All About Vaudeville!

onblogway:

Vaudeville star Julian Eltinge, the only female impersonator to have a Broadway theater named after him. (It is now the AMC Empire multiplex on 42nd Street.)

Source.

magdolenelives:

Actress Lillyn Brown (1885–1969)], ca. 1920

“A veteran of vaudeville and musical theater, Lillyn Brown’s show business career began in 1894 when she left her home in Georgia with a traveling minstrel show. Born Lillian Thomas to an African American mother and Iroquois father, Brown initially performed as the “Indian Princess” but soon acquired the role of male impersonator (or “interlocutor”) billed as “Elbrown” or “E. L. Brown,” developing an act in which she wore top hat and tails, sang several songs as a man, then revealed her long hair and continued singing as a woman. She made her only known gramophone recordings in 1921, backed by her group, the Jazzbo Syncopators. Brown toured Europe, appeared on Broadway, and performed at the major clubs in Harlem and on the Keith Circuit until her retirement in 1934. She resumed her stage career in 1949, with a dramatic role in Regina. In the 1950s, she operated an acting and singing school in Manhattan, taught for many years at the Jarahal School of Music in Harlem (Sugar Ray Robinson was one of her pupils), and was active in the Negro Actors Guild.

Vintage African American photography courtesy of Black History Album, The Way We Were.

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Courtesy Roaring Twenties: African American Flappers by Black History Album on Flickr.

silentcuriosity:

The Dolly Sisters, twins Roszika (Rosie) and Janszieka (Jenny) Deutsch were Vaudeville Performers. They signed with the Ziegfeld Follies for two seasons.  In addition to making about a half dozen films from 1913 to 1920, they toured the theaters and  dance halls of Europe.  Jenny died on May 1, 1941, having committed suicide by hanging herself in the shower of her apartment in the Shelton Hotel. Rosie lived long enough to see a biopic made in 1945 of their lives called, inevitably The Dolly Sisters - starring June Haver and Betty Grable - but in 1962 she attempted to follow her sister in suicide. The bid failed. She died on February 1, 1970, succumbing to heart failure. 

(via americanisms-deactivated2012121)

vitalvaudeville:

Mae West, a playwright, actress, screenwriter who made it big in vaudeville, was considered one of America’s best stars of all time. Her plays were considered controversial and risque, especially to the government, for lack of ‘censorship.’ She dealt with societies turned back after writing, directing and producing,  ”Sex,” a play involving homosexuality and sexual relationships performed on the stage of an Independent theater in New York. The stage was raided during Broadway raids of 1927. She received negative reviews describing the show as obscene and pornographic, but usually had a decent sized audience to make up for them. It took her until about 1970 to make a come back, but she was in some feature films, on television and the radio. Her later years were rough, she suffered two strokes which eventually killed her. To this day, she is still a theater legend and lives on in the heart of entertainment.

glamarazzi:

Hurly - burly show

moniledebeaute:

Harry Roye and Billee Maye in Keith vaudeville - photograph by James Hargis Connelly - n. d. NYPL