|
 Bob
Hope's first tours in vaudeville were as half of a two-man dancing
team. The act appeared in "small time" vaudeville houses where ticket
prices were as low as ten cents, and performances were "continuous,"
with as many as six shows each day. Bob Hope, like most vaudeville
performers, gained his professional training in these small time
theaters.
Within five years of his start in vaudeville
Bob Hope was in the "big time," playing the expensive houses where
the most popular acts played. In big time vaudeville there were
only two shows performed each day -- the theaters were called "two-a-days"
-- and tickets cost as much as $2.00 each. The pinnacle of the big
time was New York City's Palace Theatre, where every vaudevillian
aspired to perform. Bob Hope played the Palace in 1931 and in 1932.
All vaudeville comedy acts were dependent,
in some part, on stock materials for inspiration. This tradition
has continued in variety comedy entertainment in all of its forms,
from stage to television, drawing upon what theater historian Brooks
McNamara calls, "a shared body of traditional stock material." The
situation comedies popular on television today are built from many
of the same raw materials that shaped medicine and minstrel shows
in the early nineteenth- century as well as shaping vaudeville.
Stock materials include jokes and song
parodies; monologs -- strings of jokes or comic lectures; bits --
two- or three-person joke routines; and sketches -- short comic
scenes, often with a story. To these stock materials comedians add
what cannot be transcribed in words, the physical comedy, or the
"business" -- the humor of inflections and body language at which
so many vaudevillians excelled.
 The
content of the vaudeville show reflected the ethnic make-up of its
primary audience in complex ways. Vaudeville performers were often
from the same working-class and immigrant backgrounds as their audiences.
Yet the relaxation and laughter they provided vaudeville patrons
was sometimes achieved at the expense of other working-class American
groups. Humor based on ethnic characterizations was a major component
of many vaudeville routines, as it had been in folk-culture-based
entertainment and other forms of popular culture. "Blackface" characterizations
of African Americans were carried over from minstrelsy. "Dialect
acts" featured comic caricatures of many other ethnic groups, most
commonly Irish, Italians, Germans, and Jews.
Audiences related to ethnic caricature
acts in a number of ways. Many audiences, daily forced to conform
to society's norms, enjoyed the free, uninhibited expression of
blackface comedians and the baggy pants "low comedy" of many dialect
acts. They enjoyed recognizing and laughing at performances based
on their own ethnic identities. At the same time, some vaudeville
acts provided a means of assimilation for members of the audience
by enabling them to laugh at other ethnic groups, "outsiders."
By the end of vaudeville's heyday,
the early 1930s, most ethnic acts had been eliminated from the bill
or toned down to be less offensive. However, ethnic caricatures
continued to thrive in radio programs such as Amos 'n' Andy,
Life with Luigi, and The Goldbergs, and
in the blackface acts of entertainers such as Al Jolson.
Typical Vaudeville Program
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Program from the Palace Theatre,
New York,
January 24, 1921. Reproduction.
Oscar Hammerstein II Collection,
Music Division
(9)
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Program from the Riverside Theatre,
September 24, 1921.
Oscar Hammerstein II Collection,
Music Division
(9.1)
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This program from New York's premier vaudeville theater shows
how a typical vaudeville show was organized. It opens with
a newsreel so latecomers will not miss a live act. The bill
includes a novelty act--a singing baseball pitcher--a miniature
drama, and a return engagement by a vaudevillian of years
back, Ethel Levey, who was George M. Cohan's ex-wife. The
headliners of this show at the Palace are Lou Clayton and
Cliff Edwards. Clayton, a tap dancer, later appeared with
Jimmy Durante and with Eddie Jackson. Edwards was a popular
singer of the 1920s whose career was revived in 1940 when
he sang "When You Wish Upon a Star" in Walt Disney's Pinocchio.
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Ledger book from B.F. Keith's
Theater,
Indianapolis, August 29, 1921-June 14, 1925. Handwritten
manuscript, with later annotations.
Bob Hope Collection,
Motion Picture, Broadcasting
and Recorded Sound Division (10)
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Ledger from B. F. Keith's Theater, Indianapolis
This ledger from Keith's Theater in Indianapolis, Indiana,
provides a detailed view of "big-time" vaudeville in the early
1920s. The weekly bill and the performers' salaries are listed
on the lower left-hand page. Daily receipts are posted above
the bill. Expenses make up the other entries.
