The Boys from Syracuse - Center Stage

-QThejugglers, ventriloquists, fireswallowers,knife-throwers, acrobats,magicians, and their assortedcohorts. Parodies were popular andimmediacy in vogue, though therewas an equal propensity—as in thecase of Boys—to provide a literaryor classical frame of some kind.The unquestioned and absolutemonarchs of the vaudeville circuit,whom mighty legends like W. C. Fieldsand Fred Allen refused to follow onstage, were the Marx Brothers. Theyhad some of everything, a completevariety show in one act, and weremasters at it. To watch their filmstoday is to see a time capsule ofvaudeville: pantomime, dialectcomedy, music, singing, dancing,romantic light comedy, ethniccomedy, sketch comedy, acrobatics,puns, parodies, and so much more.Legal crackdowns on burlesquebegan in the mid-1920s, including anow legendary raid on Minsky’s inManhattan. Reform-minded MayorFiorello LaGuardia closed New York’sremaining burlesque houses in 1937,dismissing them as purveyors of“filth.” The vaudeville circuit, wheretop acts had commanded $1,000 aweek, was also fading fast. Veteranssegued into radio, film, or television,taking many classic routines withthem—where in sitcoms andtalkshows and other forms, theyendure still. But in The Boys fromSyracuse, we get a glimpse backto that last lingering moment, amarriage of low-down burlesquevariety acts with the evolving geniusof the musical theater.Adapted from A History of theMusical by John KenrickTHE BLOCK:“You can always make the nut in Baltimore”When producers of vaudeville or burlesquewanted to make some quick, guaranteedmoney and try out a new show on the road,they came to Baltimore. This 1952 articleby Stephen Hull, from the racily titledAmerica’s Cities of Sin, hints at why.oldest, lushest, bawdiest tenderloin in theUnited States today is that back-of-the-waterfrontarea of Baltimore, Maryland, known as The Block.Actually the district covers about three blocksalong East Baltimore Street…a garish, neonlitartery dotted with burlesque shows, pennyarcades, tattoo parlors, saloons, cheap hotels,fifth-rate movies, night clubs, and shootinggalleries. This low-down amusement sector roarsfull blast from mid afternoon to 2am. At that timethe legal closing hour for the sale of liquor jetpropelsthe customers from the strip-tease jointsout on to the street to pick up girls and taxi offto the broad minded hotels in the neighborhood,or to the dives around lower Broadway whereafter-hours hootch is available in teacups.This Baltimore Barbary Coast has the longestcontinuous history of any honky-tonk area in thecountry. The Block’s central structure today isthe Gayety Burlesque Theatre. For more than40 years, Baltimore men have stagged it to theGayety on Friday and Saturday nights while theirwives played bridge, knitted, and gossiped. TheGayety itself is not just another burlesque show.It is also a saloon, pool hall and night club. Thepool hall is upstairs, over the theatre; the saloonand night club are in the basement.The Gayety Night Club, in the basement, is a stripteasejoint with a tiny stage at one end of thebar. The club starts up when the last show isout upstairs and goes on until 2am. Thus, it ispossible for a customer to start in at the Gayetyat noon, ogle all afternoon, have a couple ofdrinks and a sandwich, shoot some pool and domore drinking and ogling in the night club. Infact, it has been alleged that a pair of sailorsonce lived in the Gayety for four days while aShore Patrol was looking for them.Old Baltimoreans are likely to be sentimentalabout The Block; the town has a congenital dislikefor reformers and prudery…. Baltimoreans liketo bet the horses and, therefore, tend to takea dim view of all attempts at clean-up. So, TheBlock goes on today pretty much as it has for thepast 175 years; a place where up-town Baltimorecan come to be shocked or titillated; wheresailors and their gals…can disport themselveswithout fear of interference….Baltimore changes,but “The Block,” like sin itself, goes on forever.Next Stage: The Boys from Syracuse | 10