CALIIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE
"OR SAY, CAN YOU SING, DANCE, OR ACT?"
VAUDEVILLE IN THE LOS ANGELES FEDERAL THEATRE
A thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts ~n
Theatre
by
Theresa Brenner-Farrell
May 1986 The thesis of Theresa Brenner-Farrell 1s approved:
Owen W. Smith, M.A.
William E. Schlosser, D.Ed., Chair
California State University, Northridge
ii For all of the research librarians in Virginia and California who gave me so much help; a committee chairman who kept me focused; and a family that gave me unending support, I dedicate this work.
iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Library of Congress Federal Theatre Project Collection at George Mason University
Ruth Kerns, Librarian/Archivist at George Mason University
Photography Department of the Central Library of the Los Angeles Public Library
Gloria Barajas, Los Angeles Public Library
Helene Mochedlover, Principal Librarian Literature Department Los Angeles Public Library
John Snyder, Micrographics and Records, Los Angeles Times
Dale Wasserman, Playwright
Gaylord Larson, Media Specialist, Ventura College
Christopher Brenner (actor/singer)
Chris Gerlach (narrator)
Scott Groeneveld (actor/singer)
Judy Ann Minor (singer)
Lynne Thurston (actress)
Pat Osborne (accompanist)
iv PREFACE
This thesis 1s about a particular time 1n the history of vaudeville, a time when its growth and glitter had passed, its theatres had closed, and the people of vaudeville who had spent their lives
traveling the booking office circuits were left with no where to go.
The end of vaudeville coincided with the greatest economic depression
in American history which left thirteen million people, out of a population of 130 million, unemployed. For the first time the United
States government found it necessary to become the nation's employer, and it began the task of creating jobs for the unemployed, and that included those of the theatre. This was the closest that the country ever came to having a nationally subsidized theatre. It was best summed up in the words of one of the Federal Theatre songs: "Uncle Sam wants to hire/ Actors with dramatic fire/ Oh, say, can you sing, dance, or act?"
After reading Hallie Flanagan's Arena, the History of the Federal
Theatre I became fascinated by the fact that Los Angeles produced more plays than New York, and the plays that received so much acclaim were the work of the vaudeville unit. However, there was very little information available on these productions. This was the beginning of my research which led me to create a new form of study which though it meets the requirements of a written thesis, is presented on a video
v cassette us1ng the pictures, dialogue, and mus1c from the vaudeville productions of the Los Angeles Project. It is my hope that this will create a more tangible 1mage, rich in texture and feeling, for the work that was done in Los Angeles.
vi TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface v
Abstract Vlll
Chapter
1. Introduction 1
2. Statement of Problem 5
3. Methodology 6
4. Summary and Conclusions 8
5. Video Script 11
Notes 54
Bibliography 60
Appendix 68
V1l ABSTRACT
"OH SAY, CAN YOU SING, DANCE, OR ACT?"
VAUDEVILLE IN THE LOS ANGELES FEDERAL THEATRE
by
Theresa Brenner-Farrell
Master of Arts in Theatre
This thesis is an examination of four productions of the Los
Angeles Federal Theatre which were written to revive vaudeville as a form of popular entertainment. The productions include: Follow the
Parade (1936), Revue of Reviews (1937), Ready! Aim! Fire! (1938), and
Two-A-Day, A Cavalcade of Vaudeville (1938). The research has focused on the study of scripts, production books, mus~c, and photographs that have only recently become available through the Library of Congress
Federal Theatre Collection at George Mason University. The productions were examined to determine how the Federal Theatre experimented with genre, production techniques, and the casting of former vaudevillians in its attempt to revive vaudeville. The research generated such a rich array of visual and audio material that this thesis is presented on video tape.
This thesis maintains that even though the Los Angeles Federal
Theatre vaudeville productions were popular, they did not succeed in
viii creating any lasting revival of vaudeville. The Federal Theatre was a government agency and thus operated within a maze of government restrictions which inhibited any such revival. In addition the productions themselves were not a new form of vaudeville but rather forms of musical theatre, and therefore cannot be viewed as a new style of vaudeville that would have captivated the public's attention.
Vaudeville had been a form of popular entertainment for forty years, but changes 1n technology and public taste brought about its demise.
The Federal Theatre failed to realize that popular entertainment cannot be consciously created. It grows out of the values, needs, and demands of both the middle and working classes. Thus any attempted revival of vaudeville as a popular entertainment was destined to fail.
ix CHAPTER ONE
Introduction
By the early 1920's the golden era of vaudeville was over. The advent of film, radio and musical theatre as well as a changing
American society had brought an end to what had been the most popular form of entertainment in the country. 1 Long before the Great Depression of the 1930's, vaudeville performers found themselves out of work.
Hoping to find employment in the movies many of them headed west to
Hollywood, but Los Angeles did not prove to be a city of theatrical angels. Though the city could boast a long history of theatre and popular entertainments, it never achieved the status of San Francisco, and this was especially true for vaudeville.
During the 1920's professional theatre was limited to road shows of Broadway hits such as No, No, Nanette, and Little Nellie Kelly. Max
Reinhardt brought his spectacle to the Shrine Auditorium. Angelinos continued to attend other religious plays such as the long running
Mission Play which had opened in San Gabrial in 1912 and told the early 2 history of the California Missions. The only vaudeville that was being produced was in the form of small unit shows which were created by the film studios which owned the theatres where the movies and the unit shops were presented. These one hour shows featured music and dance, and were staged between the motion pictures. To save money the studios 2
seldom hired acts that had ever played the big-time vaudeville . . 3 Cl.rCUl.tS.
When the stock market crash in 1929 ushered 1.n the Depression, Los
Angeles, like the rest of the nation experienced an unprecedented r1.se
in unemployment. As factories closed and farms were sold a great
migration of people occured when as many as two million people embarked
on an aimless journey in search of work. Between 1930 and 1935 five
thousand people a month moved to California. 4 In 1934 the federal
government created the Works Progress Administration to find work for
the thirteen million people who were unemployed. Unlike previous relief
programs that tried to all ieviate the misery of the poor, the W. p .A
sought to create jobs that would utilize a person's training and 5 skills. A unique part of this New Deal experiment was the Federal Arts
Project which employed writers, musicians, fine artists, and theatre
people. Under the direction of Hallie Flanagan the Federal Theatre was
established to put theatre people back to work entertaining the 6 American public.
Gilmor Brown was regional director for the Los Angeles branch of
the Federal Theatre which produced 398 shows from 1935 to 1939.
Audiences were entertained in theatres, schools, parks, and even Civil
Conservation Corps camps. They saw everything from puppets and foreign language drama in Yiddish and French to modern dance, and children's theatre productions. The government became a patron of the arts and producing classical drama, circuses, and vaudeville. However Flanagan's main focus was on the theatre, and she urged the projects to actively experiment with new styles of production. She Wrote: 3
The Theatre which should be the most dynamically concerned
with human life has remained, of all the arts, perhaps the
least aware of the changing world ••• Great social forces
interpenetrated our theatre, and our theatre to be worth its
sa 1 t must interpenetrate. t h e soc1a.1 an d econom1c . scene. 7
Flanagan maintained that the Federal Theatre had to present productions which were not only innovative but also different from anything else that had been done on the commercial stage:
All of these (commercial) plays made familar by the measure
of success ••• did nothing, between the years of 1927 and
1937 to avert the catastrophe engulfing the theatre. All such
plays placed end to end could make a bridge on which one
single one of the eight thousand theatre people for whom we 8 are responsible can walk over to private industry.
No where was this more true than in the vaudeville units. Flanagan described vaudeville as a "dreary succession of outworn acts" that were
1n. d esperate nee d o f rev1ta . 1.1zat1on. . 9 Under the direction of Eda Edson the Los Angeles vaudeville unit sought to give Flanagan what she wanted: a strong new form of variety entertainment. In a Los Angeles
Times interview Edson said:
Vaudeville should come back, but under a new name, and in a
different form • people love vaudeville ••• but they 10 are tired of the cut and dry acts. 4
The productions of the vaudeville unit were different from the traditional vaudeville shows, and they were among the attended performances in the Los Angeles project. CHAPTER TWO
Definition of the Problem
This thesis will examine the work of the Los Angeles vaudeville unit and its attempt to revive vaudeville.
