<P> With its first subtle appearances within the early 1860s, vaudeville was not initially a common form of entertainment . The form gradually evolved from the concert saloon and variety hall into its mature form throughout the 1870s and 1880s . This more gentle form was known as "Polite Vaudeville". </P> <P> In the years before the American Civil War, entertainment existed on a different scale . Certainly, variety theatre existed before 1860 in Europe and elsewhere . In the US, as early as the first decades of the 19th century, theatregoers could enjoy a performance consisting of Shakespeare plays, acrobatics, singing, dancing, and comedy . As the years progressed, people seeking diversified amusement found an increasing number of ways to be entertained . Vaudeville was characterized by traveling companies touring through cities and towns . A handful of circuses regularly toured the country; dime museums appealed to the curious; amusement parks, riverboats, and town halls often featured "cleaner" presentations of variety entertainment; compared to saloons, music halls, and burlesque houses, which catered to those with a taste for the risqué . In the 1840s, the minstrel show, another type of variety performance, and "the first emanation of a pervasive and purely American mass culture", grew to enormous popularity and formed what Nick Tosches called "the heart of 19th - century show business". A significant influence also came from Dutch minstrels and comedians . Medicine shows traveled the countryside offering programs of comedy, music, jugglers, and other novelties along with displays of tonics, salves, and miracle elixirs, while "Wild West" shows provided romantic vistas of the disappearing frontier, complete with trick riding, music and drama . Vaudeville incorporated these various itinerant amusements into a stable, institutionalized form centered in America's growing urban hubs . </P> <P> In the early 1880s, impresario Tony Pastor, a circus ringmaster turned theatre manager, capitalized on middle class sensibilities and spending power when he began to feature "polite" variety programs in several of his New York City theatres . The usual date given for the "birth" of vaudeville is October 24, 1881 at New York's Fourteenth Street Theater, when Pastor famously staged the first bill of self - proclaimed "clean" vaudeville in New York City . Hoping to draw a potential audience from female and family - based shopping traffic uptown, Pastor barred the sale of liquor in his theatres, eliminated bawdy material from his shows, and offered gifts of coal and hams to attendees . Pastor's experiment proved successful, and other managers soon followed suit . </P> <Table> <Tr> <Td> Performance bill for Temple Theatre, Detroit, December 1, 1902 <P> The manager's comments, sent back to the circuit's central office weekly, follow each act's description . The bill illustrates the typical pattern of opening the show with a "dumb" act to allow patrons to find their seats, placing strong acts in second and penultimate positions, and leaving the weakest act for the end, to clear the house . </P> <P> As well, note that in this bill, as in many vaudeville shows, acts often associated with "lowbrow" or popular entertainment (acrobats, a trained mule) shared a stage with acts more usually regarded as "highbrow" or classical entertainment (opera vocalists, classical musicians). </P> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> <Ul> <Li> (1) Burt Jordan and Rosa Crouch . "Sensational, grotesque and' buck' dancers . A good act ..." </Li> <Li> (2) The White Tscherkess Trio . "A man and two women who do a singing turn of the operatic order . They carry special scenery which is very artistic and their costumes are original and neat . Their voices are good and blend exceedingly well . The act goes big with the audience ." </Li> <Li> (3) Sarah Midgely and Gertie Carlisle . "Presenting the sketch' After School .'...they are a' knockout ."' </Li> <Li> (4) Theodor F. Smith and Jenny St. George - Fuller . "Refined instrumentalists ." </Li> <Li> (5) Milly Capell . "European equestrienne . This is her second week . On account of the very pretty picture that she makes she goes as strong as she did last week ." </Li> <Li> (6) R.J. Jose . "Tenor singer . The very best of them all ." </Li> <Li> (7) The Nelson Family of Acrobats . "This act is composed of three men, two young women, three boys and two small girls . The greatest acrobatic act extant ." </Li> <Li> (8) James Thornton . "Monologist and vocalist . He goes like a cyclone . It is a case of continuous laughter from his entrance to his exit ." </Li> <Li> (9) Burk and Andrus and Their Trained Mule . "This act, if it can be so classed, was closed after the evening performance ." </Li> </Ul> Typical provincial venue on the circuit: "The Opera" in Kirksville, Missouri </Td> </Tr> </Table>

Low-brow variety show that originated in new york city