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Vaudeville was America’s first form of popular culture. It gave a lot of actors and musicians their start, and it turned entertainment into a big business. In many ways, it set the tone for all the movies, T.V. shows, and other forms of entertainment that followed.

Vaudeville’s heyday was from about 1880 to 1930. Variety shows had existed before that, but they hadn’t been taken seriously. Their performers had often been seen as sketchy con men, like the King and the Duke in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. But as more Americans moved into cities– and as millions of immigrants arrived from other countries– they started flocking toward cheap but lighthearted entertainment. Theaters sprang up to fill the demand, and over time, they got to be more and more professional.

No one knows who coined the term “vaudeville” or why. Some said it came from the French voix de ville or vaux de ville. Others said it was just a nonsense word. Still, it caught on regardless.

Marx Brothers
The Marx Brothers started off as a musical act. This changed one night when a runaway mule interrupted their show. Groucho Marx started yelling out insults, the audience loved it, and a legendary comedy act was born.
Photo credit: N.Y. World-Telegram/Sun Newspaper Photo Collection
By the 1890’s, theaters had organized into circuits. Entertainers would travel around their circuit, and would perform at any number of theaters along the way. These venues ranged from small-town playhouses to big-city stages; the most prestigious venue of all was New York’s Palace Theatre.

A typical show would feature about a dozen different acts, ranging from magic shows to comedy sketches to songs-and-dances and so on. The quality varied; a few acts, like the Cherry Sisters, were famously awful. Others, like Helen Keller, weren’t traditional performers but sold tickets regardless. Some made enduring names for themselves, like Buster Keaton, Mae West, the Marx Brothers, Abbott and Costello, George Burns, Gracie Allen, and many others.

Movies started appearing as part of the show in the early 1900’s. These early films were silent, and were just a few minutes long, so they were treated just like any other act. Over time, though, films became longer and more sophisticated, and they started to overshadow the stage.

Judy Garland
Judy Garland (a.k.a. Frances Gumm) started off in vaudeville, performing as part of the Gumm Sisters. She became a star after she took on her stage name and moved to Hollywood, where she appeared in classic films like “The Wizard of Oz”, “Meet Me in St. Louis”, and “A Star is Born”.
Photo credit: M.G.M. publicity photo
Vaudeville declined, and largely came to an end, in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s. “Talking pictures” came on the scene in 1927, with the groundbreaking film The Jazz Singer. Within a few years, musical pictures had replaced a lot of their stage counterparts; stage audiences dwindled, and a lot of performers moved to Hollywood. Three of the largest vaudeville circuits– Keith-Albee, Orpheum, and Pantages– effectively merged into one. The result was Radio-Keith-Orpheum, commonly known as R.K.O.; and it too switched its focus to the movies. This coincided with the Great Depression, which put a lot of the remaining companies out of business.

All the same, the legacy of vaudeville is still alive today. Its huge fan base, and its stars, became a model for Hollywood’s celebrity culture. It had fostered incalculable talent, and its acts have spawned any number of comedies, musicals, and short films. A lot of T.V. series from The Ed Sullivan Show to Saturday Night Live have used its variety format. Most importantly, the idea of lighthearted entertainment has survived all the changes in technology, and changes in audience tastes– and in all likelihood, it will never go away.

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