Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
T.O.B.A. Time: Black Vaudeville and the Theater Owners' Booking Association in Jazz-Age America

T.O.B.A. Time: Black Vaudeville and the Theater Owners' Booking Association in Jazz-Age America

Scott, Michelle R.

Paperback

Black American HistoryBlack American StudiesMusic Reference

Currently unavailable to order

ISBN10: 0252086988
ISBN13: 9780252086984
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Published: Feb 28 2023
Pages: 282
Weight: 0.79
Height: 0.94 Width: 5.98 Depth: 9.13
Language: English
Black vaudevillians and entertainers joked that T.O.B.A. stood for tough on black artists. But the Theater Owner's Booking Association (T.O.B.A.) played a foundational role in the African American entertainment industry and provided a training ground for icons like Cab Calloway, Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters, Sammy Davis Jr., the Nicholas Brothers, Count Basie, and Butterbeans and Susie.

Michelle R. Scott's institutional history details T.O.B.A.'s origins and practices while telling the little-known stories of the managers, producers, performers, and audience members involved in the circuit. Looking at the organization over its eleven-year existence (1920-1931), Scott places T.O.B.A. against the backdrop of what entrepreneurship and business development meant in black America at the time. Scott also highlights how intellectuals debated the social, economic, and political significance of black entertainment from the early 1900s through T.O.B.A.'s decline during the Great Depression.

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