From Traveling Show to Vaudeville: Theatrical Spectacle in America, 1830-1910

Contents: Introduction: From Celebration to Show BusinessTHE DIME MUSEUM Early Museum Shows Selling and Seeing Curiosities Commentary Dog Days of the Museum MINSTRELSY Routines: Songs, Speeches, Dialogue, and Farce Commentary: Rise and Fall of "Slave" Creativity Reminiscences Musical Comedy: Harrigan's Mulligan Guard Confessions of an African American Minstrel THE CIRCUS The Circus Debated The Early Circus Big Business The Audience MELODRAMA A Plea for an American Drama Classic Melodrama Classic Melodrama's Audiences The Ten-Twenty-Thirty Melodramas"LEG SHOW" BURLESQUE EXTRAVAGANZAS The Black Crook A Burlesque of Burlesque Reactions to the Controversy The Popular-Price CircuitTHE WILD WEST SHOW Origins Extracts from Buffalo Bill's Wild West Programs Exhibiting Indians SUMMER AMUSEMENT PARKS Journalists and the "New" Coney Showmen and the "Amusement Business" Popular Responses Two Critics of Coney's BanalityVAUDEVILLE Vaudeville Defined The Business Routines

Robert M. Lewis is a lecturer in American history at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom.

Lewis's book provides not only a wealth of information but also delightful reading. It should be part of every library as a starter point for classes on American nineteenth-century public culture. Amerikastudien / American Studies 2006 Belongs in the collection of anyone who claims to be serious about the study of American popular entertainments. Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film 2006 Includes a range of useful and previously inaccessible sources. Both researchers and teachers will find it a valuable reference. Australasian Journal of American Studies 2006 An impressive and judiciously selected collection of relevant documents... This compendium is notable for its broad coverage of forms, informative commentary, and superb bibliographic essay on sources. Choice 2004 An eminently useful book... It is an excellent reader for introducing students to cultural history, bringing it alive through primary sources. Cercles All-encompassing... it is likely to become a standard work, for media students as well as for American history enthusiasts. -- Stephen Bottomore Early Popular Visual Culture 2008