Family Archive

The Great White Way.

Here is a card from my collection for the 7th Ed. (light) Postcard Festival on A Canadian Family at http://wp.me/pp92w-850 . It shows New York's Theater district during the late 1920's. This was the time and the place where the entertainment world all came together. Theater, Vaudeville and Movies all shared this midtown neighborhood. The stretch of Broadway from 42nd street up to around 53rd street became known as "The Great White Way." On a site called Big Apple Corner I discovered how this phrase came into being and changed over time to become the defining title for the area.

"The Great White Way" was originally the title of a 1901 book about the South Pole. The term was applied to Broadway by Shep Friedman of the New York Morning Telegraph, after a snowstorm on Broadway in 1902 had turned the street into a "white way." Later, "white way" referred to the lights of Broadway. The term was used to describe the multitude of lights that were used to illuminate the NYC Theater district every evening during these formative years for entertainment.

Palace Vaudeville Lineup.

Normally I wouldn't post a newspaper article of this length to a blog for fear that my readers would get totally bored and turned off by it and just skip on to the next post in their reader. I know I would. But to me, this review written by Sam M'kee and taken from the March 31,1925 New York Telegraph, did such a remarkable job capturing a representative image of a Vaudeville lineup both from the perspective of the shows content and 1920's era journalism I wanted to include it and see what others thought.

From what I could extract from the article, the show proceeded as follows:

I Opening Act:  "Study in Nonsense" The Duponts

II "The Lovable Pup With his Gang"(Dog)

 1.Hector The lovable pup

 2.Hector's 19 year old Grandfather

 3.The Gang (15 others)

III Olgamayra and the Bittel Sisters (Dance)

  1."Black and Gold" Staged by Alan K Foster

  2.Olgamayra solo numbers

  3.Bittel Sisters Duet numbers

  4.Climax A rustic Russian flirtation number (all three)

IV "Ourselves" Dougie Leavitt and Mary Ruth Lockwood joined by Charles Bates (Comedy)

  They illustrate the sappy politeness preceding marriage and the nervous irascibility after the ceremony

V Nate Leipsig (Card Tricks)

VI Clifton Webb and Mary Hay (Dance Team) with Club Ciro (9 man Orchestra) conducted by Dave Bernie who splits time on the Piano. Featuring Dillon Ober and his Marimba Solo. BTW Yes it is the same Clifton Webb with 3 Academy Award Nominations and a Golden Globe Award for Razors Edge

    Dances  

   1.Rendevous

   2.Strolling

   3.Allez Up

   4.Charleston.

VII Miss Juliet AKA My Great Aunt (Impersonations and Characterizations)

VIII James Barton (Comedy/Dance)

   1."The Pest" assisted by Lew Christy and Charlot Allen

IX Charles King (Singer)

X Closing Act: Rose Irene Kress and her associate whirlers (Dancing Acrobatics on Roller Skates)