5 CHAPTER THREE
Methodology
When the Federal Theatre closed in 1939 all of the Projects across
the country sent their scripts, production books, posters, photographs,
and designs to Washington, D.C. Once everything arrived, it was put
away - and lost for nearly forty years. In 1974 the records of the
Federal Theatre were found ~n an airplane hanger. George Mason
University, in Fairfax, Virginia became the repository for the
collection. Prior to the discovery of the papers most of the research had centered on the work of the New York City Project. What was written
about Los Angeles was limited to discussions of the structure and
organization of the Project and a brief description of its many . 11 pro d uct~ons. Through the assistance of George Mason University's
Special Collections and Archives at Fenwick Library I have been able to
exam~ne photocopies of the scripts, production books, and photo
collections of the vaudeville unit. In addition to these sources I have
also read the publications of the Federal Theatre including the
speeches and letters of Hallie Flanagan to the Los Angeles Project. I have also given careful review to various books, articles, and theses
concern~ng the Federal Theatre.
As it was the expressed aim of both Flanagan and Edson that a new
form of vaudeville be created, I have studied the scripts of the
6 7 '1 .
vaudeville unit to determine what new forms this experimentation took.
These scripts include the following productions: Follow the Parade
(1936), Revue of Reviews (1937), Ready! Aim! Fire! (1937), and
Two-A-Day, A Cavalcade of Vaudeville (1938). In examining the scripts I considered the following questions: 1) How did these new forms compare with the original vaudeville and musical theatre?; 2) How were the old vaudeville acts changed to suit the style of the new productions?;
3) How did the structure of the Federal Theatre impact on the possible revival of vaudeville?; and 4) How did these new shows reflect the
"Myth of Success" as it has been forwarded by Albert F. McClean, Jr. 1n 11 American Vaudeville as Ritua1.
In an effort to better orient other researchers to the conditions which led to the establishment of the Federal Theatre this thesis will present a brief overview of both the theatre and social history of Los
Angeles during the late 1920's and early 1930's. Using var1ous resources such as theatre reviews, articles from Los Angeles periodicals and newspapers, histories of vaudeville and Los Angeles, I hope to present on video casette a picture that encompasses not only the spirit of the times but also the manner in which the social and theatrical conditions were interrelated and eventually became manifested in the work of the Federal Theatre. CHAPTER FOUR
Summary and Conclusions
As popular and successful as the productions of the vaudeville
unit were, they did not herald ~n a revival nor did they create a new
form of variety entertainment. The content of these plays was
innovative, but their style was drawn from musical comedy and revue. If
anything was new, it was the experience that the vaudevillians
themselves had working for a government agency.
The Federal Theatre failed to utilize the positive aspects of
vaudeville, the aspects that had made it successful for forty years.
Government regulations made touring all but impossible, and because the
shows did not travel the performers were not seen in the smaller cities
of California and the West. There was no way in which an audience
following for either vaudeville as whole or particular performers could
be created or maintained. The musical theatre format discarded the
vaudeville act as something old and worn out. The performers were not
given the opportunity or the guidance to create new acts that were more
in keeping with public demand. Instead vaudevillians found themselves
cast into plays that attempted to use their training and skills, but
not their acts. However, writing shows that could use acrobats, trained animals, song and dance teams, and others was not an easy task. Perhaps
that is why the final production of the unit, Two-A-Day, was a
8 9 nostalgic revue of the old acts themselves. There were no new acts 1n
the revue in part because the Federal Theatre wa~ not structured to permit the training of the young and unexperienced.
Probably the greatest flaw was the failure of the Federal Theatre
to understand that popular entertainment cannot be consciously created.
It grows out of the values and needs of the people. Vaudeville had once represented a world of glamour, glitter, and material success for its audiences. All of the ethnic comics, pretty girls, handsome crooners, and others told the audience that anyone could make it in America. This 12 was the Myth of Success. However, the closing of the vaudeville theatres and the Great Depression ended all of that. The performers must have looked like faded Christmas cards, for they lost their ability to carry the symbol of material success for the public - a public that was questioning the validity of such a myth when there were so many unemployed people in the country. Even if government support had continued, it is very unlikely that the Federal Theatre could have revived vaudeville.
This thesis is but one part of the research that is yet to be done on the work of the Los Angeles Federal Theatre. The work was so prolific and broad in its scope of achievements that there is still much to be written. The work could easily focus on Yasha Frank and the children's unit; Myra Kinch and the dance unit; the technical staff which included people such as Dale Wasserman, George Izenour, Charles
Elson, Fredrick Stover, and Nelson Baume. The religious unit under the direction of actor and later Anglican priest, Gareth Hughes, produced a provocative ser1es of mystery plays in churches throughout the city.
The work of the Negro unit was also very well recieved, and their 10
production of Run Little Chillun was the most successful of all of the plays presented in Los Angeles. The city was treated to a rich theatrical experience from 1935 to 1939. It was a time of experimentation when the people of the theatre were given government support to risk putting people back to work on the stage in ways that had never before been seen. Their efforts have become an important part of the theatrical heritage of Los Angeles. CHAPTER FIVE
SCRIPT
VIDEO AUDIO
Sl JUDGE NARRATOR: In the decade following the
First World War Los Angeles was everything
that has come to represent the Roaring
Twenties. It was a city for people on the
move; people who could hustle a dollar
into a fortune by speculating in the right
S2 SIGNAL HILL land deals - oil wells - or movies. Anyone
who was 1n search of a new life came to 13 S3 THE SHEIK Los Angeles. This was especially true
for vaudeville performers.
S4 HOLLYWOODLAND Though Los Angeles had never been as
strong a center for vaudeville as San
Francisco had been, it was the place to
come to find a job in the film industry.
The 1920's were a time of transition for
popular entertainment in America.
SS VAUDEVILLE THEATRE Vaudeville had been the first modern form
of popular entertainment beginning in the
late 1800's when it grew into its classic
S6 VAUDEVILLE BILL format of two shows a day with eight to
ten acts carefully arranged on the bill.
The acts were designed to appeal not only
11 12
VIDEO AUDIO
to men but also to women and children, and
because it became family entertainment
vaudeville was a great success. Vaudeville
performers reflected and helped maintain
attitudes about ethnic groups, women,
marriage, and above all else the belief 1n
the American dream that anyone with
ambition, work, and luck could become
87 MILTON BERLE wealthy. Most vaudeville performers had
come from working class families, but
their audiences saw them living in an
exciting world of fame and riches; they
were the incarnation of the Myth of 14 Success.
88 PALACE THEATRE Vaudeville reached its peak from
1900 to 1915 when there were 10,000
vaudeville theatres across the country. 15
By 1920 top vaudeville performers earned
the highest salaries in the entire
entertainment industry, but the changes
brought on by the recess1on after the
89 PREMIER First World War, the growing popularity of
film and radio, as well as the inability
810 ALBEE of men like Edward Albee who owned the
booking offices which controlled 13
VIDEO AUDIO
vaudeville to adapt to the times were to
bring the final curtain down for 20,000 16 vaudevillians. Vaudeville management did
not encourage audiences to come to their
local theatres to see the stars of the new
media. Albee even went so far as to refuse
employment to performers who appeared 1n
Sll FANNY BRICE ra d10. or n1ght . c 1 u b s. 17 Actions such as
these drove many of the top rated artists
out of vaudeville, and many of the
audiences left with them. In 1926 there
were only twelve big time vaudeville
theatres in the country; in 1929 there
were five; by 1932 there were none.
Because of their broad style of acting and
the special nature of their acts, many of
the vaudevillians could not make the
transition into theatre or motion
pictures.
During the 1920's Los Angeles may
not have been an important city for
vaudeville, but it did have an active
Sl2 PILGRIMAGE PLAY theatre community. There were the long
running seasonal productions of the
Sl3 MISSION PLAY Pilgrimage Play and The Mission Play which @ '
14
VIDEO AUDIO
told the story of the early California
m1ss1ons. The little theatre movement was
quite active, and there were groups like
S14 PLAYHOUSE the Hollywood Community Theatre and the
SIS NO, NO, NANETTE Pasadena Playhouse. Broadway sent its
biggest hits to Los Angeles, and Max
Reinhardt brought his spectacle, The
S16 THE MIRACLE Miracle, to the Shrine Auditorium.
Legitimate theatre was doing so well that
S17 EL CAPITAN a new theatre, the El Capitan, opened in
1925. Vaudeville though was relegated to
the position of the poor cousin and was
limited to small unit shows that the film
studios put together to appear with their
p1ctures. 1n t h e1r . t h eatres. 18
S18 VARIETY On October 22, 1929 ground was
broken for the new Los Angeles stock
exchange. One week later Wall Street was
in a panic as sixteen million shares were
Sl9 VANITY FAIR traded in a single day. When the tape was
swept away the roaring ever upward
movement of the 1920's was over, and the
Great Depression began. In 1930 President
Hoover declared: 15
VIDEO AUDIO
S20 HOOVER HOOVER: All evidences indicate that the
worst effects of the crash upon
unemployment will be passed during the 19 next sixty days.
S21 UNEMPLOYED NARRATOR: The evidences were all wrong.
