Variety Shows

State's Mates' variety shows featured group and solo acts.  This State's Mate decided to exhibit her talent at singing.

One of the acts in the 1955 talent show featured State's Mates members dancing as "high steppers."

The 1961-1962 talent show was themed "We're Going to the Moon!"  Here, a State's Mate member poses next to a rocket ship.

In 1958, State's Mates celebrated its tenth birthday with a variety show that aimed to look back at the year of its founding.  State's Mates demonstrated fashions from the late 1940's, and their evolution to the present day, and also performed music pieces that contrasted swing and rock 'n roll.

The program for State's Mates' tenth anniversary variety show is a typical example of variety programs that were produced during the 1950's and early 1960's.  State's Mates members sang, danced, and even performed a skit parodying the anti-Communist investigations going on during the 1950's.

Variety and talent shows had their origins in vaudeville, which entertained by exposing audiences to a wide array of theater: pantomime, comedy, music, and dance.  In the 1940’s, they were used to entertain deployed troops, and after the advent of television, manifested themselves in programs like the Ed Sullivan Show. They were an ideal form of entertainment for groups like State’s Mates, because the members themselves could showcase things that they were good at doing.

Variety shows stressed the talents of the performers rather than audience entertainment.  This meant that variety shows could include fashion shows (especially the modeling of clothing that State’s Mates members had made), poetry, and more.  Song and dance were the most common talents, though, and State’s Mates members performed everything from traditional ballads to show tunes to popular music.

The variety shows that State’s Mates put on often had a theme to them, which interspersed individual acts with skits.  This was the case with the 1961 show, which was set on the moon, and the 1960 minstrel show.  Variety shows were a further means that State’s Mates could express themselves as talented individuals, and entertain the rest of the club in the process.

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