Description
Book SynopsisBlack 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 (19201931), 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
Trade Review"Clarifies the important role African American entrepreneurs played in promoting entertainment by and for Black people during a transitional period in American show business history. . . .
T.O.B.A. Time is an excellent addition to [the University of Illinois Press] catalogue." --
NewCity Lit"In clear and precise prose Scott chronicles the coalescence of Black vaudeville and how T.O.B.A. helped establish and nurture the initial flowering of what became the incalculably influential Black entertainment industry. Readers who enjoyed
Entertaining Raceby Michael Eric Dyson and
Little Devil in America by Hanif Abdurraqib will find Scott’s unique history compelling. " --
Booklist"Michelle R. Scott's
T.O.B.A. Time: Black Vaudeville and the Theatre Owners' Booking Association in Jazz-Age America is a scholarship of the highest order. It provides an in-depth analysis of an organization that played an important role in providing a space for entrepreneurs and talented individuals to forge an independent role for themselves in segregated America. Scott effortlessly combines the minutiae of a multifaceted activity such as vaudeville with the broader currents which were operating in America in the early decades if the twentieth century." --
British Journal of Industrial Relations“Scott’s meticulously researched and exquisitely detailed account reveals the broad impact of the T. O. B. A. circuit and the complexities of its organization and operations. The discussions of individual performers--famous and obscure--and their experiences as they worked the circuit are riveting. This is a benchmark book in theater studies and the definitive account of this fascinating institution.”--Allyson Nadia Field, author of
Uplift Cinema: The Emergence of African American Film & The Possibility of Black Modernity Table of ContentsPreface
Acknowledgments
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
Notes
Bibliography
Index
