vaudeville
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As America, especially America's middle class, began to expand after the Civil War, so did the American variety show, better know as Vaudeville. This unique form of entertainment was designed to appeal to women and families. This new form of theater included wide varieties of acts and applied the new "big business" mentality to the theater industry. Vaudeville's origins are as unclear as its name. We know that the term "vaudeville" has it's origins in the French Language but we are unsure how it came to be applied to the American variety show. Vaudeville was the most popular form of entertainment in America from eighteen-fifty to the mid nineteen-twenties. Vaudeville shows were neither "low" entertainment like the burlesque shows of the time, nor "high" entertainment such as the academically challenging plays and operas of the time. Vaudeville was the first time theater was available to the general public in America.
Vaudeville began humbly as a form of entertainment in bars and small theaters. It was moved into the main stream by Tony Pastor, a former circus ringmaster, who polished the form of theater and brought it to New York City...