I'm doing some research on vaudeville for a show I'm working on and came across these little linguistic tidbits. Knew the last, but the first two entymologies were new to me:

Vaudeville contributed several phrases that are still in common use. For example --

"The red carpet treatment" - Performers anxious to protect expensive costumes had bright red carpets laid between their dressing rooms and the stage. This color made it easy to see if the carpeting was really clean.

Vaude slang referred to unsophisticated comedy as being "stuck in the corn," soon shortened to "corny."

Whenever a performer got a sensational response, the next act had to work twice as hard to capture audience attention. So it was a great compliment when you were called "a tough act to follow."