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History 20th Century

Vaudeville and the Making of Modern Entertainment, 1890-1925

by (author) David Monod

Publisher
The University of North Carolina Press
Initial publish date
Oct 2020
Category
20th Century, General, History & Criticism, Popular Culture
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9781469660547
    Publish Date
    Oct 2020
    List Price
    $133.95
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781469660554
    Publish Date
    Oct 2020
    List Price
    $43.95

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Description

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.

About the author

David Monod is professor of history at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario. He is author of Store Wars: Retailers and the Culture of Mass Marketing, 1890-1939.

David Monod's profile page