Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 1. Introduction 2. Dollar Theaters, Concert Saloons, and Dime Museums 3. "Something for Everybody" at the Vaudeville Theater 4. "The Best Smelling Crowd in the World" 5. The "Indecent" Others 6. The City as Playground: The World's Fair Midways 7. "The Summer Show" 8. The National Game 9. "Laughter and Liberty Galore": Early Twentieth-Century Dance Halls, Ballrooms, and Cabarets 10. Talking and Singing Machines, Parlors, and Peep Shows 11. "The Surest Immediate Money-Maker Ever Known" 12. The First Picture Shows 13. "The Pernicious 'Moving Picture' Abomination" 14. Combination Shows, Stars, and Features 15. Waving the Flag 16. Palaces for the People 17. Decline and Fall List of Abbreviations Notes Index

About the Author

David Nasaw is Professor of History and American Studies at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

Reviews

No other book brings together so much material about so many different urban entertainment forms—and connects their history with a few simple and powerful overarching themes.
*The Nation*

David Nasaw’s fine history of public amusements in urban America is such a welcome contribution to contemporary cultural debate… Nasaw unearths fascinating details about everything from the early history of the movies to pre–World War I dance crazes; and he raises fundamental questions about the web of connections joining commercial play, public space and cultural cohesion.
*New York Times Book Review*

An effervescent social history.
*The New Yorker*

No other book brings together so much material about so many different urban entertainment forms-and connects their history with a few simple and powerful overarching themes. -- Warren Goldstein * The Nation *
David Nasaw's fine history of public amusements in urban America is such a welcome contribution to contemporary cultural debate... Nasaw unearths fascinating details about everything from the early history of the movies to pre-World War I dance crazes; and he raises fundamental questions about the web of connections joining commercial play, public space and cultural cohesion. -- Jackson Lears * New York Times Book Review *
An effervescent social history. * The New Yorker *

Historian Nasaw chronicles the rise of amusement parks, vaudeville, world's fairs, baseball games, movie houses, and other public amusements in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The origin of each amusement is sketched in a chapter or two, including in every instance a mention of how ethnic and class barriers were affected and how blacks were consistently excluded. The anecdotal style is engaging, but the narrative often only skims the surface. The chapter on baseball, for example, is a mere eight pages long. The last chapter, on the fall of public amusements, leaves one wondering if the decline was a consequence of racial integration and changing urban demographics or if in fact public amusements are as popular as ever, only in new forms. An optional purchase for history collections.-- Eric Hinsdale, Trinity Univ. Lib., San Antonio