Bway History Midterm 2

"But vaudeville was not always vaudeville. Not so long ago we drew our knees under a roughly made round table in another playhouse. Our seat was a hard-bottomed chair, or perhaps it was a bench. We scraped our feet on the sawdusted floor, and signalled a waiter to bring a mug of beer and plate of pretzels..."

"In the Days of Variety" by Bert Lowry in 1927 -describes vaudeville vs variety, mentions secure salary

"The house was fluttering with fans" "High-minded and scrutinizing management" Description of the little miss act "'Don't you know me? Nellie! Nellie!'"

"A Vaudeville Turn" by Cyrus Townsend Brady 1901

"The sight of other people in trouble is nearly always funny." "It was not until I was able to see myself as another person that my sense of humor developed." "Nobody" "For seven whole years I had to sing it."

"The Original and the Echo" by Bert Williams and Eddie Leonard, 1918, we only read the Bert WIlliams part

"Notice to Performers: You are hereby warned that your act must be free from all vulgarity and suggestiveness in words, action, and costume..." "- General Manager"

"The Vaudeville Theatre" by Edwin Milton Royle 1899

"They are the only theatres in New York where I should feel absolutely safe in taking a young girl without making preliminary inquiries. Though they may offend the taste, they never offend one's sense of decency."

"The Vaudeville Theatre" by Edwin Milton Royle 1899

"Two things I determined at the outset should prevail in the new scheme. One was that my fixed policy of cleanliness and order should be continued, and the other that the stage show must be free from vulgarisms and coarseness of any kind, so that the house and entertainment would directly appeal to the support of ladies and children..."

"The Vogue of Vaudeville" B.F. Keith 1898

"The character of the vaudeville audience has notably improved in recent years, and the entertainment of today is freely patronized and enjoyed by the most intelligent and cultivated people..."

"The Vogue of Vaudeville" B.F. Keith 1898 -cabbage beef hobo -continuous bill

"All at once the full formed idea was made plain, and I never hesitated in putting it into execution. It was clear that the majority of people would stay through an entertainment so long as they could, even sitting out acts that had to be repeated.... Well, that is one of the things the continuous performance does away with. It matters not at what hour of the day or evening you visit, the theatre is always occupied by more or less people... "

"The Vogue of Vaudeville" by B.F. Keith 1898

"For the benefit of those who have never enjoyed a vaudeville show of the continuous order, I might explain that it is designed to run twelve hours, during which period performers appear two or three times, as it would be manifestly impossible to secure enough different acts to fill out the dozen hours..."

"The Vogue of Vaudeville" by B.F. Keith 1898 (remember founder)

"When I reached New York I was completely lost. I could not have felt more a stranger had I been suddenly dropped into Constantinople." "I went to Coney Island and the other resorts, took in the pre-season shows along Broadway, and ate at first class restaurants; but I shunned the old Sixth Avenue district as if it were pest infested"

The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man

"New York City is the most fatally fascinating thing in America. She sits like a great witch at the gate of the country, showing her alluring white face and hiding her crooked hands and feet under the folds of her wide garments—constantly enticing thousands from far within, and tempting those who come from across the seas to go no farther. And all these become the victims of her caprice. Some she at once crushes beneath her cruel feet; others she condemns to a fate like that of galley slaves; a few she favors and fondles, riding them high on the bubbles of fortune; then with a sudden breath she blows the bubbles out and laughs mockingly as she watches them fall."

The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, by James Weldon Johnson in 1912 - as a Black man -first time experiencing ragtime -emotional fervor, living full life

"America is God's Crucible, the great Melting-Pot where all the races of Europe are melting and re-forming! Here you stand, good folk, think I, when I see them at Ellis Island, here you stand in your fifty groups, with your fifty languages and histories, and your fifty blood hatreds and rivalries. But you won't be long like that, brothers, for these are the fires of God you've come to---these are the fires of God. A fig for your feuds and vendettas! Germans and Frenchmen, Irishmen and Englishmen, Jews and Russians---into the Crucible with you all! God is making the American. . . .the real American has not yet arrived. He is only in the Crucible, I tell you---he will be the fusion of all races, the coming superman. Ah, what a glorious Finale for my symphony---if I can only write it."

The Melting Pot, by Israel Zangwill. Premiered in 1908

MENDEL: Have a little patience, you'll soon learn our ways. KATHLEEN: Whose ways, yours or the ould lady's or Mr. David's? Tonight being your Sabbath, you'll be blowing out yer bedroom candle, though ye won't light it; Mr. David'll light his and blow it out too; and the misthress won't even touch the candleshtick. There's three religions in this house, not wan.

