Editing Vaudeville (section)

== Women == 
In the 1920s, announcements seeking all-girl bands for vaudeville performances appeared in industry publications like ''Billboard'', ''Variety'' and in newspapers. Bands like [[The Ingenues]] and [[The Dixie Sweethearts]] were well-publicized, while other groups were simply described as "all-girl Revue". According to Feminist Theory, similar trends in theater and film objectified women, an example of [[male gaze]], as women's role in public life was expanding.<ref>{{cite book |last1=McGee |first1=Kristin A. |title=Some Liked It Hot: Jazz Women in Film and Television, 1928-1959 |date=2009 |publisher=Wesleyan University Press |isbn=978-0-8195-6967-7 |page=32 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vmsbhYc8-XEC}}</ref> These expectations for women in the 19th century played a big role in the compelling aspects of vaudeville. Through vaudeville, many women were allowed to join their male counterparts on the stage and found success in their acts.

[[File:Marie Dressler in "Tillie the Scrub Lady" (SAYRE 23576).jpg|thumb|Marie Dressler in "Tillie the Scrub Lady" (SAYRE 23576)]]

Leila Marie Koerber, later [[Marie Dressler]], was a Canadian actress who specialized in vaudeville comedy, and eventually won an Academy Award for Best Actress later in her career. Being the daughter of a musician, she moved to the United States of America in her childhood. At just fourteen years old, she left home to begin her career, lying about her age and sending her mother half of her paycheck. Dressler found great success and was known for her comedic timing and physical comedy, like carrying her male co-stars. She eventually worked on Broadway, where she had a great desire to become a serious actress but was advised to remain in comedy.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kennedy |first=Matthew |title=Marie Dressler : a biography: with a listing of major stage performances, a filmography, and a discography |date=1999 |publisher=McFarland & Co |isbn=0-7864-0520-1 |location=Jefferson, N.C. |oclc=39765147}}</ref> She went on to star in a few films but again returned to vaudeville, her original career.

[[File:Trixie Friganza Hayes.jpg|thumb|Trixie Friganza Hayes]]

Another famous vaudevillian actress was [[Trixie Friganza]], originally born Delia O'Callaghan. She had a famous catchphrase: "You know Trixie with her bag of tricks."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Trixie Friganza: Bold and Brassy Vaudeville Fun by Robin Williams {{!}} The American Vaudeville Museum |url=https://vaudeville.sites.arizona.edu/node/74 |access-date=2022-04-29 |website=vaudeville.sites.arizona.edu}}</ref> She began her career in opera, performing to help provide for her family. The oldest of three daughters, she wanted to help her family financially but had to do it secretly, as female performers were frowned on at the time. She worked largely in comedy and gained acclaim and success due to her willingness to step into other's roles who had fallen ill, and were otherwise unable to perform. In her acts, she often emphasized her plus-size figure, calling herself the "perfect forty-six". Friganza was also a poet and writer. She used many of her performances as ways to raise money to support the poor or disenfranchised and went on record publicly numerous times to support these social causes. Friganza also spent much of her life fighting for women's equality and pushing for self-acceptance for women, both publicly and within themselves, as well as their rights in comparison to men.

Betty Felsen was an American ballerina, vaudeville star, and teacher. She was born on 9 June 1905, in Chicago, IL Betty began taking lessons at a local Chicago ballet school when she was eight years old, and often performed solo dances in shows presented by that school. Just before her tenth birthday in 1916, her parents enrolled her as a ballet student with the [http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/359.html Pavley-Oukrainsky Ballet] School within the [https://chicagology.com/opera/chicagooperahistory/ Chicago Opera] Association. Then, in 1919 Betty was accepted to be a member of the Chicago Opera’s Pavley-Oukrainsky Ballet corps de ballet. From December 1920 until the fall of 1922 Betty was a ballerina soloist and performed with them throughout North America. Under the name Buddye Felsen, Betty landed a starring dancing role in a new show at Fred Mann’s Million Dollar Rainbo Room in the [[Rainbo Gardens]]. The show, ''Rainbo Trail'', directed by [[Frank Westphal]], opened on 15 December 1922, and ran until 1 March 1923. In the winter of 1923 Betty began a partnership with Jack Broderick. From then until the end of 927 Broderick & Felsen performed on the B.F. Keith and Pantages vaudeville circuits throughout the U.S. and Canada. Their act evolved from a simple dance act to one with over twenty dancers, an orchestra, and elaborate costumes and sets. From 1925 to 1926 they played for 20 straight weeks at the huge Colony Theater on Broadway in New York City. In 1926 and 1927, they starred in two spectacular musical productions, touring across the United States and Canada, first for about three months in Emil Boreo’s ''Mirage de Paris'' followed by nine months in their own ''Ballet Caprice''. After Jack quit the act near the end of 1927, Betty continued to manage the troupe and, with a new dance partner, toured throughout the northeastern United States for the next six months as Betty Felsen and Company. The final performance of ''Ballet Caprice'' was on 4 June 1928, at Broadway’s Palace Theater in New York City.

