Vaudeville Managers Association

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 the RKO Pictures.

The Theatrical Syndicate was formed in 1896 by Marcus Klaw, A. L. Erlanger Charles Frohman, Al Hayman, Samuel F. Nixon and Fred Zimmerman. Between them they controlled three quarters of the legitimate theaters. Touring companies who booked through the syndicate had to play only in syndicate theaters. Although the syndicate never achieved a monopoly, by 1903 it controlled most first class theater productions.

In 1900 Pat Shea of Buffalo proposed to Benjamin Franklin Keith and Edward Franklin Albee II of Boston that they should set up a similar arrangement for vaudeville. They called a meeting in May 1900 in Boston of most of the major vaudeville managers, including Weber & Fields, Tony Pastor, Hyde & Behman of Brooklyn, Kohl & Castle, Colonel J.D. Hopkins, and Meyerfield & Beck of the Orpheum Circuit of the western USA. They did not invite Frederick Freeman Proctor, Keith's main competitor, but the other managers objected to this and insisted on a meeting in New York where Proctor was invited. The Vaudeville Managers Association (VMA) was founded at the New York meeting. Keith and Albee dominated the new organization.