Scotland and the Music Hall, 1850-1914

Book excerpt: While London dominated the wider British music hall in the 19th century, Glasgow, the Second City of the Empire, was the center of a vigorous Scottish performing culture, one developed in a Presbyterian society with a very different experience of industrial urbanization. It drew heavily on older fairground and traditional forms in developing its own brand of this new urban entertainment. The book explores all aspects of the Scottish music hall industry, from the lives and professional culture of performers and impresarios to the place of music hall in Scottish life. It also explores issues of national identity, both in terms of Scottish audiences' responses to the promotion of imperial themes in songs and performing material, and in the version of Scottish identity projected by Lauder and other kilted acts at home and abroad in America, Canada, Australia and throughout the English-speaking world.