Were there show choirs before Glee?

Leading online magazine Salon has a feature article interviewing choir director Ralph Opacic about the impact Glee is having on existing high school show choirs. A sample:

How has "Glee" warped expectations of what a show choir is? Many of us have distinct memories of being in a show choir growing up, and New Directions is basically the coolest version of that experience possible.

I think "Glee" is actually going to push show choirs into doing two things. One, is utilizing arrangements of current pop songs. And sheet music publishing companies are capitalizing on it, and "Glee" songs are now being published in choral arrangements and made accessible to show choirs. And second, it's going to push directors into expanding the amount of dance and choreography that they have in their show choirs.

I'm not sure how the Glee thing could possibly translate into anything at the high school level, since one thing they never seem to do on Glee is rehearse; they choose a song, and moments later they're performing it in harmony, from memory, with perfectly synchronized dance moves. Seems like kids inspired by that would be disappointed to find out that there's a lot of work involved. But I'm not in a high school, so I don't know.

Read the whole thing.