Vaudeville
Vaudeville, a collection of disparate acts (comedians, jugglers, and dancers) marketed mainly to a family audience, emerged in the 1880s and quickly became a national industry controlled by a few businessmen, with chains of theaters extending across the country. The term vaudeville originates either from the French Val de Vire (also Vau de Vire), the valley of the Vire River in Normandy, known as the location of ballads and comic songs, or from the French name for urban folk songs, "voix de ville" or "voice of the city." By the late nineteenth century, entertainment entrepreneurs adopted the exotic title of "vaudeville" to describe their refined variety performances. Whereas variety shows had a working class, masculine and somewhat illicit reputation in the nineteenth century, early vaudeville innovators eliminated blue material from performances, remodeled their theaters, and encouraged polite behavior in their auditoriums to attract middle-class women and their children in particular. This pioneering process of expansion and uplift laid the foundation for the establishment of a national audience for mass-produced American culture.
It is difficult to define the content of vaudeville entertainment because it was so eclectic. The average vaudeville bill, which usually included between nine and twelve acts, offered something for everyone.
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