The Melting Pot, by Israel Zangwill. Premiered in 1908 Amalgamation, behavior not same as identity, patchwork America

"DAVID: There she lies, the great Melting Pot—listen! Can't you hear the roaring and the bubbling? There gapes her mouth [He points east]—the harbour where a thousand mammoth feeders come from the ends of the world to pour in their human freight. Ah, what a stirring and a seething! Celt and Latin, Slav and Teuton, Greek and Syrian,—black and yellow— VERA: Jew and Gentile— DAVID: Yes, East and West, and North and South, the palm and the pine, the pole and the equator, the crescent and the cross—how the great Alchemist melts and fuses them with his purging flame! Here shall they all unite to build the Republic of Man and the Kingdom of God. Ah, Vera, what is the glory of Rome and Jerusalem where all nations and races come to worship and look back, compared with the glory of America, where all races and nations come to labour and look forward?"

The Melting Pot, by Israel Zangwill. Premiered in 1908. Diasporic Nationalism With the rest of the play in consideration, especially on the character level, this could be an amalgamationist statement compare to Madison Grant's assimilation: "obliterate immemorial hereditary tendencies"

"MENDEL: Many countries have gathered us. Holland took us when we were driven from Spain -- but we did not become Dutchmen. Turkey took us when Germany oppressed us, but we have not become Turks. You are mad already, your dreams are mad, the Jew is hated here as everywhere."

The Melting Pot, by Israel Zangwill. Premiered in 1908. Diasporic Nationalism talk about play in wide and character, compare to Madison Grant's 1916 "The Passing of the Great Race:" "the pathetic and fatuous belief in the efficacy of AMerican institutions and environment to reverse or obliterate immemorial hereditary tendencies."

"MENDEL: Many countries have gathered us. Holland took us when we were driven from Spain -- but we did not become Dutchmen. Turkey took us when Germany oppressed us, but we have not become Turks. You are mad already, your dreams are mad, the Jew is hated here as everywhere."

The Melting Pot, by Israel Zangwill. Premiered in 1908. Diasporic Nationalism talk about play in wide and character, compare to Madison Grant's 1916 "The Passing of the Great Race:" "the pathetic and fatuous belief in the efficacy of AMerican institutions and environment to reverse or obliterate immemorial hereditary tendencies." could relate to The Jazz Singer! 1927

Racial Passing

What: In James Weldon Johnson's Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, he explores a biracial man's passing as white through showing his different perceptions of the world depending on whether or not he was embracing his identity as a Black man or a white man. Published in 1912

Theatrical Entertainment 1880-1900

What: In the 1880s-1900s, theatrical entertainment had to compete with all the other forms of urban leisure, so changes which were taking place already sped up. This included the development of electric stage lighting, specialization of performers, naturalistic acting styles, tech rehearsals, and changes in the contents of the bill to be only one play at a time performed in a long run.

Commercial leisure

When: 1870s-1910s and 20s Where: New York What: During the late 19th century and early 20th century, there was a rise of cheap urban amusements and an urban landscape centered around commercial leisures. On a broad scale, this involved the development of spheres within a city specifically devoted to leisure, including sets of buildings and streets quartered off from the workplace. To be admitted to spheres, one had to have money.

Rise and Fall of Vaudeville

When: 1870s-1920s Where: USA What: Producers called empresarios borrowed the French term "vaudeville" to create both elevated European appeal and intrigue for the salacious, and they created a variety show circuit which catered to middle class respectability, women and children. These shows used the nine-act bill, and later the continuous bill, and they had strict rules banning profanity and alcohol. They had a "something for everyone" mentality and were strictly family friendly.

Charles Parsloe

When: 1877 played Ah Sin Where: US What: Charles Parsloe played the character Ah Sin, and then went on to play the Stage Chinaman many more times. It launched his career. He was praised for giving a truthful portrayal of a Chinese man on stage.

Stage Chinaman

When: 1877 premiere Where: USA What: The Stage Chinamen first appeared in the play Ah Sin and was a form of racist impersonation of Chinese people. The character Ah Sin was portrayed as incapable of arousing sympathy. The Stage Chinaman was also used as a dramatic feat considered "uniquely American," like other racial stock characters, and from a post-show speech from Mark Twain it can be seen that the Stage Chinaman was intended as an actual representation of Chinese people.

The Nine-Act Bill

When: 1880 Where: New York City What: Created by Tony Pastor for his family-friendly variety shows, the nine-act bill was used by vaudeville show and its general structure still lives on today. It included a short dramatic play in the second act, often of a son saying goodbye to his family, which appealed to immigrant audiences, and it ended with a chaser to cycle in a new audience. Used the "something for everyone" mentality of Barnum's entertainment, but everything was on one stage.

