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The Vaudeville Managers Association (VMA) 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 (WVMA) 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 RKO Pictures.
References
- ↑ Elliot Norton (1978), Broadway Down East: an informal account of the plays, players, and playhouses of Boston from Puritan times to the present : lectures delivered for the National Endowment for the Humanities, Boston Public Library Learning Library Program, Boston: Trustees of the Public Library of the City of Boston, ISBN 0-89073-055-5, OCLC 3843437, OL 4720054M, 0890730555
- 1 2 Donald C. King (2005), The Theatres of Boston: a Stage and Screen History, Jefferson, N.C: McFarland & Co., ISBN 0-7864-1910-5, OL 3392044M, 0786419105
- 1 2 After the RKO-Boston closed, "Cinerama came in Christmas week of 1953 and stayed until around 1969." (CinemaTreasures.org. RKO Boston Theatre, 614 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02111. Retrieved March 6, 2012)
- ↑ Anthony J. Yudis. "Lafayette Place inspires revitalization; 5 old buildings in lower Washington Street marked for rehabilitation." Boston Globe, November 28, 1982
- ↑ Frank Cullen; Florence Hackman; Donald McNeilly (2004). Vaudeville old & new: an encyclopedia of variety performances in America. Psychology Press. pp. 17–. ISBN 978-0-415-93853-2.
- ↑ Ernie Santosuosso. "Big bands then and now fans danced in the aisles." Boston Globe, November 22, 1987: 117
- ↑ (Additional environmental data: construction of new federal office building, Boston, Suffolk county, Massachusetts, 1979, OL 24162180M )
