General English Level 5 GELEV5 Unit 05 Topic 01.doc  READING 01a The way we were - entertainment How we entertained ourselves Music Dancing At the turn of the century, between 1890 and World War I, "Ragtime" was a popular style of music. It was mainly written for the piano, with a lively beat. Jazz was also popular. Jazz is an American music style which originated in New Orleans, in 1900. First played by black musicians, it spread throughout the whole world and strongly influenced 20th century music. Balls were important social events in the days before radio and television. 1910 marked the beginning of modern ballroom dancing. Also, the new kind of popular music, Ragtime, greatly changed the way people danced. A new generation of dancers began swaying to Ragtime tunes, since they were now wearing looser and more comfortable clothes. Theatre Television Stage musicals, were popular, and so too was vaudeville theatre. Vaudeville was a stage show with singers, chorus line dancers, acrobats and comedians. The first television sets had a display (TV screen) which gave a blurry reddish- orange picture about half the size of a credit card. They did not begin appearing in suburban living rooms until the 1940s and 1950s, when neighbours would gather in front of the screen to watch the first black and white shows. Most people did not own colour televisions until the 1960s. Movies Radio At the turn of the century, movies were black and white. They were also silent. Live music accompanied the pictures and most stories were comedies, romances or adventures. One famous actor was Charlie Chaplin. His first film, "Making A Living", was filmed in 1914. In 1909, the first radio equipment was used to broadcast the voice of Enrico Caruso from the Metropolitan Opera. By the 1920s, a number of radio stations were broadcasting music into people's homes. 151 QUESTLANGUAGE