And now for something completely different...

Variety!!!


Well what wasn’t in variety? Jugglers, dancers, blatant racism…? Wait, what?!

This form has always been around. Anything that had back to back acts that weren’t really related could be categorized as variety entertainment. Too bad some of our beginnings didn’t turn out to be GOOD beginnings...

Good ole blackface, nothing’s funnier than that right? When it started in the mid - late 19th century there wasn’t. As Americans we usually steal everything, but this was the first form that we could completely claim as our own (musicals101)! Good going guys… White actors applied burnt cork and performed all the stereotypes of African Americans.

*Side note – This is tricky, do I write blacks were doing blackface? Or African Americans? But then I call us white people white, not Caucasian… I don’t know… Maybe I’ll just abbreviate – AA. (Wait that makes me want to have a drink… Sorry never mind)*

Ok, back on track, the book says that this type of theatre was demanded by the people. Theatre go-ers wanted to see themselves back on stage again. So they got rid of the 4th wall and everyone on stage was representing themselves and not a character (Felner 159).

Around 1828 Thomas “Daddy” Rice, a white entertainer found his most famous character “Jim Crow”. Supposedly Rice over heard an AA singing a song about Jim Crow on the street corner (musicals101). And the famous stock character was born. They later became synonymous with the laws in the 1880’s.

In February of 1843, Dan Emmett’s Virginia Minstrels emerged. They are said to be the first group to provide an entire evening of blackface entertainment. They knew who they were impersonating so well, most of their stuff was improvised. Some mark this as the beginning of minstrelsy (musicals101).



Show set up:
The First Part/ Minstrel Line
-White host
-2 Blackface comedians (End Men)
-They performed songs, jokes, dances, etc.

Intermission

The Olio
-Songs and variety acts performed without blackface so everyone knew they were in fact white.

Intermission

After piece/ One-Act Musical
-Usual parodied a popular topic, novel, or play
-Used beloved characters such as Jim Crow (ignorant country bumpkin) and Zip Coon (city slicker whose self-assurance leads to his comic demise)

And of course, this was billed as wholesome family entertainment (musicals101).

Some famous songs of this era: Polly Wolly Doodle, Camptown Races, O Susanna, and Dixie (later adopted by the south as there theme song.)

In the late 1800’s, minstrelsy was declining and classes divided. The upper class had their opera; the working class had shows in saloons. Vaudeville came in and made itself available for everyone (musicals101).

Tony Pastor opened up New York’s 14th Street Theatre. Pastor was a devout Catholic and father and wanted nothing but good clean entertainment. The upper class went because it was a well-known good location and everyone else probably just because it was cheap and new. There were no language issues, well there were, but then you wouldn’t perform there again. If there was a line or act that wasn’t as clean as Pastor would like he would deliver written notice in a blue envelope. This is probably were the term ‘blue material’ came from. That’s neat.

They contained such acts as:
Mind readers
Instrumentalists
High Divers

Escape artists
Strong men

Quick change artists
Balancing acts

Contortionists
Regurgitators

This last one was the most intriguing to me. I found a story about Hadji Ali a famous regurgitator. His finally act was to drink a gallon of water and then a pint of kerosene. He would then eject the kerosene on a small prop castle that was set up and then put out the flames by bringing up the water (damninteresting). Gross, is all I have to say.

There were also ‘dumb acts’ (acrobats, roller skaters, cyclists) that did not speak. Once some of these threw some humor in to their act they became huge stars, Will Rogers and W.C. Fields.

You just had to please the audience. Many times the enjoyment of the audience decided if you had another show or not.
…Hope they didn’t have to do Sunday matinees…

In high school I stage managed for Will Rogers Follies. The guy who played Will worked his butt off and actually learned some rope tricks. But for some reason the rope he was practicing with had a metal clasp… It was horrible to watch him practice. He take off his shirt and his back would be cover in red welts. Once he got it though it looked great!! Here’s the pro.


(No need to watch entire thing, just neat to seem of his tricks)

Vaudeville was lost when people ran out of clean humor and when talking film came around. Carol Burnett and Ed Sullivan kept the family friendly entertainment alive in the new era (musical101). But once there was tv and film there was no more need for the live shows. There were still a few theatres showing vaudeville; and in the beginning of the film era, they would have live acts along with the screen show, but all slowly faded out.

Finally Burlesque. The burlesque I am referring to was popular between 1840 - 1960. Its primary attraction was sex and making fun of the upper class. When bustles and hoop skirts were popular women in burlesques replaced them with… well nothing. That is not to say that these were outright sexual scenes. Just alluded to a lot more than vaudeville and certainly was not considered appropriate for the whole family.

Lydia Thompson in the 1860’s brought her British troupe to NY with their hit Ixion. It involved women dressing in revealing tights and playing men’s roles. Their continued plays were written and directed by women, changed week to week, started off with rave reviews then condemned which brought them even more popularity (musicals101). Males eventually took over and it was more about showing as much as allowed by laws but still not obscene or vulgar. They were spoofs not meant to offend, but lost the wit that the original female companies had.



Burlesque actors were looked down upon. But many vaudeville actors appeared in them under false names when money got tight. Or some started off in burlesque and made it big in vaudeville: Jackie Gleason, Red Skelton, and Bob Hope.

During the Great Depression the strip tease became the big draw. It was now completely vulgar with its pasties and g-strings, simply enough to keep the cops off their backs. There was no more comedy, it was about the stripping period, and it was a safe way for married men to see naked women without the risk of disease or scandal (musicals101).

Once porn became available in the 1960’s most places closed up and only the few bump and grind strip houses remained.

I do not mean that it went minstrel show, vaudeville, and then burlesque. They were all pretty much going on at the same time. The main idea was that the show was “high on fun and low on intellectual demands because of the lack of sustained narrative” (Felner 158). So just get out there and be entertained. I bet most of the time the attendance of these shows was used as stress relievers.

Since the invention of film brought about this genres demise it is impossible to find real video but here are some filmed versions of the extreme physicality of this era:



And finally, a bit of trivia:
-Ben Hur became Bend Her on the burlesque stage.
-Hoofers were named so when they would stomp their feet to the conductor for the correct tempo before a musical number.
-The Red Carpet was made red because that made it easy for actors to see if there was dirt on it and could help them keep their costumes clean.
-Unsophisticated humor was known as being ‘stuck in the corn’ AKA ‘corny’.

I felt like I had a lot to cover for this and it may all be a bit disjointed, but hey, such is variety entertainment!

Works Citied

Felner, Mira, and Orenstein, Claudia. The World of Theatre. Boston:Pearson
Education, Inc, 2006.

www.musicals101.com/minstrel.htm

http://www.damninteresting.com/hadji-ali-and-the-regurgitators

Ropin’ Fool (1922) Will Rogers Reel 1 –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_lZqA7RPoU

Vaudeville Follies –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SfO30jvReU

All pictures found by use of Google Images.