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American Variety Stage, 1870-1920, is a multimedia anthology
that showcases popular entertainment forms, especially vaudeville,
from 1870 to 1920. The materials include memorabilia documenting
the career of Harry Houdini, English- and Yiddish-language playscripts,
souvenir playbills and programs, theater posters, motion pictures,
and sound recordings. Many items include the bawdy humor and ethnic
stereotypes typical of the period.
These online exhibits provide context and additional
information about this collection.
For Houdini, Houdini:
A Biographical Chronology
For Theater Programs and Playbills, Program:
Bijou Theatre
For English-Language Playscripts, The
Lone Hand Four Aces
For Yiddish-Language Playscripts (in Yiddish), The
Chanukah Party
Four
Illustrated Articles
Forms
of Variety Theater
These historical era(s) are best represented
in the collection, although they may not be all-encompassing.
Development of the Industrial United States, 1876-1915
Emergence of Modern America, 1890-1930
| related
collections and exhibits |
These collections and exhibits contain thematically-related
primary and secondary sources. Also browse the Collection
Finder for more related material on the American Memory Web
site.
American
Life Histories, 1936-1940
Baseball
Cards, 1887-1914
Creative Americans:
Portraits by Van Vechten, 1932-1964
Historic
American Sheet Music, 1850-1920
Inventing
Entertainment: The Edison Companies
The Life
of a City: Early Films of New York, 1898-1906
Music
for the Nation: American Sheet Music, 1870-1885
Origins
of American Animation
Touring
Turn-of-the-Century America, 1880-1920
Recommended additional sources of information.
Read More About It! - A bibliography
Specific guidance for searching this collection.
Each page of the playscripts and the playbills has been digitized
as an image. This means that these items are not full-text searchable.
However, the subject terms in the bibliographic records are searchable.
Use the Subject
Index to give you ideas for search terms and help narrow your
search.
There are two categories of playscripts: English-language playscripts
and Yiddish-language playscripts. There are no English translations
available for the Yiddish-language playscripts. However, the subject
headings in the bibliographic records for these playscripts are
in English.
The ten sound recordings in American Variety Stage, 1870-1920
are not searchable. You can browse the Title
List for Sound Recordings to find information about these items.
Searching this collection is very challenging. Students may be
frustrated by the layers they must go through in order to find items
relative to their search. Use the different indexes and special
presentations to help guide you through the material. For help with
searches, go to the American Variety Stage, 1870-1920 Subject
Index or Author
Index, and the Synonym
List.
For help with search strategies, see Finding
Items in American Memory.
Several items in the collection contain ethnic stereotyping and
bawdy humor typical of the period. Teachers may find that when using
the collection with students, context-setting conversations about
racism, stereotyping, and discrimination in turn-of-the-century
America may be necessary
You can read and search all of the text in this collection and most
of the images without special viewers. To view high-resolution archival
images you will need a special viewer. For help with viewers, go
to American
Memory Viewer Information.
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