Twenty-five cents would buy you a full afternoon or evening of live entertainment
in nearly any city or town between 1880 and 1930. At the local vaudeville
house you could enjoy eight to ten acts by magicians, singers, acrobats,
actors, trained animals, and comedians. The "variety stage"
might be filled by a Shakespearean troupe or an opera singer, and followed
by a blackface act, ragtime band, or sacred vocal quartet. The best, as
well as the worst, of these acts made sound recordings so that you could
enjoy your favorite routines again and again on your own phonograph.
More on the history vaudeville can be found at the website of the Library
of Congress exhibition, Bob
Hope and American Variety. - Samuel Brylawski, UC Santa
Barbara, Editor, Encyclopedic Discography of Victor Recordings.
An initiative of the UC Santa Barbara Library • (805) 893-5444 • Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9010. Direct questions or comments about the project or this page to the project staff or visit the help pages.
Faust. - Alessandro Bonci. (Edison Royal Purple Amberol: 29003), [1918].