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Lillie Western.

Lillie Western, Banjo Queen

The maleness of guitar culture stretches across decades and genres, but necessary corrections to the record are being made.
Don the Talking Dog.

When Don the Talking Dog Took the Nation by Storm

Although he 'spoke' German, the vaudevillian canine captured the heart of the nation.
Photo of three of the Cherry sisters: one playing a bass drum, standing between two in awkward dance poses.

The Shaming of the Cherry Sisters

How “Vaudeville’s worst act” fought for fame and respect on the stage.
A masculine caricature of an Irish-American woman threatening an American woman in a kitchen.

From Saint to Stereotype: A Story of Brigid

Caricatures of Irish immigrants—especially Irish women—have softened, but persist in characters whose Irishness is expressed in subtle cues.
A kickline of five Asian American dancers at the Forbidden City nightclub in San Francisco.

Americanism, Exoticism, and the “Chop Suey” Circuit

Asian American artists who performed for primarily white audiences in the 1930s and ’40s both challenged and solidified racial boundaries in the United States.
Jewish characters in television and film

The Long History of Jewface

Bradley Cooper’s prosthetic nose is the latest example of the struggles around Jewish representation on the stage and screen.
Buster Keaton holds himself up against two walls.

Puzzled Puss: Buster Keaton’s Star Turn

Keaton had been on the stage longest, risen the highest, fallen the furthest, and left the most indelible legacy.
Ink drawing of Buster Keaton's face against pale pink background

Keep Your Eye on the Kid

Buster Keaton made his own kind of sense out of the perplexities of existence in ways baffling to those among whom he found himself.
Black-and-white glamour photo of Josephine Baker, smiling in her stage attire.

Josephine Baker Was the Star France Wanted—and the Spy It Needed

When the night-club sensation became a Resistance agent, the Nazis never realized what she was hiding in the spotlight.
John Bubbles dancing and Buck Washington playing keyboard, performing in Brooklyn, New York, 1930.

Never the Same Step Twice

Where previous generations of dancers arranged their steps into tidy, regular phrases, John Bubbles enjambed over bar lines, multiplying, twisting, tilting, turning.
Eubie Blake, Flournoy Miller, Noble Sissle, Aubrey Lyles smiling in round photograph.

'Footnotes' Review: Spotlight on ‘Shuffle Along’

When a pair of college friends with a knack for comedy met up with a musical double act, they had the ingredients for a sensation.

Reading the Black Hills Pioneer, Deadwood’s Newspaper

Here’s how the Black Hills Pioneer reported on major events in the HBO series.
Josepine Baker vaudeville cartoon

Josephine Baker: Dancer. Icon. Spy.

The Vaudeville star was at the height of her fame in Europe when WWII struck, and used her status for the allies.
Illustration of Howard Thurston, gazing into a skull while surrounded by supernatural creatures

Howard Thurston, the Magician Who Disappeared

Overshadowed by more famous contemporaries, the visionary behind “The Wonder Show of the Universe” left a far-reaching legacy.

Trump Hasn’t Killed Comedy. He’s Killed Our Stupid Idea of Comedy.

You and I have grown up during a period in which comedy became strangely bound up with truth and virtue. Trump has cut the knot.
Jim Crow-era postcard with illustration of a black boy in the jaws of an alligator

How America Bought and Sold Racism, and Why It Still Matters

How the objects in the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia can help us understand today's prejudice and racial violence.
Beyonce concert.

Why Beyoncé Is Carving a Route Along the ‘Chitlin' Circuit’

From Jim Crow-era performance to contemporary gospel musicals, entertainers have shaped the Black public sphere.
Dell O'Dell performing a magic act for live tv with children watching.

Dell O'Dell's Trailblazing Magic Show Cast a Spell on Early Television Audiences

Rare footage of the woman magician's act captures her magnetic stage presence and range of tricks.
Drawing from "Little Nemo in Slumberland" by Winsor McCay

The Cutting-Edge Cartoons of Winsor McCay

A prolific, meticulous artist, McCay created characters and storyscapes that inspired generations of cartoonists and animators.
Mae West

Mae West and Camp

A camp diva, a queer icon, and a model of feminism—the memorable Mae West left behind a complicated legacy, on and off the stage.
A juke joint on the circuit in Clarksdale, Mississippi, 1939

Inside the ‘Chitlin Circuit,’ a Jim Crow-Era Safe Space for Black Performers

It's where legends like Tina Turner and Ray Charles launched their careers.
Image of a 1970's band invoking the imagery of the Lost Cause and the Confederacy.

Whistlin' D ----.

Why songs of the southland are really northern.
Black and white photo of Fatty Arbuckle

Fatty Arbuckle and the Birth of the Celebrity Scandal

A murder charge, a media frenzy, a banishment, and accusations of sexual abuse in Hollywood. What can the Arbuckle affair, now 100 years old, teach us today?
Vernadette Vicuña Gonzalez (left), "Empire's Mistress" book cover with image of Isabel Cooper (right)

The General, the Mistress, and the Love Stories That Blind Us

Vernadette Vicuña Gonzalez discusses her new book on Isabel Cooper, a Filipina American actress and Douglas MacArthur’s lover.

No Opening Day Without Von Tilzer!

The Jewish Tin Pan Alley composer who wrote ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game’ had never been to a ballgame.
Performers in "Black America" posing in their costumes

Black America, 1895

The bizarre and complex history of Black America, a theatrical production which revealed the conflicting possibilities of self-expression in a racist society.
Christmas yard decorations with an inflatable black Santa and "JOY".
partner

Black Santas Have a Long and Contested History in the U.S.

What’s at stake in debates about the meaning and visibility of the Black Santa.
Two people watching Cliff Edwards perform on the ukelele.

Ukulele Ike, a.k.a. Cliff Edwards, Sings Again

Ukulele Ike, otherwise known as Cliff Edwards, was a major American pop star and an important early force in jazz. It’s time to give him another hearing.

The First Movie Kiss

The public fascination was so intense that fans soon started demanding live reenactments.

If You Think Quarantine Life Is Weird Today, Try Living It in 1918

From atomizer crazes to stranded actor troupes to school by phone, daily life during the flu pandemic was a trip.

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