footlights and onto the stage of his own accord, and introduced himself to Paul and the audience, announcing enthusiastically that he had never been in such a theatre atmosphere before. He declared it was like a huge house-party and he loved it", recalled Balaban. Starting at Chicago's McVickers (a theatre that competitor Paramount/Publix had asked B&K to manage) where he played for a year, Ash moved to the B&K's Oriental for another two years, before leaving for New York in mid-1928. In May of that year, Variety determined that Ash had appeared 4,500 times in three years in Chicago, playing to 14,700,000 admissions for a total of approximately $6 million at the box office. High priced talent During the active years of preparing the stage productions, Balaban's right hand was Morris Silver, who made trips to New York to secure talent. Silver met Abe Lastfogel of the William Morris Vaudeville Agency, and urged Balaban to meet him. Balaban put the meeting off for many months until Lastfogel met him unexpectedly and invited him to see some acts. The men had an immediate bond. Soon the agency was providing $100 acts as well as $10,000 attractions. Balaban later became acquainted with "Senior [William] Morris", and recalled that Morris and Lastfogel's "devotion and understanding took them out of the vaudeville-agency class, and much of the B & K stage-show success was due to them because they worked as if they were my partners." Later, Balaban would convince Paramount head Adolf Zukor to buy a half-interest in the William Morris Agency. Publix merger By 1924, as B&K had become the most profitable movie theatre chain in the business. and acknowledged as a leading motion picture exhibitor, a merger was being considered with a film company. Beginning with taking over the McVickers, the Balaban brothers' relationship with Paramount/Publix had deepened. In 1926, B&K merged with Paramount/Publix in a multimillion-dollar and stock swap deal. Sam Katz moved to New York to begin transferring the B&K system of theatre management to all Paramount Theatres across the nation. However, with the advent of the 'Talkies', by 1929, major theatres were systematically abandoning stage shows except in the largest houses. Short recordings of top vaudeville acts began to replace the high priced live talent in a strategy to lower costs and raise profits. Tributes In February 1929, Variety dedicated an issue to A.J. Balaban—a tribute the publicity-shy executive