Performing Arts
The Humbugs of the World
Read by LibriVox Volunteers
P. T. Barnum
P. T. Barnum exposes some of the chief humbugs of the world with his usual entertaining style. He looks at medicine and quacks, ghosts, witc…
Herrmann's Book of Magic
Read by LibriVox Volunteers
Alexander Herrmann
Black Art Fully Exposed.A complete and practical guide to drawing-room and stage magic for professionals and amateurs, including a complete …
A Dialogue Concerning Oratory, or the Causes of Corrupt Eloquence
Read by Leni
Publius Cornelius Tacitus
The scene of the Dialogus de Oratoribus, as this work is commonly known, is laid in the sixth year of Vespasian, 75 a.D. The commentators ar…
Institutio Oratoria (On the Education of an Orator), volume 1
Read by Leni
Marcus Fabius Quintilianus
Marcus Fabius Quintilianus was of Spanish origin, being born about 35 A.D. at Calagurris. At Rome he met with great success as a teacher and…
The Birth of Tragedy; or, Hellenism and Pessimism (Version 2)
Read by John Van Stan
Friedrich Nietzsche
This is one of Nietzsche's early academic writings - a scholarly theory about Ancient Greek theatre, specifically tragedies. In a nutshell, …
The Miracle Mongers, an Exposé
Read by LibriVox Volunteers
Harry Houdini
"A complete exposé of the modus operandi of fire eaters, heat resisters, poison eaters, venomous reptile defiers, sword swallowe…
Hollywood: Its Morals and Manners
Read by Chuck Williamson
Theodore Dreiser
Serialized in Shadowland from November 1921 to February 1922, Hollywood: Its Morals and Manners is Theodore Dreiser's shocking four part exp…
Stories From Wagner
Read by David Wales
J. Walker McSpadden
Eleven stories of eleven operas by Richard Wagner: Das Rheingold. Die Walküre. Siegfried. Götterdämmerung. Parsifal. Lohengrin. Ta…
Just Me
Read by Pamela Krantz
Pearl White
Perhaps the first memoir written by a film celebrity, Pearl White's Just Me gives a first-person account of the actress' rise to stardom. Wh…
Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring
Read by LibriVox Volunteers
Professor Louis Hoffman
This "how-to" book covers everything for the 1800's illusionist, from stage presence & dress, program and stage arrangement, t…
Maccabe's Art of Ventriloquism and Vocal Illusions
Read by LibriVox Volunteers
Frederic Maccabe
This manual offers instructions on how to become a ventriloquist. Starting out from a general introduction of ventriloquism, it explains how…
The Art of Stage Dancing
Read by LibriVox Volunteers
Ned Wayburn
Ned Wayburn, a popular and outstanding choreographer of the early 1900's, writes about the different styles and requirements of dancing and …
Tea-Cup Reading and Fortune-Telling by Tea Leaves
Read by LibriVox Volunteers
A Highland Seer and Lillian Shearon
Reading the Cup is essentially a domestic form of Fortune-telling to be practiced at home, and with success by anyone who will take the trou…
Intimate Talks with Movie Stars
Read by LibriVox Volunteers
Edward Weitzel
A collection of interviews originally published in Moving Picture World that aims to give the movie-mad public "intimate pen pictures o…
Stories From The Operas
Read by LibriVox Volunteers
Gladys Davidson
"Owing to the appreciation which has been accorded to my three series of "Stories from the Operas," it has been decided to re…
There's Laughter in the Air! Radio's Top Comedians and Their Best Shows
Read by LibriVox Volunteers
Jack Gaver and Jack Gaveranddave Stanley
There's Laughter in the Air takes readers on a sidesplitting romp through the world of old-time radio comedy. It gives a brief history of th…
Struggles and Triumphs, or Forty Years' of Recollections of P.T. Barnum, writte…
Read by LibriVox Volunteers
P. T. Barnum
The 1873 edition of the autobiography of the founding genius of the "Greatest Show on Earth," P.T. (Phineas Taylor) Barnum. It d…
Screen Acting
Read by Amanda Friday
Mae Marsh
Silent film star, Mae Marsh, recounts her life as an actress in this publication, what she deems as being the answer to thousands of letters…
Buffalo Bill from Prairie to Palace
Read by LibriVox Volunteers
John M. Burke
William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody is one of the legends of the American western frontier. As a teen he rode for the pony expr…
Coffee Break Collection 012 - The Performing Arts
Read by LibriVox Volunteers
Various
This is the twelfth collection of our "coffee break" series, involving public domain works that are between 3 and 15 minutes in le…