Theater Owners' Booking Association

Title

Theater Owners' Booking Association

Description

The Theater Owners' Booking Association, or T.O.B.A. as it became know, was a nationwide theater circuit for Black entertainers organized in 1921. It drew on the success of earlier regional circuits like the S.H. Dudley Circuit, but greatly expanded the potential reach of its artists. Many well-known Black performers appeared on T.O.B.A. stages, and their success and ticket sales helped to convince record companies to invest in the developing race records genre.

Time Period

1920s

Source

Location data taken from descriptions in Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff, Ragged but Right: Black Traveling Shows, “Coon Songs,” and the Dark Pathway to Blues and Jazz and The Original Blues: The Emergence of the Blues in African American Vaudeville.
The Theater Owners' Booking Association, or T.O.B.A. as it became know, was a nationwide theater circuit for Black entertainers organized in 1921. It drew on the success of earlier regional circuits like the S.H. Dudley Circuit, but greatly expanded the potential reach of its artists. Many well-known Black performers appeared on T.O.B.A. stages, and their success and ticket sales helped to convince record companies to invest in the developing race records genre.