HST 134A Midterm #2
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cacaldwell on March 17, 2012
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64 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Public Assembly | Act of gathering together in public space; right enshrined in the US constitution; very central to American political thought during middle 19th century; important to politics instrumentally (election campaign), however, came in all forms; Ex: militia parades, funeral processions, civic celebrations, public executions, theatre performances and of course riots Significance: Politics in the city; embodiment of what people thought of as democracy; Mere act of doing this was a very loaded and powerful political action; large groups of people acting collectively symbolized the people, the popular; Middle-19th century, the public assembly was the basic unit of what people thought of democracy |
| Mobs | Large crowds of people living in cities taking the law into their own hands and defiantly resisting attacks, and doing so in assertion of communal norms over a situation that had gotten irregular and our of hand. Acting on behalf of the shared norms/values of an entire city and did not see themselves as law-breakers. When rioters were poor, their critics would label them 'mobs.' Call someone a mob was to suggest that the people participating had no legit standing nor grievance to act or speak on behalf of the community Commoners were running around destroying things for their own purposes = mobs; Word created to discern between legitimate activity; Significance: One person's mob was on person's legit action; |
| Democracy in the Streets | Mid 19th century—Electoral campaigns became dramatic events in the streets; Lots of political life conducted outdoors; for many people that was the hallmark for its democratic character; these parades and meetings featured 2-5 word slogans and banners that defined party positions; Central part in what people thought of as democracy; shows us the ceremonial aspects of partisan politics |
| Mass Democracy | Two main features: universal manhood suffrage & rise of party system; transformed political life and electoral life; both are features of the 1st 3rd of the 19th century; In the 1830s, the second American party system emerged involving two competitive parties (whigs/democrats); System of nomination convention emerged; Significance: animates urban politics and changes the way democracy in streets functioned and how urban life became fused with politics |
| Tammany | Began as a society, fraternal order, in 1790; Originally an anti-British secret society and went open in last decade of 18th century; Did things like distributing food, fuel, clothing in city's poor in NY; Out of the fraternal order emerged the Tammany faction of the NY Democratic party which built itself up by catering to immigrants with great potential in this era of mass-democracy; By 1840s, Tammany had a strong base of support in the districts of NY that were dominated by immigrants; Significance: Pioneered practices of tapping the voting power of immigrant groups; Party politics at the urban level in many cities followed this model (even non-democratic) |
| Shoulder Hitters | Local gang members who performed DE valuable service of physically intimidating voters for voting for the democratic party; Found people on the doc shortly after they arrived and directed their loyalties to the democratic party; Significance: Link between party politics and violence in municipal elections |
| William M. Tweed | Boss Tweed; Major figure-head of political machine; Was a NY and got his start in politics in 1829; elected to US congress and then returned to municipal government; during his years of political power, city appropriations were put in the hands of corrupt figures like Tweed; Most notoriously sat on a country board that authorized a court house; final tab upon completion came to 12.5 M $$; Much of this money went to the consolidation of Tweed's power; He had a lavish machine on 5th avenue; By holding lots of various important offices at the same time; Head of the Tammany society; By 1871, a NYTimes led to his conviction; Tweed died in Prison in 1878 Significance: Example of NY style of machine politics; |
| David Broderick | 1849 arrived in SF; Son of Irish immigrant; Father had been a stone carver; Broderick grew up in working class NY; By owning a saloon, it became a center of politics; When gold-fever struck, he brought with him Tammany style politics; He used his NY contacts and ethnic associations to implement ballot stuffing, false tickets, colonization; Early years of SF saw the rise of boisterous NY politics; Bowery west-coast version |
| Committee of Vigilance | Broderick opponents; Largely middle-class, native born folks; formed committees; Seeking to secure political control away from political parties; Assumed legal authority; Took 91 prisoners; exiled them out; 1851 folks defied local authority, but in 1856 a new committee rose; closed membership, secrecy; politically corrupt leaders; |
| Service City | Idea that a city government ought to provide general protection for the physical plant of a city and actively promote and protect citizens and visitors; Significance: lead to the formation (40s-50s) of regular police and fire departments; raised the stakes regarding who had jurisdiction over the city; metropolitan police district — take policing out of the hands of democratic government |
