American Theatre in the 1920s

Last updated
Flappers in New Woman Era, 1920s FlapperIdaho.jpg
Flappers in New Woman Era, 1920s

In the 1920s, theater in the United States and the cinema of the United States were both increasingly active. Broadway was reaching its peak, classic theatre was working to be recognized, and the cinema business was growing as well. Within this decade, there were many changes within the social, economic, and legal environment in the United States, and these changes were often reflected into the art forms of the time period. In the 1920s, theatre utilized jazz, Vaudeville, straight plays, and musicals.

Contents

Jazz

A defining aspect of theatre of the 1920s was the development of jazz. [1] Jazz was credited with being the “first distinctively American art form to disseminate US culture, style, and modernity across the globe". [1] Jazz's spread across the globe also applied to American lives and art forms. During Prohibition, “jazz cabarets and nightclubs would often stage elaborate floor shows that patrons could watch and participate in” and would hire performers like comedians and actors in order to bring an “adaption of Vaudeville comedy to the nightclub”. [1] Performances were often used in clubs and speakeasies in order to hide the fact that people were flocking in for illegal alcohol, which led to the “upgrade of entertainment into a small Vaudeville show”. [1] Speakeasies, due to their highly theatrical and liberal atmosphere, allowed for theatre to permeate everyday behavior.

Theatrical practices

Other common theatrical practices, particularly in the early 1920s, were musical revues, which had musical scenes, dramatic sketches, and Vaudeville-type performances. [2] In the 1920s, theatre was categorized into two main divisions: “legitimate" or classical theatre, serious and dramatic plays, and musical, comedy, and commercial theatre, which tended to be more upbeat and happy.

Vaudeville

Vaudeville Theater, Buffalo, NY, circa 1900 Vaudeville theatre - Grand Theatre (Buffalo, New York).jpg
Vaudeville Theater, Buffalo, NY, circa 1900

Vaudeville in the 1920s was one of the largest forms of entertainment and was a rival to legitimate theatre. Vaudeville is a genre of theatre that encompasses a variety of small performances, where each act is unrelated to one another. Performers in Vaudeville specialized in one skill and repeated these skills at performances. Vaudeville was known for being more condensed in attempts to reaching out to the American middle class. [3] Because of its theaters, affordable housing, receptive audience, and recreational activities, Los Angeles became a favorite city for Vaudeville performers. This shift of theatre towards the West began the start of “Vaudeville-only” theaters. [4] Vaudeville became a large part of many communities in the 1920s. However, as the popularity of film grew in the late 1920s, Vaudeville began to fall out of favor. Many former Vaudeville stars, such as Charlie Chaplin and Burt Williams, left Vaudeville to become silent film actors. [5]

Legitimate and non-commercial theatre

The legitimate theatre category mostly comprises classic plays (i.e. Greek tragedies, Shakespeare, etc.) and straight plays, usually in the style of realism. For the most part, legitimate theatre denounced improvisation and theatre that was only meant to bring amusement. [1] The ultimate goal of many performers was to allow America's theatre practice to be seen as worthwhile and comparable to European theatre practices, and for the country to be recognized as a viable center of dramatic art. The various institutions pushing the legitimization of American theatre included the Theatre Guild, The Civic Repertory Theatre, and various “little theaters". Of the many playwrights of this era, Eugene O’Neill was one of the biggest proponents for “bringing American theatre to maturity” and was thus one of the most well-known playwrights of the time. [6] It was playwrights like O’Neill that wanted to progress America's theatre into tackling real issues, like poverty ( The Hairy Ape), alcoholism, unstable lifestyles, interracial marriage, and sex equality, among other things. [2]

Musical comedy and commercial theatre

Broadway

Broadway, 1922 The Broadway Peacock (1922) - 2.jpg
Broadway, 1922

The twenties were a time of extreme growth for the musical and Broadway industry. Musicals and musical comedies were considered “all-American” and were the biggest money-makers in the industry. [7] Musicals were sometimes considered “commercial theatre” —with flashy lights, outrageous costumes, and scandalous stage behavior, many musicals were considered trivial and superficial, existing simply for entertainment and money-making purposes. Despite this criticism, especially from the legitimate theatre world, this form of theatre reached its peak in the 1920s, during the “jazz age”. Jazz music and jazz culture were highly influential in the proliferation of musical comedies. Some of the most renowned composers and writers of the 1920s were Irving Berlin, Richard Rodgers, Jerome Kern, and George Gershwin. Some musicals which were popular in the 1920s were Tip-Toes and Show Boat .

