Will it play in Peoria? The phrase is believed to have originated from the popularity of Peoria, Illinois as a stop on the vaudeville circuit. It is said that acts would gauge new material by how well it was received by Peoria audiences. Peoria, Illinois has developed an unusual reputation over the decades, such that a kind of folklore has grown around the name.
The famous catch-phrase about "playing in Peoria" has origins in vaudeville or burlesque. If one were to choose the city in the United States most victimized in jokes and anecdotes by theatrical personalities, the selection of Peoria, Illinois, would be a popular, if not likely choice.
Two of the more popular quips are: "Say, I hear you got married. How did that ever happen? Oh, yesβI spent four years there one night! But the popularity of the "put down" suggests as well that the city possesses a theatrical heritage of considerable longevity.
Marine judged Peoria the way Peorians in the late 20th century usually seemed to judge themselvesβthat is, dull, banal, and provincial. Historically, however, whiskey, gambling, and prostitution gave the city a reputation as being "wide open". Only since the s was the lid put on Peoria; but the reputation, and thus the gibes, has existed since vaudeville. Peoria Ill. Nor because of the four vowel sounds that give it a nice noisy resonance. But largely, I suspect, because of the fact that it is a whiskey town and a river town and not particularly famous for what is known as the genteel tradition.
The phrase may have originated during the vaudeville era. The belief was that if a new show was successful in Peoria, a main Midwestern stop for vaudeville acts, it would be successful anywhere. Jack Mabley , writing in the Chicago Tribune , concluded that "if it plays in Peoria it has good taste," but a more apt meaning is, according to James C. Ballowe, former dean of Peoria's Bradley University graduate school, that "Peoria is a tough audience.
