The night before Thanksgiving we had our Becoming Vaudeville Turn of the Century History Presentation.
Presenting the Players
My son portrayed Sgt York, my daughter portrayed Amy Carmichael, and I portrayed Mrs. Edith Roosevelt.
This was the only early 20th century pattern I could find, and after I had made the skirt, I discovered that I didn’t have enough of the burgundy velvet I had purchased for the jacket.
When I returned to the store, all they had was hunter green. My daughter said I looked like Christmas.
Oh well. At least it’s silly enough for a vaudeville routine, which were the height of entertainment at the turn of the century.
Creating the Menu
First we had our Turn of the Century dinner.
Too bad we were short on time, or else I might have recreated a simpler version of the Hotel Lafayette menu I wrote about here.
While researching which food was unique to the era, I learned in times past, dinners included a vast array of desserts.
By the early 20th century, only one dessert was served, an elaborate cake.
Although the Lady Baltimore Cake from South Carolina was quite popular, which I’ve made in the past, it is extremely rich and we’re really not cake people.
I guess that’s the point, but needing simplicity due to busy lives moving in to our new house and repainting it, the kids and I perused my cake recipes for something different.
Wanted to bake something autumnal we found a recipe for Autumn Pecan Orange Spice Pound Cake.
Although we had grand plans to decorate this cake elaborately, one thing led to another the day before Thanksgiving and it was still baking while we had dinner.
So we sprinkled powdered sugar on top and called it good!
All that to say…simplifying homeschool projects is okay.
Because our week was quite full, the kids and I chose foods which were fun but easy to put together at the last minute, since we had an afternoon appointment before the history presentation.
We baked brie en croute with cranberry sauce and crostini, cantaloupe wrapped in prosciutto, and gourmet salad with herb vinaigrette.
Then we had our cake, which we were going to garnish with twisted orange slices. At least it was delicious!
Then it was time for the show to begin!
Vaudeville Theme
While trying to decide how to coordinate the vast array of content from 1900-1928 in an interesting way, I hit upon the idea to hold a vaudeville show.
While sitting in the basement where we homeschool, I realized we had a perfect opportunity for a stage.
On the other side of the curtains is a large area with our bookcases full of history and literature books that would serve well for backstage.
Opposite the curtains is a couch, perfect for viewing homeschool presentations.
We set up an easel to the side of the stage to display signs of each act.
When I suggested the idea of doing vaudeville to the kids they groaned.
They did not want to act silly at all. They take their work quite seriously.
I told them we’d do both comedy and drama, like real vaudeville.
After explaining the history of vaudeville and some time to think about it, they were on board with the plan.
We had a blast!
Act I: Living Statuary from the playful Theodore Roosevelt Family
We opened by the kids doing a typical vaudeville act of living statuary while I narrated.
The kids posed as something typical that their characters, Sgt. York and Amy Carmichael, might do.
After I introduced myself as Mrs. Edith Roosevelt, I introduced my husband, Theodore Roosevelt, while showing the audience his namesake teddy bear.
They did bear a strong resemblance to each other.
{{{Kaboom-chick!}}}
We never got a close-up of this bear, but he really is dressed to look for his namesake…in a pin stripe suit, glasses and he even holds a flag!
Then I introduced my son, Kermit (name of the Roosevelts’ son), to which my son complained, “Mother, I’m Sgt. York.”
Shaking my head, I introduced my daughter, Alice (actually Theordore’s daughter from his first marriage before his first wife passed away.) to which my daughter fussed, “Mother, I am Amy Carmichael.”
I explained that these children had overactive imaginations and there were more of our children running around in the neighborhood somewhere.
Although they wanted to put together a vaudeville show for their father, duty suddenly called the president away.
Thus we’ll rehearse for you, our audience!
A bit of vaudeville historical tidbits
After I wrapped up the history of vaudeville which I related to the present-day connections, the kids created new poses of living statuary which were still consistent with their personas.
Although we knew this would be corny (vaudeville slang) that’s the point and the kids had fun with it!
Also we learned to appreciate vaudeville more, that we have always enjoyed in old movies.
However, they would not let any silliness or song and dance routines (later) be videotaped.
Ahem, they were getting more attention from the photographer than I was. I think I was upstaged!
A lot of vaudeville acts are pretty bad, so lack of perfection lent itself to vaudeville acts.
With vaudeville, the audience could cheer or jeer, which is very 18th century!
If you see a bad act, be patient, something more to your liking is bound to show up later.
I read someone’s theory that today’s remote control is like vaudeville, skimming past the bad acts to get to the one show you enjoy (aka channel surfing).
Nearly each scene had a unique prop that we brought in for our presentation.
Afterwards, we laid it on the coffee table, in front of our guest.
It was neat filling the table up with a prop from each act.
Too bad we didn’t get a picture of it.
I fully expected that remote control I had laid on the table would be used by a guest against us…trying to pause our scenes, fast forward, or stop us completely!
That concluded the comedy portion of the show, so I set Teddy on a horse to watch the rest of the show.
Now we moved into the drama.
Scott Joplin’s The Entertainer played for scene changes
Before each act, I played a sample of Scott Joplin’s ragtime music from his popular piece, The Entertainer.
