Keith and Albee took pride in their theaters’ moral standards, and took advantage of the prosperity of refined entertainment. As business partners, they leased the Bijou Theatre for more vaudeville performances. In 1885, Keith joined up with an old friend named E. In addition to new successes, there was money in clean entertainment. It was so strict, in fact, that players in show business coined the term “Boston Version,” which referred to the cleaned-up rendition of a routine. “Boston was considered to be the strictest of any city in the country in terms of what they permitted in entertainment.” She notes Boston was known for its clean entertainment. Miller, a professor at Emerson College, has been teaching about the culture of burlesque for eight years.
“He aimed for clean entertainment so that they could target families and upper class couples as audiences, because at that point, all of those sort of educated and high class families really didn’t have a lot of entertainment that was outside of high culture,” she says. But Keith’s big innovation for Boston - a lot of it was because of Boston sensibilities - was to cash in on the family market,” explains cultural anthropologist Cynthia Miller. “What (Keith) actually did was adapt a model that started with variety theater with multiple acts and shows running continuously all day long. They fell in the middle of two extremes : lowbrow entertainment (like burlesques and lewd variety shows) and high culture (the symphony, the opera, and ballet.) His vaudeville performances were family-oriented. Keith found success in this endeavor because of his specific approach to entertainment in Boston. These acts proved to be his first venture into vaudeville, and in turn, Keith helped create a new form of mass culture entertainment.
BIJOU BOSTON SERIES
Keith opened a second floor theater at the Gaiety where he presented a series of singers, dancers, novelties, and animal acts. Vaudeville’s roots stem from the upstairs portion of this museum.
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