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.
Relation
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.