[DOC] Historical Dictionary of Neoclassical Art and Architecture (Historical Dictionaries of Literature and the Arts) by Allison Lee Palmer in Arts-Photography

Description

Before phonographs and moving pictures; live performances dominated American popular entertainment. Carnivals; circuses; dioramas; magicians; mechanical marvels; musicians; and theatrical troupes all visited rural fairgrounds; small town opera houses; and big city palaces around the country; giving millions of people an escape from their everyday lives for a dime or a quarter. In From Traveling Show to Vaudeville; Robert M. Lewis has assembled a remarkable collection of nineteenth- and early twentieth century primary sources that document Americas age of theatrical spectacle. In eight parts; Lewis explores; in turn; dime museums; minstrelsy; circuses; melodramas; burlesque shows; Wild West shows; amusement parks; and vaudeville. Included in this compendium are biographies; programs; ephemera produced by theatrical entrepreneurs to lure audiences to their shows; photographs; scripts; and song lyrics as well as newspaper accounts; reviews; and interviews with such figures as P. T. Barnum and Buffalo Bill Cody. Lewis also gives us reminiscences about and reactions to various shows by members of audiences; including such prominent writers as Mark Twain; William Dean Howells; Nathaniel Hawthorne; Carl Sandburg; Walt Whitman; Louisa May Alcott; Charles Dickens; O. Henry; and Maxim Gorky. Each section also includes a concise introduction that places the genre of spectacle into its historical and cultural context and suggests major interpretive themes. The book closes with a bibliographic essay that identifies relevant scholarly works. Many of the pieces collected here have not been published since their first appearance; making From Traveling Show to Vaudeville an indispensable resource for historians of popular culture; theater; and nineteenth century American society.