Immigration Integration

When: 1880s and on What: Vaudeville became important to immigration integration in the United States. Most vaudeville performers were immigrants, such as Harry Houdini, who was a Hungarian Jew. Some immigrant performers based their acts around their identities while others largely ignored it.

Vice tourism

When: 1880s and onto around the turn of the century Where: Chinatown What: White tourists went to Chinatowns as a way to supposedly experience Chinese culture, in a similar vein of thought to native villages. To survive financially, Chinatowns catered towards white voyeurism with vice tourism, allowing white people to feel morally superior to prostitution and opium dens, much of which were staged including staged police raids and representation in wax works.

Electric Stage Lighting

When: 1880s-1900 What: Electric Stage Lighting was used first in London, and then quickly picked up by American theatres. One could not gradually turn them higher and lower, but they were much safer, less odorous, much cooler, and much brighter. It was now possible to manipulate lighting on stage for mood and more complex lighting systems.

Electric Streetcars

When: 1880s-90s Where: New York What: in the 1880s and 90s, people turned away from cable cars to electric streetcars. These were important to transit in relation to the newly developed urban leisure zones and they were part of the transformation of the city to a place of urban leisure.

Tony Pastor

When: 1881 Where: New York City What: Tony Pastor created the nine-act bill, and used it in variety shows catered towards women and children which would later become known as vaudeville. He figured he could double ticket sales to his variety if women came, so he advertised matinees for women and children, banned alcohol, and had raffles for items associated with the home and children. He associated the shows with elevated Europeanness, like vaudeville.

Chinese Exclusion Act

When: 1882 Where: USA What: This was the first national legislation to bar all members of an ethnic/national group from coming into America. It was the culmination of anti-Chinese sentiment that had built up in response to Chinese laborers forming communities on the East and West coasts, and it also proved that the anti-Chinese sentiment was not about economic concern but really mainly racism.

Al Jolson/Asa Yoelson

When: 1886-1950. Jazz singer 1927 Where: US What: Al Jolson began performing as the Jolson brothers. One day, he switched roles with his brother and played the comic character, and he completely bombed. But when he did it with blackface on, he was instantly recognized as a brilliant comic and dance performer, with a 7 minute standing ovation. He pushed for the integration of the American stage racially while regularly performing in blackface.

Jacob Riis

When: 1890 Where: regarding New York City What: Jacob Riis wrote How the Other Half Lives, a work of photojournalism documenting the poor living conditions of Italian and Jewish ethnic enclaves in New York City. He used ethnic stereotypes and religious prejudice when describing them and linked them to dirt and poverty but also monetary greed. The ethnic threat of these new immigrants represented the dangerous urban poor.

Harry Houdini/Ehrich Weiss

When: 1893 Chicago World's Fair performance What: A Hungarian Jew born in Budapest, Harry Houdini performed with his brother as the "Brothers Houdini" as an escape artist in 1893. He toured the country and became a celebrity internationally and in the USA. He was an immigrant figure and some viewed his act as a metaphor for freeing himself from constraining religious traditions.

In Dahomey

When: 1903 What: Put on by Bert Williams and his performance partner George Walker. The first musical to have an all-Black cast. Opened at a huge theatre in Long Acre Square and was performed in blackface.

Subway

When: 1904 What: Part of the development of the vertical New York City included underground development and subterranean movement. In 1904, the New York subway opened, and two lines of the subway intersected in Times Square, making it the center of New York. The subway system was sealed off from the electric streetcar system and more dramatically fixed routes, and therefore routines. It sped up the growth of urban transit, therefore also contributing to the growth of urban leisure zones.

Ziegfeld Follies

When: 1907 to 1931 What: The first Broadway Musical Review, with no narrative, used elements of vaudeville, tableaux vivant, huge spectacle costumes and sets, half-dressed girls while still being considered refined entertainment. Ziegfeld eventually employed many vaudeville stars, such as Fanny Brice. Preserved Pastor's 9-Act Bill

"Take me Out to the Ball Game"

When: 1908 What: In this song, written in 1908, a character named Katie Casey specifically refers to a form of cheap commercial urban leisure, baseball, as a date idea. She uses the modern notion of "treating," and also displays baseball's status as a sport suitable enough for women at the time while still adopting some of the practices of the house in old theatre. Is about heterosocial dating in the early 20th century.

Irving Berlin/Israel Baline

When: 1911 Alexander's Ragtime Band Where: Tin Pan Alley, NYC What: A renowned American composer who was a Jew born in Russia. He wrote Alexander's Ragtime Band in 1911, and like the bulk of his music, there is no mention of his Jewishness but only of Americanness. He infused elements of ragtime into the minstrelsy song "Old Folks at Home" to write "Alexander's Ragtime Band."

Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man

When: 1912 Where: America What: Published by James Weldon Johnson, a figure in the Harlem Renaissance, in 1912, the Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man addresses white-passing in the United States and what it means to experience life in the United States as a Black versus as a white man. In The Autobiography, the main character describes New York and financial structures in differing terms depending on whether it was before or after he decided to no longer embrace the Black part of his identity. Through the novel, James Weldon Johnson also relates Black cultural expression with a pinnacle of human emotion unlike any other entertainment.

Roseanne

When: 1923 Where: US What: Roseanne was a Negro social drama which premiered in 1923 with an all-white cast playing all Black characters. It faced heavy criticism for this, and after it eventually reopened with an all Black cast, it achieved success with critics. Although the contents of the play were problematic and featured a Black woman calling for the lynching of a Black man, the success of the all-Black cast contributed to the integration of the US stage by helping end the playing of Black characters by white people.

All God's Chillun Got Wings

When: 1924 What: A play starring renowned Black actor and singer Paul Robeson, in which there was the first interracial relationship depicted with an actual Black actor with a white actress. The production received death threats for performing and after that it took a long, long time before another interracial couple was portrayed in entertainment. Same time there were anti-miscegenation laws everywhere.

The Jazz Singer

When: 1927 Where: US What: The Jazz Singer is a film made in 1927, at the end of a huge wave of Jewish immigration met with contentious discourse about US immigration structures. The film itself portrays a young man's conflicts between becoming a figure in American secular show business and staying a cantor for his own Jewish religion, but it does not assume that show business and being Jewish are clearly parallel to a dichotomy between secular and spiritual. In fact, the main character's role as a performer is addressed with spiritual acceptance and the film does not enforce that one has to choose between cultural preservation and integration into American traditions.

Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt

When: 1927 The Jazz Singer Where: US What: Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt achieved fame in Germany as a cantor who recorded and released albums. He had a role in the 1927 movie The Jazz Singer as himself. He was offered roles in show business which ensured that he would not at all have to compromise his pious traditions, and he maintained his personality as a devout Jewish man even while being a successful performer. He is an example of how immigrants did not have to choose between cultural preservation and integration.

Jack Robin in Blackface

When: 1927 The Jazz Singer Where: US What: In The Jazz Singer, the main character blacking up his face before a performance is a crucial plot moment, and it was expected of the renowned actor Al Jolson. The portrayal of blackface in the film marks a change in the reception of blackface by American audiences, in that it was no longer a consensus that the audience was to believe the performer was actually black. Because of blackface's association with Americanness, it could be a defiant insistence of their whiteness by Jews, or it could signify a belief in the affinity between Jews and Black people because of their suffering.

James Weldon Johnson

When: Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man published in 1912 Where: America, important figure in Harlem Renaissance/New Negro Movement What: James Weldon Johnson was a figure in the Harlem Renaissance/New Negro Movement in the 1920s, and he published his novel, Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man in 1912. He composed songs with his brother, including one which was declared the Black national anthem by the NAACP. He was the first Black person to be Secretary of the NAACP.

Florenz Ziegfeld

When: Follies in 1907, Showboat in 1936 What: A broadway impresario

New Immigrants

When: Gilded/Progressive Era, 1880s to 1920s Where: New York City What: In the 1880s-1920s, a wave of immigrants called the "new immigrants" entered New York City, many of them Jews from places in Southern and Eastern Europe. At this time, Italian Catholics and Jewish Yiddish-speakers became the two groups in NYC which represented the urban poor. Both groups faced xenophobic and racist ridicule and found enclaves in the city. Most Jews came in families to stay, escaping pogroms in their home nations.

World's Fairs

When: In America, began with the Philadelphia Exhibition in 1876 Where: United States What: Beginning with the Philadelphia Exhibition in 1876, the US regularly had World's Fairs which were playgrounds of urban leisure with massive attendance numbers. They provided inspiration for more regular forms of leisure.

Negro Social Dramas

When: Roseanne in 1923 What: Negro social dramas were plays by white writers about African American people. They aimed to address serious struggles faced by Black people, such as lynching, poverty, and different forms of violence. Many tended to confirm Black stereotypes and use Black character conventions and were disliked by Black political and cultural leaders. One drama, Roseanne, however, despite its problematic content did contribute to the desegregation of the US stage and the ending of white people playing Black characters.

Nan Bagby Stephens

When: Roseanne in 1923 Where: US What: Nan Bagby Stephens is the white author of Roseanne, a Negro social drama which...

