Do we have records of how long people's shows generally were, in terms of time? I know lots of sources for the items of many top shows, but I can't recall seeing the lengths usually discussed.

Most theatre shows are about 2-2.5 hours with an interval now. Were they much longer in the early to mid-1900s, or about the same as modern shows? I was looking at Thurston's programme, it's either a lot performed quite rapidly, or quite a lengthy show.

Two intervals seemed quite standard, too, which I'm not sure was for the patron's benefit or the performers?

Thank you.

In Max Holden's book "Programmes of Famous Magicians" he gives the running time of the programmes for some (not all) of the entries. For example , Holden's account of Blackstone's show in May of 1935 in New York City notes that it ran 40 minutes.


(the entire Blackstone show description runs 1-and-a-half pages -- he did a lot of magic in those 40 minutes!)


Holden tells us that Thurston's act presented in Philadelphia in 1935 ran 45 minutes.


He notes that John Booth's night club act was 10 minutes -



Cardini's act was 12 minutes -



Paging through the e-book edition again now (it's available at Lybrary.com) it seems like the majority of the acts described do NOT have the running time noted , but some do. https://www.lybrary.com/programmes-of-fa......229.html


Another source to look at would be entertainment industry trade papers like Variety , which are more likely to note the running time of an act.


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Thank you David. I should have checked the Holden book. I'd have lost money on a Thurston show running way under an hour. Wonder if all the big golden age touring acts ran for an hour or under? I always thought a Houdini show in his prime was a full evening (minimum of 2 hours). Perhaps I'd be wrong on that too.

I think in the 1910's and 1920's the big illusion shows like Thurston's probably ran 2 hours. By the mid-1930's when Holden compiled his book on the programmes of famous magicians many of the big illusion shows had scaled back to play in what remained of vaudeville , often combined with movies, so their show's running time had to be abbreviated. Of course, most of the vaudeville and "club" magicians like John Booth, Cardini, LePaul , Fred Keating, etc. were always in that 8 - 15 minutes time range.