Bob Hope and American Variety
The Bill

From the early 1880s to the end of the 1920s vaudeville was the most popular form of live entertainment in the United States. A vaudeville show was a succession of seven to ten live stage acts, the "bill," which built to a climax with the performance of its top star, the "headliner." A vaudeville bill always included comedians and musicians, but might have included dancers, acrobats, trained animals, magicians, and novelty performers as well. Its form and content had been shaped by a wide range of 19th century diversions, including minstrel shows, the circus, medicine shows, traveling repertoire companies, curio museums, wild west shows, chautauquas, and British Music Hall.

Fred & Adele Astaire. ca. 1906

  thanks to The Cartoonist