Vaudeville and the Making of Modern Entertainment, 1890–1925

Name: Vaudeville and the Making of Modern Entertainment, 1890–1925
Author: David Monod
ISBN: 9781469660554

by David Monod

Published by The University of North Carolina Press

Publication date: October 12, 2020

ISBN 9781469660554 | 288 Pages, 6.12 × 9.25 in, 18 halftones, notes, index

288 Pages, 6.12 × 9.25 in, 18 halftones, notes, index

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The rise and fall of America’s first mass entertainment

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.

Vaudeville acts celebrated sharp city styles and denigrated old-fashioned habits, showcased new music and dance moves, and promulgated a deeply influential vernacular modernism. The variety show’s off-the-rack trendiness perfectly suited an era when goods and services were becoming more affordable and the mass market promised to democratize style, offering a clear vision of how the quintessential twentieth-century citizen should look, talk, move, feel, and act.

David Monod is professor of American social and cultural history at Wilfrid Laurier University.

“A necessary read for scholars and students of popular music, theatre, and even film studies [that] outlines the historically specific, and in some cases quite unorganized, fashion in which mass entertainment first developed in America. . . . Vaudeville and the Making of Modern Entertainment demonstrates the crucial historic influence of the whole complex medium, not just of a few performers and businessmen, on the industry and conceptions of popular entertainments we enjoy today.”—CAML Review

“The history of vaudeville theater is complex and contradictory. . . . In Vaudeville and the Making of Modern Entertainment, 1890-1925, David Monod explores this intricate history with strong research and insightful analysis.”—New York History

“In this scrupulously researched, sharply theorized, and forcefully written book, David Monod addresses a relatively understudied arena of popular culture production, circulation, and reception with a truly interdisciplinary approach.” — Jeffrey Melnick, University of Massachusetts Boston

“While other historians have tended to focus on either the business or artistic side of vaudeville, David Monod’s impressive book explores how both must be taken into account to paint a complete picture of a foundational entertainment medium.” — Larry Hamberlin, Middlebury College

2021 Short-listed, Wallace K. Ferguson Prize, Canadian Historical Association
2020 Short-listed, George Freedley Memorial Award, Theatre Library Association

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Vaudeville and the Making of Modern Entertainment, 1890–1925

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