Clik here to view.
Burlesque
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Philadelphia became one of the central nodes of American burlesque, a genre with origins in the ribald Victorian “travesties”—theatrical parodies...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Oh, Dem Golden Slippers
“Oh, Dem Golden Slippers,” the unofficial theme song of the Philadelphia Mummers Parade, is both an enduringly popular song and a revealing example of the complex, multilayered interplay between black...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Social Dancing
Dancers gather at Swann Fountain in Logan Circle for a tango party in April 2012, a tribute to a dance party at the fountain’s inauguration in 1924. (Photograph by Donald D. Groff for The Encyclopedia...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Twist (The)
“The Twist,” an early 1960s dance hit by Philadelphia singer Chubby Checker (real name Ernest Evans, b. 1941), ushered in a new way of dancing and solidified Philadelphia’s role as a major trendsetter...
View ArticleClik here to view.
South Street (Song)
“South Street,” a hit song for the Philadelphia vocal group the Orlons in 1963, celebrates an iconic Philadelphia thoroughfare and is among a select group of songs that came to define the city in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Classical Music
Classical music stands apart from vernacular (or “folk” music) and from “popular” music (in the form of simplified commercial entertainment) in its complexity of structure and high level of performance...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Opera and Opera Houses
Opera has played an important role in Philadelphia arts and entertainment since the mid-eighteenth century. The city has long been a key center for opera and holds several important distinctions in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Musical Fund Society
The Musical Fund Society, an important predecessor to the Philadelphia Orchestra, formed in 1820 to promote professional and amateur musical talent in Philadelphia and to aid indigent musicians and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Dancing Assembly
Established in the winter of 1748-49, the Dancing Assembly of Philadelphia— also known as “The Assembly” or “The Assemblies”— originated as an occasion for elite men and women to gather for social...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Rock Music and Culture (Late 1960s to Present)
Although Philadelphia was a national trendsetter in rock and roll in the late 1950s and early 1960s, it lost its preeminence in the mid-1960s as tastes changed and the music moved in new directions....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Plays and Playwrights
Upon first glance, it may seem odd that in Philadelphia, the intellectual heartland of the American Enlightenment, the first drama did not play until April 1754, over seventy years after the city’s...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Philadelphia (Film)
As a form of cinematic activism, Philadelphia (1993) attempted to reform the public understanding of AIDS in a time when ignorance and fear of the disease fueled prejudice and hate. The film is not...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Silver Linings Playbook
The 2012 film Silver Linings Playbook, directed by David O. Russell (b. 1958) and based on the novel by Collingswood, New Jersey, native Matthew Quick (b. 1973), experienced overnight success when it...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Philadelphia Folk Festival
Steve Earle and his band perform on the Festival Main Stage in 2012. (Montgomery County Planning Commission, Wikimedia Commons) Seeking to contribute to the folk revival that reached its peak in the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Gospel Music (African American)
Long an important center of African American musical life, Philadelphia played a key role in the development of black gospel music. One of the seminal figures in developing the gospel style, Charles...
View ArticleClik here to view.
1776
The story of American independence comes to life in the musical 1776, which dramatizes the debates, drafting, and signing of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress. The...
View ArticleClik here to view.
I’d Rather Be in Philadelphia
The expression “I’d rather be in Philadelphia” is derived from a fictional epitaph that locally-born entertainer W.C. Fields (1880-1946) proposed for himself in Vanity Fair magazine in 1925: “Here lies...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Wanamaker Organ
Originally designed for the St. Louis World’s Fair of 1904, the organ purchased by John Wanamaker (1838-1922) for his unprecedented Philadelphia department store at Thirteenth and Market Streets...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Children’s Theater
In Philadelphia, the theater capital of the United States until New York overtook it in the 1830s, an array of children’s theater activity has long sparked creativity and imagination, informed, and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Films (Feature)
Philadelphia’s association with movie-making dates back to the beginning of the film industry, when the city’s Lubin Manufacturing Company created and distributed many of the first generation of silent...
View Article