| Municipals and Metropolitans | Municipals (democratic city mayor) vs. metropolitans (republicans); a battle between rival conceptions of urban law and order; not coincidentally, Headley's book is dedicated to the metropolitan police force; |
| NYC Draft Riots | 1863—Took place on a Monday; Violent disturbances in New York City that were the culmination of discontent with new laws passed by Congress to draft men to fight in the ongoing American Civil War; The riots were the largest civil insurrection in American history apart from the Civil War itself; President Abraham Lincoln sent several regiments of militia and volunteer troops to control the city. The rioters were overwhelmingly working class men, resentful, among other reasons, because the draft unfairly affected them while sparing wealthier men, who could afford to pay a $300 fee to exclude themselves; Significance: Poor people were sent off to die for slavery; rioters went after metropolitan police officials, abolitionist, NY tribune, and especially African Americans |
| Colored Orphan Asylum | Major house for orphaned black children attacked during the 1893 NY Draft Riots; Significance: example of the pogrom that was occurring during this mob response |
| Great Chicago Fire | 1871—October 8th, a fire broke out in Chicago barn that belonged to a couple; spread across the city and basically incinerated many buildings; the flames swept through a city that was parched, and full of wood; powerful winds; flames devoured whole neighborhoods; 300 people died; 100,000 were left homeless; nearly 2 million worth of property was destroyed; Significance: iconic events of urban history; not simply because people lost their lives/homes, rather because it explains the following of US cities; readership about the fire was insane; symbol of urban disorder |
| Instant Fire Histories | Books and forms of media that appeared almost immediately after the fire began; combine two types of literature (sensationalism/mystery journalism and the literature of boosterism); part of city to reconstruct itself; fire was a dramatic moment in the saga of a particular city |
| Philip Henry Sheridan | 1863—De facto Marshall law for 2 weeks, major response of the federal government was to do nothing and just re-impose law and order; regulated prices, movements around the city, imposed spatial boundaries, curfew; Only solution to what the fire portended and what it represented; Fire to many Chicagoans was a threat; Sheridan occupation Significance: Helped the city recover from this devastating fire; stood for larger responses to this urban disorder during the last third of the 19th century and beyond |
| Relief and Aid Society | Unelected body of leading merchants and manufacturers who were entrusted and empowered with the task of distributing relief to Chicago's displaced population; Fed government was not providing relief, there was no fema, the municipal government was not trusted with it, so an unelected body NGO took on the task of who deserved aid and who didn't; Significance: Took the relief effort out of the corrupt hands of government and democratic politics; Helped the city recover from this devastating fire |
| Rural Cemeteries | 1830s—Pre-cursors to municipal park movement; at the outskirts of America's large cities; garden cemeteries or park cemeteries; Pre-cursor to municipal parks; Mt. Auburn Cemetery (1831) was America's first rural cemetery; 70 acres of woodland; popular place of retreat for wealthy and middle class Bostonians; Other examples, Laurel Hill 1836, Mountain View in Oakland; Appeal of these diminished over time with the sprawl of the city; Increasing support for creating a park within the boarders of the metropolis; Significance: Pre-cursor to the park movement that occurred in 19th century America |
| Central Park | Model for most urban park construction in the United States; dominant urban park in the US; a proposal was considered for a park in the center of the island; not intended to be integrated into the city; Banished all signs of urban activity; Park full of greenery would function as the lungs of the city; Supporters of the park describe the land in 2 contradictory way; Taking out the enormous amount of land in the way; one of the biggest public work projects in NYC history |
| Frederick law Olmsted | 1822-1903— United States landscape architect; Designed New York's central Park in 1858. He viewed city parks as much more than recreational centers and he sought to create oasis of culture that would promote social stability and cohesion. Due to the congestion and disease associated with city life many people participated in outdoor recreation to improve health |
| Calvert Vaux | 2nd half of 19th cent—Jr. designer of central park along with Frederick Law Olmsted. Olmsted hired Vaux in 1857 to help him with the design for the Greenward plan which would become Central Park. In 1865 Vaux created a partnership with Olmsted to create a multitude of other parks. |
| Outside Lands | 19th century—was the name used for the present-day Sunset District in San Francisco, California. With few roads and no public transportation, the area was covered by sand dunes and Frederick Law Olmsted considered it inaccessible and uninhabitable In 1866, the federal government upheld the city's title to the Outside Lands against claims of squatters. During the course of lengthy litigation over the Outside Lands, local politicians, led by Frank McCoppin and other citizens, rallied for establishment of a public park in the western quarter of the city. A supervisorial committee subdivided the Outside Lands and proposed an arrangement whereby squatters could donate a portion of their claims for a public park in return for clear title to the remainder of their lands. |
