- Title
- Editorial
- Creator
- Emeljanow, Victor
- Relation
- Popular Entertainment Studies Vol. 6, Issue 1, p. 1-4
- Publisher
- University of Newcastle
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2015
- Description
- Many contributions to the journal over the last six years have emphasised the mobility of popular entertainments. It would seem that from the early modern period in Europe performers and the cultural baggage that accompanied them demonstrated an itinerant and cosmopolitan sense of adventure, knowing that their offerings would be universally recognised and appreciated. Their knowledge was founded in many cases on the fact that their physical abilities required no translation, although as travelling entertainers they were almost entirely dependent on the generosity of strangers. With the creation of purpose-built theatrical structures the process of formalising the establishment of defined touring circuits began: the actor-manager became the manager not only of an acting company but increasingly of a theatre with which he or she could be identified. It was a model which lasted well into the nineteenth century. But by the Edwardian period many traditionalists were becoming increasingly nervous as the influence, and indeed, the presence of actor-managers was being eroded by the emergence of a new breed of entrepreneurs who were buying up theatres and privileging financial considerations over the artistic. To an extent this transition was inevitable as urban populations increased exponentially and as property values began to reflect this growth. Performers and their cultural baggage became themselves properties to be exploited, exchanged and sold on by agents, promoters and commercial syndicates. We are reasonably familiar with the influence exerted in the United States by the Klaw-Erlanger Theatrical Syndicate from the 1880s and subsequently the Shubert Organization from the 1920s to this day. They established networks which effectively monopolised the operation of commercial theatres. The establishment of theatrical networks across the world, however, is perhaps less well-known.
- Subject
- editorial; Popular Entertainment Studies
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1453448
- Identifier
- uon:44677
- Identifier
- ISSN:1837-9303
- Rights
- © 2015 The Author
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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Popular Entertainment Studies
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