Within a year thirteen million people were
S22 SOUPLINES without work. Souplines were forming 20 everywhere, even in Los Angeles. To add
S23 DUST BOWL insult to injury drought and pestilence
spread across the nation's farmlands.
Farms were being sold, factories were
S24 PEOPLE MOVING closing; and people were embarking on an 21 aimless journey in search of work. It
appeared as if the American dream had
failed. Between 1930 and 1935 five
thousand people a month moved to
Ca 1 1. f orn1a. . 22 In 1932 27,000 unemployed
actors registered with Hollywood casting 23 agents.
S25 ROOSEVELT The election of President Roosevelt
offered new hope to the country. He was
intent on putting the nation back to work,
and in three years he created a series of
agencies and programs to help the 16
VIDEO AUDIO
unemployed including the Works Progress
Administration which was under the
S26 HARRY HOPKINS direction of Harry Hopkins. In 1934
Congress established the Federal Arts
827 ARTISTS Project to employ artists, writers,
musicians, and theatre people. Suddenly
S28 WRITERS the government was hiring people to paint
829 ANDROCLES murals, give concerts, and produce plays.
The Project came under the ausp1ces of the
W.P.A., and Harry Hopkins appointed his
long time friend and director of the
830 FLANAGAN Vassar Experimental Theatre, Hallie
Flanagan, to be the national director of
the Federal Theatre. A nation-wide program
was established with the primary goal
being to put theatre people back to work 24 enterta1n1ng. . t h e Amer1can . peop 1 e.
Flanagan was a tireless worker and a real
champion for the people who came to work
for the Federal Theatre. Her staff in Los
Angeles wrote a prayer for her:
WORKERS: Our mother who art in Washington
Hallie would be thy name
The election come, 17
VIDEO AUDIO
The plays be done,
In New York as it is 1n
Los Angeles
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our turkeys,
As we forgive Warner Brothers.
Lead us not into Communism,
But deliver us from Republicans
For thine is the Animal Kingdom
(by Phillip Barry)
And the Prologue to Glory
(by E. P. Conkle). 25
831 GILMOR BROWN NARRATOR: The country was divided into
regions, and the director of the Southern
California region was Gilmor Brown,
artistic director of the Pasadena
Playhouse. The Los Angeles Federal Theatre
was second only 1n size to New York, but
it mounted more productions than New 26 York. Flanagan later wrote:
832 FLANAGAN FLANAGAN: Los Angeles picketed less and
laughed more. While in New York we were
always moving heaven and earth to get 18
VIDEO AUDIO
shows open, in the West we urged . 27 restra1nt.
NARRATOR: The Project was organized into
smaller units that included drama,
S33 PINOCCHIO experimental theatre, children's theatre,
S34 NATIVITY PLAY foreign drama, religious drama, classical
theatre, Negro theatre, dance, and
S35 DANCE vaudeville. The individual units received
S36 TECHNICAL UNIT extensive support from the technical staff
unit of costume, set and lighting
designers and technicians as well as the
Research Bureau which compiled incredibly
complete production books for each show in
addition to maintaining a staff of writers
who also researched projects and developed 28 plays. The Federal Theatre in Los
S37 SCHEDULE Angeles had an average of eighteen shows
per week in production, so these units
were always working.
The first auditions for the Federal
Theatre were in September of 1935. People
were hired through a process of
interviews, auditions, and portfolio 29 review. Later on an interviewing panel 19
VIDEO AUDIO
made up of members of the administrative
staff and the professional community such
S38 KARLOFF as Boris Karloff and Edward Arnold was
S39 ARNOLD added. Depending on skills and experience
salaries ranged from fifty-five to
ninety-five dollars a month. During its
S40 CARTOON first year the government paid all of the
expenses, but as time went by the local
project paid for its own publicity,
royalties, and theatre rentals out of
ticket receipts, an impressive
accomplishment since the top ticket pr1ce
was one dollar and ten cents.
Between 1935 and 1939 three million
people in Los Angeles saw nearly four
hundred different productions; the Townely
S41 TRIPLE A Cycles, The Weavers, Triple A Plowed
Under, Hansel and Gretle, the highly
acclaimed black production, Run, Little
Chillun, and many others. 30 In 1936 Los
Angeles participated 1n the world premier
S42 IT CAN'T of Sinclair Lewis' It Can't Happen Here
which was simultaneously staged by the
Federal Theatre in twenty-seven other
cities. Some great talents were brought to ~1 •
20
VIDEO AUDIO
the American theatre by the Los Angeles
Project including: technical designers
Fredrick Stover and George Izenour;
S43 IZENOUR playwright Dale Wasserman; and dancers 31 S44 WASSERMAN Myra K1nc. h an d Be 11 a Lew1tz . k y. At its
S45 KINCH peak there were fourteen hundred people
S46 LEWITZKY employed on the Project. One of the units
which brought much acclaim and attention
S47 EDSON to Los Angeles was vaudeville. 32
EDSON: Vaudeville should come back, but
under a new name and in a different
form. • • 33
NARRATOR: So said Eda Edson, director of
the Los Angeles vaudeville unit. It was a
production of the vaudeville unit that
opened the Federal Theatre in Southern
California on New Year's Eve in 1935.
Gaities of 1936 was the first of the
productions which according to Flanagan
gave the Los Angeles Project its style, 34 color, and fame. Edson's zeal for
creating a new form of vaudeville Q • 21
VIDEO AUDIO
reflected Flanagan's appeal to bring new
life to variety entertainment.
S48 FLANAGAN FLANAGAN: ••• we know too often
vaudeville 1s a dreary succession of
outworn acts. I think it is our job to
cope with the problems of vaudeville
technique. I should like to see, for
example, a series of acts as distinctly
American as the cartoon in the New Yorker 35 or the daily press •••
S49 FOLLOW NARRATOR: Edson and playwrights Gene
Stone and Jack Robinson went to work to
breathe new life into variety
entertainment. Aware of the appeal that
films had and the increased level of
audience expectation for sophisticated
effects that they had created, the
playwrights attempted to give the
production what Edson referred to as that
II same smoothness and imagination" as
mot1on. p1ctures . h a d • 36 Follow the Parade
in 1936 was not only conceived of by
Edson, but she also directed and staged 22
VIDEO AUDIO
850 PIANO SET it, and on opening night she conducted the
orchestra. Her idea was to take a series
of vaudeville acts and weave them into a
cohesive play. The hero of the play was a
young playwright-director, Jimmy Ross, who
singlehandedly saved vaudeville and all of
the unemployed vaudevillians who live at
his mother's boarding house, by writing a
new show that proved vaudeville could be
as timely as that other new invention, the
television. Though their intent was to
revitalize vaudeville by creating a new
form, Stone and Robinson's script reads
like many Our Gang Comedy or Andy Hardy
movies where someone saves the day by
suggesting, "Hey, let's put on a show!" In
a speech that sounds like something
Flanagan would have written to former
vaudevillians, Jimmy convinced the old
performers that his ideas would work:
S51 BOARDING HOUSE JIMMY: ••• I know what you think about
me. You think I'm just a young upstart
trying to tell you old timers how to put
show business back on its feet. A dreamer. 23
VIDEO AUDIO
That's where you're wrong. I'm not a
dreamer - you are. You're still living in
the past - waiting for the good old days
to come back Remember the world
around us is changing - going forward all
the time. And we've got to follow the
parade. 37
852 FOLLOW NARRATOR: Follow the Parade relied
heavily on multi-media devices such as
projections, recorded music,
announcements, film and even television.
When the curtain rose on Jimmy's show, the
audience saw a simple set with two
platforms and ramps center stage. On stage
left there was a large television set
where the image of a master of ceremonies
was projected to introduce each scene. The
cast consisted of nearly one hundred
performers which meant the staging had to
have fast and fluid transitions that
depended on quick lighting changes and the
853 FOLLOW easy smooth-flowing movement of people.
The changes that the writers were
experimenting with were explained to the 24
VIDEO AUDIO
audience through Jimmy as he sold his idea
to a theatrical producer:
JIMMY: You've got to give the audience
something new, and you've got to do it at
prices they can afford to pay, and you can
in a show like this because it depends on
originality and ideas instead of big
854 FOLLOW names, lavish costumes and sets. 38
NARRATOR: Jimmy convinces the producer,
but what message has he given the
audience? He has told everyone that
vaudeville 1s dead, the performers are
unemployed dreamers who are representative
of past glories, present miseries, and
future uncertainties. If the public is to
return to the vaudeville theatre again, it
will only be to see something new,
something totally different than
vaudeville was before. But will it be
vaudeville?
