Writing for Vaudeville

Writing for Vaudeville

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Writing for Vaudeville, by Brett Page
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Title: Writing for Vaudeville
Author: Brett Page
Release Date: March, 2004 [EBook #5328] [Yes, we are more than one
year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on June 30, 2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, WRITING
FOR VAUDEVILLE ***

This etext was produced by Steve Bonner.

WRITING FOR VAUDEVILLE
WITH NINE COMPLETE EXAMPLES OF VARIOUS
VAUDEVILLE FORMS BY RICHARD HARDING DAVIS, AARON
HOFFMAN, EDGAR ALLAN WOOLF, TAYLOR GRANVILLE,
LOUIS WESLYN, ARTHUR DENVIR, AND JAMES MADISON
BY BRETT PAGE
AUTHOR OF "CLOSE HARMONY," "CAMPING DAYS,"
"MEMORIES," ETC.
DRAMATIC EDITOR, NEWSPAPER FEATURE SERVICE, NEW
YORK
THE WRITER'S LIBRARY EDITED BY J. BERG ESENWEIN

FOREWORD
Can you be taught how to write for vaudeville? If you have the native
gift, what experienced writers say about its problems, what they
themselves have accomplished, and the means by which it has been
wrought, will be of help to you. So much this book offers, and more I
would not claim for it.
Although this volume is the first treatise on the subject of which I know,
it is less an original offering than a compilation. Growing out of a
series of articles written in collaboration with Mr. William C. Lengel
for The Green Book Magazine, the subject assumed such bigness in my
eyes that when I began the writing of this book, I spent months
harvesting the knowledge of others to add to my own experience. With
the warm-heartedness for which vaudevillians are famous, nearly
everyone whose aid I asked lent assistance gladly. "It is vaudeville's
first book," said more than one, deprecating the value of his own
suggestions, "and we want it right in each slightest particular."
To the following kindly gentlemen I wish to express my especial

thanks: Aaron Hoffman, Edwin Hopkins, James Madison, Edgar Allan
Woolf, Richard Harding Davis--the foremost example of a writer who
made a famous name first in literature and afterward in
vaudeville--Arthur Hopkins, Taylor Granville, Junie McCree, Arthur
Denvir, Frank Fogarty, Irving Berlin, Charles K. Harris, L. Wolfe
Gilbert, Ballard MacDonald, Louis Bernstein, Joe McCarthy, Joseph
Hart, Joseph Maxwell, George A. Gottlieb, Daniel F. Hennessy, Sime
Silverman, Thomas J. Gray, William C. Lengel, Miss Nellie Revell, the
"big sister of vaudeville," and a host of others whose names space does
not permit my naming again here, but whose work is evidenced in the
following pages. To Alexander Black, the man who made the first
picture play twenty-one years ago, I owe thanks for points in the
discussion of dramatic values. And for many helpful suggestions, and
his kindly editing, I wish to express my gratitude to Dr. J. Berg
Esenwein. To these "friends indeed" belongs whatever merit this book
possesses.
BRETT PAGE BROOKLYN, NEW YORK August 25, 1915

INTRODUCTION
It falls to the lot of few men in these days to blaze a new trail in
Bookland. This Mr. Brett Page has done, with firmness and precision,
and with a joy in every stroke that will beget in countless readers that
answering joy which is the reward of both him who guides and him
who follows. There is but one word for a work so penetrating, so
eductive, so clear--and that word is masterly. Let no one believe the
modest assertion that "Writing for Vaudeville" is "less an original
offering than a compilation." I have seen it grow and re-grow, section
by section, and never have I known an author give more care to the
development of his theme in an original way. Mr. Page has worked
with fidelity to the convictions gained while himself writing
professionally, yet with deference for the opinions of past masters in
this field. The result is a book quite unexcelled among manuals of
instruction, for authority, full statement, analysis of the sort that leads
the reader to see what essentials