The vaudeville wars: William Morris, E. F. Albee, the White Rats and the business of entertainment, 1898--1932 (B. F. Keith)

A little over a hundred years ago, the talent agent William Morris hung his soon-to-be trademark sign---an overlapping W and M---over his door, founding what would become one of the largest entertainment agencies in the country to this day. But Morris's entry into the world of entertainment was fraught with hardship. Almost as soon after he opened his agency, he had to deal with the growing monopoly in entertainment, vaudeville in particular, under entrepreneurs B. F. Keith and E. F. Albee. For the next thirty years, Morris struggled against Albee and his organization of vaudeville managers---the Vaudeville Managers Association---trying constantly to maintain some level of competition within the industry.; This study examines William Morris's contributions to the agent business and to the entertainment industry in general. Through an analysis of Morris's participation in the "vaudeville wars" of 1900--1932, along with an examination of how the struggle against monopoly in vaudeville mirrored the greater problem of "trusts" in early twentieth-century American economy, I consider how the need for competition is vital to any industry, including theater. However small his agency seemed, compared to the VMA, Morris's constant refusal to join the vaudeville monopoly marks him as an important figure in the history of the American theater business.; Morris was not alone in his fight against the managers' association. He had the support of the performers, particularly the White Rats Union, and the leading trade newspaper of the day, Variety (at that time under the ownership of its founder and editor, Sime Silverman). This assistance, from performers and from the press, is what ultimately made Morris, and his namesake agency, so successful. Morris understood the business of entertainment better than Albee did. He knew that it was the workers who made the industry, not the place of business. So, while Keith, Albee and the VMA were concentrating on securing theaters and creating touring routes, Morris used his thirty years in the business to create personal bonds with his clients, ensuring their loyalty and gaining their overall respect. Morris's close connections with performers set the standard for future agent-performer relationships and gave him the edge over the "vaudeville monopoly."...