VAUDEVILLE
Vaudeville as a genre of variety entertainment began in France in the 1860s. The first vaudeville productions in France were comedies, often interspersed with song and dance.
Vaudeville gained popularity in the United States in the 1880s, until its demise in the 1930s.
Like the Victorian Music Hall genre in England, the Vaudeville bill consisted of up to 20 unrelated acts with a vast variety in the type of performance.
Musical acts-- both serious and comical, trained animal acts, magicians, ventriloquists, acrobats, jugglers, scenes from popular plays, minstrels, and sideshow acts, among others, could all have been part of the show.
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FREAKS
- BEASTS
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FEATS
- Acrobats (37)
- Bag Puncher (2)
- Bicycle & Unicycle Acts (5)
- Buried Alive/Suspended Animation (3)
- Contortionists (26)
- Daredevils (37)
- Equilibrists (14)
- Funambulists (10)
- Fire Acts (35)
- Human-Fish (1)
- Iron Skull (7)
- Knife Throwers (6)
- Mechanical Man/Living Doll/Robot Man/Living Statue (3)
- Sharpshooters (5)
- Strong Folk (40)
- Whip-Crackers (1)
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WORKING ACTS
- Bed of Nails/Nail Board (9)
- Circassians (72)
- Electric, Magnetic, X-Ray Acts (7)
- Ethnic Curiosities (45)
- Fakirs (30)
- Glass Eaters (4)
- Gurners and Grimacers (10)
- Human Blockhead (2)
- Human Ostrich (7)
- Human Pincushions (10)
- Hunger Artists (23)
- Regurgitators and Water Spouters (14)
- Snake Acts (84)
- Sword-Box (1)
- Sword Ladders (10)
- Sword Swallowers (88)
- Tattooed People (112)
- Wild Folk (98)
- NOVELTY/VARIETY
- ODDBALLS
- EXHIBITS
- SIDESHOW
- DIME MUSEUM
- CARNIVAL
- CIRCUS
- VAUDEVILLE
- SEX ! ! !
- MISC.
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MORE
- Freak and Novelty Performer Advertising (14)
- The Unknown Performers (2)
- Showmen & Promoters (61)
- Balloons and Airships (1)
- Banners & Banner Painters (47)
- Confections, Snacks and Refreshments (11)
- Fortune Tellers, Psychics, Spirtualists, Mindreaders (15)
- Punch & Judy, Puppets, Marionettes (11)
- Trade Publications (13)
- Funhouse, Dark Ride, Spook Show (2)
Venues of this type
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