“Vaudeville Indians” on Global Circuits, 1880s–1930s by Christine Bold (review)

Reviewed by: “Vaudeville Indians” on Global Circuits, 1880s–1930s by Christine Bold Cecilia Morgan Bold, Christine–“Vaudeville Indians” on Global Circuits, 1880s–1930s. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2022. 377 p. Will Rogers. Go-won-go Mohawk. Princess White Deer. Princess Chinquilla. Chester Dieck. Also: Princess Watahwaso, Young Chief Poolaw, Molly Spotted Elk, and Princess Wahletka. This roll call of Indigenous—and not-so-Indigenous—vaudeville performers represents the major players who appear in Christine Bold’s “Vaudeville Indians,” a book that breaks new ground in the history of Indigenous performance in non-Indigenous spaces, the history of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century performance, and, more specifically, the history of vaudeville. While much has been written about the latter, Bold’s is the first book-length study of the presence and influence of Indigenous people in this highly influential, if short-lived, medium. While histories of vaudeville suggest that Indigenous performers were a very small and insignificant minority in vaudeville, Bold amasses sufficient evidence to demonstrate such was not the case. Her meticulous and thorough research clearly shows that Indigenous performers were ubiquitous on vaudeville circuits throughout North America and, in some cases, in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand; their presence in this form of commercial entertainment was thus both transcontinental and transnational. Bold invites us to consider the multiple ways in which Indigenous performers created Indigenous spaces through their work, arguing that, despite having to contend with racial stereotypes that pervaded vaudeville, they were able to exert degrees of creative control over skits, dances, and songs; such control also extended to the costumes and props they used. Moreover, far from appearing anachronistic or as remnants of a vanishing race, these Indigenous performers demonstrated that they were fully integrated into the modernity represented by [End Page 189] vaudeville, itself shaped by the rhythms of industrial capitalism. Furthermore, because vaudeville was a central influence on early American film, these men and women influenced one of the most influential—and international—forms of mass entertainment of the twentieth century. Bold first provides an overview of vaudeville, the presence and workings of Indigenous networks that brought Indigenous people to its stages, and the reasons why they chose a career as performers. The rest of the book is structured around the careers of select performers; interspersed between Bold’s chapters are brief explorations or, as she calls them, “vaudeville numbers” that examine the work of certain individuals, such as Will Rogers and Molly Spotted Elk, in detail, thus providing microhistories of her central themes. Bold’s use of collective biography gives us intimate, detailed portraits of these highly mobile people and serves as a useful corrective to depictions of Indigenous performers only in the aggregate, as anonymous figures who lacked specific histories and genealogies. Moreover, although Bold reminds us of the importance of place and nation to these performers and locates them firmly in their communities, she also points to common themes that linked their lives and experiences: the need to make a living and the economic opportunities that vaudeville offered; the desire to be seen as part of a vibrant, modern culture defined on Indigenous terms; and, the potential that vaudeville offered to sidestep the increasing reach of the settler nation-state. Although other commercial opportunities for performance existed alongside those of vaudeville, Bold reminds us that the most common of those—the Wild West Show—not only denied Indigenous performers agency (as it was organized in a hierarchical fashion and directed by White managers), the large arenas in which the shows were performed physically alienated performers from their audiences. In contrast, the theatres which housed vaudeville shows were smaller and allowed performers and audiences greater proximity and, thus, greater interaction and intimacy. Finally, although vaudeville’s skeptical, sometimes cynical tone tended to promote an atomized, highly individualized picture of society, the predominance of family networks within Indigenous performers’ lives and careers meant that their work was structured by community and collectivity. Bold also calls our attention to the importance of material culture, such as clothing and ornamentation, as a means of understanding the dimensions of indigeneity in these performers’ presentations (unfortunately, many of the photographs she analyzes to...

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