Keith-Albee United Bookings Office
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The Keith-Albee United Bookings Office was a significant entity in American vaudeville, primarily associated with theatrical managers Benjamin Franklin Keith and Edward Franklin Albee. Albee, who became general manager of the Keith-Albee theatre circuit, was a dominant figure in vaudeville. By the 1920s, their circuit controlled nearly 400 theaters across the East and Midwest.12
Albee was also the president of the United Bookings Office from its inception in 1900. In 1916, he established the National Vaudeville Artists, a union that gave him considerable control over talent and production in U.S. vaudeville. This near-monopoly lasted until 1928 when the film company RKO acquired the circuit.1
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