Introduction: making sense of music hall; building the halls; a community of friends - business and good fellowship in London music hall management, circa 1860-1885; provincial music hall - promoters and public in Leicester, 1863-1929; the composition of music hall audiences, 1850-1900; "managers in a small way" - the professionalization of variety artistes, 1860-1914; "it was not what she said, but the way in which she said it" - the LCC and the halls -a triumph for state regulation? Manchester morality and London capital - the battle over the Palace of Varieties.
