Chapter 4: Tin Pan Alley
As vaudeville expanded into a national entertainment phenomenon, it inherited and reshaped performance traditions from earlier forms like minstrelsy. While both traditions coexisted for a time and shared certain theatrical conventions, they reflected different cultural values, audience expectations, and structural formats. Minstrelsy featured skits, music, and dance based on racial stereotypes, often performed in blackface. It followed a structured format that included opening songs, variety acts, and comedic skits. Vaudeville, by contrast, offered a diverse variety show including comedians, musicians, magicians, dancers, and other acts. Though it sometimes relied on caricature, vaudeville generally aimed for broader, more family-friendly appeal and did not heavily feature performers in blackface. Minstrelsy primarily appealed to white audiences and reflected widespread racial prejudices of the time. Vaudeville, on the other hand, attracted a broader audience, including families and various social classes, due to its wide-ranging and rotating acts. In terms of structure, minstrelsy typically followed a fixed format, with a host and comic endmen performing racially themed sketches. Vaudeville, in contrast, operated through a nonlinear, flexible format that allowed for frequent rotation and substitution of unrelated acts, offering a more dynamic and diverse entertainment experience.
The structure of the vaudeville industry was also instrumental in the rise of Tin Pan Alley. The Orpheum Circuit dominated the western United States, while the Keith-Albee theater chain held power in the East. Publishing companies partnered closely with these networks, using vaudeville stages as prime platforms for song promotion. In exchange for featuring new songs in their acts, performers were often offered prime placement on sheet music covers, a share of the profits, or lavish gifts such as cigars, liquor, jewelry, perfume, and cash. This mutually beneficial relationship between publishers and performers helped embed popular music into the fabric of American daily life and demonstrated the increasing power of promotion, performance, and celebrity in shaping musical success.
Some composers went so far as to credit performers as coauthors of songs regardless of their actual involvement as a way to boost a song’s visibility and lend it celebrity endorsement. Al Jolson and Gene Austin were frequently listed as cowriters on songs they had not composed, simply because they popularized them. Eddie Cantor, Ruth Etting, and other vaudeville stars later admitted to accepting generous payments for incorporating songs into their performances. Rudy Vallée once claimed he built his estate in Connecticut on the back of plugger “gifts,” while Al Jolson famously received a racehorse in exchange for promoting a tune.
Vaudeville's widespread reach made it a powerful testing ground for musical appeal. The industry even coined the phrase “Will it play in Peoria?” referring to the Illinois city whose demographics and location made it a bellwether for national taste and stood in as the quintessential middle-American town. If a song or act succeeded in Peoria, it was believed to have broad appeal across the country.
This mutually beneficial relationship between vaudeville and Tin Pan Alley helped entrench popular music in everyday American life, while also revealing the growing power of promotion and celebrity in shaping musical success. They highlight how Tin Pan Alley’s success was not only built on musical creativity but on a relentless and evolving approach to getting songs into the ears and eventually the homes of the American public.