Tin Pan Alley, Vaudeville and the Hollywood Musical

During the period from 1900-1929, vaudeville was the predominant form of live entertainment in the United States. Its musical, comedy and novelty acts represented the ethnic differences of the growing immigrant population, and it was to the masses that these performances appealed most. Vaudeville helped shape the American popular music scene in a number of ways. The history of vaudeville itself as an entertainment for the masses will show the importance of its large and diverse audience. A large number of America’s greatest comic entertainers and singers began their careers in vaudeville. Also, a great number of the Tin Pan Alley songwriters plugged their songs by including them in vaudeville sketches.

Dating back to the 1730s as a concept, vaudeville has deep roots in the history of live entertainment. The concept was helped in its shaping by the influence and immense popularity of the minstrel shows of the pre-Civil War period. But the 1880s saw the rise of the Industrial Revolution, with citizens now focused in urban areas, creating a social gap that vaudeville would later try to bridge. Most of the live shows of the period were viewed as low-class and vulgar, and there was a desire for clean entertainment. That entertainment was provided finally in 1881, when Tony Pastor began the presentation of cleaned-up live performances. In the 1890s, Edward Albee and Benjamin Franklin Keith began the first major vaudeville circuit. They were subsequently joined by the Sullivan & Consodine, Alexander Pantages and Marcus Loew circuits over the following years. Vaudeville entertainment, as it came to be known, only continued to grow in popularity. The major chain owners even built special vaudeville theatres. Vaudeville was very much reflective of the attitudes and sensibilities of the incoming immigrant classes and with the masses in general. Vaudeville was filled with ethnic humor, and indeed the blackface tradition of minstrelsy found its way into use by a number of entertainers, including among them Al Jolson. During the years of mass immigration, ethnic humor was very commonplace and was not an issue of sensitivity. While vaudeville maintained its reputation as clean entertainment, there remained another form of live entertainment at the same time that could get much raunchier. This was burlesque, which featured comedy acts before a strip show. This form also featured many talents whose careers would cross over into that of vaudeville, including Milton Berle.


The main features of attraction to a vaudeville show were music and comedy, but there were also novelty acts that ranged from the interesting to the bizarre. In his piece on the history of vaudeville, author John Kenrick provides a list of the different types of acts that could be found on any given vaudeville bill: “Mind readers, instrumentalists, escape artists, flash acts, high divers, quick-change artists, strong men, living statuary, contortionists, balancing acts, freak acts and regurgitators.” This represents the large variety of entertainment available, and also serves as an indicator that there was much competition among performers in vaudeville.


Vaudeville prospered throughout the 1910s and 20s, but there were several key factors that led to its dissolving in the early 1930s. Chief among these was the stock market crash of October 1929. With money scarce, live entertainment suffered, and many theatres shut down and performers entered other venues, such as the movies.
Additionally, the emergence of the talking pictures effectively put an end to vaudeville comedy. Many vaudeville theatres began showing films, and with the coming of sound films, vaudeville acts could be performed on film and play to a much wider audience than ever before. Edward Albee merged with Joseph P. Kennedy, and the creation of RKO Radio Pictures led to the Orpheum circuit becoming a chain of movie houses.


Another factor that had an impact on vaudeville was the emergence of big Broadway shows. At this time, Broadway shows could consist of entire musical comedy shows that played like vaudeville routines, but with a massive budget for scenery, costumes and a first-class score. The Marx Bros. appeared in their first major Broadway show, The Cocoanuts, in 1925. This show, produced by Sam H. Harris, contained a full score by Irving Berlin, representing a significant tie to the Tin Pan Alley musical scene. They followed this up with their next show, Animal Crackers, in 1928. Both were hugely successful. Florenz Ziegfeld produced a series of musical comedy shows that showcased the biggest talents of the Ziegfeld Follies, containing showgirls, elaborate costumes and musical numbers. Vaudeville musical comedy performers Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey performed in one of Ziegfeld’s biggest shows, Rio Rita, in 1926.

As vaudeville came to an end, many of its biggest performers remained legends, and several made return appearances for special engagements on the stage. The tradition of vaudeville carried on in the form of variety shows on television, such as Carol Burnett and Ed Sullivan, as well as in the form of sitcoms.

