Albrecht, Ernest.  The contemporary circus: art of the spectacular.  Scarecrow, 2006.  262p bibl index afp ISBN 0810857340 pbk, $60.00; ISBN 9780810857346 pbk, $60.00. Reviewed in 2007may CHOICE.
44-4946   GV1801   2006-20841 CIP

Though not as seminal as Albrecht’s previous book (The New American Circus, CH, Apr’96, 33-4393), this is nonetheless a worthy natural complement to that outstanding study. Founder and editor of Spectacle (1984- ), a quarterly devoted to circus arts, Albrecht here draws on dozens of interviews to explore the behind-the-scenes artistic creation of today’s most important circuses. Not limited in its scope to American circuses, the focus is largely on North American productions, primarily The Big Apple, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, and Cirque du Soleil. Part 1 explores “the creative team”; part 2 comprises case studies of four specific productions. Part 3 focuses on performers and includes a final chapter on training artists and building and maintaining the performance (this is the only chapter that deals largely with operations outside North America). Though not a historical study, the book would have profited from more specificity (e.g., dates, particularly the production of circuses discussed) and identification of circus acts, terms, and individuals not well known outside the circus world. These minor shortcomings aside, this well-illustrated book, with its brief bibliography and notes, is an important addition to circus literature. Summing Up: Recommended. All readers; all levels. — D. B. Wilmeth, emeritus, Brown University

Albrecht, Ernest.  The new American circus.  University Press of Florida, 1995.  258p bibl index afp ISBN 0-8130-1364-X, $29.95.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 1996apr CHOICE.
33-4393   GV1803   95-2792 CIP

Since the 1970s the American circus, especially the small, one-ring variety, has undergone fundamental changes. Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey may still be dominant in popular perception as the epitome of American circus, yet the formula of the “Big One” has been challenged, often successfully, by circuses attempting to reinvent the circus as a form of art, often through radical experimentation. Albrecht (English, Middlesex County College) focuses on four examples: the Pickle Family Circus (San Francisco), the Big Apple (New York), Circus Flora (St. Louis), and Cirque du Soleil (Montreal and Las Vegas). Primarily through interviews Albrecht explores influences, key performances, circus economics, touring, training, various controversies facing the circus today (such as animal rights), and even the meaning of circus as envisioned by operations such as Cirque du Soleil; a final chapter offers an essentially optimistic picture of the circus of tomorrow. Despite some repetition and routine prose, as the first detailed overview of this unique movement, Albrecht’s book is of seminal importance in providing the context and analysis of the “new American circus.” Superb illustrations (including 16 in color), a chronology, notes, and sources add to the value of the book. Recommended for most libraries. — D. B. Wilmeth, Brown University

American variety stage: vaudeville and popular entertainment, 1870-1920.  Internet Resource.  Reviewed in 2006sup CHOICE. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/vshtml/
43Sup-0174

[Revisited Apr’06] First reviewed four years ago (CH, Feb’02, 39-3310), this multimedia anthology “selected from various Library of Congress holdings” remains a readily accessible source of examples of American popular culture as it appeared on variety stages, “especially vaudeville that thrived from 1870 to 1920.” Part of the Library of Congress’s American Memory Project, the site includes 257 English scripts and 77 Yiddish scripts, 146 playbills and programs, 61 silent films of performances (available in various viewing platforms), and numerous early records (RealAudio or WAV). The Harry Houdini section includes 143 photos and 29 related items. The materials are stunning in their immediacy and authenticity. Each area of the collection can be searched by keyword or browsed by subject, author, or title. The site also includes links to bibliographical and historical information and extensive advice and copyright information. Every library should bookmark it. Summing Up: Essential. All levels. — R. Sugarman, emeritus, Southern Vermont College

Apps, Jerry.  Ringlingville USA: the stupendous story of seven siblings and their stunning circus success.  Wisconsin Historical Society, 2005.  256p index afp ISBN 0-87020-354-1, $45.00; ISBN 087020355x pbk, $24.95.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2005apr CHOICE.
42-4539   GV1821   2004-7086 CIP

