[ePub] How to Draw Animals and Birds by A. W. Browne at Arts-Photography

Description

Like many western boomtowns at the turn of the twentieth century; Spokane; Washington; enjoyed a lively theatrical scene; ranging from plays; concerts; and operas to salacious variety and vaudeville shows. Yet even as Spokanites took pride in their cityrsquo;s reputation as a ldquo;good show town;rdquo; the more genteel among them worried about its ldquo;Wild Westrdquo; atmosphere. In Show Town; historian Holly George correlates the clash of tastes and sensibilities among Spokanersquo;s theater patrons with a larger shift in values occurring throughout the Inland Westmdash;and the nationmdash;during a period of rapid social change. George begins this multifaceted story in 1890; when two Spokane developers built the lavish Auditorium Theater as a kind of advertisement for the young city. The new venue catered to a class of people made wealthy by speculation; railroads; and mining. Yet the refined entertainment the Auditorium offered conflicted with the rollicking shows that played in the townrsquo;s variety theaters; designed to draw in the migratory workersmdash;primarily single menmdash;who provided labor for the same industries that made the fortunes of Spokanersquo;s elite. As well-to-do Spokanites attempted to clamp down on the variety theaters; performances at even the cityrsquo;s more respectable; ldquo;legitimaterdquo; playhouses began to reflect a movement away from Victorian sensibilities to a more modern desire for self-fulfillmentmdash;particularly among women. Theaters joined the debate over modern femininity by presenting plays on issues ranging from womanrsquo;s suffrage to shifting marital expectations. At the same time; national theater monopolies transmitted to the people of Spokane new styles and tastes that mirrored larger cultural trends. Lucidly written and meticulously researched; Show Town is a groundbreaking work of cultural history. By examining one cityrsquo;s theatrical scene in all its complex dimensions; this book expands our understanding of the forces that shaped the urban American West.