Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share David Hajdu and John Carey, "A Revolution in Three Acts: The Radical Vaudeville of Bert Williams, Eva Tanguay, and Julian Eltinge" (Columbia UP, 2021)
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
David Hajdu and John Carey, "A Revolution in Three Acts: The Radical Vaudeville of Bert Williams, Eva Tanguay, and Julian Eltinge" (Columbia UP, 2021)
Too often, vaudeville is seen from the perspective of its decline: it is the corny, messy art form that predated the book musical, or that gave us Chaplin, Keaton, and the Marx Brothers. Rarely is it seen as the populist avant-garde form it was at its height. David Hajdu and John Carey's graphic history, A Revolution in Three Acts: The Radical Vaudeville of Bert Williams, Eva Tanguay, and Julian Eltinge (Columbia University Press, 2021), corrects this misconception, giving us illustrated biographies of three of the genre's most outré and successful stars. Eva Tanguay challenged contemporary gender roles through her outrageous behavior and sexually suggestive songs. Julian Eltinge also subverted gendered expectations of femininity by performing them to the hilt -- but as a man. And Bert Williams, a black man who performed in black face, tried to use his fame to soften the hard edges of Jim Crow bigotry but eventually became exhausted by the racism he encountered within the entertainment industry. These three performers truly were revolutionary, and their stories should be known to any theatre fan or historian.
Andy Boyd is a playwright based in Brooklyn, New York. He is a graduate of the playwriting MFA at Columbia University, Harvard University, and the Arizona School for the Arts.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/biography
View all episodes
By Marshall Poe
3.8
7474 ratings
Too often, vaudeville is seen from the perspective of its decline: it is the corny, messy art form that predated the book musical, or that gave us Chaplin, Keaton, and the Marx Brothers. Rarely is it seen as the populist avant-garde form it was at its height. David Hajdu and John Carey's graphic history, A Revolution in Three Acts: The Radical Vaudeville of Bert Williams, Eva Tanguay, and Julian Eltinge (Columbia University Press, 2021), corrects this misconception, giving us illustrated biographies of three of the genre's most outré and successful stars. Eva Tanguay challenged contemporary gender roles through her outrageous behavior and sexually suggestive songs. Julian Eltinge also subverted gendered expectations of femininity by performing them to the hilt -- but as a man. And Bert Williams, a black man who performed in black face, tried to use his fame to soften the hard edges of Jim Crow bigotry but eventually became exhausted by the racism he encountered within the entertainment industry. These three performers truly were revolutionary, and their stories should be known to any theatre fan or historian.
Andy Boyd is a playwright based in Brooklyn, New York. He is a graduate of the playwriting MFA at Columbia University, Harvard University, and the Arizona School for the Arts.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/biography
More shows like New Books in Biography
View all
In Our Time
5,412 Listeners
The Book Review
3,864 Listeners
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
38,523 Listeners
Fresh Air
37,883 Listeners
History Extra podcast
3,180 Listeners
New Books in History
204 Listeners
99% Invisible
26,169 Listeners
New Books in Psychoanalysis
194 Listeners
New Books in Military History
161 Listeners
New Books in African American Studies
161 Listeners
New Books in Political Science
62 Listeners
New Books in Sociology
45 Listeners
New Books in Medicine
18 Listeners
New Books in Philosophy
109 Listeners
The LRB Podcast
291 Listeners
New Books in American Studies
29 Listeners
New Books in Intellectual History
61 Listeners
The History of Literature
1,101 Listeners
The New Yorker Radio Hour
6,681 Listeners
The Book Club
4 Listeners
The Great Women Artists
512 Listeners
The Rest Is History
13,085 Listeners
Empire
2,137 Listeners
Close Readings
66 Listeners
The Critic and Her Publics
73 Listeners