Fred Dahlinger Jr., longtime director of historic resources and facilities at the Circus World Museum in Baraboo, Wisconsin, wrote the foreword to this beautifully produced book, thereby guaranteeing its authority. Newly discovered primary materials enrich the book, and circus historians Dahlinger, Stuart Thayer, Fred Pfening Jr., Fred Pfening III, and Richard J. Reynolds add their insights to Apps’s text. Starting at a time before electricity and automobiles, the Ringling brothers (residents of Baraboo) created what became the world’s largest and most successful circus organization. Until the end of WW I, they wintered their show in their hometown, where their continually expanding facilities were known as Ringlingville. Apps organizes the book chronologically, adding such thematic chapters as “The Circus Comes to Town,” “Women and the Circus,” and “The Circus Parade.” He dedicates the book to “Fred Dahlinger, Jr., and Circus World Museum, National Treasures,” which is ironic because shortly before this book was published, financial exigencies forced the museum to dismiss Dahlinger and cut back the research facilities that made the book possible. Ringlingville includes extensive notes and illustrations. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Collections supporting study of popular culture, the performing arts, American business, and American society; all levels. — R. Sugarman, emeritus, Southern Vermont College

Brown, Jayna.  Babylon girls: black women performers and the shaping of the modern.  Duke University, 2008.  339p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780822341338, $84.95; ISBN 9780822341574 pbk, $23.95. Reviewed in 2009feb CHOICE.
46-3138  PN2286  2008-11050 CIP

This important book examines the history of African American women stage performers from the 19th century to the beginning of the 21st. Whereas most histories of vernacular performance focus on men, Brown (ethnic studies, Univ. of California, Riverside) reclaims women’s history in these areas as she explores the racial and gender barriers female performers faced. She recounts the experiences of African American women performers who toured and sometimes settled abroad, where they avoided the racist and segregated experiences they faced in the US but often found themselves accepted within “primitivist” stereotypes. She also analyzes the “pickaninny” troupes that toured in the US and abroad and the idiosyncratic performances related to the Topsy character, who lived and danced outside rhythmic and social expectations. Organized chronologically, chapters treat the black burlesque stage, the cakewalk craze, the emergence of social dance, modernism, and chorus line dance. Brown also provides close analysis of three women who achieved their greatest success abroad–Florence Mills, Josephine Baker, and Valaida Snow–and examines the ways in which white performers appropriated the work of African Americans. Including extensive notes and bibliography and some pictures, this book will be valuable in performance and popular-culture collections. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers, all levels. — R. Sugarman, Southern Vermont College

The Circus in America.  Internet Resource. Reviewed in 2008aug CHOICE. http://www.circusinamerica.org/public/
45-6693

[Visited May’08] Bringing together materials that are widely scattered or privately held, this promising digital “research collection” presents archival and museum resources, essays, images, electronic texts, dictionary-type entries, music, and videos documenting the history of one of the most popular and significant forms of entertainment in the US. The banner across the top of the landing page gives access to brief essays on major enterprises, entrepreneurs, showmen, performers, famous animals, circus acts, music, transportation, show venues, and marketing. Though many links in these essays are still blank, the entry for Black Diamond (in the Animals category) offers the fascinating story of how the famous elephant avenged the removal of his beloved manager and demonstrates the potential delights of the site. An electronic version of LaVahn Hoh and William Rough’s Step Right Up! The Adventures of the Circus in America (1990) and full-text links to a few scholarly essays are harbingers of significant digital text to come. An extensive, detailed Circus Timeline integrates relevant US cultural and historic events. A Gallery of Circus Posters is promised to be coming soon. The Resources sector is brief and detracts from the site, which aims to be a major research repository. To date no specific archival or primary collections are available on the site. Though not robust, the site definitely has promise: it boasts an impressive group of project advisers (including prominent academics and circus historians) and sponsors (to date the National Endowment for the Arts and the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, the latter also hosting the site), and it could grow into a unique, invaluable archive of primary materials–enterprise records, posters, programs, images, newspaper accounts, music–supported by interpretive scholarly essays. Summing Up: Recommended. All users, all levels. — J. A. Adams-Volpe, University at Buffalo, SUNY

