The Book of Vaudeville (Not Mine)

The Countess called my attention to this recent Canadian documentary The Book of Vaudeville made by Winnipeg’s Farpoint Films. The story goes that in 1950, a local boy found a scrapbook in the rubble of the recently demolished Orpheum Theatre. The scrapbook now lives in the archives of the City of Winnipeg, where the film-makers located it and conceived the idea of using it as a springboard for a live vaudeville show starring a bunch of local actors. Only one of the participants, escape artist Dean Gunnarson is an actual, skilled vaudevillian. The others, for whatever reason, attempt to take on vaudeville acts requiring skills they do not possess: bird-calls, trick roller skating, sleight of hand, and, yes, singing. So there is a reality show aspect to the program. A couple of the participants drop out of the running, a couple of others fudge their assignments, and one of the neophytes does surprisingly well (not including Gunnarson, who actually knows what he is doing when he re-creates Houdini’s milk can escape).

Given the fact, that there are probably hundreds of people around (yes, still!) who do these kinds of acts professionally and do them well, when watching the film I couldn’t help wonder what the point was of watching these newbies fumble around in this undiscovered territory, sometimes with reverence, occasionally with what feels like gross disrespect. At 2 o’clock this morning — literally — it hit me.  What better way for the audience to learn what’s involved in this kind of entertainment? To watch an expert perform his act, and even to hear him talk about it, is not to get close to the difficulty of the undertaking. To watch people roughly similar to us in skill level flop…that’s a lesson in appreciation.

The film is available to watch on demand here. And here’s the trailer:

To find out more about the history of vaudeville, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.