000 Speaker 1: or suggestions, you can send them my way at this 151 00:10:40,120 --> 00:10:44,040 Speaker 1: Day at I heart media dot com. Thanks to Chandler 152 00:10:44,120 --> 00:10:47,160 Speaker 1: Mays for producing the show, and thanks to you for listening. 153 00:10:47,640 --> 00:10:50,640 Speaker 1: I'll see you back here again tomorrow for another Day 154 00:10:50,720 --> 00:11:00,600 Speaker 1: in History class. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, 155 00:11:00,720 --> 00:11:03,320 Speaker 1: visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 156 00:11:03,360 --> 00:11:04,480 Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.