Transcript I, Sarah Bernhardt

Broadway Musical
Vaudeville
Week 3
段馨君 Iris Hsin-chun Tuan
Associate Professor
Department of Humanities and Social
Sciences
NCTU
VAUDEVILLE
• In the early decades of the twentieth century,
vaudeville was so deeply established an
institution of respectable amusement that
Sarah Bernhardt shared bills with dog acts,
wire walkers, midgets, and contortionists.
Sarah Bernhardt
(1845-1923)
The famous French actress and comedienne
traveled to and toured in America nine times,
debuting in the States on November 8, 1880. Her
performances were critically acclaimed and she
was able to earn one thousand dollars per
performance based on her reputation alone.
Acts
• When “musicians” played
out of tune, on their heads
or with strange, unmusical
intruments, America laughed.
Class acts provided
refinement, particularly the
opera singers, ballet dancers,
virtuoso musicians and
theater legends who share.
The Palace Theatre, located at
1564 Broadway in Times Square,
was built by Martin Beck in 1913.
• The stars on the circuit excepted the most
prestigious spot on the bill, the spot just
before intermission or just before closing.
• Imagine the competitive climate in a business
where management booked only nine acts out
of the estimated twenty thousand available.
This 1913 how-to booklet for
would-be vaudevillians was
recently republished.
• George A. Gottlieb
booked for the Palace
Theater in New York
during the golden
days of vaudeville. He
explained how top
management laid out
the standard nine-act
bill.
Stereotypes in variety stage films
• We usually select a dumb act for the first act
on the bill.
• For number two position we select an
interesting act of the sort recognized as a
typical vaudeville act.
• With number three position we count on
waking up the audience.
• For number four position we must have a
“corker” of an act and a “name”.
• And here for number five position, a big act,
and the same time another big name, must be
presented.
• The first act after intermission,
number six on the bill, is
difficult position to fill.
• Very likely there is chosen a
strong vaudeville specialty,
with comedy well to the fore.
• Therefore, the second act after
intermission-number sevenmust be strong than the first.
• For here in number eight
position- next to closing, in a
nine-act bill- the comedy hit of
the show is usually placed.
Lillian Russell
“the American beauty”
• Therefore a sight act is chosen, an animal act
maybe, to please the children, or a Japanese
troupe with their gorgeous kimonos and
vividly harmonizing stage draperies, or a
troupe of white-clad trapeze artists flying
against a background of black.
• Whatever the act is, it must be a showy act.
• Vaudeville gave woman equal opportunity to
rise to stardom.
Colleen Hawks plays the Lillian Russell-like character in the Sunday
in the Park section of American Variety Bang!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asFuraZnmPE&feature=related
• Vaudeville attracted the best for “the best
entertainment money could buy. ”
Songs
• When a vaudeville baritone named Charles
Lawlor wrote “Sidewalks of New York,” the
response was so overwhelming that the song
became the unofficial anthem of the city of
the New York.
The song “Sidewalks of New York”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhmHS_
gLo28
Charles Lowlor
• Poise, skill, and an unrivaled talent for
dramatizing a song gave Miss Nora Bayes, “The
Famous International Singer of Songs,” one of
the great solo female acts of vaudeville.
• The “Divine” Sarah Bernhardt. Her physical
beauty, magnificent speaking voice, highly
theatrical acting style, and personal notoriety
ensured spectacularly successful vaudeville
engagements.
I, Sarah Bernhardt - The Divine
A promo Trailer for Robert W. Cabell's Nationally acclaimed one
woman show about the classical French Actress. The first
International Super Star. Directed by Peter McLean, starring
Louise Martin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtQ3sw6lVTU&feature=related
• The popular song in America developed in
form and content during the fifty years of
vaudeville’s ascendency.
• The early songs resorted invariably to sad
stories told in an intolerably long verse that
set up a sentimental refrain.
Nora Bayes - Just Like A Gypsy
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xej7i3_norabayes-just-like-a-gypsy_music#rel-page-1
Miss Nora Bayes
• When the vaudeville act was not musical,
• the bread and butter material became the
monologue, the two-act, and the vaudeville
sketch.
