Vaudeville show at Hammerstein’s Paradise Gardens, New York City, 1900-1906.  ID.P.DPC.014750

Variety entertainment emerged in America by the 1860s and took on the name “vaudeville” during the 1880s as its popularity began to grow.  In the early 1900s, vaudeville was America’s most popular form of entertainment. 

Vaudeville offered “something for everybody,” presenting a wide variety of acts that included singers, dancers, comedians, short dramatic performances, impersonators, jugglers, acrobats and trained animals.  Affordable and highly entertaining, vaudeville shows of the 1900s had widespread appeal.  In large cities and small towns, people eagerly filled the seats of hundreds of vaudeville theaters all across America.

Vaudeville was big business.  By the early 1900s, savvy showmen like B.F. Keith made fortunes operating extensive vaudeville circuits in theaters around the country.  Keith’s flagship New York City theater, the Palace, was America’s leading vaudeville house.  Every vaudevillian aspired to perform there.

Successful vaudeville performers enjoyed steady work at a good salary.  Stars like Lillian Russell, George M. Cohan, Bert Williams, Eva Tanguay, Harry Lauder, Nora Bayes and Fred Astaire graced the vaudeville stage.  But success didn’t come easily for most—as many as 10,000 vaudeville acts competed for bookings. 
 
The music and comedy of vaudeville quickly leapt from the stage into American homes.  People enthusiastically purchased sheet music for songs made popular by their favorite vaudeville performers.  They played recordings of vaudeville songs and comedy sketches on their home phonographs.    

By the early 1930s, competition from radio and from sound movies caused live vaudeville to fade from the scene.  Yet the spirit of vaudeville lived on in the comedy skits and variety entertainment of radio and television.