Jimmy's show opens with a recording
of the title song played while female
dancers march on stage carrying fake 25
VIDEO AUDIO
S50 PIANO SET it, and on opening night she conducted the
orchestra. Her idea was to take a series
of vaudeville acts and weave them into a
cohesive play. The hero of the play was a
young playwright-director, Jimmy Ross, who
singlehandedly saved vaudeville and all of
the unemployed vaudevillians who live at
his mother's boarding house, by writing a
new show that proved vaudeville could be
as timely as that other new invention, the
television. Though their intent was to
revitalize vaudeville by creating a new
form, Stone and Robinson's script reads
like many Our Gang Comedy or Andy Hardy
movies where someone saves the day by
suggesting, "Hey, let's put on a show!" In
a speech that sounds like something
Flanagan would have written to former
vaudevillians, Jimmy convinced the old
performers that his ideas would work:
S51 BOARDING HOUSE JIMMY: ••• I know what you think about
me. You think I'm just a young upstart
trying to tell you old timers how to put
show business back on its feet. A dreamer. 26
VIDEO AUDIO
Because we get no privacy
Our lives at home would be
exquisite -
If people wouldn't come and . . 39 v~s~t.
NARRATOR: Following Hallie Flanagan's
belief that no one wanted to see dreary
old acts, the vaudeville unit tried to
make Follow the Parade as contemporary as
possible. It satirized organized crime in
Chicago with a skit about gangsters
enjoying the good life behind bars.
Popular radio shows that supposedly
discovered amateur talent were spoofed ~n
a scene where professional "amateurs" are
angered when a real amateur wins. Even the
Depression became part of the play, for
the title song was a comment on the
economic plight of the country:
857 FOLLOW SONG SONG; Get in the sw~ng, Follow the
Parade!
Wake up and s~ng, Follow the
Parade! @ • 27
AUDIO
Don't be afraid to get 1n the
big Parade!
You can wade through your troubles
that weighted you down,
Weighted you down - Follow the
Parade!
You'll get the beat- Follow the
Parade!
Just let your feet, Follow the 40 Parade!
NARRATOR: The television M.G. announces that everyday more and more people are going back to work; factories are reopening as " ••• all America is falling in line to 'Follow the Parade' ."41
A modern dance followed with the dancers dressed as factory workers returning to work while slides of modern industry were projected onto the cyclorama. The number ended with the rest of the cast coming through the house and onto the stage and then off upstage, supposedly going back to work. 28
VIDEO AUDIO
S58 TOY SHOP Edson's choreography attempted to
use as many of the "dumb" or silent acts
as possible. There was a toy shop scene
and another about a lunatic asylum. Black
performers were put into a production
number about the development of the Saint
Louis blues from it's African roots and
into it's possible future form. It was a
very colorful scene which followed in the
Federal Theatre tradition of putting black
actors into jungle costumes with alot of
S59 ST. LOUIS BLUES feathers and drums. 42 Oddly enough the
future of the blues was presented by an
all white group of dancers in
sophisticated costumes 'a la some Fred Astaire film; there was not a brightly
colored feather, drum, or black amongst
them.
S60 BUNNIES Follow the Parade was very well
received by the critics and the public.
After completing its ten week run it was
sent to Texas to be part of the Dallas
Exposition, however it never toured 1n
California. Due to bureaucratic
regulations, touring was not possible 1n 29
VIDEO AUDIO
the Federal Theatre. 43 This was one of the
biggest changes for the former
vaudevillians who were accustomed to
traveling from city to city, building an
audience following while honing their
theatrical skills.
861 OLD VAUDEVILLE The experience of being a vaudeville
performer brought these people together
into a tighty knit group. There have been
stories told about the animosity that
existed between the vaudevillians and the
younger members of the Federal Theatre
which was caused in some degree by a
generation gap that reinforced for the
vaudevillians a feeling of being excluded
from a world in which they had once
t h r1ve. d • 44 Dale Wasserman commented that
there was an air of sadness that
surrounded the vaudeville performers as if
t1me. had passed t h em by. 45 They resented
loosing what they considered to be their
rightful place in the theatre to younger
and less experienced people who they
perceived as having no understanding for
what it meant to do a "next to closing 30
VIDEO AUDIO
turn in the big time, stealing bows, or
giving the audience a wow finish. 11
862 JOE E. BROWN Vaudeville acts were very carefully
created and skillfully perfected through
painstaking rehearsal, performance, and
analysis of audience response. A
successful act often took on a life of its
own and was viewed as being a very special
possession, a hybred cross between a
parent who provided material support and a
protected child loved for its beauty and
863 DOLLY SISTERS charm. Though the act underwent its own
sort of evolutionary changes, it remained
part of a highly structured genre based on
a show of eight to ten acts that were held
together simply by how the theatre
managers arranged the bill. After working
in vaudeville, the Federal Theatre with
it's experimentation in styles of
production that was closer to the
legitimate stage was indeed an untoward
step into a new form of performance for
these artists.
864 REVUE For the next show to use the
vaudevillians, Gene Stone teamed up with 31
VIDEO AUDIO
Jack Robinson again, and their 1937
collaboration was Revue of Reviews, a
commentary on popular magazines. As with
other revues, the show ran as a continuous
ser1es of songs, dances, and sketches.
Like Follow the Parade Revue of Reviews
had a cast of nearly one hundred
performers. There were twenty-one scenes
and equal number of sets. However it
lacked the multi-media effects of Follow
the Parade and the attempt to create a
story line. This show was in the tradition
of Ziegfield's Follies and George White's
Scandals, but it also attempted to project
that New Yorkers magazine cartoon quality.
Each scene was a topical treatment of
popular magazines.
S65 OPENING Revue of Reviews opened with eight
men dressed as college students stepping
through eight doors urging everyone to buy
subscriptions as they sang "We're Working
Our Way Through College."
SONG: Rich man! Poor man! Beggarman!
Thief! 32
AUDIO
Doctor! Lawyer! Mercant! Chief!
We come knocking at your door
With magazines for rich and poor!
Magazines for young and old!
Magazines that must be sold!
Magazines for you to try!
Magazines for you to buy!
From door to door
Throughout the nation
How we bore the population
With our hard luck stories and our
Tales of woe we use to land our
Readers for the tripe we sell them,
How they fall for the bunk we tell
them
When it looks like we might miss
one -
Then we always g1ve them this one:
We're working our way through
college
Won't you take a year's
subscription
To our magaz1nes.. ?46 33
VIDEO AUDIO
S66 TEMPLE NARRATOR: Revue of Reviews satirized
beloved child stars Shirley Temple, Jane
Withers, and Freddy Bartholomew as being
spoiled brats in a scene about Photoplay
magazine. Another popular scene was based
S67 PHYSICAL on Brian McFadden's Physical Culture
magazine in which everyone was dressed ~n
exerc~se clothes. The publisher was a man
who chose his staff by their physical
abilities; when one of his employees
sneezed at a meeting he was promptly
fired.
Myra Kinch, the director of the
dance unit, was the choreographer. Her
style of training gave the show a more
modern look than the traditional
vaudeville shows had with their usual tap
and social dance acts. For the House
Beautiful scene Kinch designed a dance
where the dolls ~n a Dresden shop began to
S68 ASIA dance. The cover of Asia magazine was
brought to life by a chorus of eleven
dancers portraying a terra cotta bas
relief behind a solo Asian dancer. The
dance unit itself was used to satirize ,, . 34
VIDEO AUDIO
869 GRAHAM modern dancers like Martha Graham 1n
870 MODERN DANCE "America Takes Up Modern Dance."
Revue of Reviews was not a new form
of vaudeville; it was not even a new form
of revue. In the production book the
director, T. M. Paul, reported:
871 PRODUCTION NUMBER PAUL: •• Revue of Review, being an
ordinary revue consisting of production,
dance numbers, sketches and musical
numbers did not present any particular
problems and will not, to an experienced
mus1ca. 1 producer or d'1rector. 47
NARRATOR: Once again the vaudeville form,
a bill of different and unrelated acts,
was discarded and replaced by the musical
theatre form. No attempt seems to have
been made to update the acts themselves,
instead the performers were put into plays
written in the structure of musical
theatre. Stone and Robinson took this
approach even further in their next
production, Ready! Aim! Fire!. 35 '' , I
VIDEO AUDIO
872 READY! Ready! Aim! Fire! was a tightly
structured musical comedy in which the
musical numbers were an integrated part of
the plot. Like the previous Federal
Theatre attempts to revive vaudeville,
this show simply transplanted the
vaudevillians into musical theatre. Though
Ready! Aim! Fire! was more in the
tradition of Strike Up the Band and Of
Thee I Sin& than a new form of varity
entertainment, in order to use the
vaudevillians the characters in this
political satire were drawn in the
vaudeville style. There were fast talking
comics, baggy pants comics, ethnic com1cs,
soubrettes, handsome crooners, minstrels,
and exotic dancers. The play dealt with
the absurdity of war and poked fun at the
d1ctators. h. 1ps o f Europe. 48
873 OLEO Ready! Aim! Fire! takes place in the
fictional little country of Moronia which
has maintained an ancient feud with it's
neighbor, Berserkia. Though everything has
been peaceful, the Moronian government is
under pressure from the munitions industry 36
VIDEO AUDIO
to declare war against Berserkia. Because
none of Moronia's citizens are interested
in going to war, two slick and fast
talking Hollywood songwriters, Bugs Magee
and Harry Hinkle, are hired to write a
song that will inspire even the most
conscientious objector to enlist. Magee
S74 MAGEE AND HINKLE and Hinkle are very much the Abbott and
Costello Style of comics.
