By Steven Gaydos Vice President, Executive Editor Exactly 100 years separate the 21st century’s global entertainment industry and the final year of the 1918-20 Spanish flu pandemic and its effects on the international show-business scene.
There’s a world of difference between then and now, but at its core, modern entertainment shares a surprising number of similarities with the showbiz of that era.
On Variety’s first cover in 1905, among the banners adorning the pillars of showbiz were “vaudeville,” “burlesque,” “parks” and “fairs.” By 1918, “picture houses” (movie theaters, in modern parlance) had become big business, but such “amusements” required person-to-person contact, usually in close — and often fragrant — quarters.
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