Nov 06 - Book reviews

No Applause, Just Throw Money

In either Genii or Magic Magazine last fall (I can’t remember which), one of the columnists recommended a book on Vaudeville called, “No Applause, Just Throw Money” by Trav S. D. While it is not a book on magic it is a book on the history of show business and it was Vaudeville that gave rise to Houdini. Much of the book is dry but there are some very entertaining sections. From medieval times until the late 1800’s actors and entertainers were looked down on and shunned by respectable people. Shakespeare gives an unflattering image of a traveling entertainer, a mountebank, in “The Comedy of Errors” calling him a lean faced villain; a juggler; a living dead man; a conjurer.

When John Jacob Astor purchased the Park Theatre in 1806 in NYC he outfitted it with special accommodations for hookers where gentlemen could meet them and set up their own appointments. Astor’s competitors all followed suite and for decades no theater was without such a facility. Show business was not for wives and families! The person that changed this and made entertainment acceptable was non other than P. T. Barnum.

In the 1840’s Barnum set up a “lecture room” on the second floor of his American Museum which he gradually transformed into a theater introducing the performing arts to a class of people who otherwise would never set foot in such a disreputable place. He found that if his “lectures” included juggling exhibitions, or magic or ventriloquism he would sell more tickets. But unlike the theaters of the day Barnum sold no liquor and objectionable people were thrown out. He promised “innocent amusements” and to attract women and children he offered the first matinees in town. This “lecture room” was the undeniable precursor to Vaudeville.

The book traces the rise and death of Vaudeville and the details the lives of both the “characters” that entertained as well as those that created and ran the thousands of venues. Oscar Hammerstein (grandfather of the song writer by the same name), a theater owner and promoter made a mint on an act that has gone down in theatrical lore as the most horrible ever seen on a vaudeville stage. Touted at the time as “The worst act in America”, the Cherry Sisters, as a sheer spectacle were on par with a boating accident. To make matters more entertaining they had no idea that they were that bad. Oscar’s son Willie invented the freak act, which included not only Rahja the snake charmer from Coney Island but tabloid headline acts like the “Shooting Stars” Ethel Conrad and Lillian Graham, so called because they’d actually shot a guy named Web Stokes.

Most vaudevillians dropped out of school at a young age yet George Jessel is said to have dazzled Cardinal Spellman with many biblical quotes. Spellman asked, “You’re a Jew, you never went to school. Where’d you learn all of that?” Jessel told him that in his vaudeville days while waiting in hotels for his nightly get together with a hooker, he’d thumb through the Gideon Bible!

While vaudeville died as movie houses grew, many of the stars lived on to star in movies, radio and television. Burns and Allen, Bob Hope, Cab Calloway, Jack Benny, Ed Wynn, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, Will Rogers, the Marx Brother, the Three Stooges, Mae West, W.C. Fields, James Cagney, Cary Grant, Walter Pigeon, and Henry Fonda were all vaudevillians.

The book is a great story about our country’s only purely indigenous theatrical form.

The Vernon Touch

Dai Vernon wrote an article for Genii Magazine from September 1968 until December 1990. All of those articles are now in one book, “The Vernon Touch”. It is a fascinating read, all about magic and magicians during the last half of the last century. Vernon talks about many promising young magicians, who have now gone on to be greats. He also talks about many magicians, who I never had a chance to see or meet who are now no long with us.

Vernon also wrote about some Orlando club members. The March 1974 (that’s 32 years ago) article says. “At my age I should be contented to remain quietly here in Hollywood at the Magic Castle. However, when Bev Bergeron called me from Orlando, Florida and asked me to attend their convention, I simply could not refuse. The Langford Motel was an ideal place for the many activities. One of the events was a talk show conducted by Bev. He interviewed Inez Kitchen, Burling Hull, and yours truly. Before leaving Orlando, I spent time at the beautiful home of Ben Walters, He and Dick Randall drove me in style to catch my plane.”

Then in the April 1974 article Vernon wrote about Bev, “I was tickled to death to see the wonderful job he has done down there with Disneyworld. I think he’s set for life! Bev is certainly a hard industrious worker and deserves all the successes he is receiving. He did a great job on the convention. I had a wonderful time.”

There are many nuggets in the book, like the one above, and it is an interesting walk down a magical memory lane.

Gary Adams