Vaudeville

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 10/19/06 at 11:55pm

Does anyone know of any good books or videos about the era of vaudeville?

I found the book "No Applause--Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous" that sounds interesting - awaiting the paperback release. Also the DVD documentary with Ben Vereen about Vaudeville.

But does anyone know of books that also go deeply into the set up of vaudeville acts - especially in NYC and about...

Also, we can discuss Vaudeville on this thread as an art form.

Thanks for any help!

[alterego]

Posted: 10/20/06 at 12:19am

Yes let's bring back Vaudeville. There was a very good documentary released on DVD a few years ago about vaudeville. Ben Vereen narrated, it had some great archival footage of acts. If someone else here doesn't bring the name up shortly I'll search for the name. I believe it was realeased commercially.

[broadwaystar2b]

Posted: 10/20/06 at 12:24am

I actually just finnished a paper on the origins of music theatre and had to research a bit of vaudeville. I'm by no means an expert, but here are some of the sources I used:

www.musicals101.com is a great resource on just about every aspect of music theatre and the vaudeville section is very well detailed

PBS' Broadway documentry talks about vaudeville in the first hour and I know the DVD has one of Eddie Cantor's skits

"The Musical" by Richard Kislan has a chapter devouted to vaudeville, and has a lot of good insight about how vaudeville acts were set up

Other books I used included "The Days We Danced" by Doris Eaton Travis, "Gypsy: a memoir" by Gypsy Rose Lee

[broadwaystar2b]

Posted: 10/20/06 at 12:26am

alterego, I do know what you're talking about, and I believe the documentry is simply called "Vaudeville"

[rosekwbp]

Posted: 10/20/06 at 12:33am

Also Early Havoc by June Havoc talks a bit about her childhood in vaudeville.

[alterego]

Posted: 10/20/06 at 12:49am

Thank you broadwaysar2b!