＂The New Humor in the Progressive Era defines this brand of humor and how it was practiced by comic vaudevillians from the 1880s to the early 1920s, vaudeville’s golden era. Providing a
comprehensive and wide range of comic vaudevillians, a special emphasis is placed on the comedy team and ethnic act of Joe Weber and Lew Fields; the family act of the Three Keatons; the school
act of the Marx Brothers; the combination ethnic and family act of Kate and May Elinore, known as the Elinore Sisters; and the burlesque-inspired comedy of May Irwin, Eva Tanguay, and Marie
Dressler. This diverse array of performers will be considered in relationship to Progressive-era reformers, cultural critics, and moral authorities, and their attempts to control, censure, and
regulate popular comic entertainments on the vaudeville stage＂--