Vaudeville produced many performers who have since becomes icons of American entertainment. John Kenrick, in his piece on the history of vaudeville, gives a listing of the major performers who appeared on vaudeville bills: The Gumm Sisters (including Judy Garland), the Nicholas Brothers, Sarah Bernhart, Ethel Barrymore, Walter Hampden, Nazimova, Helen Hayes, Alfred Lunt, Lillie Langtry, Jack Benny, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Sophie Tucker, Marie Dressler, Kate Smith, Eddie Cantor, Milton Berle, Bob Hope, Benny Rubin, Frank Fay, Ethel Waters, Ma Rainey, Bert Williams, Bessie Smith, Bill Robinson, The Duncan Sisters, Smith and Dale, The Cherry Sisters and Bing Crosby. Comedian Harry Langdon began his career in a vaudeville act with his wife prior to coming to Hollywood. Additional star performers included the Ritz Bros., The Marx Bros., Joe Jackson, Robert Emmett Keane, Clark and McCullough, and Ted Healy and the Three Stooges. Some vaudeville comics went into greater success in the movies. Buster Keaton toured with his family in an act called “The Three Keatons”, in which he perfected his unique brand of breakneck physical slapstick. Keaton’s act involved his father’s attempts to perform a song while being interrupted by Buster himself. The act would proceed with Keaton’s father comically tossing the boy around the stage. This type of roughhouse slapstick would make Keaton one of the most widely admired among silent film comedians of the 1920s. W.C. Fields appeared in vaudeville as an eccentric juggler prior to becoming an attraction on Broadway. Fields first performed in Columbus, Ohio, doing his comic-juggling act that he would become famous for. Fields became one of the biggest earners in vaudeville, and displayed his juggling talents in many cities throughout the country on the stage. The Marx Bros. had been in vaudeville since 1905. Groucho Marx began his career in vaudeville as a singer, performing popular tunes of the day written by Tin Pan Alley composers. In 1906, Groucho joined the Gus Edwards act as a singer. Other young singers in this act included Eddie Cantor, songwriter Harry Ruby, Edward Buzzell, George Jessel, and Walter Winchell.
Musical comics were perhaps the most popular of all vaudeville acts, because they combined the two most popular styles of vaudeville entertainment. Tin Pan Alley popular composers included Nora Bayes, George M. Cohan, James Monaco, Maurice Abrahams and Bert Brantford. Popular songs included “Hello My Baby”, “Give My Regards to Broadway”, “Yankee Doodle Dandy” and “He’d Have to Get Out and Get Under to Fix His Automobile”.


Musical comedy represents an important link that existed between vaudeville and Tin Pan Alley. Tin Pan Alley songs conveyed feelings of nostalgia. Some of the most memorable songs to come out of Tin Pan Alley include “In the Good Old Summertime”, “Give My Regards to Broadway”, “Shine On, Harvest Moon”, and “After the Ball”, which sold over five million copies. Musical and comedy acts such as the Marx Bros., Eddie Cantor, Al Jolson, and Wheeler and Woolsey would purchase songs from Tin Pan Alley songwriters. Many of their acts consisted of singing, piano playing and other musical elements. Al Jolson made a hit out of one of George Gershwin’s first songs, “Swanee”, in 1919. Gershwin became one of America’s foremost songwriters, whose works include “Porgy and Bess” and “Rhapsody in Blue”. It was through the world of Tin Pan Alley and vaudeville that his music got its first exposure. Song pluggers were vital in getting the songs out into the public in order to sell sheet music. Some pluggers were involved actively in vaudeville-both Groucho and Chico Marx worked as song pluggers for a short time in 1907. George Gershwin and Irving Berlin were two other song pluggers who later became successful songwriters.


Tin Pan Alley music remained the predominant source for music in America until the emergence of rock and roll in 1954. The death of sheet music and record sales during the Depression contributed to the decline of Tin Pan Alley. Many composers left New York for Hollywood to continue writing songs for film musicals. In 1929 and 1930, there was a large upsurge in the number of film musicals being produced. 1929 saw the release of The Cocoanuts, starring the Marx Bros. and featuring a score by Irving Berlin. Later that year, RKO-the movie chain based out of the Orpheum and Keith vaudeville circuit-released Rio Rita, featuring Wheeler and Woolsey, and a score by Harry Tierney and Joseph McCarthy. These works represent the continuation of both a vaudeville and Tin Pan Alley musical and comedy tradition that carried on for years.


The influence of Tin Pan Alley music continued after the end of vaudeville. The venue of live entertainment provided by vaudeville helped greatly to sell the songs of the Tin Pan Alley to the large and diverse audiences who enjoyed vaudeville shows for their music, comedy and novelty acts. Vaudeville and the Tin Pan Alley songs combined to make for a uniquely American entertainment form in the early part of the twentieth century.