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CHICAGO FOLKSTUFF
VAUDEVILLE
CHAPTER 1
Alfred 0. Philipp
No. Words
am 14
During the last quarter of the nineteenth century there emerged
from the beer gardens, honky-tonks, variety dhows and music halls a distinctly
American form of entertainment Vaudeville. All the conglomerate of specialty
and novelty acts from the minstrel "first parts" and "afterpieces", the "olio"
or burlesque, and the feature specialties of the hippodrome and variety show
combined in bringing to fruition this new lusty young giant of the amusement
industry. For vaudeville, in the aggregate, was everything.
TO the American vaudeville stage came Emma Trentini and Schumann-
Heink from the grand opera; Sarah Bernhardt, Bertha Kalish, Mrs. Patrick Campbell
and Lillian Langtry from the drama; the acrobats, aerialists, wire walkers and
trained animal acts from the circus; soloists and ensembles from the greatest
musical organizations; silent fun -makers from the European pantomines; banjo
strummers and blackface comiques from the minstrel and medicine show; toss
in the trick cyclists, quartettes, magicians, rope spinners and whio snappers,
jugglers and equilibrists, dancers, monologists, ventriloquists, novelty musical
acts, sister teams, lightning cartoonists, dialect comedians, piano teams, sketch
artists, mimics and mummers of every brand; put them all together and mix well
thieves vaudeville.
George Lederer is said to have been the firet manager to apply
the name "vaudeville" to a stage show. This was in New York in the eighteen
nineties. Prior to this it was simply a "variety allow." And during the early days
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of vaudeville much of the stigma attached to the name "variety* the anoky
halls, beer gardens and honky-tonks still clung to the newer appellation.
Then B. F. Keith built a chain of palatial theatres designed especially to play
vaudeville shows. And to lure a more fastidious clientale to the new temples
of amusement he appended the title Polite Vaudeville.
Then cams such managers and impresarios as Tony Pastor,
F. F. Proctor, Percy Williams, Mike Shea, Oscar Hammerstein, Harry Davis,
and William Morris, who raised the prestige of vaudeville to ever greater
heights. And the twenty-five year period of 1900-1925 may be designated
as the gala days of vaudeville in America. After 1925 the decline was gradual
until about 1929-30, when the combined onslaughts of radio, sound pictures
and the depression affected the total collapse of this once glorious form of
American entertainment. For American it was, in essence and character. As
completely indigenous to the American soil as pork and beans, Coney Island hot
dogs, Negros strumming a banjo on a Mississippi levy, ham and eggs, the Cubs,
and the Union Stock Yards. One must know the =sic halls of England, Australia,
and South Africa; the variety performances at the Winter Garden in Berlin, and
the Cirque Medrano in Paris; and the variodades of Latin America, to appreciate
the distinctive character of American vaudeville in its prime days.
But that paradoxical nane,- vaudeville- what could be more tin
American? Whence came this alien name, and what was its origin? Historians
do not agree, although it is undoubtedly of French derivation. Some contend
that the name comes from a valley in Normandy, "The Val Is Vire," but without
offering enough proof to justify the contention. Another version, which the
writer is inclined to accept, holds that the name was born on the banks of
the river Seine many centuries ago. Its sire is supposed to have been one
Pinner, who, like most men of the period, took his name from his occupation,
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that of fulling cloth. His workers, each evening after toil, gave entertainments
on the banks of the river, and became known as the entertainers of the "Vire
Vire," or wftrevaude," or "Veudevire."
So much for the name, now for the show itself. The following
program of nine acts, with a total running time of about two hours. I should
designate as a typical American vaudeville show, representative of the 19106-
1915 era. These were all recognized "standard acts" of the time. There is
no question of relative merit, for a thousand contemporary acts would have suited
our purpose quite as well, but I believe this program will serve as an apt
example of a typical American vaudeville show.
The Four Bards
Jack Wilson Co.
Caesar Rivoli
Edmund Hayes Co
George Fuller Golden
Paul Cinquevalli
Six American Dancers
Rae Samuels
Hassan Ben All Troupe....
