The origins of vaudeville: Aesthetic power, disquietude, and cosmopolitanism in the quest for an American music hall

This dissertation examines the period beginning just after the Panic of 1857 and lasting until just before the end of the depression of the 1890s in order to investigate the process of cultural legitimization that occurred as variety entertainment entered the American mainstream. The history of the rise of vaudeville might be understood as a progressive history in which respectable classes lost their antitheatrical prejudices and accepted a popular working-class cultural form they desired yet feared after it had become sanitized of undesirable elements; that once variety entertainment was purged, it could be beneficial if consumed in moderation and become the source of great wealth to entrepreneurs. Without intending to challenge the validity of this thesis, I contend that it is incomplete. This dissertation shows that during the 1890s the continuous performance model that reformed variety theater, one examined thoroughly in previous histories of vaudeville, coexisted with a music hall model of reform that was popular, sanctioned by cultural authorities, and influential. The latter form was created by cosmopolitan-oriented entrepreneurs, many of them Jewish, and was geared toward urban audiences who identified themselves as cosmopolitan. While continuous performance vaudeville theaters promised middle-class audiences comfort, cleanliness, and convenience, music halls offered worldly acts of brilliance in environments promoting conviviality to audiences eager for new sensations and art. The American music hall became the precursor of big-time vaudeville, the "two-a-day" format that gave vaudeville its vibrancy, and that eventually had to conform to paternalistic prohibitions of the dominating powers.; Prior to the 1890s, cosmopolitan-oriented entrepreneurs tried to establish niches for variety entertainment venues within the legitimate theatrical world. This dissertation tracks these attempts during the Civil War and the depression of the 1870s, when music halls and variety theaters gained cultural validation for relatively short periods of time. During these experiments, a new aesthetic was promulgated, while opponents expressed disquietude over the growth of a modern show business culture. This business and cultural history suggests the presence of waves of cosmopolitan welcome within American popular culture, a perspective that places this study within a much broader narrative than that of vaudeville history.