| The Great Epizootic of 1872 | 1870s—Causes of the great fire in Boston—epidemic with animals; what happened in the US during this year; almost every horse was sick or dead from a certain flu; Boston fire department was paralyzed in a shut-down of its major form of transportation; without healthy horses they were unable to extinguish the blaze and as a result would not have been as major of a fire; Throughout 19th century, cities were filled with just as many horses as people; Significance: urban economies ground to a standstill; probably started near Toronto, Canada and spread; By December, almost the entire north American horse population was affected, especially in cities; powerful and tragic reminder of the dependence of American economy and life on the power of these animals |
| Traffic Jams | 1830s—Horse caused significant traffic issues; 1823, first 'traffic jam'—caused by the popularity of two thoroughbreds; NYers eager to see a contest between the two, wind up clogging narrow city streets powered by harnessed horses; Horses dominate city-life and as a result have a significant impact on the movement of the city; |
| Fixed-Route Transit | A form of transportation available to people that follows a fixed route; doesn't have to be highway or subway track, all it means is that people know in advance what that route was going to be; did not exist in cities before 1820s; Significance: it allowed strangers to navigate the city without having to know or communicate with other |
| Omnibus | 1827—First form of transportation, like a streetcar pulled by horse with two long benches; carried 12 passengers, or as many as 20; omnibus era is associated with Abraham Brower; NY major thoroughfare; 12.5 cents per ride; by 1829 was providing regular service; by 1833, 8 omnibuses were running in NY; followed a fixed route; public; By 1829, Abraham Bower was running regularly; by 1837 there were 108 omnibuses; mass urban transportation; significance: contributed to the sprawling growth of cities |
| Horse Railway | 1832—NY, John Mason operated a stage coach on the street portion of the Harlem railway line; The first run took a very unfortunate turn, the conductor forgot to apply the breaks, and crashed into the lead car; The mayor called it "the greatest achievement of man"; Exhibition was enough of a success, it began laying track in lower Manhattan; until the middle of the century, it was largely connected to inter-city; by 1852, cities introduced groove rails that laid flat with the pavement; An American phenomenon |
| Cable Car | Only SF held on to this experiment in non-horse powered transportation; Hadlidey; Late 1880s was introduced in Montgomery and Richmond; not until 1890s that electric power takes over horse power |
| Suburbanization | Effect of mass-transit on moving people out of the cities; Early suburbanization was really about slums; Affluent urbanites, however, started to move away from production and commerce; downtown became associated with crowding and congestion, so wealthier people wanted to move away = beacon hill, gramercy park, etc; at the time of their settlement, they were early attempts of wealthier people to get more space and distance from urban centers; Brooklyn began as a suburb of NY; it was a ferry suburb of the early 19th century; ferry service helped us see the relationship between the size of an urban area and transportation |
| Riverside, Illinois | 9 miles west of downtown Chicago and designed in 1868; became a thriving community after the fire in 1871; Urban amenities without danger and squatters |
| Chinese Diaspora | 1840-1900—major dispersion of people who retain a identity to a homeland, but live elsewhere; formed during this period and involved 2.5 million Chinese people who left their home for unfamiliar land; Most went to economically developing/less advanced countries in the Americas—south pacific. Chinese immigrants made up 10% of CA state |
| Page Act | 1875—First federal immigration restriction; it set up a process of strict screening; when a woman coming to the US had to go through an interview and inspection before coming to America; radically; Significance: reduced immigration from China during the late 19th century; first and foremost about the immigration of Chinese sex workers; ; stem the tide of what the bill sponsor called "cheap Chinese labor" —here is where concern about prostitution and workers had to spill into a much larger concern about labor altogether |
| Transcontinental Railroad | Released a large pool of Chinese workers into the American labor market; Thousands of Chinese immigrants worked on this project; Significance: For most of the US, somehow the Spector of all these Chinese male workers, released from railroad duty, triggered lots of concern about the portability of labor and power of capital to control wages in long distance wages |
| Workingmen's Party | 1878—Political Party in California that was created in 1878, led by Denis Kearny, an irish immigrant. This party gained significant political power in the state in large part on the basis of its hostility to the Chinese. Significance: largely organized around the slogan: Chinese must go! Made their deportation a key plank for their working movement |
