Keith entered the vaudeville business in 1883, when he began booking acts at the theater in his curiosity museum. Vaudeville eventually outdrew the museum and became Keith's primary business. In 1886, he obtained a lease on the
Bijou Theatre in
Boston. He quickly expanded his theater business, acquiring the Providence Museum in 1887 (
Providence, Rhode Island), Low's Opera House (Providence) in 1888, the Bijou (
Philadelphia) in 1888, and
Union Square Theatre (
New York City) in 1893. In 1894, he opened
Keith's Theatre in Boston. In 1906, Keith merged his New York and New Jersey theatres with
Frederick Freeman Proctor, but dissolved the partnership five years later. On February 11, 1907, the United Booking Office of America was formed by B. F. Keith,
F. F. Proctor, Edward F. Albee, and A. Paul Keith of Keith & Proctor and
Percy G. Williams and
Oscar Hammerstein. The two sides maintained ownership of their respective theaters and agreed not to compete with each other, with Keith & Proctor controlling vaudeville bookings in
Boston and
Philadelphia and Williams and Hammerstein controlling
New York City. In 1909, Keith, Proctor, Williams, and Hammerstein formed the United Theatres Securities Co. with fellow theater owners Harry Davis of
Pittsburgh, Michael Shea of
Toronto, P. B. Chase of
Washington, D.C., James H. Moore of
Rochester, New York, and James C. Duffield and James Dyment of
Canada. This gave the United Booking Office control over 100 theaters. In 1911, the United Booking Office reached and agreement with
Martin Beck, which gave the United Booking Office control of vaudeville theaters in the east and Beck's
Orpheum Circuit control of the west. In 1912, Keith purchased Williams's eight
New York City theaters (Bronx, Greenpoint, Gotham, Crescent, Bushwick,
Colonial,
Orpheum, and
Alhambra). Prior to Keith's death in 1914, his 29 theaters were acquired by his son, A. Paul Keith, and the circuit's longtime general manager, Edward F. Albee. Albee took full control following the younger Keith's death in 1918. In 1928, the theaters owned by Albee and the Orpheum Circuit merged to form the
Keith-Albee-Orpheum circuit. The combined theater chain now had over 700 theaters in the United States and Canada. They had a combined seating capacity 1.5 million. 15,000 vaudeville performers will be booked through the new entity. ==Theaters==