Cross, Gary S.  The playful crowd: pleasure places in the twentieth century, by Gary S. Cross and John K. Walton.  Columbia, 2005.  308p index ISBN 0-231-12724-3, $32.50. Reviewed in 2006may CHOICE.
43-5418   GV1851  2005-45786 CIP

Leisure-time activities are a window into people’s lives. Cross (history, Penn State) and Walton (Univ. of Central Lancashire, UK) convey this well in this discussion of “pleasure places” in the US and the UK. They discuss how early in the century ethnically diverse immigrants in New York City swarmed to Coney Island in the summer, where they enjoyed the ocean and amusements, including exciting rides and freak shows. Coney Island was wildly entrepreneurial; most structures were shoddy, built for a short life. In England, more homogeneous crowds found their pleasure at Blackpool, which also had a beach and amusements but (in contrast to Coney Island) was solidly built with an eye toward order and longevity. Visitors to Coney Island went for the day, expecting change; visitors to Blackpool went for longer stays, expecting continuity. As the century progressed and the US and England gentrified, amusements became more genteel. The authors discuss Disney-style theme parks, with their sentimental images of the past, and England’s Beamish Museum, which presented more realistic history. By the 1970s, the appeal of the cool tempered the appeal of the cute. Thrill rides reappeared–recalling those at Coney Island. Including photos and extensive notes, this is social history at its best. Summing Up: Essential. All readers; all levels. — R. Sugarman, emeritus, Southern Vermont College

Cullen, Frank.  Vaudeville, old & new: an encyclopedia of variety performers in America, by Frank Cullen with Florence Hackman and Donald McNeilly.  Routledge, 2007.  2v bibl index afp ISBN 0-415-93853-8, $295.00. Reviewed in 2007may CHOICE.
44-4777   PN1968   2005-30588 CIP

Two decades in the making, this ambitious resource is unique for its scope, detail, and illustrations. Cullen (editor, Vaudeville Times) and his coauthors cover the full range of the subject, including contemporary variety entertainers and performance artists. The subtitle describes the book best: the authors emphasize vaudeville (1880-1930) but also include circus, Wild West, revues, burlesque, minstrelsy, etc. The book covers almost 800 performers, acts, and entrepreneurs, including some of marginal importance. (Others of equal or greater significance are omitted, and selection criteria are not always clear.) Although the entries in the present volume are generally reliable (some birth and death dates are suspect and fail to reflect recent scholarship), biographies and more topical entries incorporate a great deal of anecdotal information. Comprehensiveness is both the work’s strength and weakness; more concise essays would have allowed for more individual entries. Some key sources are missing from the otherwise good bibliography. Including numerous riches and mercifully lacking academic jargon and pretentiousness, this set joins Anthony Slide’s The Encyclopedia of Vaudeville (CH, Oct’94, 32-0674) and this reviewer’s The Language of American Popular Entertainment: A Glossary of Argot, Slang, and Terminology (CH, Jul’81).  It is destined to become a standard. Summing Up: Essential. All readers; all levels. — D. B. Wilmeth, emeritus, Brown University

Davis, Janet M.  The circus age: culture & society under the American big top.  North Carolina, 2002.  329p bibl index afp ISBN 0-8078-2724-X, $49.95; ISBN 0-8078-5399-2 pbk, $19.95.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2003jan CHOICE. 
40- 2686  GV1803 2002-863 CIP

Davis (Univ. of Texas) provides an important and highly readable examination of the relationship between circus and US society at the beginning of the 20th century. Community life was transformed when one of the giant railroad shows arrived in town, with its overwhelming spectacle of scantily clad acrobats, exotic animals, and visions of distant lands and times. Norms were both reinforced and challenged as the circus presented visions that, however unusual, were rooted in American ideas about race, gender, the human body, animals, and the emerging role of the US on the world stage. Davis did prodigious research and, like David Carlyon in his Dan Rice: The Most Famous Man You’ve Never Heard Of (2001), places circus performance in historic and social context. Coming at a time of renewed interest in circuses due to the emergence of upscale organizations such as Cirque du Soleil and Big Apple, Davis’s book explores a time when circus was closer to the mainstream of American life. Including illustrations (eight in color) and extensive notes and bibliography, this book is strongly recommended for readers at all levels. — R. Sugarman, Southern Vermont College

