TY - JOUR
AU - Wilmeth, Don B.
AB - Book Reviews 217 Champagne Charlie and Pretty Jemima: Variety Theater in the Nineteenth Century. By Gillian M. Rodger. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2010. xiv, 261 pp. Cloth, $80.00, isbn 978-0- 252-03539-5. Paper, $28.00, isbn 978-0-252- 07734-0.) Nineteenth-century American variety amuse- ments are far less simple and comprehensi- ble than they might seem. Understanding 218 The Journal of American History June 2011 “variety” and other amusement forms— music hall. Despite similarities, these were largely aimed at urban, working-class, white distinct forms, and American variety always male audiences—provides windows onto a strove for a balance of amusements, as did the changing society impacted by class, ethnicity, later vaudeville. gender, and economics. In Horrible Prettiness: In Rodger’s defense, the paucity of con- Burlesque and American Culture (1991), crete sources and lack of documentation of Robert C. Allen demonstrates how American variety performers and their acts—especially burlesque (pre-striptease)—first performed those in the early years, which were bawdy, for middle-class audiences—served as a “com- frequently sexual, and considered beneath plex and transforming cultural phenomenon” respectable society—made her task difficult at (back cover). He does so despite the fact best. She is quite candid about the challenges that burlesque was essentially a marginal, of 
TI - Champagne Charlie and Pretty Jemima: Variety Theater in the Nineteenth Century
JF - The Journal of American History
DO - 10.1093/jahist/jar085
DA - 2011-06-01
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/oxford-university-press/champagne-charlie-and-pretty-jemima-variety-theater-in-the-nineteenth-atqw3NOB10
SP - 217
EP - 218
VL - 98
IS - 1
DP - DeepDyve
ER -