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Bob Hope at the Palace Theatre
This ledger book from the “big-time” Palace Theatre
in New York documents the vaudeville acts on each week’s
bill, what each act was paid for the week, the name of the
act’s agent, and additional costs incurred by the performers.
In February 1931, Bob Hope performed for the first time at
the Palace Theatre. Comedienne Beatrice Lillie and the band
of Noble Sissle also appeared on the bill. Hope took out two
ads in Variety for that week; the ledger entry shows that the
cost of these ads was deducted from his salary. In that same
issue of Variety, the influential trade journal gave Hope’s
act a lukewarm, but prescient, review, stating, “He
is a nice performer of the flip comedy type, and he has his
own
style. These natural resources should serve him well later
on.” |
Ledger book from the Palace Theatre,
New York, February 27, 1928–April 23, 1932.
Page 2 - Page
3 - Page 4 - Page
5
Page 6 - Page
7 - Page 8 - Page
9
Page 10 - Page
11 - Page 12 - Page
13
Page 14
Handwritten manuscript.
Motion Picture, Broadcasting
and Recorded Sound Division (10A)
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1929 Bob Hope Act Run-down
Bob Hope always tinkered with his material in an attempt
to perfect it. Throughout the Bob Hope Collection are Hope's
own handwritten notes on scripts and joke sheets. This outline
of his act, listing jokes, exchanges, and songs is on the
back of a 1929 letter from his agent.
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Verso of letter from William Jacobs
Agency
with Bob Hope's notes on a routine,
May 6, 1929. Holograph manuscript. (Page
2)
Bob Hope Collection,
Motion Picture, Broadcasting
& Recorded Sound Division (11)
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Brochure for "Siamese Twins"
Daisy and Violet Hilton,
ca. 1925.
Page 2 - Page
3 - Page 4
Bob Hope Collection,
Motion Picture, Broadcasting
& Recorded Sound Division (12)
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Hope's 1926 Vaudeville Tour
In 1926 Lester Hope and George Byrne were booked on a tour
in which the headliners were eighteen-year-old siamese twins
Daisy and Violet Hilton. The Hilton Sisters's show featured
the twins telling stories of their lives, playing saxophone
and clarinet duets, and dancing with Hope and Byrne.
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Gus Sun Booking Exchange Program.
Springfield, Ohio: Gus Sun Booking
Exchange Company, 1925.
Bob Hope Collection,
Motion Picture, Broadcasting
and Recorded Sound Division (15)
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Gus Sun Promotional Booklet
In 1924, Bob Hope and his first touring partner, Lloyd “Lefty” Durbin,
were booked in “tabloid” shows on the Ohio-based,
small-time, Gus Sun circuit. “Tab” shows were low-budget,
miniature vaudeville shows and musical comedies, which played
in rural areas and small towns.
Touring in vaudeville was never easy and in the small-time
it could be particularly arduous. “Lefty” Durbin
died on the road in 1925. Initially, it was thought that
food poisoning was the cause. In fact, he succumbed to tuberculosis. |
Map of Hope's 1929-1930 Vaudeville Tour
This map represents one year of touring by Bob Hope on the
Keith-Orpheum vaudeville circuit. It was Hope's first national
tour, and his act was called Keep Smiling. Veteran
gag writer Al Boasberg assisted in writing Hope's material.
Hope recreated part of the act on a 1955 Ed Sullivan television
program, which can be seen in the television section of this
exhibit.
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Map of Hope's 1929-1930 Vaudeville
Tour.
Created for exhibition, 2000 (18)
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Page from Ballyhoo of 1932
script.
Typed manuscript with
handwritten annotations, 1932.
Bob Hope Collection,
Motion Picture, Broadcasting
and Recorded Sound Division (22a)
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Ballyhoo of 1932 Script Page
The Ballyhoo of 1932 revue starred Willie and
Eugene Howard and Bob Hope. Similar to a vaudeville show,
a revue usually consists of sketches, songs, and comedians,
but has no overall plot. Unlike a vaudeville show, however,
a revue runs for a significant period of time and may have
a conceptual continuity to its acts. As this page indicates,
Hope was the master of ceremonies in Ballyhoo.
