Variety show Stan Laurel revisited his music hall days when he performed at the "Royal Variety" show. In the United States, former vaudeville performers such as the Marx Brothers, George Burns and Gracie Allen, W. C. Fields, and Jack Benny honed their skills in the Borscht Belt before moving to talkies, to radio shows, and then to television shows, including variety shows. Variety shows were among the first programs to be featured on television during the experimental mechanical television era. Variety shows hosted by Helen Haynes and Harriet Lee are recorded in contemporary newspapers in 1931 and 1932; because of technical limits
Ralph Pape Ralph Pape Ralph Pape was an American playwright best known for "Say Goodnight, Gracie" (1978), "Soap Opera" (1984) and "Hearts Beating Faster" (1997). "Say Goodnight, Gracie" was produced by Douglas Urbanski and ran off-Broadway for 400 performances in 1978 and was staged in 1979 by Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company, also produced by Douglas Urbanski with Austin Pendleton directing a cast headed by John Malkovich, Joan Allen and Glenne Headly. The comedy-drama captures a generation at a turning point in 1976. Five members of the first Television Generation plan to attend their high school reunion. In New York, they gather in