The first blog in this series concerned one of the icon images for the Vaudeville Nation exhibition and web site (www.nypl.org/vaudeville). The rondel held clues to the time and place of one of the many forms of popular entertainment associated with turn-of-the-century vaudeville -- roof garden cabarets.
This blog concerns the other figure in the title banner who comes from the other end -- chronologically -- of vaudeville. Not that the model is necessarily older than the young woman on the swing, but that her form of vaudeville, Prologues, dates from much later -- the 1930s to 1950s. Prologues were short vaudeville shows that alternated with feature films in the sound film era. The image is a costume design for a Roxyette, a precision dance team at the Roxy Theater in NY. The Roxy, managed by "Roxy" Rothafel, and the Roxyettes, staged by Russell Markert, were the older siblings and direct predecessors of Roxy's Radio City Music Hall and its Rockettes. The use of music notation in costumes had been popular in designs for dance choruses since the late 19th century. This costume was probably designed by Monte Montadoro. It came to the Billy Rose Theatre Division in the collection of Albert Packer, who was business manager for the costume shop at the Roxy (1930- 1936) and Radio City Music Hall. The caption in the Vaudeville Nation web site gives the collection credit only.
The next blog will present the visual icon that inspired my curation of the exhibition, but was never featured in the gallery.
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