Show Boat, 1928 Show-Boat-1928.jpg
Show Boat, 1928

Cinema

In addition to live performance, Hollywood movies are also a key aspect of 1920s theatre history. Although the first movie was made in the late 1800s, movies began to gain traction in the 1920s, which led to a decline in the popularity of theater. With over 20 studios by the end of the 1920s, the movie making industry released an average of 800 films a year during this decade, compared to today's average of 500. [8]

Silent film

Newspaper ad for the American film The Valley of Silent Men, 1922 The Valley of Silent Men (1922) - 4.jpg
Newspaper ad for the American film The Valley of Silent Men, 1922

Until 1927, all movies were silent. The actors were skilled in pantomime, gestures, and facial expressions, but no recorded talking or lines were included in the movies. The only words that signaled actions or lines to the viewer were written on title cards. Title cards would pop up when important plot developments needed to be cleared up, or specific lines were supposed to be included. [9] However, despite the lack of spoken word, there was often music and sound effects added after the fact. In order to add music to the movie, pianists, organists, and orchestras would accompany the film. [9] Because of this, American silent films were often able to be shown universally and the same story would be communicated to most audiences, regardless of their language. [10] Another key feature of silent films was the speed—on average, the film reels were sped up by about four times the usual speed. This was done in order to make time for a matinee as well as an evening show in theaters.

Silent film stars

Beauty was highly appreciated in this era of film, and the stars of the industry reflected this. Despite the floating ideals of whiteness in America, many Hispanic men and women shared in this iconic era of beauty. In fact, the contribution of Hispanic Americans to the movie industry was highly important. For example, when Roman Novarro starred in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's production of Ben Hur: Tale of the Christ in 1925, the company was saved from bankruptcy due to his popularity and skill. [11] However, even though they were successful in the film industry, most Hispanic actors were relegated to three main stereotypes on screen (although some were able to take on “white” roles): the greaser, the Latin lover, or the dark seductress. [12] Hollywood loved on-screen couples as well—they were marketable and romantic. One such couple, Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell, starred together in 12 films and were dubbed “America’s sweethearts.” [8]

Talkies

Poster for the movie The Jazz Singer, 1927 The Jazz Singer 1927 Poster.jpg
Poster for the movie The Jazz Singer, 1927

The first film including synchronized sound and audible lines was The Jazz Singer in 1927. Many of the talking films in the twenties revolved around Broadway in plot and theme. At the end of the decade, movie musicals were popular, especially in 1929, since they took special advantage of the addition of sound by having singing. Some prominent examples of movie musicals from this time were Broadway, Gold Diggers of Broadway , and The Hollywood Revue of 1929. Most big film companies took advantage of the increasing popularity of movie musicals until 1930, when they were deemed too expensive and impractical to continue mass-producing.

Issues with sound

When sound was first introduced, there were a number of complications. First of all, most of the famous actors from the Silent Era, who were primarily pantomimes, had untrained voices and were incapable of expressing the necessary emotions with the addition of words. This voice struggle led to the end of many previously successful acting careers. Some had voices that were not compatible with the microphones, some had voices that were too high, too husky, or too soft, and some could not act convincingly. Because of this, many companies began to hire a higher number of “theatre” actors, who were familiar with using their voices. Along with actors, film studios began to hire playwrights to write scripts, as the new addition of lines was a struggle for some filmmakers. In fact, many of the first talking films were just filmed adaptations of previously existing stage plays. [13] Additionally, movie studios had to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on new sound equipment or on soundproofing certain rooms. This new equipment, though innovative, was difficult to work with at times. The microphones were large and sensitive to movement, so they were typically placed strategically within props and set pieces that the actor would be next to during certain lines of dialogue, which was often difficult to work with. Moving the cameras also proved to be fairly noisy and was picked up on the recordings. To remedy this, many studios started practicing the “frozen camera” technique, where cameras were placed in a soundproof room and recorded through the glass, with a wide shot so it would not have to pan or move.

Main companies

Within the film industry, there were several main companies, five of which were considered the “Big Five” and three of which were considered the “Little Three”. Many of these companies exist still today. The Big Five consisted of Warner Brothers, Famous Players–Lasky Corporation (later Paramount Studios, 1927), Radio-Keith-Orpheum Pictures, Loew's, Inc. (later Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), and Fox Film Corporation. The Little Three consisted of Universal Pictures, United Artists, and Columbia Pictures. [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Musical film</span> Film genre

Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but in some cases, they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate "production numbers".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Silent film</span> Film with no synchronized recorded dialogue

A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound. Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements or key lines of dialogue may, when necessary, be conveyed by the use of title cards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vaudeville</span> Entertainment genre

Vaudeville is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition or light poetry, interspersed with songs or ballets. It became popular in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s, but the idea of vaudeville's theatre changed radically from its French antecedent.