Erdman, Andrew L.  Blue vaudeville: sex, morals and the mass marketing of amusement, 1895-1915.  McFarland, 2004.  198p bibl index afp ISBN 0-7864-1827-3, $39.95. Reviewed in 2005may CHOICE.
42-5179   PN1968  2004-4057 CIP

Erdman (a freelance editor and writer) demonstrates that the national booking chains established at the end of the 19th century made vaudeville the US’s first mass-entertainment medium. Vaudeville magnates such as E.F. Albee and B.F. Keith emulated the new national food manufacturers–National Biscuit Company, Shredded Wheat, Coca-Cola–in stressing the cleanliness and standardized quality of their products. But whereas the vaudeville chains claimed to exercise control that made their acts suitable for family audiences, they actually fostered sexually provocative performers such as Eva Tanguay and Sophie Tucker along with numerous near-nude acts that drew large audiences. Erdman devotes a chapter to Tanguay (the “I Don’t Care Girl”), one of vaudeville’s greatest stars, hoydenish singing and dancing challenged norms of feminine behavior. Erdman notes that vaudeville’s decline paralleled the rise of motion pictures, which offered even more standardized material. An interesting sidelight: vaudeville chains owned by New England Christians were not subject to the moralistic condemnation aimed at motion pictures, which were created by immigrant Jews. The book includes some illustrations and extensive notes and bibliography. Summing Up: Recommended. All collections; all levels. — R. Sugarman, emeritus, Southern Vermont College

From traveling show to vaudeville: theatrical spectacle in America, 1830-1910, ed. by Robert M. Lewis.  Johns Hopkins, 2003.  384p bibl index afp ISBN 0-8018-7087-9, $45.00. Reviewed in 2004apr CHOICE.
41-4559  PN2245  2002-15216 CIP

Lewis (American history, Univ. of Birmingham, UK) has gathered an impressive and judiciously selected collection of relevant documents (most previously published, albeit now difficult to find), putting them together with informative introductory essays and contextual explications of most selections. He includes a wide variety of material, ranging from programs and reviews to photographs, scripts, song lyrics, and reminiscences, organized under the headings “The Dime Museum,” “Minstrelsy,” “The Circus,” “Melodrama,” “‘Leg Show’ Burlesque Extravaganzas,” “The Wild West Show,” “Summer Amusement Parks,” and “Vaudeville.” The balance is generally excellent (The Black Crook, 1866, is perhaps too heavily represented) and the organization appropriate (though placing items on Edward Harrigan’s comedies under minstrelsy is odd). Not to illustrate burlesque with bits used by comics seems an oversight, given their importance in pre-striptease burlesque (but readers can find these in abundance in American Popular Entertainments: Jokes, Monologues, Bits, and Sketches, ed. by Brooks McNamara, 1983). Though some of Lewis’s choices can be found in other contemporary collections, this compendium is notable for its broad coverage of forms, informed commentary, and superb bibliographical essay on sources. Summing Up: Recommended. All collections; all levels. — D. B. Wilmeth, Brown University

The Greenwood guide to American popular culture, ed. by M. Thomas Inge and Dennis Hall.  Greenwood, 2002.  4v  bibl afp ISBN 0-313-30878-0, $399.95. Reviewed in 2003may CHOICE.
40-4953   E169   2002-71291 CIP

