The Girl With the Painted Face (58 page)

1717:
John Rich, Christopher’s son, grew up with the Harlequinades and by this time he was reading Charles Perrault’s fairy tales (published 1697) which had all the famous stories in it like
Cinderella
,
Little Red Riding Hood
,
Puss in Boots
, etc. So as a young man he took over from his dad and started creating shows using Perault’s stories but combining elements of the Harlequinade. They became known as pantomime.

Early 1800s:
Joseph Grimaldi (Joey) takes the white-faced (
pantomime blanche
) Clown character forward in Harlequinade and pantomime and it becomes the model for subsequent circus clowns. His performing style gradually informs the very English form of Music Hall.

Late 1900s:
Italian immigrants to America take with them surviving elements of the
Commedia
and create, along with Jewish and other styles, the American equivalent of music hall, Vaudeville.

1908:
Fred Karno, a music-hall impresario, took two of his star performers and friends, Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel, to America. Both went on to incorporate the
Commedia
style kept alive by circus and music hall as
zanni-
type characters in silent movie.

Table of Contents

About the Author

Also by this author

Copyright

Dedication

Epigraph

Acknowledgements

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Afterword