Vaudeville Managers Protective Organization - Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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Western Vaudeville Managers' Association Its scope and its attainments I-IE foremost booking otlices of the world is the proud claim of the XYestern Yaudeville Managers' Association of Chicago. which is not an idle boast. when one stops to con- sider that in the past ten years this office under the able leadership of the foremost men of the Vaudeville world has grown from a humble beginning till now it books more than three hundred theatres in the middle and far Vlfest and has grown from small quarters on the third floor of the Majestic Theater building to the sole occupant of three entire lloors in the same structure, the handsomest office building in the second city of the United States. Its founders and directors not only control its destinies but they also control the destinies of all vaudeville, for it is affiliated with the powerful United Booking Qffices of America in New York, The Great Grpheum Circuit, The Kohl 8 Castle Co. the big Gus Sun circuit and the Interstate Circuit.. From its head- quarters in Chicago, its interests reach out over the entire country from the Atlantic in the East to the Pacific on the Wfest, from Canada on the North and Southxvard to the Gulf of Mexico and the Mexican line.. In no section of this country of ours is this office without its representatives and its theatres. It furnishes attractions for over three hundred theatres, who give high class Vaudeville programs, located not only in Chicago but in the Whole West and South, it provides attrac- tions for innumerable Fairs and Parks and outdoor entertain- ments, its Fair, Band Club, Park and Lyceum department en- joying facilities impossible for any other booking organization for the bringing together of artists and promoters. This huge amusement mart, where one can secure anything from the most elaborate circus intact, a bill of all star acts .as big as one can wish for in a theatre, club, lodge, park or private home, to the lesser acts as are fitted to the requirements is in a pre-eminent position, in a field which has many imitators and 21

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hangers on. has to thank but one policy for its huge success and that is Fair Playf, r , t , And this little unadorned motto is' fully exemplified in all its departments from its organizers and directors down to the humblest subordinates. One has but to visit the General Qffices to see the vast ntagnitude of this huge institution. On leaving the elevator at the eleventh Hoor at the Majestic Bldg., one is met by courteous attendants, and on being ushered into the large rooms are at once struck by the whir of business activity. In every direction it is a veritable hive of industry, the click of batteries of type- writers, the merry jingle of the telephones, of which there are over titty, the sharp tap tap of the telegraph instrument, all denote the many activities of the place and the intimate relation-- ship which exists between all of the many departments of the enormous enterprise. Busy messengers and clerks rush hither and thither, the many booking agents consulting artists, arranging routes, dis- cussing the merits of different acts with Umanagers, all are busy and through it all runs the ever prevailing rule- of the associa- tion, Fair Play. ' At the fountain head of the whole enterprise is found. the exemplification of the doctrine of fair play, for no matter how small and how trivial the detail affecting any patron of the place, it is not too small for the personal attention and consideration of the officers and directors. . y . ln the company's offices are to be found vast files, indexes and exhaustive scrap books, to which the most knotty problem is referred and straightened out with no loss of time. a No act, no matter hovv humble nor how elaborate is without its record in this vast system almost, as soon as it is produced, as the agents of the vast body are constantly on the alert and re- porting the exact merits of each act as soon as seen, not only from their standpoint but also from that of the audience before whom they saw it produced. 23