Sacralization of the Theater

When: The Jazz Singer in 1927 Where: US What: In the Jazz Singer, Jakie Rabinowitz' mother makes a clearly non-secular remark recalling God accepting that he is a performer. Jakie performs both in the synagogue and on stage, and they are not opposed to each other as clearly secular or non-secular. This is also evident in the opening text of the film, which compares jazz to a prayer and referring to the expression of soul and spirit in jazz. Rather than the notion that to participate in theater, one has to secularize and give up their origin culture, the film makes a two-way equivalence between the two when Jakie insists that his audience is just as moved as a cantor's audience is in a synagogue. The sacralization of theater in the film does not enforce that an immigrant must choose between cultural preservation and integration.

The Great Migration

When: a burst in the mid-19teens Where: US What: The Great Migration occurred throughout the first half of the 20th century, and there was a burst in the mid-19teens. It was an empatterned movement of people of color to cities in the Midwest and the coasts, with Black populations in New York going from 1 out of 70 people to 1 out of 9. This explains the roots of why the terms "urban" and "inner-city" seem to be related to African American populations while before the Great Migration they were largely an agricultural, rural population. Also, the population of Black people in New York centered in Harlem, providing the home of the The New Negro movement, also known as the Harlem Renaissance.

Fanny Brice/Fania Boruch

When: active beginning in 1910s and 20s Where: USA What: Fanny Brice is a renowned example of an immigrant performer who portrayed her Jewish identity on stage. One such act was performing Irving Berlin's song, "Yiddle on Your Fiddle," which she would sing in a fake Yiddish accent. This is one of the only times Irving Berlin expressed Jewishness in his work, and he did it through a woman who made Jewishness central to her act.

Eddie Cantor/Israel Iskovitz

When: active in the early 20th century Where: USA What: A vaudeville performer who handled Jewish portrayals very differently from Fanny Brice. He portrayed Jews as fast-talking, a style which becomes central to American comedy. He is one example how the stage is a primary vehicle through which Jewish cultural genealogies are delivered.

Mercantile tourism

When: around the beginning of the 20th century Where: Chinatowns What: Vice tourism in Chinatowns was later replaced by mercantile tourism, still selling the idea of presenting an authentic experience of traveling to China with facades of buildings designed to look Chinese. "Go to China for the day." But instead of selling sex and voyeur, they were selling restaurant food catered to white palettes and trinkets.

Native Villages

When: at World's Fairs in late 19th century and early 20th century Where: World's Fairs in the US What: Native villages were attractions at World's Fairs which attempted to recreate ethnic enclaves. They were highly staged and included "native" dress, dances, and theatre. They were a form of exotic display and were supposed to be a proxy for travel.

Harlem Renaissance

When: began approximately in 1920, The New Negro written in 1925 Where: Harlem, New York What: The Harlem Renaissance, known as The New Negro movement, was a flowering of Black art centered in Harlem, New York in the 1920s. It flourished after the establishment of an educated Black professional and artistic population after the Great Migration and the establishment of Black colleges. Some historians argue that the term "Renaissance" involves a racist erasure of decades of Black literary culture in America. It was known at the time as The New Negro movement and described by Langston Hughes as by Black people and for Black people.

Continuous Bill

When: began in 1880s Where: USA What: These were vaudeville shows which would play continuous daily performances, with audiences switching out through the day. It ran for about 12 hours, and the chaser act was intended to cycle out the audience.

The Department Store

When: during last 3rd of 19th century Where: cities What: By the end of the 19th century, all cities had several massive department stores with a one price system, the expectation of browsing, and a central architectural place in the city. A forerunner to these massive stores was AT Stewart's iron palace. These stores reinforced the nature of cities as cities of strangers and was more impersonal than the old style of open air markets.

The Broadway Musical Revue

When: first Ziegfeld Follies in 1907 What: Broadway Musical Revues took on the huge spectacle elements of a show like The Black Crook, large, elaborate sets and lavish aesthetics and venues, and placed them in the a nine-act bill format of a vaudeville show. These were the bridge between vaudeville and the formation of the musical.

OJ Gude

When: first electric sign in 1892. By 1910 Broadway was full of them. Where: Times Square What: OJ Gude was an outdoor advertising entrepreneur who first developed permanent, painted billboard and later pioneered electric signage in New York and the establishment of about a mile of electric signs down Broadway, known as spectaculars, becoming the icon of Times Square.

