Mae West, Sarah Bernhardt, Ethel Barrymore and Helen Keller are perhaps among the best known women to appear on vaudeville stages. Each came to vaudeville by a different path and with a different offering: Mae West entered vaudeville with a song and dance routine when she was 13 years old. Ethel Barrymore dropped in on the Palace Theater to present one-act plays. Sarah Bernhardt was being celebrated by the British for her fifty years on the dramatic stage when she agreed to appear in the U.S. Helen Keller appeared on the stages of first-class vaudeville houses with her teacher, Anne Sullivan, telling about how she overcame the handicaps of blindness and deafness. Many other women followed their own paths to become vaudeville headliners. This book tells the stories of 80 who were among the top vaudeville acts in the late 19th century and early 20th century, when entertainment was often live variety shows in theaters across the country. Singers, singer-comediennes, comediennes, dancers, sister acts, actresses, male impersonators and novelty acts are covered as separate categories. Biographies of the performers in each category appear in order of the date they entered vaudeville, an arrangement that allows the reader to trace the history of vaudeville itself. A final section concentrates on the headliners' heritage, taking a broad look at the group according to ethnic background, socioeconomic background, family life, and other factors, including what happened to them after vaudeville died.

Just a century ago Eddie Foy was the consummate stage comedian. A versatile performer, Foy contributed to the development of popular theater from the Civil War to the Roaring Twenties, from poverty-inspired Irish two-acts to lavish musical comedies. This first-ever biography of Foy tells the story of his indigent childhood in New York's Bowery and in Chicago, his tough uphill climb as a 'variety artist' at Western outposts, his success in vaudeville and Broadway, and his arrival as a national icon with the Seven Little Foys. Foy's career mirrored the growth of popular theater entertainment in America. Exhaustively researched, this work contains many rare personal photographs from the Foy family archives.

Colorful and boisterous first nights were the rule in New York theaters of the 1880s. Everyone, it seemed, attended, from the rich and powerful to young people who scraped together just enough money to buy a ticket. And no star was more popular among these two groups and all those in between than Lillian Russell.At a time when serious plays dominated the stages, Lillian Russell was one of the first to popularize musical theater. With her beauty, voice, and grace, she became the symbol of the new American woman. She used those attributes to attain power, social status and wealth, and then went on to become one of the earliest champions of women's equality. Her life and career are covered here in-depth, with particular focus on the way she influenced theater history and the popular culture of her day.

The issues for which Katharine Dexter McCormick (1874-1967) fought are as important today as they were seventy-five years ago: birth control, sex education, abortion, equal pay for equal work, and freedom from sexual harassment. She was a driving force in the battle for the women's vote, the formation of the Women's League of Voters, the creation of Planned Parenthood, and the development of the birth control pill. McCormick stepped forward when others were afraid to act, and her unflagging fidelity to the cause made possible the social, political, and scientific achievements that today mark the difference between misery and opportunity for millions of women.

Although she was born into a world of privilege with many intellectual talents, McCormick's life was not without its significant challenges. Many of the issues to which she devoted her life remain controversial and are still under attack by their opponents. Due to her modesty, McCormick neither sought nor received public accolades during her lifetime. Nonetheless, her long-time crusades and achievements revolutionized the role of women, not only in America, but throughout the world. Scientist, humanitarian, and lifelong champion of women's rights, her determination and commitment provide a pattern to inspire women today and tomorrow.

When he died in 1933, James J. "Gentleman Jim" Corbett was honored by two distinguished groups of people: the professional boxing public, who celebrated him as America's greatest boxing champion, and the world of popular theater admirers, who revered him as one of Broadway's top vaudeville headliners. Corbett was uniquely instrumental in making boxing and popular theater both justifiable commercial enterprises, to be enjoyed by all classes of people. He became America's first national sports hero and went on to formulate the theater worlds star system. This is the first definitive biography of the man who knocked out heavyweight champion John J. Sullivan, and who also knocked out audiences who flocked to see him in vaudeville and silent pictures. The focus herein is on the real man, the influences on his life, and the social and commercial environment within which he functioned. The author reveals that Corbett was a complex, driven, enigmatic man whose dedicated participation in popular entertainment changed American social values and mores, and at the same time reinvented the notion of a national hero.

Born to a family of equestrian circus performers in the early 19th century, Tony Pastor seemed predestined for a life in show business. True to his upbringing, Pastor lived his life on or at least very near the stage, making unparalleled contributions to the early success of American vaudeville as a songwriter, variety performer, and theater owner. From his early success as the owner of Tony Pastor's Opera House to his role as ""Little Man Tony"" following the advent of traveling vaudeville circuits, this work offers a touching but straightforward look at Pastor's rise and fall from fame, and examines his contributions to vaudeville and the performing arts in general.