Revised and expanded from Handbook of American Popular Culture, ed. by Inge (CH, May ’90), Inge and Hall’s work remains a good starting point for 58 topics that range from automobiles and fashion to pornography. Although the editors have added several new articles (“Amusement Parks,” “Comic Books,” “Housing,” “Living History and Battlefield Reenactments, “Museums and Collecting,” and “New Age Movements”), they have dropped “Advertising,” “The Occult,” “Musical Theatre and the Revue,” “Physical Fitness,” and “Stage Entertainment.” Written by scholars, articles provide a brief historical introduction; a bibliographical essay on useful reference works, histories, critical studies, and research collections; and a comprehensive bibliography of works cited. Some essays, like “Jazz,” have been revised extensively, while others, such as “Medicine and Physicians,” have only minor changes. While the guide’s scope remains arbitrary (there are separate articles covering music and jazz, but only a general article on sports, which gives short shrift to baseball), it provides a solid introduction and useful review of research for the areas covered. A generous selection of photographs has been added. Summing Up: Recommended. For academic and larger public libraries, especially those lacking the earlier edition. — W. M. Gargan, Brooklyn College

Hoh, LaVahn G.  Step right up!: the adventure of circus in America, by LaVahn G. Hoh and William H. Rough.  Betterway Publications, 1990.  272p bibl index ISBN 1-55870-140-0, $29.95; ISBN 1-55870-139-7, $19.95.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 1990nov CHOICE.
28-1495 GV1803  89-29910 CIP

Wonderfully evocative and comprehensive, this is a most worthy addition to the growing literature on the American circus and a superb complement to John Culhane’s The American Circus (CH, Oct’90), a more conventional history. Rich in detail on the traditional as well as the contemporary circus, Hoh and Rough’s account provides a coverage that is rare in circus books. Not only does it treat the history and lore of the circus, the reader is also given insights into every major type of circus act (and key performers), an approach similar to that used by Culhane. What is unique, however, is the explanation of the structure and operation of circuses under canvas and in permanent venues, the vivid descriptions of all sizes of contemporary American circuses included, and the persuasive reasons for believing that the American circus shall endure, an optimism shared with Culhane. All aspects of the circus are explored, including such issues as animal rights, the role played in the circus world by such modern groups as The Big Apple Circus and Cirque du Soleil, and the emergence of a new breed of clowns, known as the New Vaudevillians. Illustrated with more than 300 photographs, this work will take its place along side such classics on the circus as Hippisley Coxe’s A Seat at the Circus (1951) and D.L. Hammarstrom’s Behind the Big Top (1980).  Select bibliography; index. As an introduction to the American circus, this book should be in all public and academic libraries. — D. B. Wilmeth, Brown University

Immerso, Michael.  Coney Island: the people’s playground.  Rutgers, 2002.  199p bibl index afp ISBN 0-8135-3138-1, $29.95. Reviewed in 2003jun CHOICE.
40-5999   F129   2002-20159 CIP

Located in the Borough of Brooklyn and only ten miles from Manhattan Island, Coney Island emerged as an exclusive summer resort in the early 19th century. By the early 20th century, entrepreneurs had built a number of amusement parks–like Luna Park, Dreamland, Midget City, Steeplechase Park–that attracted millions of working- and middle-class visitors. Independent scholar Immerso provides the first comprehensive history of Coney Island since the publication of Oliver Pilat and Jo Ranson’s Sodom by the Sea (1941). Immerso begins this study with a discussion of the Dutch immigrants who drove out the indigenous peoples and lay claim to the island in the 17th century, and concludes with an analysis of the bacchanalia that has accompanied the annual Mermaid Parade since the 1990s. Throughout the work, he carefully demonstrates Coney Island’s contribution to the creation of the US mass culture of leisure. This is a scholarly study, but Immerso includes enough material on the amusements, foods, and unusual characters inhabiting the boardwalk to make it interesting to anyone who has visited the island. Cultural and urban historians should consider this concisely written, thoroughly researched, and profusely illustrated work on “America’s playground” required reading. Summing Up: Essential. All levels and collections. — T. D. Beal, SUNY College at Oneonta

Lilliefors, James.  America’s boardwalks: from Coney Island to California.  Rutgers, 2006.  207p bibl afp ISBN 0-8135-3805-X, $27.50. Reviewed in 2007apr CHOICE.
44-4649   GV53   2005-24665 CIP

