For your Table of Contents
On page 20 start 2nd six weeks
table of contents:
Entertainment in America
SPIRAL CHECK WEDNESDAY!
VOCABULARY QUIZ FRIDAY!!!!
Entertainment in America at the
Turn of the Century
Chapter 9: section 2 pg 327-331
Read & Say Something
Person # 2 Starts
When finished reading raise your
hands for the next part
Inexpensive variety show that
1st appeared in the 1870’s
- Based on ethnic & racial
humor
1 of the sources was the
minstrel show in which actors
wore “black face”
(exaggerated caricature of
African Americans)
Family entertainment: song &
dance routines, magic acts,
performances by
ventriloquists, jugglers and
animals
“trolley parks”
Featured music, games of
skill, vaudeville productions
& exciting rides
Technology of the trolley
led to the development
of amusement parks
Inexpensive excursion
from the city
Circus train – 1872
Anticipation was built through
early flyers, followed by the
arrival of the train -People
gathered to watch the big top
go up, then a parade followed by the performance.
Performances by stunt men,
entertainers, animals, etc
under the big top
Became an annual visit
Baseball, boxing, horse racing,
football, basketball (only major
sport of exclusive American origin)
bicycling, tennis, swimming
Various groups formed sports
clubs – proved to have a large
audience for games so
entrepreneurs closed stadiums
and started charging admission
The competition,
entertainment
Speed & timing of the game
Melodies with
shifting accents over
a steady, marching –
band beat
1899 – a composer
wrote “Maple Leaf
Rag” which became
popular
Infectious beat
became popular
A type of music of
black origin
Grew out of the
culture of New
Orleans and
traveled North
•New style
•Infectious
•Became the rage
•Dance clubs
a religious song of a kind
associated with black
Christians of the southern US,
and thought to derive from
the combination of European
hymns and African musical
elements by black slaves.
The Fisk Jubilee Singers went
on a concert tour,
introducing white audiences
to religious folk songs
As it became more popular
aquired characteristics of
European musical traditions
Became identified
as an American art
form
• More information……..
Movies
• The Great Train Robbery released in 1903
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oTdPklBE0Y
• By 1908, the nation had 8,000 nickelodeons
(theaters that charged a nickel for admission)
• Will develop into full length movies – started as
silent films accompanied by a live piano
What people are reading…
Newspapers:
New typesetting machinery enabled publishers to produce
larger and more entertaining publications which greatly
increased circulation
They also introduced new features: comics, sports sections,
women’s pages and Sunday editions
Because of high competition editors encouraged more
sensational stories to sell more (murder, scandal,
corruption) – Yellow Journalism
Key people:
Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst
Newsies trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgvhkGNwl60
What people are reading…
Magazines:
Congress lowered postal rates for periodicals therefore
magazine circulation increased
Early magazines: McClure’s, Cosmopolitan, and Munsey’s
- many of them focused on Horatio Alger’s stories – Rags
to riches
Popular Fiction:
Dime novels , serious novels, novels that satirized the
attitudes and practices of the time
Key people: Henry James, Mark Twain, Upton Sinclair
Music at home
2 new inventions made it easier to for people to
enjoy music without producing it themselves
• Player piano – a paper roll was “played” by
wooden “fingers” to reproduce the music
recorder on the roll
• Phonograph - invented in 1877 by
Thomas Edison. Signaled the birth of the
music industry.
One thing a person could do in
1900 but not in 1865 was
a. ride on a train.
b. sew a dress.
c. play a phonograph.
d. read at night.
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