When the music stopped, that was the cue for the act to begin.
Act II: Wright Brothers Invent Airplane
My son gave his presentation on the Wright Brothers’ invention of the airplane, while incorporating the three key elements that an airplane needs to fly, all of which we learned at the Smithsonian.
Then he described 1900 Flyer with a model he made.
Time for the next act!
Act III: Amy Carmichael from Ireland to India
While introducing herself as Amy Carmichael, she used the globe to show where she was from (Ireland) and where she went as a missionary (India).
Since we already knew how to wrap a sari, her costume was easy for us to assemble.
She told the story of how she prayed for blue eyes as a little girl, because she didn’t like brown eyes.
Later, as a missionary, her brown eyes allowed her to do the impossible to rescue abused children from the temples.
Using a globe she pointed out the home where she was born, then the country she served as missionary.
Act IV: Political Cartoons
The next act was a dialectic thinking art project I assigned my son.
I suggested that he design a political cartoon of a historical event of his choice. He chose the Panama Canal.
How about that Lenin style beard on Columbia?
Panama is in chains in the middle.
Of course that’s Roosevelt with his big stick.
The green part shows the future canal.
Act V: Victorian Quilt in Stitches
Then my daughter shared a popular art project for the era.
However, she was super short on time due to her high school studies, and her Cherry Orchard costuming project (below), so I reduced this quilt project to lowest terms.
Especialy because she has difficulty with fine motor work, I did the machine sewing at her bespoke wishes.
Historically these quilts often included velvets, satins, silks, and lace.
After she chose her favorite fancy fabric from my scrap pile, which is the historic starting point for a Victorian crazy quilt, I sewed it into the block the way she wanted.
Hence the name crazy quilt, because odd-shaped scrap pieces are creatively sewn together to create the quilt top.
Then I taught her how to do various stitches at the seam lines, which she then demonstrated after explaining its history.
Act VI: It’s a Grand Old Flag
Now for a little music.
My son played the George M. Cohan hit, It’s a Grand Old Flag on his fife.
This song was originally written by Cohan for his production, George Washington Jr.
Later, he received the Congressional Medal of Honor for this song.
Act VII: The Cherry Orchard
Now for my daughter’s literature assignment.
A friend suggested that my daughter design costumes for four characters from the play, The Cherry Orchard, using color to represent mood or theme.
Although my daughter is not an artist, she “got” this assignment and had a lot of fun with it!
She had to understand each character’s role in the play to interpret color choice and costume for them.
Act VIII: Over There
Time for more music.
We sang “Over There,” another song by George M. Cohan when our country entered WWI.
The Congressional Medal of Honor he received was awarded for both Grand Old Flag, and for Over There.
We choreographed the song at the last minute during rehearsal that morning.
Surprisingly, singing and dancing to famous tunes was quick for us to pick up!
We had fun waving flags with this George M. Cohan hit!
Here’s the old timey recording with which we sang.
Act IX: Airplanes in the Great War
Back to airplanes…
My son did his presentation of Airplanes and WWI Flying Aces in WWI that we learned in our homeschool books and our visits to the Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian in Washington DC. (No photos of this act.)
Act X: Poetry Recitation
Next was WWI poetry.
My daughter gave the history of the classic poem In Flanders Fields, then recited it.
Act XI: Sgt. York…with Lafayette and Napoleon Sightings
Next was my son’s first-person interpretation of Sgt. York.
He did thorough research, not only on York’s perspective in his diary, but also the controversy surrounding it.
He brought his research to me, and we had lots of discussions on the validity of his story.
My son was quite torn about how to proceed with his interpretation.
I told him he is portraying Sgt. York, so he needs to share Sgt. York’s side of the story.
We could cover the controversy in the Q&A.
Are you wondering where Lafayette and Napoleon fit in our history presentation?
After the war ended, Sgt York visited Lafayette’s grave.
My son used that information, referencing back to the historical ceremony with Pershing and Stanton, in his speech.
Now how does Napoleon fit in? Well, my son couldn’t believe Napoleon sneaked into his speech, too.
When I first started teaching about Napoleon to my kids over a year ago, I told them they’d be hearing a lot about him for the rest of history.
Sgt York visited Napoleon’s grave, too!
More significantly, York received five medals, two from France.
One of them was originally created by Napoleon!
My son pronounced the French locations and the names of the French medals from memory!
Since he doesn’t know French, he wanted to perfect his pronunciation of it.
I told him Sgt York spoke English poorly, so I doubt that he perfected any French that he picked up.
My son conceded and pronounced the words in the way they seemed to make the best sense to him.
Act XII: George M. Cohan Medley
Finally it was time to end the show with a George M. Cohan medley! Can you tell we are Cohan fans?
Since most vaudeville shows began and ended with the worst acts, we decided to do comedy first and a major song and dance routine at the end, with the serious school presentations in the middle.
Although we expected to be booed for bad dancing and singing, all our work was well received.
However our photographer forgot to take a picture of us doing the medley! Oh! Wait!
Now I know why there’s no picture. We impressed our photographer so much, there wasn’t any presence of mind to take a picture.
We had our photographer laying in the aisle (vaudeville slang for a sensational performance)!
We’re a a hit! Broadway here we come!