• the most successful two-acts depended on a
lot of physical business, usually slapstick.
Decline
• Vaudeville declined along with much in
America during the Depression of the late
1920s and 1930s .
• Unlike the minstrel show, which succumbed to
its own expansionist evolution into spectacle
and extravaganza, vaudeville died from
permanent and irreparable damage caused by
outside forces: the Depression, talking motion
pictures, radio, and nightclubs.
minstrel show video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfiNT6AKG0s
• Vaudeville demonstrated again the artistic
validity and business potential of a popular
art: one that speaks to and from all the
people.
• It confirms in from and process how
inherently attractive was the ingredient of
variety in maintaining audience attention.
• It lives on in television shows and in every
well-considered musical comedy score.
. Great duo does a Vaudeville act. - 1930
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ6Zh6UbQ-I
• I’m no prophet, but one thing seems certain,
and that is that vaudeville will always be with
us if for no other reason than its cheapness.
• Now, vaudeville theaters fall to make way for
office buildings and parking lots.
Prohibition(1920 -- 1933)
• A period of nearly fourteen years of U.S. history in
which the manufacture, sale, and transportation of
liquor was made illegal. It led to the first and only time
an Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was repealed.
• Prohibition was the period in
United States history in which the
manufacture, sale, and
transportation of intoxicating
liquors was outlawed. It was a
time characterized by speakeasies,
glamor, and gangsters and a
period of time in which even the
average citizen broke the law.
Marilyn Miller (1898.09.01- 1936.04.07)
• The most popular Broadway musical
stars of the 1920s and early 1930s.
• She was an accomplished tap
dancer, singer and actress.
• She's enormous popularity and
famed image were in distinct
contrast to her personal life, which
was marred by disappointment,
tragedy, frequent illness, and
ultimately her sudden death due to
complications of nasal surgery at
age 37.
Video link：Look for the Silver Lining
Musical Comedies
• The origins of musical comedy begin with
the French composer Hervé, who is
credited with the development of the
operetta.
• The first show of this kind that actually
originated in the United States is thought
to have been The Black Crook, which
opened in New York in 1866.
• A musical comedy is a theatre production
that incorporates musical numbers into
the story.
Hervé
Video link：The Black Crook
• Glamorous musical numbers that involve catchy music,
beautiful costuming, and, occasionally, even special
effects are also an important element.
• It is this element that arises from the genre's roots in
burlesque and operetta productions.
• Musical comedy has its roots in French productions
from the mid-19th century. The style spread and
continued to develop in the United States throughout
the 20th century.
• Various recurring features tend to be mainstays of
musical comedy.
Video link：Musical comedy-Book of Mormon Musical Opening Number - Hello
Al Jolson( 1886.05.26 – 1950.10.23)
• An American singer, film actor,
and comedian. At the peak of his
career, he was dubbed "The
World's Greatest Entertainer“
• He is best remembered today as
the star of the first 'talking
picture', The Jazz Singer (1927).
• Numerous well-known singers
were influenced by his music,
including Bing Crosby, David
Bowie, Bob Dylan and others.
Al Jolson
Video link：The Jazz Singer
• He enjoyed performing in blackface
makeup, a theatrical convention
since the mid 19th century.
• With his unique and dynamic style of
singing black music, such as jazz and
blues, he was later credited with
single-handedly introducing AfricanAmerican music to white audiences.
• As early as 1911 he became known
for fighting against black
discrimination on Broadway.
Shuffle Along
• An African-American musical revue
with music and lyrics by Noble Sissle
and Eubie Blake, and a connecting
plot about a mayoral race, written by
Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles.
• The piece premiered on Broadway in
1921, running for 504 performances
– an unusually long run during that
decade.
Video link：Shuffle Along
The Charleston
• The Charleston is a dance named
for the harbor city of Charleston,
South Carolina.
• The rhythm was popularized in
mainstream dance music in the
United States by a 1923 tune called
"The Charleston" by
composer/pianist James P. Johnson
which originated in the Broadway
show Runnin' Wild and became
one of the most popular hits of the
decade.
James P. Johnson
Video link： Runnin' Wild