This book maps the intriguing story about how the tycoons of the two most powerful circuits, Keith-Albee in the East and the Orpheum in the West, conspired to control the big time. Despite the battles between the performers and the circuit moguls, the vaudeville wars forged an electrifying entertainment that at its zenith brought joy to millions.

Prologue PART ONE: ORIGINS OF THE KEITH CIRCUIT, 1883-1892 Farm Boy to Circus Grifter On the Bowery 'Well, Sam, I'd Rather You Would' 'The Die Was Cast, I Was to Be a Showman' 'Cleanliness, Comfort, and Courtesy' PART TWO: ORIGINS OF THE ORPHEUM CIRCUIT, 1887-1900 San Francisco's Orpheum Walter's Comeback PART THREE: UPSTAGING TONY PASTOR, 1893-1894 The Dean of Vaudeville The Battle at Union Square PART FOUR: EXPANSION, 1894-1900 Quadruple Circuit Martin Beck and The Great Orpheum Circuit PART FIVE: CONSOLIDATIONH AND REVOLT, 1900-1901 Association of Vaudeville Managers The White Rats Strike PART SIX: VAUDEVILLE BATTLES, 1902-1909 Strong-arm Tactics The Combine and Ubo Morris Challenges the Ubo The Blacklist PART SEVEN: VAUDEVILLIANS VS. THE COMBINE, 1910-1911 The Vaudeville Machine Grievances Broadway Sime and the British Lion PART EIGHT: ALBEE TAKES CONYTOL, 1912-1919 How Albee Stole the Palace Albee's Company Union Mountford Strikes Back PART NINE: OMINOUS WARNINGS, 1920-1926 The Small-Time King The Orpheum Responds PART TEN: THE DEMISE OF THE BIG-TIME, 1926-1930 What Is Wrong with Vaudeville? Kennedy's Takeover The Curtain Descends

ARTHUR FRANK WERTHEIM served as the Director of Development Communications at UCLA, USA, from 1984 to 1997 and also as a Visiting Scholar in that University's Department of Film and Television from 1992 to 1995. He has published articles and book reviews in the Journal of American History, The American Historical Review and the Journal of Popular Culture.