<i>The Jazz Singer</i> 1927 film by Alan Crosland

The Jazz Singer is a 1927 American musical drama film directed by Alan Crosland and produced by Warner Bros. Pictures. It is the first feature-length motion picture with both synchronized recorded music and lip-synchronous singing and speech. Its release heralded the commercial ascendance of sound films and effectively marked the end of the silent film era with the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system, featuring six songs performed by Al Jolson. Based on the 1925 play of the same title by Samson Raphaelson, the plot was adapted from his short story "The Day of Atonement".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sound film</span> A motion picture with synchronized sound

A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before sound motion pictures became commercially practical. Reliable synchronization was difficult to achieve with the early sound-on-disc systems, and amplification and recording quality were also inadequate. Innovations in sound-on-film led to the first commercial screening of short motion pictures using the technology, which took place in 1923. The sound film was also played with organs or pianos in the actual movie to represent sound.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julian Eltinge</span> Actor, female impersonator

Julian Eltinge, born William Julian Dalton, was an American stage and film actor and female impersonator. After appearing in the Boston Cadets Revue at the age of ten in feminine garb, Eltinge garnered notice from other producers and made his first appearance on Broadway in 1904. As his star began to rise, he appeared in vaudeville and toured Europe and the United States, even giving a command performance before King Edward VII. Eltinge appeared in a series of musical comedies written specifically for his talents starting in 1910 with The Fascinating Widow, returning to vaudeville in 1918. His popularity soon earned him the moniker "Mr. Lillian Russell" for the popular beauty and musical comedy star.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Broadway theatre</span> Type of theatre in New York City

Broadway theatre, or Broadway, are the theatrical performances presented in the 41 professional theatres, each with 500 or more seats, located in the Theater District and the Lincoln Center along Broadway, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Broadway and London's West End together represent the highest commercial level of live theater in the English-speaking world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Hellinger Theatre</span> Former theater in Manhattan, New York

The Mark Hellinger Theatre is a church building at 237 West 51st Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, which formerly operated as a cinema and Broadway theater. Opened in 1930, the Hellinger Theatre is named after journalist Mark Hellinger and was developed by Warner Bros. as a movie palace. It was designed by Thomas W. Lamb with a modern facade and a Baroque interior. It has 1,605 seats across two levels and has been a house of worship for the Times Square Church since 1989. Both the exterior and interior of the theater are New York City landmarks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Jessel (actor)</span> American vaudeville performer, actor, singer, songwriter, and film producer (1898–1981)

George Albert "Georgie" Jessel was an American actor, singer, songwriter, and film producer. He was famous in his lifetime as a multitalented comedic entertainer, achieving a level of recognition that transcended his limited roles in movies. He was widely known by his nickname, the "Toastmaster General of the United States," for his frequent role as the master of ceremonies at political and entertainment gatherings. Jessel originated the title role in the stage production of The Jazz Singer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theater in the United States</span> Theatrical performance and history in the United States

Theater in the United States is part of the old European theatrical tradition and has been heavily influenced by the British theater. The central hub of the American theater scene is Manhattan, with its divisions of Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off-Broadway. Many movie and television stars have gotten their big break working in New York productions. Outside New York, many cities have professional regional or resident theater companies that produce their own seasons, with some works being produced regionally with hopes of eventually moving to New York. U.S. theater also has an active community theater culture, which relies mainly on local volunteers who may not be actively pursuing a theatrical career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evelyn Preer</span> American actress and singer

Evelyn Preer, was a pioneering American stage and screen actress and jazz and blues singer of the 1910s through the early 1930s. Preer was known within the black community as "The First Lady of the Screen."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pantages Theatre (Hollywood)</span> Theater and movie theater in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California

The Hollywood Pantages Theatre, formerly known as RKO Pantages Theatre, is located at Hollywood and Vine, in Hollywood. Designed by architect B. Marcus Priteca, it was the last theater built by the vaudeville impresario Alexander Pantages. The palatial Art Deco theater opened on June 4, 1930, as part of the Pantages Theatre Circuit.

Flournoy Eakin Miller, sometimes credited as F. E. Miller, was an American entertainer, actor, lyricist, producer and playwright. Between about 1905 and 1932 he formed a popular comic duo, Miller and Lyles, with Aubrey Lyles. Described as "an innovator who advanced black comedy and entertainment significantly," and as "one of the seminal figures in the development of African American musical theater on Broadway", he wrote many successful vaudeville and Broadway shows, including the influential Shuffle Along (1921), as well as working on several all-black movies between the 1930s and 1950s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George M. Cohan</span> American actor, singer, composer and playwright (1878–1942)

George Michael Cohan was an American entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer and theatrical producer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Broadway Theater District (Los Angeles)</span> United States historic place

The Broadway Theater District in the Historic Core of Downtown Los Angeles is the first and largest historic theater district listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). With twelve movie palaces located along a six-block stretch of Broadway, it is the only large concentration of movie palaces left in the United States. The same six-block stretch of Broadway, and an adjacent section of Seventh Street, was also the city's retail hub for the first half of the twentieth century, lined with large and small department stores and specialty stores.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Film</span> Visual art consisting of moving images

A film – also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick – is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere through the use of moving images. These images are generally accompanied by sound and, more rarely, other sensory stimulations. The word "cinema", short for cinematography, is often used to refer to filmmaking and the film industry, and to the art form that is the result of it.

