The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-05-25
There Are Marry Perpexies But It Is An Interesting Work Says Miss Celia Bloom, the First Successful
 Woman Booking Mana6er' In Vaudeville
By DOLLY DALRYMPLE

 fices in the Palace Theatre building in New York-the home of vaudeville! I got a big impression of the wheels going round in several directions at once and I thanked all the gods of
 Philistia that l was safe outside in the calm waters of ignorance. where vau- deville exists only as a dimemeory of pleasant evenings and delightful amuse-
 ment, back in my little old home town of Birmingham.
 How it was all done and what it was all about l didn't know, but I was look ing to Miss Celia Bloom, the first sue cessful woman hooking manager" in America to tell me.
 Merely glancing at the title, Booking
 Manager" the casual observer does not find that it implies much; but in the particular instance of Miss Celia Bloom, who, through her splendid ability, fine judgment and clever business acumen has achieved a unique place in the the atrical world, the term implies-won- ders.
 Vending your way up to the 'steenth floor of the big Palace Theatre build ing you'll find tucked away in neat, cozy little office, sandwiched in be- tween MT. A. Paul Keith whose name spells all that is big in vaudeville; MT. E. F. Albee, the genial Mr. J. J. Mur-
 dock, and MT. Harry Mundorf, a mere slip of a girl. working out problems, figuring out situations, calculating eff fects and making good generally, this is Miss Celia Bloom, a very remark able young woman; her every action in dicates ability; her dignity, her poise, her gentleness, her whole make up spells ability and once you've chatted with her for few minutes you know that she is capable-plus.
 It hasn't been so many years ago, for Miss Bloom is still in her twenties, that this mere slip of a girl finished her education in Chicago and took busi- ness course in one of the colleges there.
 MT: Karl Hoblitzelle, whose name stands at the head of the Lyric theatre
 in Birmingham, found this young girl
 and employed her in the offices of the big Interstate Amusement company in
 Chicago, of which he is president From
 the stenogropher's desk Miss Bloom quickly climbed to more important po- sitions, until finally recognizing what
 she could do, MT. Hoblitzelle made her
 the head and shoulders of the booking department of his business.
 For a long time Miss Bloom booked
 the vaudeville acts for Birmingham in fact all the while the Interstate Amusement company furnished enter
 tainment for MT Hoblitzelles play houses so that she has been a really
 important asset in the vaudeville world here and we regard her, now that Mr.
 Mundorf has the booking of this cir Tcuit while she has the southwestern circuit, as a first cousin once re- moved"
 It is an unusual business for a young woman to become engaged in that or hooking manager you don't know any other woman who has ever been
 booking manager'-now do you? No;
 knew you didn't; no more do |; but I'm glad I know Miss Bloom; she impressed me as being very worth while and her vocation very happy one.
 Miss Bloom is 'the man behind the gun,' so to speak. and while few people ever hear of the booking manager and fewer ever see her, they merely see the act in vaudeville and don't know how 1t is put on, or anything concerning it eX- cept that it is there for them to look at and be amused with no thought Of
 the time and the perplexity and the
 wCrry and the trouble that it mas taken
 to get it there; still Miss Bloom IS De-
 hind it all, cleverly working it out.
 Miss Blooms position may be likened
 to the chief train dispatcher of a rail-
 road, on whose shoulders falls the re-
 spcnsibility of keeping a score or more
 trains moving, avoiding collisions, and delays, and having everything work on schedule time.
 When MT. Hoblitzele told me that he
 wanted me to leave the Chicago office not so very long ago and go to New York;, Miss Bloom said reminiscently, "I hardly knew what to say. l had al- ways lived in Chicago; it was my home I knew everybody and was sort of privileged character, and when I thought of New York, so big and strange, and different, my heart almost failed me and I wanted to say no; but after consid- ering it I gave my consent and here I am, and quite delighted, too, may say"
 "Of course everything is on much bigger scale here'' Miss Bloom con tnued, and everything that is good, bad and indifferent in vaudeville comes here, so that I'm kept pretty busy, for all the time I am not in the office l am seeing new acts and trying to decide
 what to accept and what to discard Tor the Interstate circuit. It is an inter- esting game, though and I like it. All the while we chatted, sloughs and sloughs of people came and went; type writers clicked; telephones rang; agents l lOi dll SOItS Ol dClS we're WdiliH6 iOi | engagements, so that they might book | their people, and all the while the great wheels went round and round grinding some to ashes, while others were soaring upward to fame and fortune
 1 The United Booking offices might be called the clearing house" of vaude- | ville for here it is that bids are made 1 on acts and necessarily there are as general thing plenty of acts available, | but what the keen booking manager seeks is a lot of quality, for what the average salaried individual in other
 walks would consider fabulous compen-
 sation. It is on the floor of the United l Booking offices, if that expression is per mssibe, that the acts for Birmingham and other circuits are gotten. l Then again the agent of some act will drop in on the booking manager
 with the news he has seen Mr. and Mrs. or Miss So-and-So; that the act is a
 riot and is perfectly willing to fix up contract.
 1 Satisfied that the act is deserving of consideration Miss Bloom will ask: How are you going to get the act to the 1 southwest?' for that's her circuit, you know.
 "Orpheum time to Memphis, Atlanta or l New Orleans" possibly will be the agents reply, and then Miss Bloom will tell the agent how many weeks the act
 might have on the Interstate time. Now, her particular aim is to have 1 something doing at all the theatres in her circuit all of the time. so it means she is directing just as many bills as