Letter: Nashville, Tennessee to Ben Stein, Macon, Georgia, 1928 Feb. 4

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.