Steppin' Out: New York Nightlife and the Transformation of American Culture, 1890-1930

by Erenberg, Lewis A.

• ISBN13: 9780226215150
• ISBN10: 0226215156
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1984-11-15
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

The evolution of New York nightlife from the Gay Nineties through the Jazz Age was, as Lewis A. Erenberg shows, both symbol and catalyst of America's transition out of the Victorian period. Cabaret culture led the way to new styles of behavior and consumption, dissolving conventional barriers between classes, races, the sexes--even between life and art. A fabulous era of chorus girls, jazz players, lobster palaces, and hip flasks--the age of Sophie Tucker, Irene and Vernon Castle, and Gilda Gray--tangos through the pages of this ground-breaking, as well as entertaining, cultural history.

Author Biography

Lewis A. Erenberg is professor of history at Loyola University of Chicago.

Table of Contents

Illustrations and Table	ix	(2)
Preface	xi	(2)
Acknowledgments	xvii
PART ONE: A Victorian World	3	(28)
1. Victorian Culture and Amusements	5	(26)
PART TWO: Breaking the Bonds	31	(80)
2. After the Ball: Hotels and Lobster Palaces, 1893-1912	33	(27)
3. Women Out of Control: Critics of the New Amusements	60	(51)
PART THREE: The Cabaret and the Decline of Formalism	111	(120)
4. Action Environment: The Informal Structure of the Cabaret	113	(33)
5. Everybody's Doin' It: Irene and Vernon Castle and the Pre-World War I Dance Craze	146	(30)
6. Some of These Days: Sophie Tucker, the Friendly Entertainer	176	(30)
7. Broadway Babies: Glorifying the American Girl, 1915-1922	206	(25)
PART FOUR: The Fragmentation and Flowering of American Culture	231	(34)
8. Into the Jazz Age	233	(32)
Bibliographical Essay	265	(10)
Name Index	275	(6)
Index of Cabarets, Hotels and Theatres	281	(4)
Subject Index	285