ArtsBeat once again is inviting members of the theater world to contribute over the summer to the we

Theater Talkback: cheap car rental in atlanta Boxers on Broadway - NYTimes.com
Arts World U.S. N.Y. / Region Business Technology Science Health Sports Opinion Arts Art Design Books Dance Movies Music Television Theater Video Games Style Travel Jobs Real Estate cheap car rental in atlanta Autos June 21, 2012, 1:49 pm Theater Talkback: Boxers on Broadway By TRAV S.D. Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times Mike Tyson, left, with Spike Lee, who directs his new Broadway play.
ArtsBeat once again is inviting members of the theater world to contribute over the summer to the weekly Theater Talkback column, alternating with the critics Ben Brantley and Charles Isherwood. For the first guest post, Trav S. D., a historian of vaudeville, talks about the long bare-knuckles cheap car rental in atlanta history shared between the boxing  ring and the stage.
There has been much gnashing of teeth (hopefully no biting of ears ) about the news that the boxer Mike Tyson will be taking to the Broadway stage for a week this summer with a solo show, to be directed by Spike Lee. The buzz has been predictably comic. With his famously girly voice and his reckless style in the ring, Mr. Tyson has always been a national punch line; now he re-emerges in a new arena to play that role again. Neil Patrick Harris is already champing at the bit to tear him up at the next Tony Awards ceremony.
While the idea of a boxer standing before the footlights telling his life story may seem an unprecedented novelty, the truth is that pugilism and the American theater have been in bed together from the very beginning. The idea of these two areas of amusement being totally cheap car rental in atlanta segregated from one another is far newer. Library of Congress James J. Gentleman Jim Corbett in 1890.
The common birthplace of these estranged siblings was the 19th-century saloon. In entertainment strips like New York's Bowery and San Francisco's Barbary Coast, illegal exhibitions of bare-knuckle boxing (the only kind they had back then) were frequently staged in the back rooms of local watering holes alongside variety entertainment like clog dancers, Irish fiddlers and sultry, singing waiter cheap car rental in atlanta girls. This was the precursor of vaudeville a wild and disreputable scene, but patronized by practically everybody.
In the 1880s and '90s, variety was cleaned up. Vaudeville was moved out of saloons and stripped of all associations that might be considered inappropriate for women, children and those with highly moral sensibilities. While it was now unthinkable for something as violent as a pugilistic demonstration to take place on a theatrical stage, it did become common for the heroes of the sport to pursue lucrative second careers as monologists, talking about their experiences, and even becoming stand-up comedians of a sort.
John L. Sullivan "the Boston Strong Boy" was one of the first to make this leap. A holdover cheap car rental in atlanta from the bare-knuckle days, he had squandered much of his fortune during years of drunken carousal. His stage presentation doubled as a cautionary tale and temperance lecture. Sullivan's "descent" cheap car rental in atlanta into vaudeville was an act of desperation; he needed the money.
Conversely, the man who unseated him as world champion in 1892, James J. "Gentleman Jim" Corbett, took to the stage like a duck to water. A garrulous personality (and perhaps a bit brainier than many who make their living with their fists), Corbett was not only a gifted storyteller, he also acted in plays, comedy skits, silent movies and minstrel shows.
Almost all of the top boxers followed the lead of these early champions, channeling cheap car rental in atlanta their energies into show business when their power in the ring began to wane: Jack Johnson, Jack Dempsey, cheap car rental in atlanta Gene Tunney and Max Baer among them. Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom was too late for vaudeville, so he went straight into films and started his own nightclub. And as anyone who has seen "Raging Bull" knows, Jake LaMotta spent some of his last years as a stand-up comedian.
Other notables started out as boxers but went on to find greater fame and success in vaudeville and show business. Among these were George Fuller Golden (founder of the White Rats, the vaudeville performers union, a precursor cheap car rental in atlanta to Actors' Equity), Rags Ragland cheap car rental in atlanta and George Raft. Ed Sullivan had been a boxer before becoming a sportswriter, then a columnist, then a variety show producer. The headline of a review in The New York Times, dated Oct. 19, 1917, for a show featuring the boxer James J. Corbett.
The close kinship between the ring and the stage was a key part of Broadway's Runyonesque culture at least through the mid-20th century, when musical theater, horse racing, newspaper columns, burlesque cheap car rental in atlanta and a midnight corned beef sandwich at Lindy's were all woven together into one colorful fabric. And boxers have occasionally dabbled in show business since. cheap car rental in atlanta Certainly Muhammad Ali was a master of television, and even starred in his own cinematic cheap car rental in atlanta autobiography . But the cultures of live theater and the boxing arena had parted ways by the 1960s.
Thus, while it may seem that Mr. Tyson is only pulling a stunt "doing a Shatner," to coin a phrase he is actually partaking of a grand old tradition, stepping into the shoes of mighty forebears to whom he has been compared in other ways.
I think such cross-fertilization is vital. It prevents the theater from becoming isolated, self-referential and out of touch with the culture at large. And as I say, there is plenty of precedent in mounting a show like Mike Tyson: The Undisputed Truth.
On the other hand, some may wish the Longacre Theater was available to house a drama or musical comedy that week. Mr. Tyson's show will sell tickets, but it won't employ many actors, musicians or craftspeople.
cheap car rental in atlanta Trav S.D. (Travis Stewart) is the author of No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, cheap car rental in atlanta the coming Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to YouTube and the blog Travalanche . New York City , Theater , Boxing , Mike Tyson , Theater , Theater Talkback Related Posts From ArtsBeat Theater Talkback: Numbers That Stopped the Show on Tony Night Theater Talkback: Up Close, Feeling Very Personal Theater Talkback: An Actress Makes a Choice and Two Others May Benefit cheap car rental in atlanta Theater Talkback: Against Ovation Inflation Theater Talkback: Live and Laughing Previous Post Sonny Rollins Is Big Winner at Jazz Awards Next Post Stolen Cultural Treasures on Display in Paris Search This Blog Search Previous Post Sonny Rollins Is Big Winner at Jazz Awards Next Post Stolen Cultural Treasures on Display in Paris Follow This Blog Twitter RSS In the Spotlight The Animated Life of Seth MacFarlane, From Family Guy to Ted Charlie Sheen Talks About Anger Management and Anger Management The Mad Men Season Finale: cheap car rental in atlanta Series Creator Matthew Weiner Discusses The Phantom Theater Talkback: Numbers That Stopped the Show on Tony Night That s News to Him: Aaron Sorkin on The Newsroom and His Steve Jobs Screenplay Categories Art Design
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Anthony Tommasini explores the qualities that make a classical composer great, maybe even the best of all time. Video » Vote » Reader Comments » Top 10 Composers? Been There, cheap car rental in atlanta Done That. What About Poets? Top 10 Composers: A Young Reader Who Responded Is Now on Video Top 10 Composers: A Young Reader Responds More Arts News Features Movie Review: 'Magic Mike,' by Steven Soderbergh, With Channing Tatum By MANOHLA cheap car rental in atlanta DARGIS
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