| Contents |
The vogue for vaudeville : urbanity, comfort, and celebrity -- Ragging style : presenting the modern American -- Grabbing attention : making good with the distracted audience -- Vaudeville modernism -- The business of mass entertainment -- The hook : vaudeville makes its exit. |
| Abstract |
"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"-- Provided by publisher. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Genre/form | History. |
| LCCN | 2020015418 |
| ISBN | 9781469660547 hardcover |
| ISBN | 1469660547 hardcover |
| ISBN | 9781469660554 paperback alkaline paper |
| ISBN | 1469660555 paperback alkaline paper |
| ISBN | electronic book |
