|
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts > Exhibitions Vaudeville NationFrom November 15, 2005 through April 1, 2006 See related Online Exhibition.
Free Public Programs, Lectures, Films Vaudeville has been called the most influential entertainment genre in the nation's history. Vaudeville, and the related forms such as burlesque and prologs, provided freedom for self-expression of social and political commentary. It supported the development of America's two native art forms -- jazz and tap dance -- and served a model for radio, early sound film, and television. Unlike those media, it served the full diversity of the American public -- as performers and as audience. The research divisions of LPA, the Billy Rose Theatre Collection, Jerome Robbins Dance Division, Music Division and Rodgers & Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound, are the major source for vaudeville research. They document thousands of performers, promoters, tour managers, theater buildings, and the critics, composers, writers, dance directors, and designers who worked with them. The collections include the primary documents of vaudeville -- joke books, scripts, designs, and songs -- as well as promotional materials, such as photographs, illustrated letterheads, flyers, and calling cards, sent to turn-of-the-century critics. |