At the upper right, written in Hope's hand, is his remark
to the audience about the opening scene of the revue.
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Palace Theatre,
New York Palace Theatre, New York, 1915. Copyprint.
Courtesy of the Theatre Historical Society
of America, Elmhurst, Illinois (22)
|
The Stratford Theater, Chicago
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Advertisement for the Stratford
Theater
from the Chicago Daily Tribune,
August 23, 1928.
Detail of advertisement
Reproduction.
Bob Hope Collection,
Motion Picture, Broadcasting
and
Recorded Sound Division (34A)
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The Stratford Theatre,
Chicago,
ca. 1920.
Courtesy of the
Chicago Historical Society (17)
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As Hope and Byrne toured, they added more comedy to the act.
When Hope found that he had a knack as a master of ceremonies,
the act split, and Hope was booked as an "M.C." at the Stratford
Theater in Chicago in an engagement that would be seminal
to his career. A master of ceremonies is a host, the link
between the performance and the audience-providing continuity
between scenes or acts by telling jokes, introducing performers,
and assuring that the entertainment does not stop even if
delays occurred backstage. Hope was such a success as a master
of ceremonies in this Chicago engagement that his initial
two-week booking was extended to six months.
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Ziegfeld Follies
program with Bert Williams,
1912.
Reproduction.
Rare Book and Special
Collections Division (23)
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Ziegfeld Follies Program, 1912
Florenz Ziegfeld broke the color barrier in theater by hiring
Bert Williams for his Follies of 1910, in which Williams was
a sensation. He appeared in most of the editions of the Follies
mounted in the 1910s and was among Ziegfeld's top paid stars.
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"Tin Pan Alley" was a term
given to West 28th Street in New York City, where many music
publishers were located in the late nineteenth century. It
came to represent the whole burgeoning popular music business
of the turn of the twentieth century. Tin Pan Alley music
publishers mass-produced songs and promoted them as merchandise.
Composers were under contract to the publishers and churned
out vast numbers of songs to reflect and exploit the topics
of the day, and to imitate existing hit songs. Publishers
employed a number of means to promote and market the songs,
with vaudevillians playing a major role in their efforts.
A Tin Pan Alley Pioneer
This sentimental song was the first major
hit of Tin Pan Alley composer Harry Von Tilzer (1872-1946).
Von Tilzer claimed that his publisher paid him fifteen
dollars for the song which sold 2,000,000 copies. He
later founded his own publishing company. It was the
tinny sound of Von Tilzer's piano which inspired the
phrase "Tin Pan Alley" used to refer to music publishers'
offices on West 28th Street and further uptown,
in the early twentieth century.
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Harry Von Tilzer.
"My Old New Hampshire Home."
New York, 1898.
Sheet Music.
Music Division
(25c)
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Advertisement in Variety,
1913.
Reproduction.
Motion Picture,
Broadcasting and
Recorded Sound Division (25b)
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Von Tilzer Music Company Advertisement
Vaudeville performances of songs resulted
directly in sheet music sales. Song publishers of the
vaudeville era aggressively marketed their new products
to vaudeville performers in a number of ways. "Song-pluggers,"
salesmen who demonstrated new songs and coaxed variety
performers to adopt them, worked for all major music
publishers. Ads such as this in the trade newspaper,
Variety, reached on-the-road performers
who were inaccessible to the pluggers.
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As Sung By . . .
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Irving Berlin. "This is the
Life."
New York: Waterson,
Berlin & Snyder Co., 1914.
Sheet Music.
Music Division
(25a)
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Irving Berlin. "This
is the Life."
New York: Waterson,
Berlin & Snyder Co., 1914.
Sheet Music.
Music Division
(25c.1)
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In the late nineteenth and early twentieth
century, vaudeville performers were paid by music publishers
to sing the publishers' new songs. Covers of popular
sheet music in the early twentieth century featured
photographs of the vaudeville stars, promoting the performer
as well as the song.
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Bert Williams's Most Famous Song
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Alex Rogers and Bert Williams.
"Nobody," 1905.
Musical score.
Music Division
(24)
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Bert Williams.
