viii, [6], 561 pp. Here it is at last - the whole wonderful history of vaudeville, from its free-and-easy beginnings in the honky-tonks to the Big Time on Broadway-the Palace, Vaudeville was Joe Laurie, Jr.'s pabulum. He was raised in and on it, and in his book he treats the reader to an intimate look-see at the entire glittering cavalcade-animal acts, shadow-graphists, musicians, contortionists, minstrels, escape artists, sharpshooters, mind readers, monologist, hypnotists, tight-wire walkers, parody singers, mimics, and hundreds more. This is not a book of just dates and names. Laurie tells you what made vaudeville really tick; the men who controlled it, the great entertainment personalities, and the hilarious composite acts that marked vaudeville in its heyday. He tells amusing stories of the many eccentric characters in vaudeville, about life in the old-time boardinghouses and theatrical hotels, about small-time chiselers and big-time operators.
