A collection of 16mm films from local archivist Dennis Nyback’s personal film collection.
Vaudeville
was an American art form that flourished on stages throughout the
United States and Canada, with excursions into foreign lands, in the
latter part of the 19th Century and the much of the first half of the
20th. It consisted of varied unrelated acts on a common bill. Those
acts could range from singers, dancers and comedians; to animal acts,
jugglers, and sword swallowers, with many, many others in between. “Big
Time” Vaudeville could be seen in theaters that seated thousands. It
could also be seen on bills in smaller and smaller venues down to ”
Opera Houses” and Granges in little towns dotting the country. There has
a been a resurgence of interest in Vaudeville, or what is now called
NeoVaudeville, by young performers who think there is more to performing
than singing on American Idol.
This film program consists of
16mm films from 1925 to 1940. The earliest is a sound test film
featuring Gus Visser and his Singing Duck. The newest is Whitey’s Lindy
Hoppers from the 1941 film Hellzapoppin. In between are rope skippers,
roller skaters, contortionists, Hawaiian musicans, hillbillies,
acrobats, CHAZ CHASE who eats anything, W. C. Fields‘ juggling act, and
of course, singers, dancers and comedians.
Dennis Nyback will be in attendance to introduce and provide fascinating additional information.