Women in the Hall

The two readings for Tuesday were very interesting.  A major connection between the two of them were women working in the Music Hall.  However, two very different approaches were discussed taken by women who performed.  In the first reading, performing women were discussed via their portrayal in fictional writing.  The focus was on actresses and the various ways they were portrayed.  Acting was not considered the most 'appropriate' profession, but there were some views that women were doing an honest work to support themselves or their families.  It was seen by some as a viable option for work-class women, who really only had the option of shop work if they wanted to be out of the house.

The second chapter we ready focused on a very different way for women to make a living in the Hall.  The naked tableaux vivants were a phenomenon that caused much controversy.  The trick into making these nude portrayals acceptable in the public was the concept of comparing the women to statues.  By becoming stationary recreations of noted works of art, there was a decrease of the perceived vulgarity of the naked female form.  While there was certainly no way to completely avoid accusations of vulgarity on the stage, there was nonetheless an acceptance by enough to consider this a legitimate entertainment at the Hall.

The tableaux vivants saw life again, in controversy, in the 1930s and 40s at the Windmill, under the sponsorship of Laura Henderson (made popular to today's population in the 2005 film Mrs. Henderson Presents).  The 'Windmill Girls' presented tableaux vivants in the nude under a legal loophole that basically said 'if it moves, its rude'.  As long as the girls stayed still, there was no legal course that could be taken against them for vulgarity.

I wonder if the rise of the tableaux as a separate art form is connected to the popularity of the final tableaux in works of theater.  It was considered a powerful theatrical device, to reinforce the final image seen by the audience by re-showing the pose after a brief drop of the curtain.  I was in a production once that used this technique, and as the final pose was rather tragic, it proved to be quite effective.  I could easily see this inspiring a whole 'performance' of tableaux images.