About PDA Group

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PDA Entertainment Group is pleased to present to you one of the largest, most diverse comprehensive website of distinguished personalities in the world! We have over 2,500 performing artists and entertainers, including spokespeople from the worlds of politics, science, sports, literature, and theater.

In arranging for a guest speaker or performer through PDA you may select national and international leaders, distinguished, athletes, journalists, newscasters, comedians, musicians, performing artists, spoken word, celebrities of the stage and screen and observers of the contemporary scene.

All are dynamic, eloquent personalities whose ideas and actions have had an impact on the broad tapestry of human thought and endeavor.

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On our website, you will find people who will perform on the issues and the events which will affect our lives in 2020 and beyond. Our website is designed to assist you in finding programs most appropriate for the needs of your particular group. We hope you will enjoy looking through it and will e-mail or call us sometime soon to let us know more about your organization. Your account executive at PDA is trained to make recommendations that suit your interests, your own style of programming and your budget requirements.

Whether you are in the market for a superstar or a blockbuster series, a modestly priced package of events, or a single reliable program, we can provide excellent suggestions. we believe that good programming depends on thoughtful and sensitive recommendations. As our reputation depends on your success, you can be assured that we will do our best to assist you.

PDA Entertainment Group is very proud of its fine reputation. Since we are a service organization, we are constantly looking to find better ways to assist you. We see our job as a continual one that extends far beyond the time of any booking and requires that we take all steps needed to ensure the smooth successful running of your program. You have our word that we will continue to strive for excellence in the caliber of speakers, entertainers and performers we represent and in the quality of our service to you.

We are proud that PDA Entertainment Group has become one of the country’s leading entertainment agencies. We've reached the top of our profession because of our quality service and the trust and confidence you have had in us. We are grateful for the privilege of working with you and we hope to continue to do so for many years to come.

An American Tradition

Even back in the 1800’s the lecture and entertainment circuit was alive in America. In churches and halls from the Alleghenies to the Rockies, people hungry for information paid its dimes and dollars for an evening’s entertainment. Often the society into which they grouped themselves was called a "lyceum". In 1831 the American Lyceum Association, now called the International Platform Association, was founded to institute a chain of societies for weekly lectures and debates. The system flourished for years and the original lyceum format established the groundwork for our present-day circuit. Daniel Webster was the country’s leading speaker in the 1830s and was the founder and first president of the American Lyceum Association.

The first lecture bureau and entertainment agency was started in 1867 when James Redpath heard Charles Dickens discuss the hardships of lecturing in America. He decided to do something about the novelist's complaint and founded Redpath's Lyceum Bureau, which not only made life easier for itinerant lecturers and entertainers but also organized programs for winter entertainment in all the larger cities. From the beginning, James Redpath's lyceum bureau was a success and he represented such people as Mark Twain, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Charles Dickens.

In 1906, Keith Vawter originated the idea of bringing summer culture and entertainment to small towns and rural areas. He combined culture and comedy on the same platform in a traveling tent. Vawter married the respectability of the Lyceum to the spangles of the stage, naming his presentation "Chautauqua" after the cultural institution permanently established on Lake Chautauqua, New York. The "Chautauqua Circuit" separated the pulpit from the platform and substituted footlights for the religious dimness of the Sunday schoolroom. Once launched, it became a might influence on America’s entertainment, education, politics, and culture. The Chautauqua ten programs were quire varied but the lecture was the program's backbone.

Topping the list of orators were William Jennings Bryan, Robert M. La Folette and Calvin Coolidge.

The serious portions of a program were tactfully leavened by performers, magicians, impersonators and puppeteers. Our web site is a tribute to the modern day lecture platform. To us, the birth date of the "Chautauqua Circuit" also symbolizes the birth of the modern lecture bureau and the entertainment agency, the first organized booking agency to arrange appearances by dignitaries and performing artists throughout the country. PDA is pleased to continue the proud tradition of Daniel Webster, the American Lyceum Association, Redpath’s Lyceum Bureau and the "Chautauqua Circuit".

Why Choose PDA?

PDA is one of the nation’s largest lecture and entertainment firms serving the needs of business, industry, associations, organizations and colleges.
PDA has the largest selection of experts in a vast array of topics, issues and fields of endeavor.
PDA provides you with your own account executive who has many years of expertise in the lecture and entertainment industry and who can provide you with excellent suggestions to insure a successful program.
PDA provides you the best service in the industry including publicity packets, promotional kits and support services from the time you book the program until after the completion of the presentation.

PDA has the largest selection of quality speakers, well known entertainers and the largest selection of “name” celebrities in the country.
PDA has speakers and entertainers in every price range to meet your budgetary requirements.
PDA first researchs for you on our computers and then computerized lists of speakers, entertainers, performers and celebrities gives your account executive instantaneous information on availability of those programs that your you topical and budgetary requirements.
PDA provides all of these services absolutely free to you, as we are paid a booking commission by the speaker or entertainer for our efforts in placing them.