Entertainment

<p><span class="deck">On the theory that the greatest show is people, George Tilyou turned a rich man’s resort into a playground for the masses</span></p>

<p><span class="deck"> For almost two decades at the turn of the century illustrated songs charmed nickelodeon audiences.</span> </p>

<p><span class="deck"> They had no chair lifts, and they called their skis snowshoes, but they were the fastest men alive</span> </p>

<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> Pilgrims and Puritans, naturally, hated the water, but by the turn of the century certain pleasures had been rediscovered</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> In the hands of a rococo Yankee named Clyde Fitch, the American stage came of age with a gasp of scandalized shock</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck"> What started as fun and games at spring roundups is now a multi-million-dollar sport called rodeo</span> </p>

<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> Could he have beaten Bobby Fischer?</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck"> AN IMPRESARIO NAMED HAMMERSTEIN SET HIS SIGHTS ON TUMBLING AN INSTITUTION CALLED THE MET</span> </p>

<p><span class="deck"> Pried loose from a furious Great Britain to meet a tragic death in the New World, this huge elephant made a fortune for his owner, delighted millions, and added a new superlative to our language</span> </p>

<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> Riding to hounds has been as much of a sport among well-to-do Americans as among the British gentry</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> No other impresario ever matched the record of the indomitable Max Maretzek in bringing new works and new stars to America</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> “The world is my country, to hate rascals is my religion” he once said, and for more than forty years—before he mysteriously vanished—he blasted away at the delusions, pretentions, posturings, hopes, dreams, foibles, and institutions of all mankind. His name was Ambrose Bierce …</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> How I Beat Jess Willard</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> Jenny Lind and P.T. Barnum</span> </span></p>

<p>In the 19^th Century, white performers invented the minstrel show, the first uniquely American entertainment form</p>
<p> </p>

<p><span class="deck"> It was fifty years ago that Bobby Jones won his Grand Slam, making him the only man who ever has—or probably ever will—conquer the “Impregnable Quadrilateral” of golf</span> </p>

<p><span class="deck"> WHEN JOSEPH KNOWLES STRIPPED TO THE BUFF AND SLIPPED INTO THE MAINE WOODS IN 1913, HE HOPED TO LEAD THE NATION BACK TO NATURE.</span> </p>

<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle">Saltair, the stately pleasure dome that used to rise out of the waters of Great Salt Lake, was the Coney Island of the West.</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> Americans don’t hesitate to say anything they please about a public performance. But the right to do so wasn’t established until the Cherry Sisters sued a critic who didn’t like their appalling vaudeville act.</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> In 1913 the Ouija board dictated a novel. Twenty years later it commanded a murder. It is most popular in times of national catastrophe, and it’s selling pretty briskly just now.</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck"> Using the same bold colors that drew the rubes in to see the Giant Rat of Sumatra and the Three-Headed Calf, he painted a fanciful record of his world</span> </p>

<p><span class="deck">He built a career and a fortune out of shocking his fellow Americans.</span></p>

<p><span class="deck">Lorenzo Da Ponte, New York bookseller and Pennsylvania grocer, was a charming ne’er-do-well in the eyes of his fellow Americans. He happened, also, to have written the words for <span class="typestyle"> Don Giovanni</span> and <em><span class="typestyle"> The Marriage of Figaro</span></em>. </span></p>

<p><span class="deck">Robert Benchley, a woebegone chronicler of his own inadequacies, was the humorist’s humorist, a man beloved by practically everyone but himself.</span></p>

<p><span class="deck">Had Thomas Morton raised his maypole anywhere but next door to the Pilgrims, history and legend probably would have no record of him, his town, or his “lascivious” revels.</span></p>

<p><span class="deck"> The Florida Speed Carnivals at Daytona lasted less than a decade, but they saw American motoring grow from rich man’s sport to national obsession</span> </p>

<p><span class="deck"> Superb carvings by an obscure artisan recapture the circus world of the 1920s</span> </p>

<p><span class="deck">The dour radio comedian regarded his work as totally ephemeral, but a new generation of comics has built upon his foundations</span></p>

<p><span class="deck">For generations, it was the mainspring, the proof, and the reward of a civilized social life. Now, a fond student of the ritual looks back on the golden age of the dinner party and tells you just how you should have behaved.</span></p>

<p><span class="deck">Every spring, 30,000,000 Americans watch the Indianapolis 500. It’s the nation’s premier racing event and the pinnacle of a glamorous, murderous epic that stretches back nearly a century.</span></p>

<p><span class="deck">The video game turns 25 this year, and it has packed a whole lot of history in that time.</span></p>