Queen of Vaudeville by Andrew L Erdman

Queen of Vaudeville by Andrew L Erdman

Queen of Vaudeville is the first-ever biography of Eva Tanguay, the most famous star of the American vaudeville theater and perhaps the most popular live entertainer in the United States from about 1910 to 1920.

Queen of Vaudeville is a treasure house of material... Erdman writes in this meticulously researched study of Tanguay and her times that at the zenith of vaudeville's popularity just before the First World War there were 5,000 music halls in the United States and 700,000 people attended shows every week in New York alone. Tanguay followed in a line of female performers who were pushing the boundaries of what was decent in a form of entertainment that had only recently become respectable enough for a middle-class, mixed-gender audience. Arrested for lewdness and frequently in the gossip columns, she enthralled both women and men, managing to combine energetic sexality with a mirthful wholesomeness.

-- Fiona Gruber * Times Literary Supplement *

Andrew Erdman tells us that everyday life for Tanguay was filled with its own vaudevillian adventures, and shows it through wild anecdotes of her antics, like the time she defended her handler from thugs with a hatpin.... Featuring a likely illegitimate daughter, a gender-bending show-biz marriage, a dog's heart in a jar, violent relationships, and the phasing out of a successful performer's career as vaudeville receded along with her health, this biography is tremendous.

-- Christine Femia * Bust Magazine *

Erdman convincingly places Tanguay's stardom in historical perspective while still summoning the physicality that made her so popular in vaudeville (she was arrested in New York in 1909 for indecent dancing on a Sunday) but never quite translated to radio or movies.

-- Sam Roberts * New York Times *

Erdman has captured the radiant essence of a woman from a bygone era—wholly of her time, yet curiously modern—and her complex personality jumps from the page. Combining detailed historical research with a deftly entertaining writing style, this book will be of interest to anyone in theater history, women in entertainment, and cultural history.

* Library Journal *

In his loving new biography of this long-forgotten celebrity, Andrew Erdman brings Tanguay back to life warmly.... You can almost feel the same electricity audiences of the early 20th century felt at just the mention of her name.

-- David Williams * Louisville Courier-Journal *

Andrew L. Erdman is the author of Blue Vaudeville: Sex, Morals, and the Mass Marketing of Entertainment, 1895–1915. He lives in New York City.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780801449703
ISBN 10	0801449707
Title	Queen of Vaudeville
Author	Andrew L Erdman
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Cornell University Press
Year published	2012-09-15
Number of pages	320
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.