Summer Deep Dive: Emily Zeck's "Trailer Park Tiki Bar"

Also Variety Shows, Dolly Parton, Porter Wagoner, Pompadours, Saturday Night Live, and Queen Victoria's Theater Regulations Act of 1843

Victorian Music Halls → American Vaudeville → TV Variety Shows

British Parliament’s Theatre Regulations Act of 1843 withdrew the Lord Chamberlain’s monopoly on the licensing of live entertainment and authorized municipal authorities to license all but “legitimate” (upper class) theater performances.

Among other things, this meant that while drinking and smoking were still prohibited in legitimate theaters, they were now permitted in “music halls” (patronized by commoners).

What we now know as the “variety show” was thus born in 19th Century London, featuring a parade of singers, comedians, dancers, actors, jugglers, acrobats, and magicians in boozy, smoke-filled music halls.