Staging Vaudeville for a Twenty-First-Century Audience
like ragtime singer Blanche Ring . While performing at the Colonial in New York City in 1906 , she was “ saved by her final song ‘ Waltz Me Around Again Willie .’ The house joined in after applauding the first verse . She is badly in need of a catchy number .” 22 Ring ’ s final song selection became popular with the Colonial crowd “ who yelled their heads off on it ” and forced her to repeat it five times at another performance three years later . 23
In the late nineteenth century , volume and clarity of diction , rather than personality or character , was considered most important in rendering songs in the popular theater . Singers who sang “ tough ” songs , impersonating working-class characters , or “ coon ” songs , impersonating African Americans , were especially popular . Because vaudevillians had to project their voices to the top balconies of theaters seating 2,000 or 3,000 people , their songs were often called shouts . Clear diction was critical in shouting because popular song in the late nineteenth century was a form of story-telling , and the most popular featured a clear narrative . Leading shouters , like May Irwin and Sophie Tucker , were known for singing loud , not well . “ Most everyone understands ... songs ,” a critic commented , “ but the talent couldn ’ t quite make out whether Sophie [ Tucker ] was trying to sing or to break a ceiling rafter with her voice ,” while another reviewer described Tucker ’ s voice as a combination of a fog horn and a steam calliope . Emma Carus , another popular shouter , was said to sing “ with the softness of a salute from a warship .” Falling back on the conventional metaphor for attributes that seemed un-feminine , journalists often described female singers ’ voices as masculine . Many of the most popular were contraltos and they were called female baritones . At the same time , because they were females , it was not considered proper for them to be too emotionally involved in the performance , especially
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