When Did Entertainers Begin Their Social Ascent?

[Illbay]

"Life upon the wicked stage..." begins the well-known number from the famed stage musical "Showboat." That venerable Broadway hit first ran in the 1920s, and depicted the Antebellum period on America.

For centuries, in Western civilization, musicians, actors, mimes, ventriloquists, dancers and the like were looked down upon as just a notch above prostitutes and beggars--and indeed, equated with them.

But at some point in history that all changed, and entertainers were not only elevated to acceptance, but even to the top tiers of social status.

When did that happen, exactly, and why? And do actors, singers, comedians and the lack really deserve the lauds we give them as a society?

[J.D.B.]

Maybe the rest of society has declined and they've held steady?

Josh

[Jim Campbell]

Originally Posted by Illbay

"Life upon the wicked stage..." begins the well-known number from the famed stage musical "Showboat." That venerable Broadway hit first ran in the 1920s, and depicted the Antebellum period on America.

For centuries, in Western civilization, musicians, actors, mimes, ventriloquists, dancers and the like were looked down upon as just a notch above prostitutes and beggars--and indeed, equated with them.

But at some point in history that all changed, and entertainers were not only elevated to acceptance, but even to the top tiers of social status.

When did that happen, exactly, and why? And do actors, singers, comedians and the lack really deserve the lauds we give them as a society?

i'd say that film made them larger than life,and brought exotic stories and locations to people who lived with very little .....

[Illbay]

Originally Posted by J.D.B.

Maybe the rest of society has declined and they've held steady?

Josh

MR. BURNS: "Eggs-cellent!"

[Illbay]

Originally Posted by Jim Campbell

i'd say that film made them larger than life,and brought exotic stories and locations to people who lived with very little .....

That's a great point, and we might have technology to blame - or to thank.

Going to the theater, at least in the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries in Europe and the U.S., was considered something you hid from your peers. Obviously by the time of the Civil War, theater was considered respectable enough that President Lincoln could go there to get shot, but I think that most entertainers were still considered "not the type you socialize with."

But EVERYONE went to see the "movies," from the first Edison kinetoscopes, because they were a fascinating novelty. And the more people went, the more money the movie-makers racked up, and the more cachet the moving picture stars began to gather unto themselves.

I guess that by the end of the Nineteenth Century the stage had started to become somewhat respectable, at least in Great Britain. The Opera certainly had been for a hundred years or so.

For some reason dancers (equated with Salomé, no doubt) were last to arrive at respectability.

[iamlowsound]

I would rather go to watch a play than watch a movie.

lowsound