| "The Chinese Must Go" | Slogan of the Workingmen's Party |
| Chinese Exclusion Act | 1882—Federal act that banned Chinese immigration into the US; lasted for nearly 40 years; Not repealed until 1943; Essentially in legal effect into the second world war; it was designed around questions of labor; Political consensus was that the Chinese were not welcome in the US |
| Living Chinese Family | Bizarre concept; poses Chinese family as an attraction; Also showcased "yellow-face"; huge commercial entertainment culture; Significance: formed Chinese |
| Afong Moy | 1830s—Began appearing as early as 1834; Chinese stage performer; most famous example of two men—Chang and Ang bunker—came in 1829 and Chang and Ang bunker became popularly known as the Siamese twins |
| Vacations | 2nd half of 19th century—Development in the second half of the 1800s; Word began to be used in the 1850s and over the next 3-4 decades spread among white collar employees; white-collar government employees, first to benefit; by the 1870s-1880s, it was increasingly common for an employer to give a non-manual employee one week of paid vacation |
| Women adrift | Phenomenon in late 19th century, young women living away from their families in either boarding houses or women in rented apartments known as furnished rooms where women slept; 68,000 lived in such arrangements in NY at the beginning of the 20th century; similar to bachelor culture; For these women, recreation and fun were found in cafes, restaurants, etc; Pice's book is about this—women seeking their identities |
| Electrify | 1880s—introduced to urban America in 1879 in Cleveland and spread during the 1880s; rise of urban electrification; not a simple story of electricity replacing gas, however, electric lighting was so much brighter than gas lighting that it singled out particular blocks and made them almost instantaneously central attractions; Significance: that took place in the beginning of the 1880s; culture of spectacular lighting emerged as a result between 1880s-1915—real identification of city-ness and metropolitan existence emerged with these bright lights and became the real symbols of urbanization |
| Ebbets Field | 1875-->1900—Was a Major League Baseball park located in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York; It was the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers of the National League, which was founded in 1876; Major League Baseball has its root at the turn of the century; Entertainment monopoly arrangement reached by the American and National league; Significance: Led to explosion of popularity to what was already a very popular sport; By 1910, baseball was second only to the theatre as what one would call an amusement enterprise; Much more dramatic impact on the city scape - purposeful construction of stadiums - Forbes field in Pittsburgh All connected to mass transit |
| World's Fairs | Were in some ways the centerpieces/ceremonial highpoints in the formation of this culture; 1876 with the centennial exposition in Philadelphia and celebrated the 100 year anniversary of the declaration; Provided a model for culture and display; Also an important site of entertainment; The 1876 official program was a massive monument to American life (technological wonders); Designed to educate and uplift—nothing was there to simply amuse the public ; Across the street, however, an unofficial place offered beer, peanuts, and a full carnival of attractions ; Model of entertainment that set the tone for the great era of world fairs that followed ; Most came NOT for education, but for what was called amusements/entertainment ; Between 1893 and 1904 and this period marked the high point in the emergence of entertainment culture—periodic festivals of homage to the power, the appeal, and the probability of the entertainment culture; 10s of millions of visitors passed through the doors of 6 fairs alone; Chicago in '93, Buffalo in '01, and St. Louis '04 ; These fairs were billed as 'once in a lifetime events' • Significance: influenced the architecture, business model, and popularity of a new kind of amusement resort may have introduced a new generation of Americans of entertainment spectacles |
| Steeplechase | New attraction of Coney Island devised by Geroge Tilluy; Recreation for elites; Attracted rep for being a slightly dangerous place; Became more popular in the 1870s and had a working class presence; Already seen as a good place to build and attend amusement activities; BUT: in the 1890s, an arrest paved the way for a drastic redevelopment of a summertime resort; Began enclosing them in distinct parts—Steeplechase Next major component arrive in the following decade when Thompson and Dundy moved ride from the Buffalo World's Fair to steeple chase and decided it was so successful and opened their own park—Luna Park Catering to urban population Creation of these leisure zones |
| Barrel of love | Slowly revolving drum which caused couples to fall into each other; Significance: typical example of the kind of ride which forced unexpected and unwanted contact of mixed crowds that gathered every weekend |
| Nickelodeon | 1900s—Was a cheap amusement center; Moving pictures with live entertainment; Began in 1904 in Pittsburgh ; Most big city residents lived or worked in walking distance from these nickel shows; Movies appealed to many of the sexual impulses tat underlay the male sporting culture |
