Theater Owners Booking Association

Theater Owners Booking Association ( in German about booking Association of Theater Owners ), short TOBA, was an association of American Vaudeville, who offered mainly in the 1920s and 1930s shows with African-American musicians, comedians and other stage artists. The theater owners were exclusively white men who organized jazz, blues and other events for an African- American audience. The association began in 1909 with 31 theaters and had in its heyday in the 1920s, more than 100 members.

The colored artist coined the nickname for TOBA Tough on Black Artists (hard against black artists since the fees were lower than for whites ) and Toby Time (Time, time actually, was a synonym for vaudeville ). Supposedly were TOBA theater the only south of the Mason - Dixon line that offered programs for black audiences. With the Great Depression TOBA lost its importance.

The TOBA -stars included, inter alia, Ethel Waters, Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Mamie Smith, Fletcher Henderson, Fats Waller, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Josephine Baker, Cab Calloway, Count Basie, and ( at the age of four years ) Sammy Davis junior.