By Emily Rinaman, Technical Services Librarian
The Great Depression of the 1930s permanently changed so many aspects of American culture forever. One can argue we are currently seeing a similar trend, albeit resulting from a different scenario, since the COVID-19 crisis of 2020.
Before the stock market crashed in 1929, vaudeville and variety shows were the main attraction of public performances. Vaudeville had been a growing cultural influence in the United States since the 1880s. At this time, people didn't have televisions to keep them company when they were stuck at home. Movie theaters were still a novelty and silent films were just emerging. Instead, Americans watched live shows of both local performers and travelling companies.
At the turn of the century, performances at the Nobles Opera House and Grand Opera House (built in 1906) were a main form of entertainment for many Tiffinites. Every week there were variety shows put on by one of the hundreds of travelling drama companies, minstrel companies and Opera and Extravaganza companies in the United States (two in particular were the Primrose and Dockstader Minstrels and the O'Brian Minstrels).
One of the most popular genres during this era was Victorian melodramas. Many popular novels were adapted for the stage during the Victorian era and a number of them were very successfully transformed into melodramatic plays, just like books being turned into cinematic movies today. In Bicentennial Sketches, Myron Barnes notes two particular that were favorites among Tiffinites--the "tear jerkers," Uncle Tom's Cabin and East Lynn.
Like the silent films that later evolved from these live shows, emotions were purposely overplayed by the actors in Victorian melodramas. "Unable to communicate emotion with dialogue and speech, actors and actresses relied on body language and facial expressions so the audience could glean character and situational details from the performances." This is particularly interesting given that there has been a huge virtual conversation about how facial expressions have been hard to decipher during the past year since half of everyone's faces have been covered by masks.
Victorian melodramas could be a soap opera, action-adventure film, horror flick, documentary and a suspense-thriller all in one. Another carry-over to silent films, these melodramas typically included a heroine put in danger by a villain and a brave hero who saved her in the end. It was not uncommon to see military themes, gothic themes, domestic themes and even plays based on actual events, like crimes.
Vaudeville, on the other hand, was full of humor and amazing human feats. It was basically the forerunner of modern day sitcoms and reality competition shows. Vaudeville catered to the middle class, and Tiffin was no stranger to vaudeville. Tiffin Scenic Studio, founded in 1901, would re-furbish damaged backdrops for vaudeville groups and even had a catalog for painted backdrops as large as 30 feet high by 50 feet wide. Will Rogers, Judy Garland and Bob Hope all began in vaudeville.
Speaking of Will Rogers, westerns did not become a favorite until the movie screen took over. Schine's Tiffin Theater, which was converted from a Chevy auto sales business in the 1920s, was the place in town to watch Westerns when it opened in 1935. If one wasn't a fan of cowboys and indians, he or she could watch a "talkie," or a black and white film with a story line.
The Ritz, which was built just a year prior to the Stock Market Crash, featured technicolor "talkies." Technicolor films, a precursor to our modern day, high-tech, movies with special effects, were produced until the early 1950s (The Wizard of Oz and Walt Disney's Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs are classic examples). While "talkies" were starting to appear when the Ritz was built, the emotional pull of a good play or silent film was still a big influence. The Ritz was designed by architect Peter M. Hulsken who used Italian Renaissance architectural details to portray emotion versus reason.
In between the era of vaudeville and talkies was the short-lived span of silent movies. If you are craving a little nostalgia, the Silent Film Sound and Music Archive (2014) currently has over 100 cue sheets available for free download (these cue sheets told live instrumentalists when to play music to accompany scenes in the film). Or the Seneca County Digital Library has its very own silent film, a modern rendition but silent all the same. It's called "Fruits of Fraternal Love" and is the story of two Junior Home kids growing up at Tiffin's Junior Home.
Works cited:
"19th century melodrama". https://crossref-it.info/articles/517/nineteenth-century-melodrama
Bicentennial Sketches by Myron Barnes. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/33781/rec/2
Mroczka, Paul. “Vaudeville: America’s Vibrant Art Form with a Short Lifetime”. November 13, 2013. https://broadwayscene.com/vaudeville-americas-vibrant-art-form-with-a-short-lifetime/
Seneca County, Ohio History & Families. https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/28319/rec/5
Seneca County Digital Library. https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/search
Schine’s Tiffin Theater. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/23482/rec/1
“Techniclor: History and Technical Development, Museum of Western Film History”. https://www.museumofwesternfilmhistory.org/current-upcoming-exhibitions/current-exhibitions/142-resources/further-information-about-current-exhibits/57-technicolor
Video Caption Corporation. “The History of Silent Movies and Subtitles”. https://www.vicaps.com/blog/history-of-silent-movies-and-subtitles/