Negro Musical Revues

When: first one, Shuffle Along, in 1921 What: Negro Musical Revues were an element contributing to the desegregation of the US stage. The first one was Shuffle Along, written by Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle. They were the all-Black version of Broadway musical revues, which did not have a narrative through-line. The Revues did, however, give romantic portrayals of Black people which had not often been seen. These Revues contributed to the desegregation of the US stage because through their mass success, Black movement became integrated into American culture. This can be seen when Ziegfeld asked the dancers from Shuffle Along to teach choreography to the white dancers in his own Revue.

Coney Island

When: in the 1890s, Coney Island took a turn for the spectacular Where: 9 miles from Manhattan, New York City What: Coney Island had been an established elite recreation site, but by the 1890s, Steeplechase Park opened, and the four years later, Luna Park opened with installations from the Buffalo World'S Fair. The working class and middle class would attend and entertain themselves on varieties of rides based on what was considered exotic lands. Dreamland opened next, attempting to reconstruct cityscapes of foreign locales. This was an early amusement park, secluded in a separate sphere from the working city.

From Gaslight to Electricity

When: last 3rd of 19th century Where: New York What: While gaslight offered partial illumination, electricity offered an illuminated world of leisure at night suitable for people visiting alone. It contributed to the flattening out of the contrast between inside safety and outside danger. With the construction of arc lights and fixed electric signs, the Great White Way welcomed all city people in an artificial nocturnal landscape. Night time leisure promised illuminated relief from the day's burden.

Glass, color, and light

When: last 3rd of 19th century Where: cities What: Department stores, which arose in the last 3rd of the 19th century, used glass, color, and light to create urban spectacles, emphasizing the display of the goods. These tactics had traditionally been used by churches and government as displays of power, but were now the aesthetic center of commercial department stores. Glass in particular emphasized the status of the products as accessible visibly but not in any other way unless one has the money to buy it.

Vertical cityscape

When: last thirty years of the 19th century What: Over the course of the last thirty years of the 19th century, New York developed a unique skyline of skyscrapers. In 1875, Newspaper's Row, tall buildings which were home to big New York newspapers, began to form a skyline. Buildings there include the World/Pulitzer Building. Times Square represented the growth of the vertical city not only through the Times newspaper building, but also as the center of a developing underground with an extensive subway system.

Vertical cityscape

When: last thirty years of the 19th century What: Over the course of the last thirty years of the 19th century, New York developed a unique skyline of skyscrapers. In 1875, Newspaper's Row, tall buildings which were home to big New York newspapers, began to form a skyline. Times building in 1905. Buildings there include the World/Pulitzer Building. Times Square represented the growth of the vertical city not only through the Times newspaper building, but also as the center of a developing underground with an extensive subway system.

Cake Walk

When: late 19th century What: Bert Williams and his performance partner George Walker made this dance popular in their act the "Two Real Coons." It was originally a dance from plantations where Black slaves would make farces of their masters. This act ended up being so popular it was picked up in the vaudeville circuit.

Realism/Naturalism

When: late 19th century What: Stage realism/naturalism is an acting style which emerged in the late-19th century which moved away from the dramatic oratory style of theatrical acting and instead aimed to represent dialogue and people onstage as similarly as possible to real life. It also included visual realism (verisimilitude). This is one of the elements which contributed to the desegregation of the US stage, because it eventually seemed ridiculous to have white people playing Black characters onstage. This can be seen in the criticism of the play Roseanne and consequent replacement of all actors with Black actors.

Anti-Chinese sentiment

When: late 19th century Where: US What: Chinese immigrants in the mid to late 19th century to US were met with racist sentiment. While some try to justify this hostility as based on labor competition, the rhetoric used in denouncing Chinese people was based in race and not just economic anxiety. This can be seen in Denis Kearney's push for anti-Chinese legislation with his founding of the Workingman's Party in 1877.

Variety Show

When: late 19th century early 20th century What: Since variety entertainment moved out of theatres, which now showed single plays at one time, it was split into three circuits of variety shows: burlesque, concert saloons, and vaudeville. The gig economy developed, with groups going on tour and moving from venue to venue. These were segmented into audiences as well, with vaudeville newly created to cater to middle class people who valued respectability.

Working girl

When: mid 19th century before and on Where: cities What: This phrase shows that any woman working outside of domestic spaces was considered morally and sexually suspect. Actresses are the epitome of the "working girl" idea of female financial stability being associated with sexual display and other morally suspect activities. Actresses released themselves from financial dependance on men, but at the same time put themselves on public display.

