Vaudeville (1997)

A priceless document of archival footage and precious oral history, Vaudeville offers a comprehensive survey of American family entertainment in the decades before radio, movies, and television. From its origins in British comedy, Yiddish theater, and burlesque, vaudeville is explored in all of its immigrant diversity. Astonishing film clips are a constant marvel, featuring such vintage but still-entertaining crowd-pleasers as Fannie Brice, Bert Lahr, Chaz Chase ("Eater of Strange Things"), Little Tich and his oversized shoes, and Hadji Ali, the greatest of all "regurgitators." Anecdotes and history, with a focus on the inherent racism of minstrel shows, are shared by such luminaries as Rose Marie, Billy Barty, Gerald Marks, Bobby Short, the Nicholas Brothers, and many others (several interviewed shortly before they died). Their stories, along with Studs Terkel's fond reminiscence and Ben Vereen's informative narration, preserve a form of entertainment that has vanished forever, its spirit lingering in our habitual channel-surfing of television. --Jeff Shannon Amazon.com

A wonderful documentary about a time long past

This documentary is one of my favorites. It explains the history and origin of the old art. There is wonderful footage of old acts from the days gone by mostly the 20's and some pricless intervies of old vaudevillians before they died. There is also an interesting segment on race too. It is just too bad that there are not more films of the old acts available. January 10, 2007

A STAR-FILLED VARIETY SHOW. OR A FIELDS DAY!

Before TV, before radio, even before silent films came vaudeville --- an art form of traveling variety shows in which performers sang, danced, acted, juggled and joked and did just about anything else to make crowds laugh. The golden age of vaudeville was, indeed, the launching pad for many a star, including George Burns and Gracie Allen, Bert Williams, James Cagney, W. C. Fields, Bob Hope and Eddie Cantor, all of whom appear, in rare performances, in this "American Masters" documentary hoisted by Ben Vereen. Say hello, Gracie. Now say good-night. May 30, 2003

Great Fun!

A terrific documentary, that provides an energetic look backward at America in the late 1800s to through the first few decades of the 1900s. The footage of the old acts are worth the price of admission, but there's also some wonderful interviews with people who lived it. Best of all, the narrative is intelligent and insightful. March 20, 2002

VAUDEVILLE DVD

This is a case of documentarians thinking that you'd rather hear them pontificate that actually see what they're talking about. The packaging for this DVD claims you'll see 80 vaudeville acts. And you will, for about 12 seconds each... not one performance is complete. Which is a big shame, given the wealth of footage the filmmakers apparently had access to. The writer of this presentation should have stepped well out of the way, and let the performances speak. To make it that much more frustrating , much of the running time goes to interviews with non-vaudevillians such as present-day filmaker Robert Townsend, and clips of vaudeville-influenced stuff like the Muppet Show. It kills you sit through this stuff knowing that the filmmakers are holding back rare footage of performances by houdini, w.c. fields, you name it. Buy this if you know nothing about vaudeville... and want to hear some old-timers doing a remember-when. If you want to see some old routines, get some of the variety films (international house, stand up and cheer, (this list is huge) from the early thirties and you'll be much better off. August 8, 2000

VAUDEVILLE DVD

This is a case of documentarians thinking that you'd rather hear them pontificate that actually see what they're talking about. The packaging for this DVD claims you'll see 80 vaudeville acts. And you will, for about 12 seconds each... not one performance is complete. Which is a big shame, given the wealth of footage the filmmakers apparently had access to. The writer of this presentation should have stepped well out of the way, and let the performances speak. To make it that much more frustrating , much of the running time goes to interviews with non-vaudevillians such as present-day filmaker Robert Townsend, and clips of vaudeville-influenced stuff like the Muppet Show. It kills you sit through this stuff knowing that the filmmakers are holding back rare footage of performances by houdini, w.c. fields, you name it. Buy this if you know nothing about vaudeville... and want to hear some old-timers doing a remember-when. If you want to see some old routines, get some of the variety films (international house, stand up and cheer, (this list is huge) from the early thirties and you'll be much better off. August 8, 2000

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