For more than a century the American public has been drawn to beach-town boardwalks and the unique culture associated with them, each typified, as Lilliefors (a journalist) explains, with “its own complicated character, shaped by history, memory, demographics, real estate, and travel trends.” Based largely on interviews, this book explores 12 beach towns in order to demonstrate how they “have been able to preserve American traditions while at the same time feeding a hunger for the new.” Lilliefors’s subjects are Coney Island (New York); Asbury Park, Atlantic City, Wildwood, and Cape May (all in New Jersey); Rehoboth Beach (Delaware); Ocean City (Maryland); Virginia Beach (Virginia); Myrtle Beach (South Carolina); Daytona Beach (Florida); and Venice Beach and Santa Cruz (California). Although not a scholarly investigation–the author eschews citations of sources–this handsome, generously illustrated book provides a useful, entertaining history of the places, especially their amusements, and a perceptive analysis of the idea of the boardwalk. Unfortunately, the book lacks an index and includes a very selective bibliography, even for Atlantic City and Coney Island, which have been covered extensively. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-/upper-division undergraduates; general readers. — D. B. Wilmeth, emeritus, Brown University

McNamara, Brooks.  The New York concert saloon, 1864-1884: the devil’s own nights.  Cambridge, 2002.  148p bibl index  (Cambridge studies in American theatre and drama, 14) ISBN 0-521-81478-2, $55.00. Reviewed in 2003may CHOICE.
40-5112   PN1968   2002-17388 CIP

This well-researched volume in the valuable Cambridge series explores concert saloons, a form of theatrical entertainment that flourished in drinking establishments in the second half of the 19th century in New York City. McNamara (performance studies, New York Univ.) devotes chapters to the acts, the spaces and their equipment, and to the personnel. The research is largely based on reports that appeared in the theatrical paper Clipper, which was kindly disposed toward concert saloons, and from the records of the Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents, which opposed the saloons and collected fines levied under laws intended to curtail them. The author also looks at beer gardens and dance halls and at the impact of concert saloons across the country, especially in the Far West. Some illustrations, appendixes including one devoted to the State of New York Act to Regulate Public Amusement in the City of New York. Summing Up: Recommended. Collections supporting study at the upper-division undergraduate level and above. — R. Sugarman, Southern Vermont College

Mordden, Ethan.  Ziegfeld: the man who invented show business.  St. Martin’s, 2008.  335p bibl index ISBN 0-312-37543-3, $32.95; ISBN 9780312375430, $32.95. Reviewed in 2009may CHOICE.
46-4912  PN2287  2008-28746 CIP
 
Studies of producer/entrepreneur Florenz Ziegfeld (1867-1932), especially of his Follies and the musical Show Boat, are plentiful, ranging from Marjorie Farnsworth’s The Ziegfeld Follies (1956), Charles Higham’s Ziegfeld (CH, Apr’73), and Randolph Carter’s The World of Flo Ziegfeld (1974) to the extensively illustrated The Ziegfeld Touch by Richard Ziegfeld and Paulette Ziegfeld (CH, Feb’94, 31-3134). Although poorly illustrated in comparison to the last of these, Mordden’s biography is the most balanced to date (like most of Mordden’s books, this one eschews documentation, but it does provide a useful bibliographical essay in lieu of a bibliography). Mordden is probably the foremost contemporary authority on the American musical stage; he has written a series of books, each treating a decade, on the musical during the 20th century. Yet like previous biographers, Mordden finds Ziegfeld elusive (“his personal life confounds inspection”), and he provides only a glimpse of the man that he calls “an anarchy of lightning strikes.” As in other Mordden books, the diction leans toward preciosity (Shubert revues were “constipated hodgepodges”), but at the same time the style and phraseology of this volume seem appropriate and effective. Certainly this is the best biography of Ziegfeld to date. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers, all levels. — D. B. Wilmeth, emeritus, Brown University

Simon, Bryant.  Boardwalk of dreams: Atlantic City and the fate of urban America.  Oxford, 2004.  285p index afp ISBN 0-19-516753-8, $35.00. Reviewed in 2005jul CHOICE.
42-6709   F144  2004-41479 CIP

