Repertory companies, both those in residence and those on tour, featured several actors who rehearsed multiple plays which were performed in rotation, adding and removing shows from their repertoire over time.
Combination companies took advantage of this fact by specializing each asset of the company—actors, rehearsals, scenery, properties, costumes and personnel—to tailor to the needs of the one play being performed (Londré).
American actor Joseph Jefferson claimed that both he and Charles Wyndham independently established the combination system in 1868 with their productions of Rip van Winkle and The Lancers, respectively.
Many early touring companies found success by exclusively performing renditions of the immensely popular Uncle Tom's Cabin, an anti-slavery novel published in 1852 by Harriet Beecher Stowe.
Most of the combination companies in the United States rehearsed and began their tours in New York City, which contributed to the early success of what would eventually be known as Broadway theatre.
The combination company system was so successful throughout the United States that Dion Boucicault, an Irish actor and playwright, brought it to England for the first tour of his play The Colleen Bawn in the 1860s (Somerset-Ward).
Local managers struggled with finding a continuous flow of touring companies, because it required them to take multiple trips to New York to make deals with producers.
Leavitt was the manager of a popular theater in San Francisco and is given the credit of developing “loosely organized circuits” into centralized booking agencies, which controlled the theatre in large segments of the country (Poggi 11).
The death of the road started happening after 1915 due to sinking profits, increased travel expenses and lower quality touring productions (Toten Beard 37).
Theater began to be based in New York with no intentions of touring, because the Syndicate monopoly had been corrupted and was producing low art productions (Toten Beard 37).
Also the rise of motion pictures drew audiences away from touring shows, because they offered the same stars and entertainment but at a cheaper price and more diverse productions.