Power and Greed: Monopolies, Mergers, and Cartels on the American Stage

Since the second half of the 19th century, live entertainment in the United States has been governed by monopolies and powerful business cartels.Through power and greed they controlled who could produce, book, and present live performance and legitimate theatre, affecting audiences in New York City and across North America. Far from being a historical problem, it took the botched rollout of the 2023 Taylor Swift Eras tour via Live Nation/Ticketmaster for people and Congress to question this established history, and more importantly, ask what could be done to change it via stronger enforcement of the antitrust laws to help prevent high prices and poor service suffered by concert-goers who buy their tickets online. But how did we get to this point? This is the story of the real battle for Broadway, where the men who controlled the business determined not only who produced for the theatrical and vaudeville stage but also what they produced, who would perform, where the show would play, ho