Blue vaudeville : sex, morals and the mass marketing of amusement, 1895-1915 / Andrew L. Erdman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Erdman, Andrew L., 1965-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Vaudeville--United States--History--20th century.

Vaudeville.

Vaudeville--United States--History--19th century.

Sex in the performing arts.

History.

United States.

Physical Description:

ix, 198 pages : illustrations ; 27 cm

Place of Publication:

Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland & Co., [2004]

Summary:

This work reveals the often racy, ribald, and sexually charged nature of the vaudeville stage, looking at a broad array of provocative performers from disrobing dancers to nude posers to skimpily dressed athletes. Examining the ways in which big-time vaudeville nonetheless managed to market itself as pure, safe, and morally acceptable, this work compares the industrys marketing and promotional practices to those of other emergent mass-marketers of the vaudeville era in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Included are in-depth examinations of important figures from the vaudeville stage such as Annette Kellerman and Eva Tanguay. The work attempts to address historical context as one means of understanding theseperformers with an appreciation for their rebelliousness. It discusses censorship and content control in the vaudeville era, and concludes with an analysis of films part in the fall of vaudeville. Many photographs, cartoons, and other illustrations are included.

Contents:

"Dressed in the form of art" : the censorship and curtailment of popular entertainments

"Clean, great, and national" : the mass marketing of amusement

"Of pleasing face and form" : the sexual and the sensual on stage

"Wild woman" : Eva Tanguay as temptress and sexual rebel

"The signal of distress" : film and the fall of vaudeville.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 187-191) and index.

ISBN:

0786418273

OCLC:

54461853