Broadway Video Analysis

1919 began an optimistic, celebratory American decade. Americans found themselves with extra time and money to spend on recreation. With a booming national economy, high employment rates and an excess of goods available, the country’s focus was fixed on extravagant lifestyles and superficial pleasures. Pleasure-seeking and leisure became priorities.

The American socio-political climate was set by three powerful events: The end of World War I, Prohibition and the right of women to vote. Two significant events impacting the 1920s actually happened in 1919: The Treaty of Versailles [peace treaty] was signed in 1919, ending World War I; and the prohibition of alcohol was written into the Constitution under the 18th Amendment.

[So many issues came to play on the Broadway stage and on dance in the 1920s. It may seem as though we are veering far from the road, but go along for the ride, and it will all make sense soon!]

World War I was tremendously influential in the lives of women, blacks and immigrants in the United States. These “minority” groups worked in the stateside jobs vacated by fighting soldiers. Factories that made supplies for the war provided enough employment for almost everyone. Women achieved a measure of financial and social independence. Many African Americans and immigrants from the West Indes were able to work, save money and buy a home for the first time.

With bolstered confidence, women’s coalitions that had been simmering now exploded. The Anti-Saloon League and the Women's Christian Temperance Union "helped elect a Congress sympathetic to the prohibition of alcohol" (Jones, 2003, p. 44). On January 16, 1920, the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution—passed in 1919—went into effect. This Amendment prohibited the manufacture, sale, transport, import and export of alcoholic beverages. The Volstead Act—also enacted by Congress in 1919—“defined ‘intoxicating liquor’ as any beverage containing a minimum of one-half of one percent alcohol, and outlined specific provisions for enforcing the amendment” (Drowne & Huber, 2004, p. 13).

Prohibition gave a boost to Broadway:

At midnight on January 16, 1920, New York City officially went dry…It had very little effect on Broadway. Shows might make fun of Prohibition, but certainly no musical was ever closed because of it...Harlem, where liquor could be more easily purchased in effervescent nightclubs owned by white mobsters, became a new center for singing and dancing entertainment... Prohibition allowed Manhattan nightlife to flourish. The Broadway musical was still the main event for a night on the town, and the decade saw an exponential increase in the number of shows, with the highest number in history—264 plays and musicals—debuting on the 1927-28 season… Almost 20 new theaters were constructed in the Theater District… Now there were more stars, more producers, more songwriters and, more crucially, more backers with ready money than the American theater had ever seen, or would ever see again. All those forces would combine to create the decade that defined Broadway for the rest of the world. (Maslon, 2004, pp. 68-9)

The Suffragists, who had fought for years to secure the rights of American women to vote, finally achieved their mission with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment by August 18, 1920.

Both social dance and Broadway dance were hugely impacted by Prohibition. Prior to the 1920s, drinking was primarily an individual act. Couples enjoyed a cocktail before dinner, and blue-collar workers stopped by the neighborhood pub for a beer after a hard day’s work. By making alcohol illegal, National Prohibition gave the embibing of alcohol a new glamour and secret appeal that it had not previously enjoyed. In short, drinking became a tantalizing, social event.

Forced to choose between running a legal or an illegal establishment, club owners saw a change in clientele.

Prohibition led to a huge increase in commercial entertainments that catered to adults. Dance halls, movie theaters, and amusement parks stopped serving liquor and became places where families could take their children and where adolescents could court their sweethearts. Burlesque houses, taxi dance halls [in which female dancers were hired to dance with clients who paid a dime for the length of one song], and speakeasies increasingly functioned as refuges for an older crowd in search of more exciting adventures. (Clement, 2006, p. 177)

Newly empowered, adventurous women made up a large part of the clientele, drinking and dancing in shorter hairstyles and shorter dresses.

“Dating” as we know it today, began in the 1920s, and it was no accident that prohibition led to the popularity of dating and the widespread popularization of dance across America. With the removal of alcohol from many dance clubs, younger clientele became a major new consumer of nightly entertainment, with a voice and opinion strengthened by their numbers. Dance contests became common draws, and Broadway became a popular dating destination.

