pondering emerging urban life via department stores and vaudeville

Receipt from a turn of the century Tuscaloosa department store.

Tomorrow we will examine how department stores and vaudeville houses fit into emerging urban life in America. It will be the last time we turn to Gunther Barth's study of modern urban culture. Then again, maybe not. For sure, we will want to keep in mind so much of what we have learned over the past eight weeks and put it to good use as we read excerpts from Martha Sandweiss' examination of nineteenth century geologist Clarence King and the memoir of nineteenth century Cincinnati hairdresser Eliza Potter, among other readings.

For now, we may collectively wonder how the vaudeville house  allowed urban dwellers to see something about themselves onstage in the same way that the metropolitan press permitted the same group to do something similar. What did audience members see onstage? What made them laugh?

We may also reflect on more basic questions, among them: How did newspapers help department stores? Or why were vaudeville and department stores inviting spaces for women and children? 

Then again, questions that possibly lead to troubling conversations may have answers worth pursuing, too. Indeed, how does the diversity in department stores and vaudeville encounter the heterogeneous public to which Barth turns to describe nineteenth century American urban dwellers? 

Who enters these spaces? Who cannot? 

How did technology contribute to both developments becoming big business?

Turn of the century vaudeville sheet music.

Finally, what legacies did vaudeville and department stores leave us? It's worth it to think about such an idea. Today, so much entertainment comes through a smartphone or Netflix or Youtube. Shopping is done online or elsewhere (However, I do remember when 1960s and 1970s variety televisions were quite popular. I loved Hee Haw and any show featuring the Jackson Five including The Carol Burnett Show, which definitely builds on the foundation of vaudeville. I also remember when my mother shopped at stand-alone department stores like Burdines in downtown Miami in the 1970s. In time, we - like everyone else - headed to malls).

Burdines began as a Bartow, FL, dry goods store.

While we think over possible answers and even new questions, I invite you to take a look at two images from the University of Alabama's digitized Hoole Collection. The first: a 1914 receipt from from Tuscaloosa's Savage Department store. The store must have had quite a following as five years earlier, The Tuscaloosa News featured a store advertisement announcing the arrival of fall and winter hats, which were the "very latest" from New York and Paris. 

However, lest the "ladies of Tuscaloosa and West Alabama" thought the prices at Savage, which was located at 612-614 Greenburg Avenue, were out of reach, the store promised a shopper of modest means that she could have "a new style, nobby and attractive fall hat" at a "small cost."

Who were the patrons of this store owned by "J.A. Savage & Son?" Where did they wear such fancy hats? How were their lives different and similar to say the women described in bigger cities such as New York and Chicago?  While these are questions for which we have no likely answers, we might think them through just the same if for no other reason than the opportunity to once more situate Tuscaloosa into the narrative of emerging urban life.

Similarly, a search of the Hoole archive also turned up vaudeville sheet music composed in 1921 by Jeff Branen and Lloyd Evans (Seeing as Barth says emerging urban life is between the 1830s and 1920, give or take a decade, both primary sources are within range). 

Was this music in the household of a former Tuscaloosa resident or relative of a former resident? Was the music ever performed publicly? If so, where and for whom? 

Finally, why do things like baseball and vaudeville - which begin in cities - resonate with people who live in rural spaces; and vice versa; why are television shows about Alaska - Northern Exposure was a big favorite of mine during the 1990s - or the Great American Country network so popular to urban dwellers? Is this another instance when we can see how the frontier and countryside things are things for which we yearn no matter how "modern" and "urban" we become?

different takes on "reverence for the past"

The Kilgore House before its recent demolition.

Some of the Kilgore House's turn of the century student-residents.

I received the students’ responses to the long, convoluted question I gave them last week on whether the American spirit is evident in the “city people” Gunther Barth describes, the story of the Kilgore House and a designer’s plans for a building.  I was pleased to receive a range of thoughtful responses. Most of the students saw the American spirit in at least one of these things though a few did so while seeing the complexities of such an idea. It was quite interesting to see them engage the many sides to this issue. Anne Marie was drawn to how the Kilgore House “was used in so many different ways as the needs for it evolved over the years…Not only was it used for a home, but also for a dorm and a magazine office.  Its way of evolving evokes the American spirit." Via such many functions, as Michael maintained, “this single building provided…more life and possibility than many buildings in

Coco Chanel, a modern woman.

the Tuscaloosa area.” A.J. said he saw “the American spirit in how  Bryce patients built the Kilgore House.” He noted how "they were not only laborers. These were human beings just like any of us.” Lauren said she saw the American spirit in the Kilgore House, “especially after glimpsing the photographs…taken there. The women who were student and residents there look so at home. When I think of the American spirit, I think of freedom, liberty and a touch of ruggedness. These women represent that spirit by attending college during a time when this was rare for women.”

Ryan said he thought he saw the American spirit, especially in relation to “growth ... [and] great buildings” and pondering “what [these buildings] mean to… people.” But then he watched the America: The Story of Us documentary and thought more deeply about the assignment. Wrote Ryan, “I saw how America was thriving and moving on to bigger and better…But I wondered how could the American Spirit really be evident when building new and bigger things occurred on the sweat and blood of ... slaves? I read and saw many examples of the success of ‘free workers’ including workers in the newspaper business. There were even women workers in factories. So in a sense I did see the ‘American spirit’ with such advancements in our country,…but…several chapters of our history contradict the promises of that spirit.” Evelyn also saw the American spirit and especially in“the labor of Irish immigrants” who helped build the Erie Canal. Evelyn noted, too, how “southern slaves built the cotton industry.” They along with the Irish, she said, “were the ‘mass producing machines’ at a time when there were no mass producing machines.”  Thinking of modern city life across time, David turned to the demolition of the Kilgore House, saying, “It’s my perception that people in Europe and elsewhere have more reverence for the past. In Sweden and Denmark, very  old buildings have been retooled and repaired…There seems to be something very American in looking at old buildings as being obsolete, or in need of replacing….Perhaps it is because we are such a young country and have space to build that we respond in this way. While Americans in general look at old buildings as landmarks…they do not look at them as living buildings that can still be very functional.” Added Byron, “All too often people in this country see historical sites neglected or destroyed because of capitalistic endeavors that only look at the ‘bottom line’.” Aaron, who was among the UA students who protested the demolition and even helped salvage what could be saved said he ultimately saw the “duality in the situation...The grassroots effort that surrounded the protests [embodied] the American spirit. However, I also see this same spirit in the…greed surrounding the demolition. Still, he acknowledged that “striving for what is ‘new and modern’ … has been a recurring theme throughout American history…as especially evident in the Industrial Revolution.” Indeed, A.J. sees such spirit in “people working in construction on campus to bring money home to their families.” Summing up, perhaps,  three weeks of reading City People, Regan said, “I found it very interesting to learn about the evolution of city life. I think that Barth's mention of the constant improvements in architecture …was an awesome way to show how America keeps growing and improving. So much work goes into  building and improvement of buildings done by so many American who work in different professions.”


Next week, I will post the students responses to yesterday's assignment, which pushed their thinking about the last two chapters of Barth's book, one on baseball, the other on the vaudeville house. They listened intently as Dr. Richard Megraw of UA's American Studies department did a lecture on baseball. I presented a summary on everything discussed to date while also sharing more information about the vaudeville house. At the request of one student who desired to see tensions between the United States and other countries during the 19th century, I showed them a portion of Coco Before Chanel, which sheds light on the cafe-concert profession in which Coco Chanel worked before becoming a fashion designer.