| Hyperstimulus | Characterization of modernity; Characterized by over-stimulation; All of these cheap forms of entertainment relied on massive patronage of a large part of society; Especially significant with immigrants |
| Racial Segregation | Late 19th century—While the cheap entertainment welcomed immigrants, it remained a white activity only; at the turn of the century in the US, marks a high point of racial segregation; Jim crow emerged in 1880s-1890s; North was more complicated; Many places set their own policies; By 1907, most places did even though they didn't before |
| Commercial Leisure | Mid 19th century—Beginning of young unmarried men spending on clothing and entertainment that would have gone to supporting families; Paralleled in female culture too, hetero-social culture comes later; In mid 19th century, Men manufactured mass leisure culture; Drinking, competitive physical activities, sex; Leisure as a temporally and spatially distinct sphere of human experience; block of time, set of buildings, realm of activities separate from the work day and productive process; Organized almost exclusively around exchange of $$ Significance: Cultivated habits and supported businesses that laid the foundation of culture of consumption and leisure; Continues to shape the culture and social life of large American cities |
| Saloons | 19th century— Primary sight of commercial leisure, organized around drinking; Way of life that had particular cultural meanings; alcohol had a special history: 1. First quarter of 19th century, Americans consumed more alcohol per capital since before or after. 2. Alcohol consumption became a major site and source of cultural conflict; Temperance crusade grew in the middle of the 19rh century; drinking or not was a mark of cultural identity, became the singular badge of middle class respectability, ethnic and religious identity; Alcohol consumption meant not middle class, not protestant, not good; Temperance union begins in 1830s, association between temprende and respectability ; Enforced regulation of alcohol in the work place; increasing employer control over what happens on the workplace floor, alcohol consumption hinders productiveness; Licensed, public, domain of men; Urban working class politician gains respect of voters in saloons, depend on saloon keepers to deliver the vote, saloon keepers depend on politicians to get licenses and block temperance; Owned or controlled by big corporate breweries, but remained local institutions |
| Code of Reciprocity | Men who drank together were expected to exchange drinks, favors, loans, jokes, and other gestures of reciprocity; Treating was a reciprocal obligation that treated cash purchases as a point of honor and tradition; Place of male leisure governed my reciprocation |
| Modern Sports | Playing sports, watching sports, following sports; all three components of male leisure; Competition that is meaningful beyond local circles; Formal organization; Standardized rules; Highly differentiated roles among participants; Steady flow of public information; Interest in records and statistics; First popular sport is horseracing, a mix of the urban and the rural, accessibility to large #s of betters and followers; First national sport was a fraternity of racing fans; Boxing was bareknuckle prizefighting, deep ties to saloon, attract betting, sadistic voyeurism, pay more to see dog fight, cock fight, or rat fight; No gloves, no winning by decision, no rules; Boxing matches were illegal and held outside the city; Intense drama, frequent lapses in actions; Baseball invented from an English childrens game, used myth of cooperstown; Urban game, unique to the northeast, centered in NY city, formed within the world of male fraternal organizations/clubs, by product of growing urban spaces |
| Yankee Stadium | In 1923 Yankee Stadium, "The House that Ruth Built," is constructed in the Bronx, New York. |
| Hyer v. Sullivan | 1849—boxing match that inaugurated modern spectator sports; boxing opponents were usually political opponents. Hyer was a Whig while Sullivan was a Democrat - a fight was arranged to take place on an island in the Chesapeake (since fights were technically illegal) but it was claimed by the federal government after the fight was announced via newspapers. Hyer wins, and all over America fans eagerly await the results Significance: this match marked the beginning of modern spectator sports and it commercialized celebrities, capturing national urban imagination; became a broadly acceptable subject for male discourse in which strangers could relate to each other over the topic of boxing |
| John Morrissey | 1830s-1870s— Was an Irish bare-knuckle boxer and a gang member in New York in the 1850s and later became a Democratic State Senator and U.S. Congressman from New York, backed by Tammany Hall; Built Saratoga racetrack; Initiated more efficient racetrack betting |
| Knickerbocker Club | 1840s—This was the first organized baseball club; club wasn't formally organized until 1845 but it started 1842 in Manhattan. First organized baseball club; Introduced new formalized rules to informally regulated game; Took place in 1846 between knickerbockers and rival new york club. Not a very good team, but they were the ones who first organized themselves, interested and committed to formal competition and rules; By 1858 71 baseball clubs in Brooklyn alone, and 25 in NY; Spread in the 1850 from urban gentlemen to lower middle class; Spread to cincinati and Chicago |
