All You Need is Love - Rude Songs
Description
All You Need is Love - Rude Songs .A montage of neon lit Las Vegas venues. Liberace talks of Las Vegas being where music hall and vaudeville coexist. He talks about music hall. Irving Caesar discusses the nature of vaudeville - music hall led to variety, music hall and burlesque. Popular songs were being performed for financial gain. Liberace talks of 18th Century English origins -places like the Sadler's Well where Charles Morton owned most venues and George Leybourne sung drinking songs. Songs about the empire were important in music hall origins, such as those sung by Clara Bow. Nostalgia songs were popular with people like Harry Lauder and his Scottish songs. William Hammerstein on his great grandfather owning vaudeville houses. Vesta Tilley was a popular male impersonator, a tradition from pantomime that fed into music hall. There was a long tradition of female impersonators too with Peter John performing 'Fairy Queen'. Danny La Rue talks on the tradition of female impersonators. Liberace on Edith Piaf and Charles Aznavour on her legacy. King George V's decided on a Royal Variety performance for his coronation in 1912 with artists like Charles Coburn and Marie Kendall helping promote music hall. All major stars performed except Marie Lloyd who was deemed too risqué for the Royals. Music hall appealed to all classes. In the USA music hall was initially categorised by minstrel performers but variety acts diversified and became vaudeville. Risqué acts became known as burlesque. Director Rouben Mamoulian found burlesque offensive and made an acclaimed film, 'Applause' to voice his distain. Radio and phonographs threatened vaudeville which increasingly had to rely on gimmicks. Marlene Dietrich appearing in a vaudeville film. Irving Caesar claims the talking pictures killed vaudeville with many theatres closing. Hollywood rose by adapting music hall traditions. But vaudeville was a key influence on subsequent musical developments and performers like Judy Garland.