Vaudeville and the American Dream

In the era of vaudeville, from the early 1980s to the early 1930s, American enjoyed a time of which of the following:

• Unparalleled growth and urbanization

• Increasing diversity

• Upward social mobility

• All of the above

Vaudeville was a true actualization of the ________ _____ for the performers, patrons, and society surrounding it.

Vaudeville had emerged from what art form of the mid-1880s?

• Broadway

• Opera

• Minstrel Shows

• Ballet

True or False. White acts, and after the Civil War, blacks also would wear blackface as overdramatized caricatures of black people, acting like buffoons to mock black culture.

• True

• False

Who was the preeminent black comedian who pushed racial boundaries and entertained audiences while challenging racism?

• Nathan Lane

• Bert Williams

• Charlie Chaplin

• Will Smith

Vaudeville began to showcase a large immigrant population to find the American Dream. Who was a Polish immigrant who brought Yiddish theater to the American stage?

• Ethel Merman

• Molly Picon

• Julie Andrews

• Barbara Streisand

True or False. Vaudeville changed cultural perceptions of the outsiders, fostering acceptance instead of racism and bigotry.

• True

• False

Vaudeville advanced the welfare of minority groups but also acted to define and refine what American subgroup?

• Homeless

• Working Class

• Wealthy aristocracy

• Businesses

True or False. At the same time as vaudeville was redefining the American middle class, it opened up new opportunities for a select few to climb up the social ladder.

• True

• False

Vaudeville began to slowly die due to which 2 new media forms?

• Internet and WiFi

• Radio and Motion Pictures

• Automobiles and Trains

• Hotels and Boarding Houses