The Lillian Booth Actors Home of The Actors Fund is an American assisted-living facility, in Englewood, New Jersey. It is operated by the Actors Fund, a nonprofit umbrella charitable organization that assists American entertainment and performing arts professionals.

Vitaphone Varieties is a series title used for all of Warner Bros.', earliest short film "talkies" of the 1920s, initially made using the Vitaphone sound on disc process before a switch to the sound-on-film format early in the 1930s. These were the first major film studio-backed sound films, initially showcased with the 1926 synchronized scored features Don Juan and The Better 'Ole. Although independent producers like Lee de Forest's Phonofilm were successfully making sound film shorts as early as 1922, they were very limited in their distribution and their audio was generally not as loud and clear in theaters as Vitaphone's. The success of the early Vitaphone shorts, initially filmed only in New York, helped launch the sound revolution in Hollywood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Columbia Theatre (New York City)</span> Former theater in Manhattan, New York

The Columbia Theatre was an American burlesque theater on Seventh Avenue at the north end of Times Square in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Operated by the Columbia Amusement Company between 1910 and 1927, it specialized in "clean", family-oriented burlesque, similar to vaudeville. Many stars of the legitimate theater or of films were discovered at the Columbia. With loss of audiences to cinema and stock burlesque, the owners began to offer slightly more risqué material from 1925. The theater was closed in 1927, renovated and reopened in 1930 as a cinema called the Mayfair Theatre. It went through various subsequent changes and was later renamed the DeMille Theatre. Nothing is left of the theater.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">African American cinema</span> Films made by, for, or about black Americans

African American cinema is loosely classified as films made by, for, or about Black Americans. Historically, African American films have been made with African-American casts and marketed to African-American audiences. The production team and director were sometimes also African American. More recently, Black films featuring multicultural casts aimed at multicultural audiences have also included American Blackness as an essential aspect of the storyline.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Savran, David (2006). "The Search for America's Soul: Theatre in the Jazz Age". Theatre Journal. 58 (3): 459–476. doi:10.1353/tj.2006.0171. ISSN   0192-2882. JSTOR   25069871. S2CID   192117168.
  2. 1 2 "W. W. Norton & Co". digital.wwnorton.com. Retrieved 2019-03-16.
  3. ALLEN, JEANNE THOMAS (1979). "Copyright and Early Theater, Vaudeville and Film Competition". Journal of the University Film Association. 31 (2): 5–11. ISSN   0041-9311. JSTOR   20687470.
  4. Singer, Stan (1992). "Vaudeville in Los Angeles, 1910-1926: Theaters, Management, and the Orpheum". Pacific Historical Review. 61 (1): 103–113. doi:10.2307/3640790. ISSN   0030-8684. JSTOR   3640790.
  5. Kaye, -Danny (1999-10-08). "Vaudeville | About Vaudeville | American Masters | PBS". American Masters. Retrieved 2019-04-05.
  6. "Playwrights in America | American Experience | PBS". www.pbs.org. Retrieved 2019-04-05.
  7. SUTCLIFFE, ANTHONY (2000). "Cities in the Cinema: Hollywood and Broadway in the Early Sound Era". Built Environment. 26 (4): 282–291. ISSN   0263-7960. JSTOR   23287792.
  8. 1 2 3 "Film History of the 1920s". www.filmsite.org. Retrieved 2019-04-05.
  9. 1 2 "Silent Films". JSTOR . Archived from the original on 2019-05-26. Retrieved 2019-04-05.
  10. BROWNLOW, KEVIN (1984). "An Introduction to Silent Film". Journal of the Royal Society of Arts. 132 (5332): 261–270. ISSN   0035-9114. JSTOR   41373724.
  11. "Welcome to Brigham Young University | Kanopy". byu.kanopy.com. Retrieved 2019-04-05.[ permanent dead link ]
  12. Mexicano, Cine Silente (2011-06-10). "Silent Images of Latinos in Early Hollywood". CINE SILENTE MEXICANO / MEXICAN SILENT CINEMA (in European Spanish). Retrieved 2019-04-05.
  13. MacGowan, Kenneth (1956). "When the Talkies Came to Hollywood". The Quarterly of Film Radio and Television. 10 (3): 288–301. doi:10.2307/1209987. ISSN   1549-0068. JSTOR   1209987.