page_title: Vaudeville Managers Association
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Vaudeville Managers Association / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Martin Beck, theater owner, NY
context_page_description: The Vaudeville Managers Association was a cartel of managers of American vaudeville theaters established in 1900, dominated by the Boston-based Keith-Albee chain.
  Soon afterwards the Western Vaudeville Managers Association was formed as a cartel of theater owners in Chicago and the west, dominated by the Orpheum Circuit. Although rivals, the two organizations collaborated in booking acts and dealing with the performers' union, the White Rats. By 1913 Edward Franklin Albee II had effective control over both the VMA and WVMA. In the 1920s vaudeville went into decline, unable to compete with film. In 1927 the Keith-Albee and Orpheum chains merged. The next year they became part of the RKO Pictures.
context_section_description: The theater managers continued to act independently in setting pay and competing for turf, so the main goals of the VMA were not achieved.
  After about a year F.F. Proctor left and started booking his own acts. 
  Percy G. Williams of Brooklyn refused to join, so the monopoly was not complete.
  The Western Managers Association (WMA) originated in 1903 when Meyerfield & Beck of the Orpheum arranged to provide bookings for the Sullivan & Considine theaters in the northwest.
  Various small-time circuits signed up to the WMA for bookings.
  The UBO was eventually incorporated in 1906, with the stated aim of eliminating inefficiencies and making sure there was enough proven talent to meet demand.
  It served the Keith-Albee circuit and many small-time theaters.
  The UBO had a powerful position. An agent would struggle to get enough bookings for his performers unless he signed up to the UBO, and a theater manager would have difficulty finding enough acts for his shows except by going through the UBO.
  The Western Vaudeville Managers Association (WVMA) came into existence when John J. Murdock of Chicago joined up with Beck and others, and blocked expansion of Albee's UBO to Chicago and the west.
  In a compromise, Martin Beck agreed to book acts for the Orpheum Circuit through the UBO.
  It was agreed that the WVMA would handle all bookings to the west of the Mississippi and the UBO would handle all bookings to the east.
  In Chicago the WVMA had arrangements with both the Keith-Albee and the Orpheum.
  This meant that acts could arrange coast-to-coast tours through one agency.
  In 1905 the Orpheum Circuit had seventeen theaters.
  By 1909 it had grown to twenty-seven theatres.
  Although the booking agreement held, the two main chains threatened to encroach on each other's territory. In 1911 Beck announced that he was building the Palace Theater on Broadway in Manhattan. In response Albee announced he was building theaters in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Only the Palace was built, and Albee and Keith managed to gain control of it.
  Albee had secretly acquired 51% of the Orpheum Circuit.
  In 1913 the WVMA included over ten circuits and supplied shows to over 300 theaters, mostly in the Midwest, South and West, although it advertised national coverage. 
  The chains included the Orpheum, Gus Sun, Butterfield, Allardt, Theilen, Finn & Heiman and Interstate.
  The WVMA imposed strict rules, as did the Keith-Albee circuit, to ensure that the shows were suitable for family audiences.
  "Everything of a vulgar, suggestive, profane or sacrilegious nature is forbidden..."
  The USA had 2,973 large and small vaudeville theaters by 1913.
  By 1915 Keith-Albee controlled about 1,500 theaters through the UBO. 
  They imposed their terms on acts, and disciplined those that were late or caused other problems. 
  Most performers had to accept the conditions if they wanted to play big-time theaters.
caption: Martin Beck, head of the Orpheum Circuit
exif: {}