American's Premier Acrobats.
Blackface Comedy Act.
Lightning Change Artist.
in "The Piano Movers."
Monologist
Juggler
Tapsters De Luxe
"The Blue Streak of Vaudeville."
Arabian Whirlwind Tumblers.
To the professional vaudevillian this was a "nine -act bill."
No performer, agent, or manager would refer to it as a "show" or "program".
A, performer might ask of a colleague; 'Who was on the bill with you last week
in Kokomo?" Or "There's a swell bill at the Palace this week." The next to
last position on a vaudeville programwas always the favored "spot on the bill,"
in which the high salaried stars were featured. And so the ambitious vaudeville
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artists of lesser rank were continually *fighting for a better spot on the bill."
There were but few along names to characterize the various types
of acts. Most of them, with but few exceptions, were known professionally
by the same names as appeared in their billing matter. The exceptions: A dancer
was a "hoofer," a horizontal bar act was a "Stick act," a tumbler was a "kinker,"
and a contortionist was a "snake."
A vaudeville performer whose act had achieved a great success,
and who was the recipient of tumultuous and prolonged applause, might describe
his success through the use of various typical phrases. The following are
characteristic:
"I knocked 'em dead."
"I stopped the show cold."
"I knocked 'em off the seats."
"I had 'am rolling in the aisles."
"I was a panic."
"I wowed lam."
However, when a performer walked off the stage at the conclusion
of his act with little or no applause, it was said that he "died." Or that his
act was a "flop." And, in describing the recalcitrant audience to a fellow
performer back stage, he might remark: "They're sitting on their hands out there."
This was a very common expression. A "cold" audience which refused to applaud
was invariably described as "sitting on their hands."
Two commonly used American expressions which are definitely
of vaudeville origin are "big time" and "small time." In speaking of a large
film or company one business man to -day might remark to another: "That's a
Illtime outfit." The city editor, upon reading a news story, might comment:
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"Say, this is bu time stuff." This phrase is in such common use today that it
has become an accepted Americanism, and people use it freely without the least
conciousness of its theatrical implications. Yet only a generation or two ago
it was confined exclusively to performers, managers, agents, and others in the
vaudeville profession. Vaudeville circuits were invariably referred to as "time."
Thus, instead of mentioning the "Pantages Circuit" a performer mould remark:
"I'm going to play the Pan time." Or "I just finished the Loew time," or
"He's on the Orpheum time." The two high class circuits in American vaudeville,
playing the greatest stars, paying the largest salaries, and having the finest
theatres, were the Keith Circuit (or Keith time) in the east, and the Orpheum
Circuit (or Orpheum time) in the West. This was the "big time."
These two circuits were also known as the "two -a -day," because
of their policy of presenting only two performances daily, matinee and evening.
All other circuits were "small time."
Of the thousands of vaudeville acts available at all times,
only a few (allegedly the best) could play the "big time," There never was
enough "big time" to employ all the first class acts. So the majority were
forced to play the lesser circuits; such as the Loew, Pantages, Interstate,
Proctor, Poli, Delmar, etc. It was generally considered unjust to classify
an artist as a "small timer" just because he didn't happen to be on the Keith
or Orpheum Circuits. And occasionally one might hear a performer argue that
the better class circuits should be referred to as "medium time" to distinguish
them from the cheap low-grade theatres in which inferior acts worked at a miserable
salary, thus creating an intermediate category between the lowest and highest
class of vaudeville. But the term "medium time" never came into general use
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You either played the Keith and Orpheum Circuits, and were a "big timer," or
you were a "small timer." There was no recognized. alternative.
In the event that your act lacked sufficient merit, or
"entertainment value," to qualify for the better class vaudeville theatres,
then you simply had to play the "dumps." This is not underworld jargon.
"Dumps" was a word of common every -day usage in the old vaudeville days; it was
used to indicate the smallest, cheapest, and most shabby theatres that used
vaudeville acts. In speaking of a fellow performer a vaudevillian might remark:
"Last I heard of him he was playing the dmp.. around Chicago."