Highbrows, Hillbillies, and Hellfire: Public Entertainment in Atlanta, 1880-1930.

By Steve Goodson. (Athens, Ga., and London: University of Georgia Press, c. 2002. Pp. [xiv], 253. $35.00, ISBN 0-8203-2319-5.)

Atlanta became a true city during the fifty years from 1880 to 1930. Rapid economic and demographic growth was not, however, achieved smoothly or without some tradeoffs. Steve Goodson's study of amusements in Atlanta during this period provides a fresh perspective on the city's movement toward modernity.

Goodson focuses on commercial public entertainments that were "staged and scripted" (p. 7)--the theater, dime museums, vaudeville, burlesque, motion pictures, classical music, grand opera, blues, country, and hillbilly music. His goals are to describe these amusements and to elucidate what they reveal about Atlanta and the New South. He also wishes to describe the ways public entertainment reflected class, race, and gender relations. Contemporary newspaper accounts provided much of his source material.

Throughout the roughly chronological discussion, Goodson highlights the ongoing tensions and contradictions as Atlanta's provincialism gave way to cosmopolitanism. Powerful Christian evangelicals lost the battle over the commercialization of the theater and other entertainments but held ground in their opposition to Sunday motion pictures. Dime museums, vaudeville, and burlesque attracted scores from Atlanta's working class, while drawing criticisms from an elite that was self-consciously attempting to establish Atlanta's position as a center of high culture. Spurred on by insecurity borne of Atlanta's location in the Deep South, the white cultural elite turned to European high culture, notably opera and classical music, yet they had a difficult time eliciting support for such entertainments even among the elite. At the same time, the city's black elite sought to distinguish itself from the black working class but could not agree on whether that goal was best pursued by embracing white culture or by nurturing its own. Meanwhile, Atlanta's white and black laboring classes, without concern for appearances or the image they were projecting, were responsible for Atlanta's development into a true cultural center of blues, country, and hillbilly music.

Goodson's coverage is much more extensive than a short review can convey, introducing the reader to a variety of bigger-than-life characters and some fascinating entertainment venues. There are, however, occasions when he seems to overstate his case for Atlanta's uniqueness, especially with respect to the social stratification of amusements and amusement clientele. He does not, for example, think that the model of public entertainment that some historians of amusements have developed--the increasing distinction between high and low culture in the nineteenth century--applies to Atlanta. His argument in this area would have been stronger had not his own evidence, and his chapter divisions, suggested the presence of at least a rudimentary highbrow/lowbrow dichotomy.

All quibbling aside, however, it is clear that Goodson more than accomplishes his original goals. Although the prose is a bit less lively than the subject matter, the author presents much that is new; and his insights, which are thoughtful and provocative, are worth the read. The book is a major contribution to the history of amusements, the history of Atlanta, and the history of the New South.

PATRICIA C. CLICK

University of Virginia