Back about a hundred years ago, vaudeville was the most popular entertainment in America. This family-friendly type of variety show employed about 25,000 performers. Blue Thread‘s Miriam Josefsohn was definitely a fan.
I kept thinking about the strange girl… From the back seat of our Oldsmobile, I saw a sign on the Orpheum Theatre advertising a vaudeville show featuring ragtime piano. Perhaps she was a performer—there were plenty of Jews in vaudeville. I dubbed her Fantastical Fannie from Frisco and began designing a handbill in my head.
Fictional Miriam might have read this real clip from page 9 of the September 24, 1912, issue of The Morning Oregonian:
FANNY BRICE, ca. 1910
Fantastical Fannie? I made her up. But the name reminds me of Fanny Brice. Born Fania (Fannie) Borach, she was the child of Jewish Hungarian immigrants in New York City. Fanny was a singer and comedienne, who joined the Ziegfield Follies, starred in movies, and played the radio character “Baby Snooks.” She was in vaudeville shows with W. C. Fields and Will Rogers, among others. The movie Funny Girl is loosely—very loosely—drawn from her life.
Vaudeville. A little of everything and a lot of laughs.
My name is Ruth. I write books and articles for children and young adults. Blue Thread is my eleventh book, and the first one in which I have knowingly stretched the truth.
Michael Feldman
/ December 25, 2011This is a really good little background piece on 1912 pop culture. Hmmm… do you think Miriam’s parents would have frequented vaudeville houses, or allowed Miriam to do so?
Ruth
/ December 25, 2011Good question. Miriam’s mother was definitely the high-brow opera type, and her father would have preferred to read the newspaper than to go out at all (except to a restaurant). Still, Uncle Hermann would have taken Miriam to see vaudeville. He wasn’t a snob!