Today, vaudeville is imagined as a parade of slapstick comedians, blackface shouters, coyly revealed knees, and second-rate acrobats. But vaudeville was also America’s most popular commercial amusement from the mid-1890s to the First World War; at its peak, 5 million Americans attended vaudeville shows every week. Telling the story of this pioneering art form’s rise and decline, David Monod looks through the apparent carnival of vaudeville performance and asks: what made the theater so popular and transformative? Although he acknowledges its quirkiness, Monod makes the case that vaudeville became so popular because it offered audiences a guide to a modern urban lifestyle.
Vaudeville acts celebrated sharp city styles and denigrated old-fashioned habits, showcased new music and dance moves, and promulgated a deeply influential vernacular modernism. The variety show’s off-the-rack trendiness perfectly suited an era when goods and services were becoming more affordable and the mass market promised to democratize style, offering a clear vision of how the quintessential twentieth-century citizen should look, talk, move, feel, and act.
Vaudeville acts celebrated sharp city styles and denigrated old-fashioned habits, showcased new music and dance moves, and promulgated a deeply influential vernacular modernism. The variety show’s off-the-rack trendiness perfectly suited an era when goods and services were becoming more affordable and the mass market promised to democratize style, offering a clear vision of how the quintessential twentieth-century citizen should look, talk, move, feel, and act.
Despre autor
David Monod is professor of American social and cultural history at Wilfrid Laurier University.Cumpărați această carte electronică și primiți încă 1 GRATUIT!
Limba Engleză ● Format EPUB ● Pagini 288 ● ISBN 9781469660561 ● Mărime fișier 5.3 MB ● Editura The University of North Carolina Press ● Oraș Chapel Hill ● Țară US ● Publicat 2020 ● Descărcabil 24 luni ● Valută EUR ● ID 7599796 ● Protecție împotriva copiilor Adobe DRM
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