The review is about Dániel Molnár’s monography on the entertainment industry in Budapest. The book discusses the history of show business (which term, in this case, includes everything from revues to variety shows and circuses to the sideshow of Városliget) focusing on the years between 1949 and 1952, but also looking back to earlier years. The main question is: Was it possible to make the entertainment industry useful for the one-party state and desirable for society at the same time during the Rákosi era? The book describes the nationalization of the show business (municipal ownership), the establishing process of Fővárosi Népszórakoztató Intézmények (Municipal Institutions of People’s Entertainment), management and control of the institutions, and the position of actors and dancers. The analysis of the transformation attempt focuses on the revues of Fővárosi Varieté (Municipal Variety) and Fővárosi Víg Színház (Municipal Comedy Theatre). However, in 1952 the genre was displaced from the program of this revue theater as well as from the interest of cultural policy.