Bert Williams

When: prominent onstage between the 1890s and 1920, In Dahomey in 1903 What: Bert Williams was a Black performer and the first African American performer to gain renown within the United States. He performed in Coon Shows, performing in blackface. Some argue to him and his performance partner subverted Black stereotypes by reinforcing the division between the Black characters and themselves. Ziegfeld offered him a contract, and as the only Black actor he faced judgment like performers quitting b/c they didn't want to perform with a Black man. He didn't appear onstage with any white women. Bert Williams became an extremely celebrated performer and produced an all Black musical, In Dahomey performed in Blackface. Bert Williams has been seen as a tragic figure for basing his career and characters off of loss and isolation, which he experienced himself as a Black person performing for white people which did not always have the approval of other Black people. He played characters that deprecated Black people yet was able to have a lucrative career because of it. He knew this and felt sadness from it.

Play as Work

Where: America When: 1919 What: People typically assume that since theatre is a form of entertainment, theatre workers are not doing real labor. In reality, theatre deals with a show business of carefully calibrated commercial activity. People's perceptions began changing after the 1919 Actors' Equity Strike, during which the American Federation of Labor recognized Actors Equity and the conception of labor workers expanded to include more than just industrial workers.

Yiddish Theatre

Where: Began in Europe, became prominent in the US When: late 19th century and 1920s What: Yiddish Theatre began in Europe and became prominent in the US. It featured romantic musicals, skits about Jewish immigrants, and more. It was very popular in New York, and some vaudeville skits came from Yiddish Theatre. On one hand, it was exclusive to this immigrant group because only they could understand it. On the other hand, Yiddish theatre put on Shakespeare, which kept immigrants connected to an experience and literature shared by all Americans. Hollywood also began to produce films directed at diasporas, so on one hand this type of entertainment maintained diasporic ties, and on the other facilitated adaptation to a new world.

Neon

Where: Broadway What: By the late 1920s, the Great White Way was not just full of white lights but also other colors as well, because of neon lighting. This meant that electric signs stood out not just at night but all day.

The Great Drought

Where: New York When: 1919 What: Alcohol was prohibited. In 1925, the government of New York made it clear that they were not planning on enforcing the Volstead Act, which banned alcohol. Underground speakeasies came about, which skated the law. The Great Drought also altered economics and supported the growth of underground gay culture in the US, particularly in Times Square.

Raine's Law Hotels

Where: New York City When: 1896 What: In 1896, the Raine's Law by the New York Legislature banned bars from serving alcohol on Sundays, among other restrictions, and this was a direct attack on urban immigrants and the working class. The law excepted hotels, and the working class only had Sunday off, so bars made themselves into so-called hotels with rooms upstairs where people engaged in sexual activities and they served alcohol. This also came with the growth of commercial sex between men and other transgressive activities. The Slide was known as the center of homosexual sex.

Spectacular

Where: New York City, Times Square When: 1892 first electric sign, developed by 1910 What: This was the name given to the electric signs, as developed by OJ Gude. These signs lined Times Square and became an iconic electrical landscape. They were zoned, and not allowed on 5th avenue, which resulted in their conglomeration in the theatre district.

Electrical cityscape

Where: New York, Broadway What: As buildings in New York got taller, they became beacons of light. This is epitomized in the lighting of the Woolworth building in 1913. This building represented both the vertical and the electric city. The electrical cityscape grew in 1892 when the first electric sign was installed, and eventually by 1910 developed to create what is known as the Great White Way.

Times Square Nightclubs

Where: Times Square When: 1919 (1912-1916) What: By 1919, Times Square was a space not only for theatrical entertainment but also for restaurants and cafes. These spaces turned themselves into nightclubs, creating a cabaret culture where patrons would enjoy live entertainment while they ate. This became another way venues at Times Square sold theatrical experiences. In 1912-1916, there was a huge dance craze and lots of clubs became dance halls, such as Rector's.

Times Square as Gay Center

Where: Times Square When: 1919, prohibition era What: Gay men were well-represented in the world of theatre, which was more tolerant and became more tolerant of same-sex non-comformativity after prohibition, which was viewed on an attack on the urban city. They were able to form a culture around the underground speakeasies, because they were shielded from policemen already.

Madison Grant

Where: US When: 1916 What: Madison Grant was a lawyer and a supporter of the eugenics movement. In 1916, he expressed the notion that Polish Jews were inherently incapable of assimilation no matter what American behaviors they may adopt. He also wrote on ideas of there being three European races, showing clearly that the anti-immigrant sentiments of the time were based on racial theory. It was a mainstream political ideology in the US to believe that American political structure was incompatible with the "lesser" white races.

Emergency Quota Act

Where: US When: 1921 What: The 1921 Emergency Quota Act maintained Chinese exclusion, limited European immigration per group to 3 percent of the foreign-born population, and set a total limit of 350,000 immigrants per year. The 1924 Johnson-Reed Act made these restrictions permanent, and lowered the total limit even more. These legal acts were based on arguments of the inability of certain "races" of white people to assimilate.