Between WW I and 1960, thousands of white middle-class vacationers flocked to Atlantic City; situated on the New Jersey shoreline, it was one of the most popular resorts in the US. But as Simon (Temple Univ.) argues, this is only part of the city’s history. Businessmen and government officials worked together to create and promote a culture that reinforced their ideas of race and class. Some whites strolled along a segregated boardwalk, others hired African Americans to push them along the boardwalk in comfortable wicker chairs. The city also boasted nightclubs, gay bars, and risquD’e stage shows where African American women danced and “shook their bodies and thrust their hips.” Although whites liked the idea of being served by African Americans or watching them perform, they did not want to rub elbows with them. As long as this class and racial hierarchy was stable, the city prospered. The 1960s, however, challenged middle-class notions of race and segregation, and Atlantic City quickly lost its popular appeal. Simon’s final chapters discuss this decline as well as recent attempts to revitalize the city. For historians interested in the intersection of race and class in the 20th century, this work is a must read. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. — T. D. Beal, SUNY College at Oneonta

Wertheim, Arthur Frank.  Vaudeville wars: how the Keith-Albee and Orpheum circuits controlled the big-time and its performers.  Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.  332p bibl index ISBN 1-4039-6826-8, $69.95; ISBN 9781403968265, $69.95. Reviewed in 2006dec CHOICE.
44-2044   PN1968   2005-51451 CIP

Although related to forms of variety entertainment in other parts of the world, US vaudeville reflected the unique qualities of the nation. Evolving from raucous concert saloons patronized by men, vaudeville was gentrified by E. F. Albee (1857-1930) and other pioneers, who censored performances and built elegant theaters in which women and children felt comfortable. In keeping with the culture of the day, as reflected by the methods of contemporary railroad and industrial tycoons, vaudeville entrepreneurs competed ruthlessly with one another, developed monopolies, and fought efforts of their workers–i.e., performers–to unionize. In Blue Vaudeville: Sex, Morals and the Mass Marketing of Amusement 1895-1915 (CH, May’05, 42-5179), Andrew Erdman contends that theater owners modified rules for stars like Sophie Tucker and Eva Tanguay, who attracted large audiences. Wertheim (history, formerly UCLA and elsewhere) follows the development of vaudeville to its decline in the 1920s, when it fell from popularity due to the sameness in its programs, corruption among its managers and agents, and competition from motion pictures. The Depression sealed vaudeville’s fate. Including extensive documentation and some photographs, this book will find an audience among those interested in American business as well as popular entertainment. Summing Up: Recommended. All readers, all levels. — R. Sugarman, emeritus, Southern Vermont College

Ziegfeld, Richard.  The Ziegfeld touch: the life and times of Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., by Richard and Paulette Ziegfeld.  Abrams, 1993.  352p bibl index ISBN 0-8109-3966-5, $49.50. Reviewed in 1994feb CHOICE.
31-3154  PN2287   92-4546 CIP

A distant cousin of Ziegfeld, Richard Ziegfeld benefited from personal remembrances by Ziegfeld’s daughter and pursued many nontraditional sources for this biography. Although having the appearance of a coffee-table book, it is a solid, scholarly publication, with sources clearly acknowledged and documented. The first half is a biography covering Ziegfeld’s personal and professional life. There follows a 30-page section of colored illustrations–portraits, stage settings, sheet music covers. A list of all Ziegfeld shows gives production information on each. A useful biographical section on more than 100 individuals involved in Ziegfeld’s life concludes the text. Photographs abound throughout. Documentation, given in a separate section, is followed by a lengthy bibliography and index. This biography easily replaces Charles Higham’s Ziegfeld (CH, Apr’73) and Randolph Carter’s The World of Flo Ziegfeld (1974). Of equal importance, this work gives valuable background on all aspects of US show business during the early 20th century. Essential in all performing arts collections; also a useful addition to collections on American social history. General and academic readers, undergraduates and up. — R. D. Johnson, SUNY College at Oneonta