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Vaudeville Headliners

What is a headliner?. The performer listed on top of the billboard was the

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Vaudeville Headliners

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    1. Vaudeville Headliners Keeping it Clean

    2. What is a headliner? The performer listed on top of the billboard was the “headliner” Could earn up to $4000 a week Headliners usually performed in two to four shows a day Many vaudeville stars predated film, so their names have been lost Not always great talents, but had larger than life personalities and the stamina to work on the Vaudeville circuit

    3. Vaudeville Performers Abbot and Costello Andrews Sisters Fred and Adele Astaire Fanny Brice Sammy Davis, Jr. Duke Ellington W.C. Fields Ella Fitzgerald Judy Garland Bob Hope Al Jolson Bert Lahr The Marx Brothers Evelyn Nesbit Annie Oakley Bill “Bojangles” Robinson Ginger Rodgers Will Rodgers Bessie Smith The Three Stooges Sophie Tucker Ethel Waters

    4. Clean Comedy Any clean joke was likely to be stolen, and as comedians moved to radio, the same jokes were used Much of the “clean” humor would focus on ethnic stereotypes Popular targets were Germans, Blacks, Jews, Italians, and Irish Eventually, ethnic jokes were considered crass and unoriginal, with several communities banning the using of ethnic epitets

    5. Acceptable jokes SANDERSON: My friend has been elected mayor. BOWMAN: Honestly? SANDERSON: What does that matter? DUMMY: My father killed a hundred men in the war. VENTRILOQUIST: What was he? A Gunner? DUMMY: Nope, a cook. YOUNG MAN: I want to ask for the hand of your daughter in marriage. OLD MAN: You’re an idiot! YOUNG MAN: I know it. But I didn’t suppose you’d object to another one in the family.

    6. Banned jokes MAN: She thinks "lettuce" is a proposition!“ WOMAN: Someone is fooling with my knee. MAN: It's me, and I'm not fooling! WOMAN: I'm not married. MAN: Any children? WOMAN: I told you, I'm not married. MAN: Answer my question! WOMAN: He's the father of a baby boy but his wife doesn't know it yet.

    7. Use of Tin Pan Alley Tin Pan Alley- Name of the group of music publishers and songwriters who dominated music in the late 19th and early 20th century Tin Pan Alley composers would allow their songs to be featured in vaudeville acts, knowing that it would help their songs become hits “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” became a hit after Al Jolson and Emma Carus featured it in their acts

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