Technology would prove to be a huge contributor to the extravagance of the 1920s. The beginning of commercial radio broadcasts in 1920 added fuel to the flames of the dance craze. It became possible for Americans to dance to the latest music in their living rooms. Broadway songs were some of the most popular with listeners. But audio recordings of Broadway hits were usually recorded by big bands or radio crooners, not by the Broadway stars who originated them.

The pulse of America began to pound to a new beat that had been growing for decades. And the new music was unmistakably American. Though, in various forms, it had existed for years, jazz music made its presence known to the country through the medium of radio.

Americans were hungry for anything new. With time on their hands and money in their pockets, they clamored to be the first to own the latest, greatest American products. They turned on their radios to listen to the latest, greatest songs. And they went to Broadway for the latest, greatest entertainment offerings.

With plenty of funds for recreational activities, audience attendance at Broadway shows flourished, and the musical theater industry responded with a cornucopia of offerings. Many of these new musicals featured dances that would become new rages in public entertainment.

In order to understand the evolution of Broadway dance as a distinct American art form, it is important to continue our discussion of the two segregated dance entities: white dance on Broadway and the growing presence of black dance during the 1920s [discussed at length in upcoming sections of the course content].

As mentioned in the last unit, World War I directly impacted Broadway. When patriotism skyrocketed American audiences turned their backs on European theatre imports such as operettas and waltz music. Musical theatre historian John Bush Jones theorized that the shunning of European music and musical theatre opened the doors wider for jazz music and “American musical theatre” (2003).

Shorter working days and weeks combined with higher wages brought relative “wealth” and leisure to middle class Americans. Bargain matinee seats in the balcony allowed more middle class audiences to view Broadway shows on a regular basis. “Indeed, the 1920s was one of the last decades of the century when ticket prices rose so slowly that the incomes of working-class and middle-class Americans could more than keep up with them” (Jones, 2003, p. 61).

Rather than escaping into musical entertainment, newly affluent audiences saw themselves represented in the affluent characters and rags to riches stories onstage.

With extra time on their hands, middle class Americans found new ways to spend time and mark their new, affluent status. Leisure activities formerly reserved for the wealthy were now enjoyed by the working class. Country club membership became synonymous with financial and social success, and golf emerged as a necessary activity for every businessman. Horseracing and boxing became widespread pastimes and both sports showed up in Broadway musicals. Honey Girl, (1920), even had a live race, with horses running on treadmills!

Once again, Florenz Ziegfeld acknowledged current trends onstage: Kid Boots, produced by Ziegfeld, was “the first golf-and-country-club musical” (Jones, 2003, p. 62).

As a direct result of the increased female workforce and the American woman’s newly acquired power to vote, musical themes began to feature stronger female characters. Female heroines took center stage as Cinderella musicals expanded to include Cinderella’s career. Broadway audiences watched as the “typical” American girl achieved all of her dreams.

Irene was the longest running musical of the 1920s. The show told the story of a determined girl [yes, female singers, actresses and dancers were called “girls” back then] and her journey from slums to a career as a dress designer. Of course, in the end she gets the boy, too. In the typical Broadway entertainment format of the time, the lead character danced en pointe in her toe shoes as she followed her dream.

One word girl-name shows continued to open on Broadway in the early 1920s:

Sally (1920 - 561 performances): Sally was a musical produced by Florenz Ziegfeld, written for Marilyn Miller, about a girl who tries to make it into the Ziegfeld Follies. Of course, Sally became the star of the Follies. [There were two revivals, but both closed within a month.]

Mary (1920 - 220 performances): Produced by George M. Cohan.

Sally, Irene and Mary (1922): Produced by the Shubert Brothers [a powerful duo throughout musical theatre history], this show capitalized on the success of the three shows in its title. The story included all three leading characters, though it didn’t use the original stars. The show ran for 313 performances.

Rosalie (1928 – 335 performances): Produced by Ziegfeld and choreographed by his dance director, Seymour Felix, the show starred Marilyn Miller as Princess Rosalie.