The songwriters arrived ~n Moronia
v~a the miracle of multimedia techniques.
The audience saw a fim montage of trains,
boats, planes, battleships, and the sea of
Normandy; in it's final shot, Hinkle and
Magee were seen hitch-hiking to the
Moronian capital. Upon arrival they met
S75 HINKLE, MAGEE Dictator Schmaltz, his minstrel troupe of
AND SCHMALTZ cabinet members; King Leo, an ethnic comic
S76 KING LEO in the mold of Weber from Weber and
Fields; and a city of Pink Shirts, the
Moronian citizens.
Magee and Hinkle write a war song
S77 SPIES only to have it stolen by two beautiful
Berserkian spies. Hinkle and Magee are
878 JAIL arrested and thrown in jail. Moments 37
VIDEO AUDIO
before they are to be executed for
treason, they write a new song, "Ready!
Aim! Fire!". Schmaltz declares war on
S79 RADIO MIKES Berserkia, and the new song fills the
a1rways.
SONG: Fire at the enemy
With a boom, boom and bang, bang
Every loyal son,
Go get your gun, on the run,
We'll have no chance,
We' 11 fight for Moroni a
And the right
Let your voices all ring out
And sing the battle cry
Ready, aim, fire, . 49 We'll fire, f1re.
NARRATOR: Act two begins with the weekly
broadcast of the Krupenheimer Munitions'
Hour.
S80 OLEO ANNOUNCER: Good evening ladies and
gentlemen •.• And folks what better way
is there to go to war than the 38
VIDEO AUDIO
Krupenheimer way • • • carry a
Krupenheimer rifle • If a gas attack
is coming, even your best friend won't
tell you. Wear a Krupenheimer gas mask and
be the life of the party ••• 50
NARRATOR: Various vaudeville acts were
used in this scene to sing and dance as
the Krupenheimer Kuties and act in the
Krupenheimer Art Players:
NED: John! John! I'm afriad!
JOHN: Steady, old man.
NED: I can't stand it, I tell you! I'm a
coward. 51
881 RECRUITMENT NARRATOR: To ~nsure that enlistments
remained high Hinkle and Magee turned the
recruitment headquarters into a carnival
with barkers and a girlie show featuring
the ~ederal Theatre version of Gypsy Rose
Lee, Gypsy Nora Lee. If a man wanted to
see her, he had to enlist, and they all
did. The audience never saw Gypsy's dance,
but those dances that the audience did see 39
VIDEO AUDIO
were once again choreographed by Myra
Kinch. These included the cabinet meeting
which was staged as a minstrel show; the
execution scene which was a military tap
S82 MUNITIONS WORKERS dance; and the dance of the Krupenheimer
munitions workers which was performed by
the dance unit and not the vaudeville
artists.
As the war progressed, messages from
Moronia's General Konkheit, a character
based on the infamous Dr. Kronkheit, were
presented:
S83 OLEO ANNOUNCER: Gypsy Nora Lee lost in
No-Man's land •.•
General Konkheit lost 1n
No-Man's land •.•
Special Bulletin to the
Moronian Army from
General Konkheit:
Dear Boys, Having a wonderful
time. Wish you were here. 52
NARRATOR: While all of this was go1ng on
the dictator's nephew, Franz was pining 40
VIDEO AUDIO
away for his lost love, Louise, Princess
of Berserkia. Hinkle and Magee write a new
song for Franz which he sings on their
radio show and immediately causes the war
884 FRANZ SINGS to end and Louise to return.
SONG: We quarrelled, you and I -
But though we've said 'Good-bye'
My love 1s yours for evermore
For now there's no more war
In my heart.
This empty yearning
Will keep returning
As long as we remain apart
For my heart has no defense
You're all I'm dreaming of
You've conquered me
And I'm your prisoner of love.
There will be no peace for me
Until we cease to be apart
Dear, I surrender
My love so tender
For now there's no more war
In my heart. 53 41
VIDEO AUDIO
885 HOLLYWOOD SET NARRATOR: Hinkle and Magee turn down an
offer to become monarchs over both
countries in favor of accepting a contract
with Republic Pictures.
The burlesque humor of Ready! Aim!
Fire! necessitated that the play run very
quickly and since it had over thirty
actors, eighteen scenes and eighteen
different sets this was a major task.
886 RAKER Loren Raker, the director, came up with an
interesting solution for working through
the problem:
RAKER: The show was 'hung' on paper
before goLng into rehearsal or building
and painting started. We found by so doing
we could run the show with great . . 54 rapLdLty.
NARRATOR: These pre-rehearsal runs
allowed Raker to see how the scenery was
going to work since most of the sets
consisted of drops and small set pieces
that were flown into position. The use of
film and slide projections helped to Q .
42
VIDEO AUDIO
maintain the cinematic look Edson wanted
the unit to have.
S87 THEATRE Once again the work of the unit was
very well received, but it still did not
serve as a vehicle for the revival of
vaudeville. The format was pure musical
comedy, an area of theatre which had
already gleaned the cream of the
vaudeville crop and left countless others
S88 "CLEVER DANCERS" walking the streets. Many of the
LOS ANGELES TIMES vaudevillians were used in other Federal
Theatre productions. Dale Wasserman was a
stage manager for the Federal Theatre, and
he can recall contacting the vaudeville
unit whenever a specialty act such as a
juggler or an acrobat was needed. 55 The
children's unit did this for many of their
productions. Finding steady work for all
of the acts must have been a challenge,
and trying to create a new form of
vaudeville that would utilize comic
jugglers, ventriloquists, illusionists and
others was a monumental effort. In the end
as Gene Stone recalled the search for a 43
VIDEO AUDIO
new vaudeville gave way to the primary
task of putting people back to work:
S89 STONE STONE: It was a case really, of doing a
show because of your cast. The
vaudevillians were on the Project, and our
job was to do something with them •••
The show in which we really used the
vaudeville talent was Two-A-Day. 56
S90 TWO-A-DAY NARRATOR: Two-A-Day, A Cavalcade of
Vaudeville became the unit's swan song. It
opened in October 1938 and ran through May
of 1939. That summer Congress ended it's
financial support of the Federal Theatre.
Two-A-Day was a history of vaudeville, the
times in which it thrived and the acts
which helped to keep it America's favorite
entertainment for forty years. The entire
cast was made up of former vaudeville
S91 GILSON performers who like Lottie Gilson and
S92 MORAN George Moran played themsleves or
S93 FOY impersonated stars such as Eddy Foy or
S94 HARVEST MOON Nora Bayes. The variety acts were
presented in carefully constructed 44
VIDEO AUDIO
recreations of not only the acts but also
the costuming, the sets, and the
vaudeville theatres. The scenes were held
together by an unseen voice of an
announcer who introduced the acts and
commented on the action over the public
address system. The play opened with an
announcement projected onto a screen that
dedicated the show to the people of
vaudeville. As the projection faded Tony
895 PASTOR'S Pastor's 14th Street Theatre appeared, and
acrobats with handle bar mustaches came on
working in a style reminiscent of the
1880's with broad gestures and a lot of
posing. They were followed by a song and
dance team, and then one of the
S96 ROONEY vaudevillians doing Pat Rooney, the Irish
dancing comedian's act. This was followed
by an announcement:
ANNOUNCER: • • • Those were the jokes
that Grandma laughed at when she was a
girl. How we've advanced. In 1938 we can
sit by our firesides, turn a dial, and 57 what do we get? - The same jokes • 45
VIDEO AUDIO
NARRATOR: The announcer continued with
his social commentary while slides were
projected illustrating the events and
changes from 1880 to 1938. Tony Pastor's
Theatre was replaced by Miner's Bowery
Theatre where an amateur night was 1n
progress. Several acts were given the
hook, but one young man stole the show and
began his successful career in show
S97 CANTOR business. This was Eddy Cantor. As the set
changed into Weber and Field's Music Hall,
two actors came on and recreated one of
S98 WEBER AND FIELDS Weber and Field's routines. The vaudeville
acts continued, and the changes in the
1920's were chronicled by the off-stage
conversations of vaudeville performers:
S99 OLD VAUDEVILLIANS FIRST MALE: So he offers me ten weeks out
West on the Pan Time. Two hundred and
fifty for me and the wife, but I told him
I ain't working for doughnuts.
