The Columbia Amusement Company, also called the Columbia Wheel or the Eastern Burlesque Wheel, was a show business organization that produced burlesque shows in the United States between 1902 and 1927. Each year, between three and four dozen Columbia burlesque companies would travel in succession round a "wheel" of theaters, ensuring steady employment for performers and a steady supply of new shows for participating theaters. For much of its history the Columbia Wheel promoted relatively "clean" variety shows featuring comedians and pretty girls. Eventually the wheel was forced out of business due to changing tastes and competition from its one-time subsidiary and eventual rival, the Mutual Burlesque Association, as well as cinemas and cruder stock burlesque companies.

Following the lead of legitimate theater owners and vaudeville producers who organized to provide the public with quality acts and theaters with a steady stream of product, burlesque producers and theater managers in 1897 incorporated the Traveling Variety Managers of America (TVMA). The concept, credited to Gus Hill, was to mount approved burlesque shows that would progress from one theater to another in succession, as though around a "wheel". Burlesque performers would be guaranteed months of work, and theaters would not have to create or compete for shows.

The TVMA soon split into two wheels, the Empire in the west and the Columbia in the east. Sixteen managers and producers incorporated the Columbia Amusement Company on 12 July 1902 with Sam A. Scribner at the head and with principals William S. Campbell, William S. Drew, Gus Hill, John Herbert Mack, Harry Morris, L. Lawrence Weber and A. H. Woodhill. Headquartered in New York, the Columbia circuit included theaters in large cities east of the Missouri and north of the Ohio, such as Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland, as well as Toronto and Boston. Since the theaters were in the east, the Columbia Wheel was also known as the Eastern Wheel.

The Columbia organizers aimed to provide affordable shows that were acceptable to women as well as men. They advertised "clean" or "refined" burlesque. Shows had multi-act programs that included comedians, skits and variety acts and chorus girls. In August 1905 Will Rogers signed with Columbia for five one-week shows in Brooklyn, New York, Buffalo, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. In 1908 the company acquired the Murray Hill Theatre on Lexington Avenue.

Although the wheel system made the industry more stable, the shows became standardized and repetitive. New costumes and acts were expensive, and when performers became better known they often left burlesque for the legitimate theater. Performers who worked in Columbia shows included Bert Lahr, Rose Sydell, Sophie Tucker, Fanny Brice, Leon Errol, Jean Bedini, and Bobby Clark and Paul McCullough. Many of them graduated to musical comedy or Broadway as soon as they could. But as long as audiences came to see the girls burlesque remained profitable.

The Star and Garter opened in Chicago in 1908, providing "Clean Entertainment for Self-Respecting People". On 10 January 1910 the Columbia Amusement Company opened its flagship Columbia Theatre, "Home of Burlesque De Luxe", at Broadway and 47th Street in Manhattan. It was housed in the lower three floors of the Columbia Amusement Company's building. The theater, owned and operated by Columbia, was designed by William H. McElfatrick and had a capacity of 1,385. The theater was The opening of the theatre was well publicized and was attended by various dignitaries.

Under Scribner's leadership, Columbia put on respectable shows. Meanwhile, the Empire Wheel, headed by Isidore Herk, pushed the legal limits. Columbia responded by sometimes lowering its standards, especially in cities where the two wheels competed directly. In 1913 the two wheels were consolidated into the Columbia Wheel, and Scribner and Herk put on fairly clean shows.

Another independent wheel, the Progressive, filled the void left by the Empire Wheel. In 1914 Columbia launched its "No.2" circuit to compete with the cheaper shows offered by the Progressive Wheel and local stock burlesque companies. The following year, Columbia's No.2 circuit absorbed the Progressive wheel and the subsidiary circuit was spun off as the American Wheel, keeping Columbia's brand clean. Gus Hill was named president of the new entity and drove competitors out of business.