[[File:Sissieretta Jones.jpg|thumb|World renowned opera singer [[Sissieretta Jones]] ran her own Vaudeville touring company, Black Patti's Troubadours.]]

Another famous comedienne, one who brought in thousands of audience members with her signature improvisational skills, was [[May Irwin]]. She worked from about 1875 to 1914. Originally born Ada Campbell, she began her life on the stage at thirteen years old following the death of her father. She and her older sister created a singing act called the "Irwin Sisters". Many years later, their act had taken off and with performances in both vaudeville and burlesque at famous music halls, until Irwin decided to continue her career on her own. She then changed her approach to vaudeville, performing African-American-influenced songs, even later writing her songs.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ammen |first=Sharon |title=May Irwin |date=2016-12-15 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |doi=10.5406/illinois/9780252040658.001.0001 |isbn=978-0-252-04065-8}}</ref> She introduced her signature in vaudeville, "The Bully Song", which was performed in a Broadway show. This is when she began experimenting with improvisational comedy and quickly found her unique success, even taking her performances global with acts in the U.K.

[[Sophie Tucker]], a Russian Jewish immigrant, was told by promoter Chris Brown that she was not attractive enough to succeed in show business without doing Blackface, so she performed that way for the first two years onstage, until one day she decided to go without it, and achieved much greater success being herself from that point on, especially with her song "Some of These Days".<ref name="Borden">{{cite web |last1=Borden |first1=Anne |title=Sophie Tucker |url=https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/tucker-sophie#pid-12497 |website=Jewish Women's Archive |access-date=1 February 2024}}</ref>

[[Moms Mabley]] was a comedienne who got her start in Vaudeville and the [[Chitlin' Circuit|Chitlin circuits]] in the 1920s, and ended up with mainstream success in the 20th century.<ref name="LarkinGE">{{cite book|title=[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music|The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music]]|editor=[[Colin Larkin (writer)|Colin Larkin]]|publisher=[[Guinness Publishing]]|date=1992|edition=First|isbn=0-85112-939-0|page=1543}}</ref> Other 20th century women performers who started in Vaudeville included blues singers [[Ma Rainey]], [[Ida Cox]] and [[Bessie Smith]].<ref>Paul Oliver, ''The Story of the Blues'', 1972, {{ISBN|0-14-003509-5}}</ref> Women-led touring companies like [[Sissieretta Jones|Black Patti's Troubadours]], the [[Whitman Sisters]] and the [[Hyers Sisters]] were popular acts. Other women worked the business side of Vaudeville, like Amanda Thorpe, a white woman who founded a black theater in Virginia,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wong |first1=Kathi Clark |title=Nickelodeons and Black Vaudeville: The Forgotten Story of Amanda Thorp |date=2023 |publisher=University of Tennessee Press |isbn=978-1-62190-802-9 |url=https://utpress.org/title/nickelodeons-and-black-vaudeville/}}</ref> and the [[Griffin Sisters]], who managed several theaters in their efforts to create a Black Vaudeville circuit.<ref name="Scottjournal">{{cite journal |last1=Scott |first1=Michelle R. |title=These Ladies Do Business with A Capital B: The Griffin Sisters As Black Businesswomen in Early Vaudeville |journal=The Journal of African American History |date=2016 |volume=101 |issue=4 |pages=469–503 |doi=10.5323/jafriamerhist.101.4.0469 |jstor=10.5323/jafriamerhist.101.4.0469 |s2cid=151662539 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5323/jafriamerhist.101.4.0469 |access-date=27 January 2024}}</ref>