Johnson-Reed Act

Where: US When: 1924 What: It made the 1921 Emergency Quota Act restrictions permanent, and tightened restrictions even more. The arguments for these legal restrictions were based on the mainstream US ideology that certain "races" of Europeans were incapable of assimilating to American social cultural structures.

Strategies of Immigration Integration

Where: US When: Melting Pot put on in 1908, Emergency Quota Act in 1921, Johnson-Reed Act in 1924 What: There is a constant debate regarding immigration over assimilation over amalgamation. Assimilation is largely associated with the idea of the "melting pot," the phrase being made popular because of the 1908 play of the same name, and it involves the strategy of adopting the culture, habits, and behaviors of the nation one moves to. Assimilation assumes that cultural preservation and adopting the new culture are two mutually exclusive feats. This is opposed to amalgamation, which is associated with cultural preservation. It is an additive notion that cultures in a nation can be preserved, while still being considered, in our case, American, like a patchwork quilt. A new culture is created that is the added sum of all the cultures. Aside from adoption and cultural preservation, diasporic nationalism is having pride for the diaspora of people you live with more than for any home country.

Israel Zangwill

Where: US When: The Melting Pot in 1908 What: Israel Zangwill was the british Jewish writer of the play, The Melting Pot, which popularized the phrase as the predominant metaphor for US immigration structures. when writing about the melting pot make sure to talk about immigration restriction laws as backed on weird racial theories of three separate races, and also world war I and bad politics

The Melting Pot

Where: US When: first production 1908 What: The Melting Pot is a play by the British Jew, Israel Zangwill. The play made the term "melting pot," when referring to America, popular. The phrase became the predominant metaphor for US immigration structures, and the ending scene seems to be a moment of triumphant assimilation. On the character level of the play, however, the play seems to have more of an amalgamationist message, as seen by the Irish immigrant character Kathleen's adoption of aspects of Hebrew identity, and the use of a Slavic dance in the bonding of a Jewish and Irish character. Mendel in the play advocates for Diasporic nationalism, which is having pride foremost for the specific diaspora you live in, not a home nation.

Immigration Restriction League

Where: US When: 1894 created What: Created by Progressives. Many progressive causes were centered around the "purification" of the immigrant city and supposedly destructive cultural habits. There was a big wave of xenophobia and nativism around the early 1900s. As seen in a comic from the 1890s, Progressivism included nativism and xenophobia, portraying immigrants as threats aesthetically, religiously, politically, and more. The nativism resulted in the creation of the Immigration Restriction League.

Feminization of shopping

Where: cities What: The feminization of shopping allowed women to have a space to travel alone in public without insinuating that they were prostitutes, or street walkers. The new shopping places of department stores were considered feminine enough, safe enough, and appropriate enough for women. This also consolidated the idea of shopping being a leisure activity, not simply a chore. The feminization of shopping gave rise to a kind of female spectator, and advertising directed towards women, which is novel compared to the urban dominated by male gaze. About 90 percent of consumption was controlled by women.

Furnished room apartments

Where: cities When: 1900 What: By the 1900s, the idea had developed that young people should move out of their parents' home and live alone. Many young immigrant women, called by reformers "women adrift," lived alone in cities in boarding houses or furnished room apartments. This lead to their demand for the cheap urban entertainments, and they would gain access to these through dating. This was part of the sexualization of commerce as associated with commercial leisure.

Actresses as "public women"

Where: on stage What: Despite the feminization of public space, when women went in public they were still associated with showing themselves off for consumption. Actresses were openly available to gaze, but not touch, and there is a continuing notion that actresses have given up the visual rights of their own bodies. This was all despite the diminishing of sex work in public spaces.

Treating

Where: urban When: towards the end of the 19th century What: Towards the end of the 19th century, treating changed from a form of just sex exchange to the form of buying a girl ice cream or other items of urban amusement in exchange for acknowledging the romantic or sexual character of the relationship. This was part of the development of romantic thoughtfulness being expressed through financial expenditure through cheap urban amusements.

The Great War and U.S. Immigration

Where; US When: 1914 What: World War I was a turning point in US immigration policy. The birth of the Soviet Union intensified fear that immigrants were bringing in "bad politics" like anarchism and socialism. The Great War also manifested the need, and opportunity, for immigrants to "prove their patriotism" by supporting the United States. After the war, there was a massive rise of religious nativism based on racial discrimination, which manifested itself in a series of anti-immigration acts in the late 1910s and early 20s.