 | T.O.B.A. Time: Black Vaudeville and the Theater Owners' Booking Association in Jazz-Age America 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 (1920-1931), 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-eyed and comprehensive, T.O.B.A. Time is a fascinating account of black entertainment and black business during a formative era. Michelle R. Scott is an associate professor of history at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She is the author of Blues Empress in Black Chattanooga: Bessie Smith and the Emerging Urban South . |
