ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 examines the emergence of the earliest depictions of Irish-American characters in popular live performances. It begins by considering stage Irish stereotypes that rose up in conjunction with blackface performances in minstrel shows and in vaudeville. Irishmen dominated the minstrel stage as performers and subjects, eventually evolving characters that would endure as caricatures that would haunt American popular culture for the next century. This chapter also explores the significance of Irish characterization beyond the theater in other forms of early show business, including the dime museum, the freak show, the circus, the wild west show, the fair, and the amusement park. Explored is the appeal of Irish attractions to American audiences and to savvy businessmen like P. T. Barnum and Buffalo Bill Cody who saw opportunities in the Irish. Often, these early representations of Irishness encouraged cultural perceptions of the Irish as different, savage, exotic, and inferior. Yet, these early forms of popular culture also offered Irish performers opportunities to influence public thought in an unprecedented way.
