Beef Trust (burlesque)

Beef Trust, in the context of American burlesque, was a chorus line composed of large and beautiful women known as Billy Watson's "Beef Trust." Use of the phrase in American burlesque was adopted after the turn of the 20th century (around 1909) by Billy Watson (né Isaac Levy; 1852–1945), a comedian, theater manager, and stock company entrepreneur.

Watson branded the name "Beef Trust" to represent a burlesque act featuring large beautiful women (e.g., "Three Tons of Women") who performed in his burlesque musical revues. The act became nationally known as "Billy Watson's 'Beef Trust.'" The phrase "Beef Trust," in burlesque, was exclusive to Watson's shows; and the phrase – in connection with Watson's shows – was not pejorative. That is, the phrase was "founded on a belief that beauty was based on plumpness."^[1] Watson conceived and introduced the "Beef Trust" show in an era that followed a sobering reality encapsulated in a 1906 novel, The Jungle – Upton Sinclair's exposé of the Chicago stockyards,^[2] which followed a 1905 Supreme Court decision in favor of the U.S. Government – re: Swift & Co. v. United States – a decision that destroyed a monopolistic consortium (or syndicate) of large meatpacking concerns, led by the "Big Six" (Swift, Armour, Morris, Cudahy, Wilson, and Schwartzchild), known as a Beef Trust.

Watson debuted his Beef Trust act – "a chorus of thirty of the largest women ever seen on stage" – May 17, 1909, at the Bijou Theatre, Philadelphia, as an addition to his popular three-act vaudeville skit, Krausemeyer's Alley^[3] – a comedy that he had been producing, in various renditions, since 1903, when he introduced it with another of his popular skits, Life in Japan. The play was originally in two acts:^[4]

1. "Krausemeyer's Alley"
2. "Krausemeyer's Christening"

From about 1916 to about 1928, Watson produced the "Chicken Trust," a chorus line composed thin and reportedly beautiful women. They toured with his show on the Mutual Burlesque circuit.

With respect to Watson's legacy in the world of burlesque, specifically his drawing power, Sime Silverman, founding editor of Variety magazine, declared him a burlesque institution – one that "must be accepted as a foundation of the Western Burlesque Wheel," ^[5] which was also known as the "Empire Burlesque Circuit," of which, Watson was part owner.

Billy Watson of this article is not to be confused with Sliding Billy Watson (né William Shapiro; 1876–1939), a popular vaudeville comedian.^[a][6]

At least one other notable vaudevillian show, that of Coates and Grundy, used the "trust" concept; to wit: Coates and Grundy "Watermelon Trust," which ran from about 1900 to 1914. It started as one of two skits in a show ... the other skit being the "Kissing Trust." The show was part of a three-day engagement at the Academy of Music in Wilmington, Delaware, October 15, 16, and 17, 1900, featuring James Grundy, Susie Grundy, Sherman Coates, Lulu Coates, and Tenny Russell. The show was put on by Matt Flynn's Big Sensation Burlesque Company. The two skits featured James Grundy, Susie Grundy, Sherman Coates (billed as Thomas Coates), Lulu Coates, and Tenny Russell.^[b][7][8]

"The Watermelon Trust" is also the name of a popular American song composed by Harry C. Thompson, who dedicated it to Coates and Grundy. Thompson composed it in the style of a slow drag. The song was copyrighted in 1906 and published by Barron & Thompson Co., a New York music publishing firm of Ted S. Barron (né Theodore S. Barron; 1879–1943)^[9] and the composer, Harry Chester Thompson (1876–1947).^[10]

Prevalent sometime in the mid-1880s, industry trusts, in the United States – roughly described as unincorporated consortiums; that is, trusts composed of powerful industry concerns – colluded in large-scale market manipulation schemes that were deemed to be anti-competitive (i.e., injurious to the public). To stem this practice, a landmark Federal statute, the Sherman Antitrust Act, was passed by the 51st Congress in 1890.

Billy Watson's "Beef Trust" burlesque was not technically a trust. Rather, it was a contemporaneous phrase, a double entendred satirical word play that essentially branded a popular segment of Watson's production that featured large, beautiful women.^[11]

However, there were trusts within the theater industry. York University theater scholar Marlis Schweitzer in her 2015 book, Transatlantic Broadway: The Infrastructural Politics of Global Performance, highlights examples of warring vaudeville trusts across Europe and the U.S. (circa 1897). Schweitzer states that, "The formation of syndicates and trusts across various sectors of the theater industry sparked protests among theater artists, journalists, and rival managers."^[12]

Syndicates and trusts in the theater industry at the turn of the 20th-century should not be confused with the United Kingdom's Theatres Trust, a national initiative enacted in 1976 to protect and promote theatre.

1. "Krausemeyer's Alley"
2. "Krausemeyer's Christening"

February 26, 1912

Miner's Theatre – built by Henry Clay Miner (1842–1900)

312 8th Avenue, Manhattan

(northeast corner of 8th Avenue and West 27th Street)

Beef Trust: "Four thousand three hundred pounds of chorus:"

Mike Grogan, a comedic and eccentric Irish character, was originally played by Billy Spencer. Philip Krausemeyer, a wealthy Jewish character, was played by Billy Watson.

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