Portrait of Bert Williams, 1922.
Copyprint.
Prints and Photographs
Division (26)
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Publicity photos
of
Bert Williams
in costume,
ca. 1922.
Copy Prints.
Prints and Photographs
Division
(27b, 27c)
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Bert Williams's most famous song was "Nobody," a comic lament
of neglect
that he first sang in 1905. Both Williams's first recording
of the song and
Bob Hope's version from The Seven Little Foys
can be heard in the Bob Hope Gallery.
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Eddie Foy's Dancing Shoes
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Eddie Foy's dancing shoes,
ca. 1910.
Courtesy of the
Bob Hope Archives (28)
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Photograph of Eddie Foy,
ca. 1910.
Bob Hope Collection,
Motion Picture, Broadcasting
and Recorded Sound Division (28b)
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Bob Hope owns the dancing shoes of Eddie Foy (1854-1928),
a vaudevillian who performed with his seven children.
Hope produced and played Foy in the 1955 film biography, The
Seven Little Foys.
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Houdini's Handcuffs and Key
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Harry Houdini's handcuffs with key,
ca. 1900.
Courtesy of Houdini Historical Center,
Appleton, Wisconsin (28a)
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Harry Houdini,
ca. 1899
McManus-Young Collection
Rare Book and Special
Collections (28c)
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Harry Houdini escaped from handcuffs, leg irons, straightjackets,
prison cells, packing crates,
a giant paper bag (without tearing the paper), an iron boiler,
milk cans, coffins, and the
famous Water Torture Cell. In most of these escapes, later
examination showed no sign of
how Houdini accomplished his release.
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"It's a Good World, After All"
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Gus Edwards.
Musical score for "It's a Good World,
After All,"
1906.
Musical score.
Music Division
(29)
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Ernest R. Ball.
"The Birds in Georgia Sing of Tennessee,"
1908.
Musical score.
Music Division
(29.1)
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Stock musical arrangements were created and sold by many
music publishers for use by vaudevillians and other performers
who could not afford to commission their own arrangements
for their acts.
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Humor from Unexpected Pairings
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Will J. Harris and Harry I. Robinson.
"Yonkle the Cow-Boy Jew."
Chicago: Will Rossiter, 1908.
Sheet music.
Music Division
(29a.1)
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Leslie Mohr and Piantadosi.
"I'm a Yiddish Cowboy."
New York: Ted. S. Barron Music, 1909.
Sheet music.
Music Division
(29a)
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A common type of humor is based on unexpected juxtapositions
or associations. This song shows how the technique can be
reflected in music as well as in jokes.
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Joke Books
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Yankee, Italian, and Hebrew Dialect
Readings and Recitations.
New York: Henry J. Wahman, 1891.
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Vaudeville Joke Books
New Vaudeville Jokes. Cleveland: Arthur Westbrook,
1909.
New Dutch Jokes.
Cleveland: Arthur Westbrook, 1909.
Jew Jokes.
Cleveland: Arthur Westbrook, 1909.
Ethnic Joke Books Chop Suey.
Cleveland: Arthur Westbrook, 1909.
Irish Jokes.
Cleveland: Cleveland News, 1907.
Dark Town Jokes.
Cleveland: Arthur Westbrook, 1908.
Rare Book and Special
Collections Division (29b-h)
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In the early twentieth-century, jokes at the expense of women
or of someone's national
heritage and ethnicity were a staple of not only vaudeville
but American life. This selection
of humor books in this case shows that few groups were left
unscathed.
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Source for Vaudeville Routines
Vaudevillians often obtained their jokes and comedy routines
from publications, such as Southwick's Monologues.
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George J. Southwick.
Southwick's Monologues.
Chicago: Will Rossiter, 1903.
Rare Book and Special
Collections Division (30)
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Richy Craig, Jr.,
Joke Notebook,
ca. 1930.
Bob Hope Collection,
Motion Picture, Broadcasting
and Recorded Sound Division (31)
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Joke Notebook
This binder, like many others in the Library of Congress
Bob Hope Collection, contains jokes and sketches written in
the early 1930s. Most of the material was written by a gifted
comedian, Richy Craig, Jr., who wrote for Bob Hope as well
as himself.
