Vaudeville and Ragtime Show

"For more than a hundred years, vaudeville was America's most popular form of entertainment. The people that sit glued to their TV sets today would have been flocking to their local Palace to see the top stars of the day doing their acts."

"The acrobats, the animal acts, the dancers, the singers and the old-time comedians have taken their final bows and disappeared into the wings of obscurity. For 50 years from 1875 to 1925 - vaudeville was the popular entertainment of the masses. The vaudeville actor roamed the country with a smile and a suitcase. With his brash manner, flashy clothes, capes and cane, and accompanied by his gaudy womenfolk, the vaudevillian brought happiness and excitement to the communities that were visited."

Obviously I wasn't around back then to see vaudville shows, but I certainly grew up being entertained by many performers who continued on into theater, movies, radio, and even TV. Many of the stars I loved as a kid were former vaudville performers that I got to see whenever they made appearances on TV. I remember hearing them talk about how they began in show business back in the old days, when they'd appear on talk shows, and many times they'd perform acts that they did back in vaudville. These were true entertainers who, very early in their careers, learned singing, dancing, acting, doing comedy, and usually knew how to play a musical instrument as well. How many of todays so-called celebrities can walk and chew gum at the same time, very few. They don't make'em like they used to.

Anyway, just to drop a few names of some of my favorites; Jack Benny (of course), Bobe Hope, Milton Berle, George Burns and Gracie Allen, W.C. Fields, the Marx Brothers, well, you get the picture, unfortunately you won't find any of them here. Unless you're a fan of the era, you probably won't recognize many (if any) names mentioned on this site. It does have a number of Real Audio files for you to listen to, so, enjoy.

Mae West Quotes

1. When I'm good I'm very good, but when I'm bad I'm better.


2. A hard man... is good to find


3. It's not the men in my life that counts -- it's the life in my men.


4. He who hesitates is last.


5. I go for two kinds of men. The kind with muscles, and the kind without.


6. So many men... so little time


7. Too much of a good thing... can be wonderful


8. Why don't you come on up and see me sometime.. when I've got nothin' on but the radio.


9. I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it.

There are about a couple dozen more on the page. It's hard to believe that she got away with saying things like this back in those days, thought it did catch up to her, and got her banned from radio for several years.

When Books Burn

"In Berlin, on May 10, 1933, the newly-elected Nazi party carefully orchestrated an event that would announce to Germans and the world some of the aims and the reach of the Nazi party."

"Beginning at nightfall, trucks laden with thousands of books taken from Berlin-area public, state and university libraries converged on the Opernplatz. Members of Nazi student groups and the Sturm Abteilung (Nazi Party private police) tossed the books onto waiting wooden biers and set them afire in a huge "funeral pyre of the intellect." Other members paraded with torches chanting the Feuersprüche, the declarations of the cultural and intellectual war they intended to wage. Against this backdrop, Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels gave a short speech announcing the end of Jewish intellectual influence and proclaiming that a new Germany would rise from the ashes: a Germany remade in the Nazi's image."

Victorian and Edwardian Photographs

"Welcome to my site - Victorian and Edwardian Photographs from my own collection of antique photographs - I have many sites, and all of them are accessable from the links on this page. Those not on this site will open in a new window. The photographs are known as Carte-de-visite (CDV): 1859 - 1906 (small ones), Cabinet Card Photographs: 1870s to 1906 (large ones), and early 20th Century Portrait Postcards, see Types of Photograph."

Data Junkie

"Cultural siftings from the land beyond beyond. Weird stuff. Strange stuff. Cool stuff. Hot stuff. "What-the-hell-were-they-thinking-when-they-did-this?" stuff. Gee they don't make 'em like that anymore kinda stuff. Stuff and more stuff."

That's the self-description of another blogger who also posts a lot of stuff from days-gone-by. What I like best, are his posts of Old Time Radio shows. He's got a ton on his page right now, and if you're a fan too, get over there and grab some soon, as he hosts them on a free file hosting server that removes files when they haven't been download for 30 days. As a result, most of the files from his older posts have already been removed.

If you like his offerings, be sure and visit no less than twice a month, or you might just miss out on that one OTR show you've been dying to find.

The Great Toronto Fire of 1904

"Exactly how the fire started has never been solved. Early reports suggested that faulty electrical wiring was to blame. Others thought that a stove left burning at the end of the work day was the cause. Whatever the source, by the time a watchman saw flames and sounded the alarm at 8:04 pm on that icy night of April 19, 1904, the Wellington Street building in which it had started was already a loss, and the fire was spreading to its neighbours."

Homer's Iliad

"The Trojan War took place sometime between 1300 and 1200 BCE. About 800 BCE, Homer translated the cycle of songs, which existed in native oral narrative and tradition, to an epic composition called, The Iliad. Although it covers only a few days in the history of that war, all the elements are woven together in a complex story of the life and the ethos of an Heroic Age."