Historical Dictionary of Vaudeville

James Fisher

Jun 2023 · Rowman & Littlefield

About this ebook

Vaudeville, as it is commonly known today, began as a response to scandalous variety performances appealing mostly to adult, male patrons. When former minstrel performer and balladeer Tony Pastor opened the Fourteenth Street Theatre in New York in 1881, he was guided by a mission to provide family-friendly variety shows in hopes of drawing in that portion of the audience – women and children – otherwise inherently excluded from variety bills prior to 1881. There he perfected a framework for family-oriented amusements of the highest obtainable quality and style.

Historical Dictionary of Vaudeville contains a chronology, an introduction, an extensive bibliography, and the dictionary section has more than 1,000 cross-referenced entries on performing artists, managers and agents, theatre facilities, and the terminology central to the history of vaudeville. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about vaudeville.

About the author

James Fisher is professor emeritus of theater at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. His twenty books include three Rowman & Littlefield historical dictionaries on American theatre, from its beginning to the present and The Theatre of Tony Kushner: Living Past Hope. Second Edition.He is recipient of the 2017 Mary Settle Sharp Teaching Excellence Award from UNCG and was inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Theatre in 2019.