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Bob Hope's Joke Notebook
The hotel front desk has been a very popular setting for
sketch humor for more than a century. The Marx Brothers used
it in The Cocoanuts, as did John Cleese in the
British sitcom, Fawlty Towers. Bob Hope's sketch,
shown here, is from a binder that contains jokes and bits
written for him during his later years on the Vaudeville circuit.
Most of the material was written by Richy Craig, Jr.
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Joke Notebook,
ca. 1930.
Bob Hope Collection,
Motion Picture, Broadcasting
and Recorded Sound Division (31.2) |
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Censorship card,
May 27, 1933.
Bob Hope Collection,
Motion Picture, Broadcasting
and Recorded Sound Division (37.1)
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"Act needs a lot of watching"
As with network television today, vaudeville promoted itself
as family entertainment, but its shows often stretched the
limits of common propriety. This report from a Boston stage
censor outlines some of the questionable material in Bob Hope's
1933 act and preserves some of the jokes the act included.
The pre-printed form catalogs common offenses found in variety
acts.
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Bob Hope Scrapbook, 1925-1930
The Bob Hope Collection includes more than 100 scrapbooks
that document Hope's career. This one, said to have been compiled
by Avis Hope, Bob Hope's mother, is the earliest. It includes
many newspaper clippings relating to Hope and Byrne's tour
with the Hilton Sisters.
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Bob Hope Scrapbook,
1925-1930.
Bob Hope Collection,
Motion Picture, Broadcasting
and Recorded Sound Division (33)
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Bob Hope's vaudeville tour contract,
1929.
Page 2
Bob Hope Collection,
Motion Picture, Broadcasting
and Recorded Sound Division (34)
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Hope's 1929 Contract
Bob Hope's thirty-nine-week contract with the national Orpheum
circuit included options for extension. The contract and tour
resulted in the February 1931 engagement at the Palace Theatre
in New York of his mini-revue, "Bob Hope and his Antics."
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Hope's 1930 Contract
Bob Hope's national Orpheum circuit tour of
1930 and 1931 included options for extension. The tour resulted
in the February 1931 engagement at the Palace Theatre in New
York of his mini-revue, Bob Hope and His Antics.
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Bob Hope's vaudeville contract.
Typewritten manuscript, 1930.
Bob Hope Collection,
Motion Picture, Broadcasting
and Record Sound Division (34.1)
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Advertisement for Columbia
Copyright & Patent Company.
The New York Clipper,
November 3, 1906. Reproduction.
General Collections
(36)
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Copyright Advertisement from The New York Clipper
Theft of vaudeville material was common enough that a legal
firm advertised its copyright services in the theatrical newspaper,
The New York Clipper.
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Railway Guide
A railway guide was essential for the vaudevillian on the
road.
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LeFevre's Railway Fare.
New York: John J. LeFevre, 1910.
General Collections
(37)
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Julius Cahn's Official Theatrical
Guide.
New York, 1910.
Motion Picture, Broadcasting
and Recorded Sound Division (38)
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Travel Guides
Annual guides such as Cahn's provided theatrical professionals
with information about the technical specifications of theaters,
railroads servicing every major city, and other useful information.
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Review of Hope's Act in Billboard, 1929
In 1929 Bob Hope put together a popular act which included
a female partner, intentionally discordant comic instrumentalists,
and Hope's singing and dancing. To augment the comedy he hired
veteran vaudeville writer Al Boasberg to write new material.
This act toured for a year on the Orpheum circuit.
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Review of Bob Hope's vaudeville
act,
Billboard, Cincinnati: The Billboard
Publishing Company,
November 23, 1929.
Reproduction.
General Collections
(40)
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Frederic La Delle.
How to Enter Vaudeville.
Michigan: Excelsior Printing Company, 1913. Reproduction of
title page.
General Collections
(41a)
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Vaudeville "How-to" Guide
This 1913 mail-order course was directed toward aspiring
vaudeville performers. Advice is included on "Handling your
baggage," "Behavior toward managers," and "Eliminating Crudity
and Amateurishness." Among the ninety types of vaudeville
acts explained in the course are novelties such as barrel
jumpers, comedy boxers, chapeaugraphy (hat shaping to comic
effect), and "lightning calculators."
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Library of Congress