The drawings of burlesque and vaudeville acts Marsh made in the 1920s for the New York Daily News are among the first of his many images of popular theatre. The burlesque that Marsh captured can be described as raunchy and vulgar, but also comedic and satiric. Marsh’s drawings and paintings depict chorus girls, clowns, theatre goers and strippers. Burlesque was the theatre of the common people; it expressed the humour and fantasies of the poor, the old, and the ill-favoured.