All vaudeville comedy acts were dependent, in some part, on stock materials for inspiration. Stock materials include jokes and song parodies; monologs—strings of jokes or comic lectures; bits—two- or three-person joke routines; and sketches—short comic scenes, often with a story. To these stock materials comedians add what cannot be transcribed in words, the physical comedy, or the “business”—the humor of inflections and body language at which so many vaudevillians excelled. (LC Bob Hope and American Variety)
The first serious study of this rich tradition, filled with details about plays, authors, artists, companies, houses, directors, and theatrical circuits.
Oklahoma Historical Society: Will Rogers Memorial Museum
