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A priceless document of archival footage and precious oral history, Vaudeville offers a comprehensive survey of American family entertainment in the decades before radio, movies, and television. From its origins in British comedy, Yiddish theater, and burlesque, vaudeville is explored in all of its immigrant diversity. Astonishing film clips are a constant marvel, featuring such vintage but still-entertaining crowd-pleasers as Fannie Brice, Bert Lahr, Chaz Chase ("Eater of Strange Things"), Little Tich and his oversized shoes, and Hadji Ali, the greatest of all "regurgitators." Anecdotes and history, with a focus on the inherent racism of minstrel shows, are shared by such luminaries as Rose Marie, Billy Barty, Gerald Marks, Bobby Short, the Nicholas Brothers, and many others (several interviewed shortly before they died). Their stories, along with Studs Terkel's fond reminiscence and Ben Vereen's informative narration, preserve a form of entertainment that has vanished forever, its spirit lingering in our habitual channel-surfing of television. --Jeff Shannon
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