Before
television or
radio, you had to get up off yer fat ass to get
entertainment, either by providing the goods yourself, or by going to the
theatre, be it of the highbrow, middlebrow, or lowbrow variety. Vaudeville was, perhaps, more towards the
lowbrow end of the scale.
The TV variety show is a translation of vaudeville to the broadcast age - acts of all varieties traveled the circuit, much as a rock band now plays the bars of the land (in vaudeville you had seats, but no adult beverages).
The comedians are remembered most now: Jack Benny, the Three Stooges, George Burns & Gracie Allen, Milton Berle, etc; their fame allowed them to make the transition to other media - film, radio, TV - that gave them access to a wider audience, plus it gave future generations access to their work in archived form. There are probably many great acts that are unknown now to the vast majority of us.