A researcher, consulting primary and secondary sources, often feels like a fourthcentury Christian monk tasked to sort apocrypha from that deemed divinely inspired. The trade papers were usually factual, coldeyed and fair when they reviewed an entire bill but teasingly terse about individual acts, especially those on the undercard. Many chroniclers were untrained in the performing arts and as susceptible to flattery and slights as their present-day successors. Some critics such as Robert Benchley and Ashton Stevens respected and enjoyed vaudeville others disdained it. Entertainment reviews and feature articles about people in show business were less ubiquitous in the time of variety and vaudeville, an age before entertainers were considered likely subjects to retain or increase circulation. Most can be relied upon to settle old scores and present the case for the defense but little else. Invaluable as they are for providing firsthand reports and for revealing feelings, memoirs vary in usefulness. Much of any history is what is recalled of events and personalities after repetition has ordered them into the stuff of a good story. The primary and secondary sources available, often the product of diligent and earnest inquiry, are sometimes compromised by faulty recollection, blind spots and bias. Time has destroyed or scattered much of the evidence, especially for those acts that did not cap their careers with sound and sight recordings in electronic media. The true history of vaudeville resides in the sum of all their stories. It would fill many volumes of great size if we knew all the performers, theatre managers, pit musicians, front and back of the house employees, bookers, agents, song and sketch writers, scenery and prop makers, song pluggers and reviewers who gave life to vaudeville from beginning to end. The great majority have faded from history. There were more than 50,000 performers, and many more thousands offstage, who spent all or some portion of their careers in variety and vaudeville.
The author and editors can make no claim for completeness. 1275ĭedication This volume is dedicated to the tens of thousands of performers who were proud to be vaudevillians, especially those who have been forgotten and do not appear within these pages. 1 Bibliography: Suggestions for Further Reading. Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at Taylor & Francis Group is the Academic Division of Informa plc.Ĭontents Dedication. Entertainers-United States-Biography-Dictionaries. Includes bibliographical references and index. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cullen, Frank, 1936Vaudeville, old and new : an encyclopedia of variety performers in America / Frank Cullen with Florence Hackman and Donald McNeilly. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. © 2007 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 International Standard Book Number-10: 3-8 (Hardcover) International Standard Book Number-13: 978-3-2 (Hardcover) Library of Congress Card Number 2005030588 No part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publishers. Published in 2007 by Routledge Taylor & Francis Group 270 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10016 Published in Great Britain by Routledge Taylor & Francis Group 2 Park Square Milton Park, Abingdon Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business An Encyclopedia of Variety Performers in America Volume 1
0 kommentar(er)
