false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172588930m/194148.jpg 194148 1 Dioramas and panoramas, freaks and magicians, waxworks and menageries, obscure relics and stuffed animals--a dazzling assortment of curiosities attracted the gaze of the nineteenth-century spectator at the dime museum. This distinctly American phenomenon was unprecedented in both the diversity of its amusements and in its democratic appeal, with audiences traversing the boundaries of ethnicity, gender, and class. Andrea Stulman Dennett's <B>Weird and Wonderful: The Dime Museum in America</B> recaptures this ephemeral and scarcely documented institution of American culture from the margins of history.<B>Weird and Wonderful</B> chronicles the evolution of the dime museum from its eighteenth-century inception as a "cabinet of curiosities" to its death at the hands of new amusement technologies in the early twentieth century. From big theaters which accommodated audiences of three thousand to meager converted storefronts exhibiting petrified wood and living anomalies, this study vividly reanimates the array of museums, exhibits, and performances that make up this entertainment institution. Tracing the scattered legacy of the dime museum from vaudeville theater to Ripley's museum to the talk show spectacles of today, Dennett makes a significant contribution to the history of American popular entertainment. 187772 30 11 1997 Weird and Wonderful: The Dime Museum in America total:5|4:1|3:4| 5 16 11 2 3 0 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2001 Fri Feb 01 23:57:08 -0800 2008 Sat Feb 02 00:09:31 -0800 2008 Shocked and Amazed! and Ricky Jay's Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women), this is less an examination of sideshow per...more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat May 03 04:31:17 -0700 2008 Sat May 03 05:27:42 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Wed Oct 07 19:30:36 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 07 19:30:36 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun May 24 15:32:39 -0700 2009 Sun May 24 15:32:39 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Wed Dec 17 14:37:22 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 17 14:37:32 -0800 2008 0 0 false false Wed Dec 10 15:41:04 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 10 15:41:06 -0800 2008 0 0 false false Fri Oct 10 14:03:34 -0700 2008 Wed Oct 15 14:32:04 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Wed Mar 12 14:38:52 -0700 2008 Wed Mar 12 14:38:56 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Sat Feb 02 00:04:43 -0800 2008 Sat Feb 02 00:04:51 -0800 2008 3 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2001 Sun Jan 27 22:38:56 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 27 22:39:04 -0800 2008 3 0 false false Sat Jul 07 19:50:34 -0700 2007 Sat Jul 07 19:50:34 -0700 2007 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=194148