SECOND MALE: You ought to go out to the
coast. You might break into the movies.
FIRST MALE: Bill Wilson went out there
last year to get in the films and all he 46
VIDEO AUDIO
got was sunburn ••• You jugglers are
lucky. You don't have to worry about
gettin' new gags.
SECOND MALE: Yeh, I've been doin' my act
for twenty years now. It still goes
Three hundred fifty for a juggling
act • Any my kid wants to go to law 58 school.
SlOO EVANS' SET NARRATOR: At var1ous points in the play
the audience met Mary and David Evans, a
marr_ied couple, who comment on the social
changes that occured during the period of
the play. They were newlyweds when they
first appeared. William Jennings Bryan was
running for President again, and David was
complaining about the inefficiency of
street cars. By 1915 Mary had become
somewhat liberated, and because she was
seldom home, David complained about eating
too much canned food. During the 1920's
Mary forbade David from investing in the
stock market, and then in 1938 David told
his son-in-law how he saved the family 47 0 '
VIDEO AUDIO
from ru1n by not getting caught in the
1929 stock market crash.
SlOl BIMBO Bimbo the Clown had the perfect act
for illustrating the crash. As stock
market traders were yelling "Buy, buy
buy!", Bimbo piled tables into a shakey
tower. While the stocks reached their
height, Bimbo put a barrel on the top
table and climbed into it. As the market
grew more and more unsteady, the barrel
began to wobble; the brokers were yelling
"Sell, sell!" The market crashed just as
Bimbo fell to the stage. Then the old
vaudeville friends returned talking 1n
Sl02 PALACE front of the Palace Theatre.
FIRST MALE: How's everything?
SECOND MALE: Not so good ••• I played
one date in the past two months, what do
you t h 1n. k - t h at was a b ene f.1t. 59
NARRATOR: As the theatres closed, the
vaudevillians tried to get work outside of
show business, but no one would hire them 48
VIDEO AUDIO
for their lack of business experience. The
announcer returned once more to say:
Sl03 PALACE THEATRE ANNOUNCER: Today, vaudeville is no longer
a part of the great white way. In it's
place we have streamlined entertainment,
the radio, the motion picture, the night
club • • • But we can never forget
vaudeville and the immortal stars of 60 Two-A-Day.
NARRATOR: Two-A-Day was a stunning
success. During it's seven month run,
actors such as Buster Keaton and the Marx
Sl04 MARX Brothers made special appearances, and
though tickets ranged in price from a mere
fifteen cents to a dollar and ten cents,
the show grossed seven thousand dollars in
it's first weekend, and was sold out for
the first two weeks of the run. 61 The
overwhelming response was almost a plea to
bring back what had been lost. The
Hollywood Citizen News wrote: 49
VIDEO AUDIO
SlOS PUBLICITY REPORTER: And when vaudeville comes back
it will owe it's renaissance to the W. P. A.
Private capital's resources are not broad
enough to gamble (here}. [They] are needed
too badly in other directions. The
American government • • will definitely
re-establish vaudeville ••• In a short
time ••• it will not need it's patron. 62 Vaudeville will have come back.
NARRATOR: This was not the case. As
innovative as these productions were with
their use of multi-media effects and
contemporary humor, vaudeville never
revived. The very structure of the Federal
Theatre worked against such a revival. The
Sl06 SET DESIGN W.P.A. was in the business of putting the
unemployed back to work 1n the field they
were trained in; it was not a training
program. Therefore the Federal Theatre
could not hire people without experience
or training nor could they take a young
Sl07 SET DESIGN performer and train him to be a
vaudevillian. The structure that had
supported vaudeville for forty years 50
VIDEO AUDIO
collapsed when the theatres closed, and
the Federal Theatre could not hope to
recreate it. Vaudeville had grown around a
circuit of nation-wide theatres which the
performers traveled to to present their
acts. This American form of popular
entertainment had been universally
available, but the Federal Theatre was
limited to audiences in specific areas.
For many of the smaller cities that once
had a vaudeville theatre this meant that
there was no live professional
entertainment available to them at all. In
such a situation it was impossible to
re-establish vaudeville as popular
entertainment because the populace at
large had no access to it. They were
seeing films in their old vaudeville
theatres, and listening to old vaudeville
stars on their radios, but there were no
new acts coming to town.
The Federal Theatre did not create a
new form of vaudeville. The writers
8108 PRODUCTION imposed the style of musical theatre onto
the vaudeville performers, and this failed 51
VIDEO AUDIO
because so many of the specialty acts,
like Bimbo the Clown, could not make the
transition into this form. Perhaps the
greatest failure was the inability of the
Federal Theatre to understand that
vaudeville was popular entertainment, and
as such it could not be consciously
created. Vaudeville had appealed to the
people of the cities who saw themselves ~n
the performers, and what they saw was a
Sl09 CASTLES world of glitter, wealth, and fame. The
audience saw the Myth of Success before
their eyes, a world where people had gone
from rags to riches. However, the Federal
SllO F. T. ACT Theatre performers had gone from rags to
riches and back to rags again. In their
fall from materialistic grace they lost
their ability to carry the myth, and their
presence on stage must have lacked the
feeling of promise it had once had. The
image was unreal; the illusion was broken;
and the artists appeared somewhat worn and
tarnished by the changes that had happened
to them. 52
VIDEO AUDIO
Slll JUGGLERS Popular entertainment grows out of
social soil of shared values, symbols, and
needs of the middle and working classes.63
Like some large snake that periodically
sheds it's skin, popular entertainments
move through a culture, and in the process
Sll2 BERT WILLIAMS are shed and replaced by new ones. Once
something has been shed, it is lost.
Popular entertainment is therefore always
~n the process of becoming.
S113 POSTER Dale Wasserman was accurate ~n his
assessment of the Federal Theatre
vaudevillian: Time had passed them by.
The sight of them doing their old acts ~n
government sponsored plays could never
again seem as bright as a M.G.M. musical.
S114 POSTER However, the effort that they made in
behalf of the Federal Theatre should not
be underestimated, for in many ways it was
their work which defined the Los Angeles
Sll5 POSTER Project. Perhaps this song from Follow the
Parade best defines them: 53
VIDEO AUDIO
SONG: A falling star, fades out of v~ew
It lived it's hour, there ~n the
, blue -
It disappears, and now it's gone
I see it die, here from afar -
I know that I, am like that star -
I, too, must fall, it is my
eternity -
I, too, must fall, it ~s my
destiny -
Sll6 COSTUME I grasped for fame, and reached the
heights -
I saw my name up there in lights
But like a flame, that burns too
bright -
I, too, must vanish ~n the night
Sll7 OLD F. T. And so it ends, the play is
VAUDEVILLIANS through -
My star descends, there ~n the
blue -
There is no one to hear me now, to
hear my cry -
And here am I, a falling star.64 CHAPTER SIX
Notes
1 Albert F. McClean, Jr. American Vaudeville as Ritual (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1965), p. 24. 2 The Pilgrimage Play was the brain child of Christina Stevenson who wanted to produce outdoor religious drama that would depict the lives of the world's great spiritual leaders. Only one production, the Life of Christ, was ever produced, however, it continued throughout the 1920's. When Stevenson died Harry Chandler, owner of the Los Angeles Times, continued to produce the play until 1934 when both the Depression and a fire brought it to a close. The play was originally staged by Ruth St. Denis who along with her husband, Ted Shawn, had a studio in Los Angeles. This is where Martha Graham began her dance training. 3 Charles W. Stein, Ed., American Vaudeville as Seen by Its Contemporaries (New York: De Capo Press, 1984), p. 335. 4 Dorothea Lange and Paul Schuster Taylor, An American Exodus, A Record of Human Erosion (New York, 1939 rpt. New York: Arno Press, 1975), p. 144. 5 Hallie Flanagan, Arena, A History of the Federal Theatre (New York, 1940 rpt. New York: Benjamin Blom, 1975), p. 16. 6 Flanagan, Arena. There were three basic tenets that formed the foundation of the Federal Theatre: 1) Unemployed theatre people wanted to work and the American public would be entertained by them. 2) Project workers were not on relief. 3) " ••• any theatre sponsored by the government of the United States should do no plays of a cheap or vulgar nature but only such plays as the government should stand behind in a planned theatre program national in scope, regional in emphasis and democratic in allowing each local unit freedom under these general principles.", p. 45. The frame work of the Federal Theatre was derived in part from the 1933 report of the National Theatre Conference which concluded that the theatrical taste for the entire nation could not be determined by the New York commercial stage. It recommended the development of regional theatre which would produce plays that would reflect the lives of the people in the area where the
54 56
that the effects of the Depression in the city were not that serious. He said: "The situation is not at all alarming. We do not find it necessary to feed our unemployed men here. In San Francisco I saw free soup kitchens. There are none here." By Christmas of 1930 there were soup kitchens in Los Angeles. p. 109. 21 William E. Leuchtenberg, Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal 1932-1940 (New York: Harper and Row, 1963), p. 2. As many as one and possibly two million people were wandering the country in search of work. After awhile, the journey became an end in and of itself, for the sensation of movement made a person feel that he was at least going somewhere and doing something. 22 Lange and Taylor, p. 144. 23 Flanagan, Arena, pp. 13-14. 24 Flanagan, Arena, p. 45.
