Going Out: The Rise and Fall of Public Amusements

David Nasaw has written a sparkling social history of twentieth-century show business and of the new American public that assembled in the city's pleasure palaces, parks, theaters, nickelodeons, world's fair midways, and dance halls.

The new amusement centers welcomed women, men, and children, native-born and immigrant, rich, poor and middling. Only African Americans were excluded or segregated in the audience, though they were overrepresented in parodic form on stage. This stigmatization of the African American, Nasaw argues, was the glue that cemented an otherwise disparate audience, muting social distinctions among "whites," and creating a common national culture.

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Going Out: The Rise and Fall of Public Amusements

David Nasaw has written a sparkling social history of twentieth-century show business and of the new American public that assembled in the city's pleasure palaces, parks, theaters, nickelodeons, world's fair midways, and dance halls.

The new amusement centers welcomed women, men, and children, native-born and immigrant, rich, poor and middling. Only African Americans were excluded or segregated in the audience, though they were overrepresented in parodic form on stage. This stigmatization of the African American, Nasaw argues, was the glue that cemented an otherwise disparate audience, muting social distinctions among "whites," and creating a common national culture.

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Going Out: The Rise and Fall of Public Amusements

Going Out: The Rise and Fall of Public Amusements

by David Nasaw
Going Out: The Rise and Fall of Public Amusements

Going Out: The Rise and Fall of Public Amusements

by David Nasaw

eBook

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Overview

David Nasaw has written a sparkling social history of twentieth-century show business and of the new American public that assembled in the city's pleasure palaces, parks, theaters, nickelodeons, world's fair midways, and dance halls.

The new amusement centers welcomed women, men, and children, native-born and immigrant, rich, poor and middling. Only African Americans were excluded or segregated in the audience, though they were overrepresented in parodic form on stage. This stigmatization of the African American, Nasaw argues, was the glue that cemented an otherwise disparate audience, muting social distinctions among "whites," and creating a common national culture.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780674417595
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Publication date: 04/15/1999
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 320
File size: 2 MB

About the Author

David Nasaw is Professor of History and American Studies at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

1. Introduction

2. Dollar Theaters, Concert Saloons, and Dime Museums

3. "Something for Everybody" at the Vaudeville Theater

4. "The Best Smelling Crowd in the World"

5. The "Indecent" Others

6. The City as Playground: The World's Fair Midways

7. "The Summer Show"

8. The National Game

9. "Laughter and Liberty Galore": Early Twentieth-Century Dance Halls, Ballrooms, and Cabarets

10. Talking and Singing Machines, Parlors, and Peep Shows

11. "The Surest Immediate Money-Maker Ever Known"

12. The First Picture Shows

13. "The Pernicious 'Moving Picture' Abomination"

14. Combination Shows, Stars, and Features

15. Waving the Flag

16. Palaces for the People

17. Decline and Fall

List of Abbreviations

Notes

Index

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