Product Description

This entertaining and enlightening book depicts the rise of popular culture in America by brilliantly recapturing the essence and commercial trappings of one of its most vital forms of entertainment--the vaudeville show. A fascinating and highly readable social history...Snyder brilliantly illuminates the way city culture was made and worked in the lives of people at the turn of the century. --Thomas Bender. With a new preface by the author

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #389072 in Books
• Published on: 2000-02-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 244 pages

From Library Journal
Snyder's 1989 history of vaudeville is more than just a catalog of the performers and their acts, although that is included. The author studies the social aspects of this cheap form of theater, which brought people of diverse ethnic backgrounds together both on the stage and in the audience. Performing also proved a source of employment for recently landed immigrants who had yet to learn English and acclimate themselves to their new society. This edition offers a new introduction in which the author updates his findings. "A scholarly but highly readable discussion" (LJ 11/1/89).
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Thomas Bender.
A fascinating and highly readable social history.

David Nasaw.
...[M]ost authoritative book on American vaudeville ... remarkably good read, filled with colorful details and incisive commentary on ... popular culture.

Customer Reviews

City Culture
Snyder's book is a gem. Great to see it back in print. He shows how vaudeville transformed New York. He captures the vitality of popular entertainment, its shortcomings, and its commercialization. The writing is crisp and the stories are great You can almost hear the voices in quotes such as Joseph P. Kennedy to Ed Albee:

"Didn't you know Ed? You're washed up. You're through."

Snyder is a New Yorker and it shows. He gives us a vision of the city and its culture between 1880 and 1930 that is captivating. If you want to understand how America, or at least New York, became modern this book should be on your list of must reads.