25 Holcomb, p. 20. 26 New York staged 242 productions while Los Angeles staged 398. 27 Flanagan, Arena, p. 272. 28 Each region had a Research Bureau which arranged for the procurement of scripts, royalty payments, and specific research needed for various productions. In Two-A-Day this entailed the careful study of famous vaudeville acts, ~theatres, product ion style, cos turning and social history from 1880 to 1938. 29 Holcomb, p. 44.
30 Other highly acclaimed productions included: Chalk Dust, Class of '29, Prologue to Glory, Johnny Johnson, Six Characters in Search of an Author; the all black productions of Black Empire, John Henry, and Androcles and the Lion; the Yiddish production of Of Thee I Sing and the adaptation into French of the Children's Hour. It is ironic that even though Los Angeles had a large Hispanic population there were no plays produced in Spanish. Two plays that caused some controversy were Hauptman's The Weavers and Shaw's Ceasar and Cleopatra. Hauptman's play was seen as being left wing propaganda while Shaw's play was seen as being left wing propaganda while Shaw's comedy was seen by some as being sexually explicit. 31 Other people from the Los Angeles Project who went on to prominent careers include film directors Vincent Sherman and Nick Ray; designers Charles Elson, Nelson Baum~, and Scott McClean; character actors Peter Brocco and Marjorie Benett; and Charles O'Neill who became an authbr, playwright, and the father of actor Ryan O'Neill. 32 Hallie Flanagan, "National Director's Report," January, 1939, p. 1. From the Federal Theatre file at the Los Angeles Public Library. 58
to this was: "The government of the United States is paying your salary -which means that the shows will have to be so good, you'll be proud to have your name appear ••• '' See: Flanagan, Arena, p. 52. 45 Oral H.~story o f D a 1 e Wasserman, Fe d era 1 Th eatre P roJect . Collection, George Mason University, lent to the author by Mr. Wasserman. 46 Jack Robinson and Gene Stone, Revue of Reviews, musical score Federal Theatre Project Collection, George Mason University, n.p. Photocopy. 47 Production book for Revue of Reviews, Federal Theatre Project Collection, George Mason University, Director's report, n.p. Photocopy. 48 The Federal Theatre produced other plays of a similar theme such as Johnny Johnson by Paul Green and It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis. 49 Clair Leonard and Gene Stone, Ready! Aim! Fire! musical score Federal Theatre Project Collection, George Mason University, n.p. Photocopy.
so Ready!, Act 2-1-2. 51 Ready!, Act 2-1-4. 52 Ready!, Act 2-6-22. 53 Clair Leonard and Gene Stone, Ready! Aim! Fire!, musical score, Federal Theatre Project Collection, George Mason University, p. 26A. Photocopy. 54 Production book Ready! Aim! Fire!, Federal Theatre Project Collection, p. 6. Photocopy. Raker had been a New York director in the 1920's. 55 Wasserman tapes. 56 Loraine Brown and John O'Connor, Ed., Free, Adult, and Uncensored, the Living History of the Federal Theatre Project (Washington, D.C.: New Republic Books, 1978), p. 149. 57 Jack Robinson and Gene Stone, Two-A-Day, Federal Theatre Project Collection, George Mason University, Act 1-2. Photocopy. 58 Two-A-Day, Act 2-15. 59 Two-A-Day, Act 2-16. 60 Two-A~ Day, Act 2-37. 59
61 Product1on. b oak f or Two-A-Day, Federal Theatre PrOJect. Collection, George Mason University, p. 55. Photocopy. 62 Hollywood Citizen News, 7 November, 1938, as quoted 1n Two-A-Day Production Bulletin, p. 56. Photocopy. 63 Peter Burke, Popular Culture 1n Early Modern Europe (New York: Harper and Row, 1983), Prologue n.p. 64 Jack Dale and Gene Stone, Follow the Parade musical score, Federal Theatre Project Collection, George Mason University, n.p. Photocopy. 64
Kingsley, Grace. "Women Leading Way to New Vaudeville." Los Angeles Times, July 5, 1936, Sec. 3, p. 7.
Klondine, Irving. "Footlights, Federal Style." Harper's Magazine, November, 1936, pp. 621-631.
Lavery, Emet. "After Federal Theatre: What?" Commonwealth, September 27, 1940, pp. 465-467.
Mahoney, John. "Los Angeles in the Thirties and Forties - A Great Little Theatre Town." Los Angeles Times, May 14, 1981, Sec. 9, p. 2.
Medovoy, George. "A National Theatre - For Awhile." Los Angeles Times, May 14, 1981, Sec. 9, p. 1.
Rosamond, Gilder. "The Federal Theatre, A Record." Theatre Arts Monthly, June, 1936, pp. 430-438.
The Prompter. Los Angeles Federal Theatre Publication. November, 1936. Federal Theatre File at tge Los Angeles Public Library.
The Prompter. Los Angeles Federal Theatre Publication. December, 1936. Federal Theatre File at the Los Angeles Public Library.
"Unemployed Arts." Fortune, May, 1937, p. 132.
Library of Congress Publications
Edson, Eda, Robinson, Jack, and Stone, Gene. Follow the Parade. Federal Theatre Project Collection at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia. Photocopy.
Dale, Jack and Stone, Gene. Follow the Parade, musical score. Federal Theatre Project Collection at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia. Photocopy.
Leonard, Clair and Stone, Gene. Ready! Aim! Fire!, musical score. Federal Theatre Project Collection at Geroge Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia. Photocopy.
Robinson, Jack and Stone, Gene. Revue of Reviews, script and musical score. Federal Theatre Project Collection at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia. Photocopy.
------Ready! Aim! Fire!. Federal Theatre Project Collection at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia. Photocopy. 65
------Two-A-Day, A Cavalcade of Vaudeville. Federal Theatre Project Collection at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia. Photocopy.
Production Bulletin for the 1936 Los Angeles Production of Follow the Parade. Federal Theatre Project Collection at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia. Photocopy.
Production Bulletin for the 1938 Los Angeles Production of Ready! Aim! Fire! Federal Theatre Project Collection at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia. Photocopy.
Production Bulletin for the 1937 Los Angeles Production of Revue of Reviews. Federal Theatre Project Collection at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia. Photocopy.
Production Bulletin for the 1938 Los Angeles Production of Two-A-Day, A Cavalcade of Vaudeville. Federal Theatre Project Collection at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia. Photocopy.
Social History
Athearn, Robert G. The American Heritage New Illustrated History of the United States. Vol. 13 and 14. New York: Dell Publishing Co., Inc. , 1963.
Beasley, Maurine and Lowitt, Richard, ed. Lorena Hickok Reports on the Great Depression. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1981.
Bowman, Lynn. Los Angeles: Epic of a City. Berkeley: Howell-North Books, 1974.
Burke, Peter. Popular Culture ~n Early Modern Europe. New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1983.
Cini, Zelda and Crane, Bob. Hollywood - Land and Legend. Westport: Arlington House, 1980.
Cleveland, Robert. California ~n Our Time. New York: Alfred A. Knoph, 1947.
Charles, Searle F. Minister of Relief. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1963.
Durant, Alice and John. Pictorial History of American Presidents. New York: A.S. Barnes and Co., 1955.
Ekrich, Arthur A., Jr. Ideologies and Utopia, The Impact of the New Deal on American Thought. Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1969. 66
Federal Writers' Project. California, A Guide to the Golden State. New York: Hastings House, 1939.
Fleischer, Suri and Keylin, Arleen, ed. Hollywood Album Lives and Death of Hollywood Stars From the Pages of the New York Times. New York: Arno Press, 1977.
Ford, John Anson. Thirty Explosive Years in Los Angeles County. Los Angeles: Anderson, Ritchie, and Simon, 1961.
Goldstone, Robert. The Great Depression, The United States 1n the Thirties. New York: Fawcett Premier Books, 1968.
