Viva Vaudeville!

Back about a hundred years ago, vaudeville was the most popular entertainment in America. This family-friendly type of variety show employed about 25,000 performers. Blue Thread's Miriam Josefsohn was definitely a fan.

I kept thinking about the strange girl… From the back seat of our Oldsmobile, I saw a sign on the Orpheum Theatre advertising a vaudeville show featuring ragtime piano. Perhaps she was a performer—there were plenty of Jews in vaudeville. I dubbed her Fantastical Fannie from...