Pietro+Vincenzo

Pietro Vincenzo

Pietro is a 2nd generation Italian immigrant, born in 1870 in New York City. His parents are immigrants from Palermo, in the South of Italy. His mother is a teacher, and his father is a middle manager in a factory. Being solidly middle class, his family has time for leisurely activities, and as taught by their immigrant parents, Pietro's parents want him to be as cultured as possible. His family plays games, sports, attends dime museums, and even takes occasional vacations. As a teen, he attends his first Vaudeville show with his family, at the New 14th Street Theatre in NYC, and is fascinated, especially by the variety of talent: freaks, magicians, singers, dancers, actors, etc. Being the mid 1880’s, Vaudeville style, "classy" variety shows are still a new business. He starts frequenting Vaudeville shows at the New Fourteenth Street Theatre, and he meets Tony Pastor, manager of a the theatre and credited with being the first to stage “respectable, polite, family-friendly” Vaudeville variety shows. Pastor immediately likes the charismatic, enthusiastic young man and offers him a job as an usher. Pietro's parents are disappointed; they want him to continue proper schooling, but Pietro could not be more delighted. Pietro works in Pastor's 14th Street theatre for a few years, and as Pastor's theatre expands into a chain of New York City venues, Pietro works his way up, becoming Pastor's right hand man and helping him manage bookings and talent scouting. Pietro attends the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 and loves the many cultures represented in the Midway, especially the belly dancers. Some belly dancers have dreams of being stars, and he thinks attendees at Pastor’s New York City theatres will love them. Back in New York City, Pietro brings up the idea to Pastor, who is outraged by the suggestion. Pastor is striving to make Vaudeville clean and classy (even in comedy, cursing is not allowed). They fight over this disagreement, and Vincenzo quits his job, vowing to soon manage his own theatre. Now jobless in 1894, Pietro is lost without vaudeville, but he scorns the huge commercial circuits that are being created by B.F. Keith and Edward Albee. He hears of Marin Beck who manages with Morris Meyerfeld the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco. Pietro soon comes into contact with Beck, who is in the process of buying the Grand Opera House in Los Angeles. Beck is not planning on managing the new theatre in Los Angeles, as he is also in the process of purchasing another Los Angeles theatre and in the very long term, planning to turn the Orpheum Theatre Company into a large vaudeville circuit. Although Pietro is wary of the future of the Orpheum theatre company, he misses his life in vaudeville. Beck was impressed by Pietro's work with Pastor, and Beck offers Pietro the position of managing the vaudeville shows at the Grand Opera House in Los Angeles. Pietro takes the job and moves to LA.

Now his goal of being a manager is fulfilled, and although vaudeville is now run under a single booking system, and tours are becoming increasingly popular, Pietro still has some leeway in his bookings because he is working in a very small chain (presently comprised of only a few theatres, but by 1919 of 45 theatres nation-wide and in Canada. He has kept in contact with a few belly dancers he saw perform at the 1893 Chicago World's fair and invites them to perform in this theatre. Vaudeville performers get good salaries, and with the hope of becoming stars, the belly dancers accept Pietro's offer. Their ongoing performances easily slip under the censorship radar of Martin Beck and others, because they are not vulgar and are viewed as introducing America to new cultures. In fact, they increase turnout at Pietro's Grand Opera House Theatre in LA, because attendees are intrigued by this performance that they can't find anywhere else. However, their performances outrage feminist Progressives who consider it degrading to women and some type of foreign prostitution. They protest his theatre, and constantly post signs about the need for "Social Purity." Pietro is enraged by his so- called "prudish opponents of culture" and has many interesting experiences with the radiacal Progressive women.

As the Orpheum theatre circuit expands and is incorporated into a huge commercial circuit, censorship rules grow stricter, and Pietro faces more criticism from managers of the Orpheum Circuit about his prized belly dancers. He is also upset about the loss of unique vaudeville in the large national tours, and his job becomes monotonous. On top of that, he senses the beginning of vaudeville's slow demise with the growing popularity of motion poictures (Alexander Pantages owned a circuit of theatres, including one in Los Angeles, which began incorporating motion pictures into his Vaudeville shows as early as 1902). Pietro falls in love with one of the talented singers and star performers who he soon learns has severe depression issues from an abusive husband. He retires (1920), and they move to Michigan where she can receive care at the Pontiac State Hospital, renamed from the Eastern Michigan Asylum for the Insane (he hears about the hospital, and decides that his lover will get the best care there by coming in contact with, and receiving the recommendation from the infamous Professor Peale??). He lives in Michigan, visiting her often, until his lover's husband hunts him down and murders him in 1934. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY [|Tony Pastor and the New 14th Street Theatre]  [| Orpheum Theatre Circuit and Martin Beck]  Stan Singer [|The Pacific Historical Review], Vol. 61, No. 1 (Feb., 1992), pp. 103-113 Published by: [|University of California Press] ** [|LInk to above citation]
 * Vaudeville in Los Angeles, 1910-1926: Theaters, Management, and the Orpheu

The link below I think is really cool! Its a playbill of a vaudeville show plus the manager's comments. It sort of gives you an idea of the variety of acts that were showcased, plus the marketing side of things.

A more modern day photo of the orpheum circuit, san francisco. I think it shows how these theatres were both grand and elaborate but still maintained a laidback feel and fit into the city

Hello Pietro, here is an article by Dr. Aaron Powell, the president of my organization, the Social Purity Movement. Read it thouroughly and think it through. He may change your life, just as he did mine. [|"Legal Protection for Young Girls"]-- Amalie