Heiman, Jim. Hooray for Hollywood, A Post Card Tour of Hollywood's Golden Era. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1983.
Lange, Dorothea and Taylor, Paul Schuster. An American Exodus, A Record of Human Erosion. 1939, rpt. New York: Arno Press, 1975.
Leuchtenburg, William E. Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal 1932- 1940. New York: Harper and Row, 1963.
Palmer, Edwin 0. History of Hollywood. Vol. 1. Hollywood: Arthur H. Cawston, 1937.
Weaver, John D. Los Angeles: The Enormous Village 1781-1981. Santa Barbara: Capra Press, 1981.
Social History - Periodicals
"Crash Maroons Tourists." Los Angeles Times, October 30, 1929, Sec. 1., p. 1.
"Prosperity Unchecked - Hoover Reviews Conditions." Los Angeles Times, Sec. 1 , p. 1 •
"Stocks Dive Amid Frenzy in 16,410,000-Share Day." Los Angeles Times, October 30, 1929, Sec. 1, p. 1.
"Roosevelt Elected." Los Angeles Times, November 9, 1932, Sec. 1, p. 1. 67
Miscellaneous Materials
Bronner, Edwin. The Encyclopedia of the American Theatre 1900-1975. New York: A. S. Barnes and Co., Inc., 1980.
Jensen, Paul M. Boris Karloff and His Films. New York: A. S. Barnes and Co., Inc., 1974.
Mackey, David R. Drama on the Air. New York: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1951.
Morgan, Barbara. Martha Graham- Sixteen Dances in Photographs. 1941 rpt. New York: Morgan and Morgan, 1980.
Seager, Susan. "The Pasadena Playhouse: Rebirth of A Legend." Images, publication of the Pasadena Playhouse, no date.
Stoddart, Dayton. Lord Broadway, Variety's Sime. New York: Wilfred Funk, Inc., 1941.
Willis, John, ed. Dance World, 1974. Vol. 9. New York: Crown Publishers, 1975.
Wood, Dell. "Happy Days Are Here Again." Hanky-Tonk Piano. R.C.A., CAL 684, 1962. APPENDIX
Sources of Slides
Sl Robert G. Athearn, The American Heritage New Illustrated History of the United States, Vol. 13 (New York: Dell Publishing Co., 1963), P. 1146. S2 Photography Collection of the Los Angeles Public Library. S3 Athearn, p. 1148. S4 Zelda Gini and Bob Crane, Hollywood - Land and Legend (Westport: Arlington House, 1980), p. 76.
ss Ch ar 1 es W. Ste~n,. e d ., Am er~can. Vaudev~lle. as Seen b y Its Contemporaries (New York: Alfred A. Knoph, 1984), p. 29. S6 Stein, p. 23. S7 Stein, p. 313. 8 S Slide Collection of Dr. William Schlosser. S9 Jim Heiman, Hooray for Hollywood, A Post Card Tour of Hollywood's Golden Era (San Francisco: Chronical Books, 1983), p. 23.
SlO Bernar d So b e 1 , A P~ctor~a . . 1 H~story . o f Vaudev~'11 e ( New Yor k : Citadel Press, 1946), p. 110. Sll Schlosser. Sl2 Los Angeles Public Library. Sl3 Willard H. Wright, "The Mission Play," Sunset (July, 1912), p. 93. Slide made by Los Angeles Public Library Photography Department. S14 Kenneth Me Gowan, Footlights Across America: Towards a National Theatre (New York: Harcourt, Brace, and Co., 1929), n.p.
68 69
SIS Saturday Night, April, 1926, p. 18. Slide made by Los Angeles Public Library Photography Department. 6 Sl "Preparing for the Miracle," Southern California Business, December 1926, p. 26. Slide made by Los Angeles Public Library Photography Department. S17 "Hollywood's New Theatre," Saturday Night, April 17, 1926, cover. Slide made by Los Angeles Public Library Photography Department. S18 Dayton Stoddard, Lord Broadway, Variety's Sime (New York: Wilfred Funk, Inc., 1941), n.p. S19 Athearn, Vol. 14., p. 1174. S20 Alice and John Durant, Pictorial History of American Presidents (New York: A.S. Barnes and Co., 1955), p. 250. 21 S Maureen Beasley and Richard Lowett, ed. Lorena Hickok Reports on the Great Depression (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1981), n.p. S22 Los Angeles Public Library Photography Collection. S23 Athearn, Vol. 14, P• 1219. S24 Athearn, Vol. 14, p. 1221. S25 "Roosevelt Elected," Los Angeles Times, November 9, 1932, p. 1. Slide made by the Los Angeles Times. 26 S Searle F. Charles, Minister of Relief (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1963), n.p. 27 S W"ll"1 1am E • Leuc h ten b erg, Fran kl"1n D. Rooseve 1 t an d t h e New Deal 1932-1940 (New York: Harper and Row, 1963), n.p. S28 Federal Writers Project, California, A Guide to the Golden State (New York: Hastings House, 1939), Title page. S29 Los Angeles Public Library Photography Collection. S30 Library of Congress Federal Theatre Project at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia. S31 Los Angeles Public Library Photography Collection. S32 George Mason University. S33 George Mason University. 70
S34 Jane DeHart Mathews, The Federal Theatre 1935-1939 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967), n.p.
S35 Lorra1ne• Brown an d Jo h n 0 I Connor, Free, Ad u 1 t, an d Uncensore d (Washington, D.C.: New Republic Books, 1978), p. 323. S36 The Prompter, Los Angeles Federal Theatre, November, 1936, n.p. Slide made by the Los Angeles Public Library. S37 The Prompter, n.p. S38 Paul M. Jensen, Boris Karloff and His Films (New York: A.S. Barnes and Co., 1974), n.p. 39 S Sur1. F 1 e1sc . h er an d Ar 1 een Key 1 en, L1ves . and Death o f Hollywood Stars (New York: Arno Press, 1977), p. 35. S40 The Prompter, n.p. S41 Brown and O'Connor, p. 11. S42 The Prompter, n.p. S43 Brown and O'Connor, p. 5.
S44 Given to the author by Mr. Wasserman. S45 George Mason University. S46 John Willis, ed. Dance World, 1974, Vol. 9 (New York: Crown Publishers, 1975), p. 117. S47 George Mason University. S48 deRohan Pierre, First Federal Summer (New York: Federal Theatre National Publications, 1937), n.p. Slide made by the Los Angeles Public Library. S49 George Mason University. S50 George Mason University. S51 George Mason University. S52 George Mason University. S53 George Mason University. S54 George Mason University. S55 George Mason University. 71
S56 George Mason University. S57 George Mason University. S58 George Mason University. S59 George Mason University. 60 S "Follow the P ara d e, " Los Ange 1 es T'1mes, June 28 , .1936 , Sec. 3, p. 2. Slide made by the Los Angeles Times. S61 Stein, p. 227. S62 Sobel, p. 61. S63 George Mason University. S64 George Mason University. S65 George Mason University. S66 George Mason University. S67 George Mason University. S68 George Mason University. S69 B.arbara Morgan, Martha Graham, Sixteen Dances In Photographs (1941, rpt. Dobbsferry: Morgan and Morgan, 1980), p. 55. S70 George Mason University. S71 George Mason University. S72 George Mason University. S73 George Mason University. S74 George Mason University. S75 George Mason University. S76 George Mason University. S77 George Mason University. S78 George Mason University. 79 S David R. Mackey, Drama On the Air (New York: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1951), n.p. 72
S80 George Mason University. S81 George Mason University. S82 George Mason University. S83 George Mason University. S84 George Mason University. S85 George Mason University.
S86 The p rompter, n.p. S87 Los Angeles Public Library Photography Collection. S88 "Clever Dancers Entertain," Los Angeles Times, July 17, 1937, Sec. 2, p. 7. Slide made by the Los Angeles Times. S89 The Prompter, n.p. S90 George Mason University. S91 Sobel, P• 152. S92 Sobel, P• 182. S93 George Mason University. S94 George Mason University. S95 George Mason University. S96 Sobel, P• 141. S97 Sobel, P• 133. S98 George Mason University. S99 George Mason University. S100 George Mason University. SlOl George Mason University. Sl02 Brown and O'Connor, p. 141. Sl03 George Mason University. S104 Slide collection of Dr. Schlosser. 73
SlOS Sobel, P• 134. Sl06 George Mason University. Sl07 George Mason University. SlOB George Mason University. Sl09 George Mason University. SllO Sobel, P• 135. Slll George Mason University. Sll2 Sobel, P. 206. Sll3 George Mason University. Sll4 George Mason University. SllS George Mason University. Sll6 George Mason University. Sll7 George Mason University.