Yes, it was. A neat era. The spirit of it is still seen today in TV and movies with ventriloquists, magicians, dancing, etc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaudeville .
I cant be everywhere.. . Gypsy Rose Lee The dysfunctional Hovick family has once again been revived on Broadway in "Gypsy" the musical. This time with the considerable talent of Patti Lupone as Mama Rose and under the masterful direction of ninety year old Arthur who also wrote the book. This tale of the most notorious show business stage mother and her stripper daughter, is loosely based on the memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee. The original 1959 musical was nominated for eight Tony awards and developed by Ethel Merman and David Merrick with music by Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim lyrics. Gypsy Rose Lee was born Ellen June Hovick in Seattle Washington in 1911. Her sister also strangely named Ellen June Hovick and later known as June Havoc was born two years later. When their parents divorced the girl's mother, Rose Hovick developed a successful vaudeville act for her daughters aged five and seven, called Baby June and Her Farmboys. Although the act was making $1500 at its height, Vaudeville soon began to fade and Baby June eloped at 13 with a member of the chorus. Mama Rose though was hell bent on continuing without her main talent, and although Vaudeville was a dying art form--burlesque was blossoming and Gypsy Rose Lee was born. Gypsy Rose Lee went on to a successful career as an actress, author, and talk show host. She wrote three books including the best seller Gypsy, and performed in 12 movies and , but the intimate details of smothering Mama Rose's life didn't feed public consumption until June Havoc wrote in her autobiography, Early Havoc. Rose 'turned toward her own sex,' at first ruining a lesbian boardinghouse in a 10-room apartment Gypsy rented for her on West End Avenue, and then owning a sort of lesbian farm in her country house in Highland Hills. At a party in that house, Rose pulled a gun on one of the girls, according to Erik Preminger Gypsy's son and killed a young woman.
tired circus clown Joe Vani 'Sherman' (Sherman Bros. Clown Team fame) on Barbette: Barbette's real name was Vander Clyde. He re-named himself VANDER CLYDE BROADWAY. He rode with Chester [Joe's clown partner Chester Sherman] and me day in and day out. I never saw his act . . . that was years and years ago, in Vaudeville. He was a big attraction in Paris. He was a character. He wore a beret and his hands and leg were severely crippled after a tragic fall from the high wire in Paris. Barbette walked with a very pronounced limp, but he could move around the track fast. At first he went on the Ringling Bros. show as a choreographer. He was producing the girls numbers, and when he came on the Polack show he did that too . . . he was a scream. He'd take Chester and me out to dinner. One day we were up in Oregon and in those days when you ordered a drink you had to get it at the bar which was not connected with the dining room. He asked for a Dubonnet cocktail, and when the girl brought it he tasted it and complained it wasn't right and sent it back. After about the third time of this, he went and stuck his head in the window where the bartender was making the drinks and said he'd come back there and show him how the drink was supposed to be made. The bartender pulled the window down real fast, and if Barbette hadn't been a little faster than the bartender, he would have got his head cut off that night! We laughed! Chester actually SAW Barbette's earliest act of trapeze artists who hung from their trapeze and held trapeze rigging in their teeth from which Barbette swung, dressed as a girl. Chester was on the same bill working as an acrobat during this time, and he and Barbette became friends. So when Barbette came on the Polack show, he and Chester were already "old friends," which is why Barbette traveled from date to date with Chester & me. When Barbette did choreography for Polack, the girls all loved him. He was a lot of fun to work with but he was very temperamental. One girl missed her cue and he had her up at 9AM the very next morning up on the web. Barbette was with Polack for three years. Before that he was with Ringling and also the Clyde Beatty show. He used to talk about his act in vaudeville; he would tell about how successful it was, and always at the end of the act he told us he used to pull off his wig and show the audience he was a man, I think they hired him in that act because he was so fragile looking and they didn't have a girl and that was part of the deal, that he would dress up like a girl. That was how he got the name "Barbette"...
