American Treasures: Vaudeville, Family Friendly Entertainment

American Treasures: Vaudeville, Family Friendly Entertainment
Bob Hope (R) began his career as a dancer in vaudeville. Here he is, circa 1921, with his partner Lloyd Durbin. Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Stephen Oles
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What do Houdini, Bob Hope, and Don the Talking Dog have in common? They all started out in vaudeville.

What was vaudeville? The word is French for a kind of comic song, but in North America it came to mean theatrical presentations of unrelated acts—singers, comics, dancers, magicians—and it dominated our popular culture for half a century, roughly 1880–1930.

Stephen Oles
Stephen Oles
Author
Stephen Oles has worked as an inner city school teacher, a writer, actor, singer, and a playwright. His plays have been performed in London, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Long Beach, California. He lives in Seattle and is currently working on his second novel.
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