T.O.B.A. time : black vaudeville and the theater owners' booking association in jazz-age America / Michelle R Scott.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Scott, Michelle R., 1974- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Performing arts--United States--Management.

Performing arts.

Performing arts--United States--Marketing.

African Americans in the performing arts.

Theater Owners' Booking Association--History.

Theater Owners' Booking Association.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiv, 264 pages, 2 unnumbered pages) : illustrations, portraits

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Urbana : University of Illinois Press, [2023]

Biography/History:

"Michelle R. Scott is an associate professor of history at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She is the author of Blues Empress in Black Chattanooga: Bessie Smith and the Emerging Urban South."--Page [265].

Summary:

"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. Clear-eyed and comprehensive, T.O.B.A. Time is a fascinating account of black entertainment and black business during a formative era."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction: "They Called It T.O.B.A."

Chapter 1. "Whistling Coons" No More: Race Uplift & the Path to T.O.B.A.

Chapter 2. Hebrew, Negro, and American Owners: Black Vaudeville and Interracial Management

Chapter 3. T.O.B.A Forms: The Interracial Business Plan for a New Negro Business

Chapter 4. The Multiple Meanings of T.O.B.A: The Performers' Perspective

Chapter 5. A Responsibility to Community: Circuit Theaters and Black Regional Audiences

Chapter 6. "Trouble in Mind": The End of T.O.B.A. Time

Epilogue: T.O.B.A.'s Legacy

Appendix: T.O.B.A. Circuit Theaters.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Scott, Michelle R., 1974- T.O.B.A. time

ISBN:

9780252054037

0252054032

OCLC:

1344427969