- Collection:
- The Blues, Black Vaudeville, and the Silver Screen, 1912-1930s: Selections from the Records of Macon's Douglass Theatre
- Title:
- Letter: Nashville, Tennessee to Ben Stein, Macon, Georgia, 1928 Feb. 4
- Creator:
- Starr, Milton
- Date of Original:
- 1928-02-04
- Subject:
- Theatre Owners Booking Association
Contracts for work and labor--Georgia--Macon
Negotiation--Georgia--Macon
Theaters--Georgia--Macon
Vaudeville--Georgia--Macon
Entertainment events--Georgia--Macon
Commercial agents--Tennessee--Nashville
African American actors--Employment--Georgia--Macon
African American actresses--Employment--Georgia--Macon
African American musicians--Employment--Georgia--Macon
Blue baby (Musical show : 1928)
Tokio (Musical show : 1928)
Brownskin models (Musical show : 1928)
Desires of 1928 (Musical show)
Douglass Theatre (Macon, Ga.)
Stein, Ben
Reevin, Sam E.
Miller, Irvin C., 1884-1967
Lenox Theatre (Augusta, Ga.)
Royal Theatre (Columbia, S.C.) - Location:
- United States, Georgia, Bibb County, Macon, 32.84069, -83.6324
United States, Georgia, Richmond County, Augusta, 33.47097, -81.97484
United States, South Carolina, Richland County, Columbia, 34.00071, -81.03481 - Medium:
- letters (correspondence)
- Type:
- Text
- Format:
- image/jpeg
text/html - Description:
- Letter from Milton Starr, president of Theatre Owners Booking Association (T.O.B.A.), a Tennessee-based booking agency from 1920 to the 1930s for African American vaudeville acts, to Ben Stein, owner and manager of the Douglass Theatre, dated February 4, 1928, responding to Stein's refusal to pay sixty percent to Irvin Miller's show, Desires, for an engagement at the Douglass Theatre. Informed of Stein's counteroffer by Mr. Reevin, probably Sam E. Reevin, manager and treasurer of T.O.B.A., Starr questions Stein's decision. He explains that arrangements have already been made for Miller to produce a show every month for T.O.B.A., and that they will all play at the Douglass Theatre according to the route that he has laid out. Starr assures Stein of the quality of the shows. He adds that Miller's shows will not play for less than sixty percent unless they get a one thousand dollar guarantee on the week, in which case they will take fifty-five percent. Starr tempts Stein with the promise of shows to come, including Blue Baby and Tokio. Starr mentions that dates for Augusta and Columbia are at sixty percent and complains that it has taken him considerable trouble to arrange the route and that Stein will wreck the route unless he agrees to the same percentage. Starr notes that these shows mean money for him and he is anxious to retain the original route. He deems impossible Stein's offer of fifty-five percent with less than a six hundred dollar guarantee. Starr assures Stein that he will make good with the shows as they are hits in the rest of the country. He hopes Stein will reconsider his decision and asks him to wire his answer. Irvin C. Miller was a pioneer producer for black vaudeville during the 1910s to the 1950s. He wrote several shows, the most well-known of which was the annual review, the Brownskin Models, Miller's answer to Ziegfeld's Follies.
Digital image and encoded transcription of an original manuscript, scanned, transcribed and encoded by the Digital Library of Georgia in 2005, as part of Georgia HomePLACE. This project is supported with federal LSTA funds administered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Georgia Public Library Service, a unit of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. - Local Identifier:
- dbr070
- External Identifiers:
- Metadata URL:
- https://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/dtrm/id:dbr070
- Digital Object URL:
- https://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/do:dlg_dtrm_dbr070
- IIIF manifest:
- https://dlg.usg.edu/record/dlg_dtrm_dbr070/presentation/manifest.json
- Bibliographic Citation (Cite As):
- Cite as: [title of item], Theater Records Series, Charles Henry Douglass, Jr. Business Records, 1906-1967, Middle Georgia Archives, presented in the Digital Library of Georgia.
- Extent:
- [2] p.
- Original Collection:
- Manuscript held by the Middle Georgia Archives, Washington Memorial Library, Charles Henry Douglass, Jr. business records, 1906-1967, box 21A, folder 215, document 15.
- Holding Institution:
- Washington Memorial Library, Middle Georgia Regional Library
- Rights:
-
Page: [1]
[Note: This document contains typewritten, handwritten, and printed text.]
[printed text:
MILTON STARR, PRESIDENT
[Note: Text is red, framed by a single black rectangular line]
T. O. B. A. [THEATRE OWNERS BOOKING ASSOCIATION]] SAM E. REEVIN, TREAS. [TREASURER] & MGR. [MANAGER]
[Note: Text is red, underlined in black, and divided centrally by an African American caricature]
Theatre Owners Booking Association]
CHICAGO OFFICE
OVERTON BUILDING
3621 S. [SOUTH] STATE ST. [STREET]
MARTIN KLEIN, MGR. [MANAGER] CHATTANOOGA OFFICE
VOLUNTEER BUILDING
SAM E. REEVIN, MGR. [MANAGER] WASHINGTON OFFICE
1223 SEVENTH ST. [STREET], N. W. [NORTHWEST]
S. H. DUDLEY, MGR. [MANAGER]
OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
BIJOU THEATRE BUILDING
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE]
[typewritten text: Feb. [February] 4, 1928.
Mr. Ben Stein
Douglass Theatre
Macon, Ga. [Georgia]
Dear Mr. Stein:
Mr. Reevin has just informed me that you have refused to pay 60 per cent [percent] to Irvin Miller's Desires of 1928 for an engagement at your theatre.
I dont know what you did with the Models when you played them, but if you did as well as all other houses, you broke all house records...
Arrangements have been made for Irvin Miller to produce a show every month for the T.O.B.A. [Theatre Owners Booking Association] and according to the route that I have laid out for these shows, they will all play your house. These shows are in a class by themselves, and this week playing Desires here I had the best week of the season.
The straight facts about the Miller shows are as follows: They will positively not play any date in the country for less than 60 per cent [percent], unless they get a $1000 guarantee on the week, and then they get 55 per cent [percent]... For a three day stand they would have to get a guarantee of $600 in order to play at 55 per cent [percent]......If you can play these shows at 60 per cent [percent], you will get Desires in a few weeks, which is the best show I have had this year.... Two weeks later you will get Blue Baby another great Miller hit, a few weeks later, you will get Tokio another Miller hit...In other words you can depend on the highest calibre show in your house every four weeks.....
After your house these shows do two days in Augusta in my house and 1/day in Columbia also in my house.. Then they play Winston Salem with a guarantee for the week of $1250... All these dates and all other unguaranteed dates that these shows play, are at 60 per cent [percent]..... At the cost of considerable trouble I have gotten this route arranged so that the shows can get in and out of the South, and unless you agree to the 60 per cent [percent], you will simply wreck the route of the shows.... I am frank to
Page: [2]
say that these shows mean money to me when they play Nashville, Augusta, Columbia and Winston Salem, and that I am anxious not to have this route busted up.
If you ask to play these shows at 55 per cent [percent] with less than a $600 guarantee, you are simply asking what is impossible. I don't see how you can fail to make good with these shows when they are the hit of the rest of the country. I do hope that you will reconsider your decision in the matter and let Desires play for you at 60 per cent [percent].
I will greatly appreciate if you will agree to this 60 per cent [percent] and wire me to this effect at once at my expense.
Thanking you in advance for your kindness in this matter, I remain,
Yours very truly,]
[Signed] [written text: Milton Starr]