| National Association of Baseball Players | Was the first organization governing American baseball; The first, 1857 convention of sixteen New York City clubs practically terminated the Knickerbocker era, when that club privately deliberated on the rules of the game; The last convention, with hundreds of members represented only via state associations, provoked the establishment of separate professional and amateur associations in 1871; The succeeding National Association of Professional Base Ball Players is considered the first professional sports league; through 1875 it governed professional baseball and practically set playing rules for all; Because the amateur successor never attracted many members and it convened only a few times, the NABBP is sometimes called "the amateur Association" in contrast to its professional successor. Significance: Urban fraternal organization; Identified in bachelor culture; masculinity of baseball in the celebration of fraternal sociability; By 1870 dominated by professionals, more a story of media connections and economic |
| New Immigrants | This refers to the second wave of immigration that occurred in America in the 1880s and into the 1910s. It is distinguished by historians from a previous migration in that it now included southern and eastern Europeans, including lots of catholics (also jews and orthodox Christians). They settled largely in cities and also north and midwest. The cities were dominated by immigrants who supported the democratic party. The large flood of immigrants reshuffled the religious composition and identity of america and intensified the impact of the first wave of immigration. They largely came from the family unit and resettled in the family unit |
| Landsmanshaft | Landsmanshaft is an example of a type of society formed by immigrant groups to support themselves in America. It was a jewish society that revolved around jews who came from the same towns in Europe, and these networks were transported to the United States. They helped eachother find jobs, and resources. This had the effect of concentrating ehtnic groups in particular trades. These networks also worked against immigrants as children of immigrants became almost locked into their father's trade instead of moving to a more successful field to work in. Significance: this is an example of the ways immigrant groups bounded together and created communities to assist eachother excell in America. It's worth noting that Landsmanshafts for jews from other villages sprung up throughout the U.S., this wasn't just one particular society. |
| La Miseria | This was the name of the set of economic conditions that plagued Italy that italian immigrants were fleeing. Many Italian immigrants were poor peasants, they were disproportionately male and illiterate. Even though they fled Italy, they had dreams to return after achieving financial success in America. They were only fleeing economic conditions, the land itself was still good and desirable. More than half the immigrants did return to Italy. |
| Cafone | This was a sort of slur that some irish immigrants called other irish immigrates who were assimilating into American culture and being selfish. They were abandoning old world norms of communalism. The significance is that it shows how many Irish Immigrants really saw themselves as taking a temporary residence in America, and they looked down on Irish Immigrants who had no plans to return home. |
| Allrightnik | This was a fusion of english and yiddish word that was used similar to the cafone. It was used by Jews to talk down on other jews who over-eagerly adopted american consumer habits in an attempt to show how well they were acculturating to the new environment. Jews mocked other who spoke english. At the same time another opposite term circulated, a green horn. A green horn was a jew who hadn't mastered any of the basic codes of conduct for the new world. Also, Gale, just to let you know, this isn't anywhere in these Ids but Jews came to America for a permanent residence change and came with their families. There's more differences between Jews and the Irish but none of those differences are captured by an ID so they won't be on the exam. I could talk to you later about it. |
| Yiddish Theater | This originated in eastern Europe in the 1870s. There were adaptations of western theater, musical and dramatic renditions of the Jewish Immigrant experience. The plays dealt with the complexity of acculturation. The plays seemed to represent a distinctly jewish experience while also at the same time represented the general immigrant experience. It was a theater done by jews for jews, at the same time it employed blackface which created a common ground for white immigrants. |
| Vaudeville | 1880s—mostly in New York. These comedy houses presented fast-paced burlesque to a mixed gender audience. It was the most popular form of theater in America from 1880s-1920s. Many Jewish immigrants or children of jewish immigrants were on the stage, like Groucho Marx, and in the audience. It drew on the Bowery, blackface minstrelsy, and motion pictures. African Americans were typically excluded from the audience. These plays were considered celebration of the new immigrants. They celebrated ethnic peculiarities by poking fun of stereotypes, although not in a malicious way. |
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