American History

The second chapter Lights traces the history of New Yorks entertainment centers, from the old theaters of Broadway and Bowery, to the movies. New York has been and will probably always be a city of lights. Manhattan has been described as a theater complete with boxes and auditoriums and represents the social stratification of the city. Broadway had been the foremost center of entertainment. In the citys entertainment history, Broadway had been for the bourgeois it was expensive and catered to the entertainment interests of the elite where shows were typically Shakespearian.  At the opposite end, was a center of entertainment that catered to the masses, this was the Bowery Theater that provided cheap entertainment. The audience however was ill-mannered and was known to interact with the shows performance especially if it was not to their liking.

The Bowery endured for some time, and enjoyed different types of shows before it finally died out. The Bowery audience conformed to a type called the bowery bhoy and was epitomized in the serial Mose created by Edward Judson which enjoyed popularity for a number of shows. It was also in the Bowery that minstrels shows first came to being when a black-face minstrel entertained a rioting theater house. The mainstays of the Bowery were melodramas but it was soon replaced with less than stellar shows but high on special effects.  With the coming of Tony Pastor, the Bowery faced competition when he opened a theater with minstrelsy programs, cleaned up the theater and held raffles for the patrons. His success was marked when he moved uptown and started the trend of vaudeville. At around the same time, The Black Crook was showing in Broadway and could be identified as the first American musical wherein singers, dancers, ballet dancers and actors took turns in the stage. This trend opened the interest for light opera and eventually the burlesque which is song and dance with skin show.

The theater became a major industry in the late 1890s where Metropolitan Opera opened its doors for those who could not afford the Music Academy shows, which eventually killed the Academy after to years. At this time vaudeville was the new show and Broadway became a haven for actors, musicians, comedians, dancers, writers and producers. The Bowery was slowly dying and was paling in comparison to Broadway, the Bowery was saved by the influx of new audiences and actors most notably the Yiddish theater. Also, Bowery was enlivened by variety or the vaudeville but it was only a cheap imitation of the Broadway shows. At the Miners Theater however, amateur nights became one of the most attended shows wherein anyone who presented a talent would receive a dollar and prizes were given to the best performers. This show also produced the hook as a means of pulling out un-talented performers which spread to the whole theater industry.  Eventually, the Bowery became known for its dime museums and the kinetoscope parlors that housed the movies. Indeed, New York is a city of lights where entertainment has played a major role in the citys development and history.