Thursday, August 04, 2005

Orton Bros. Circus 1916/ William P. Hall


I have told this story many times and it would make an interesting book in itself. Like the musical "Chicago" it has all the things near and dear to our hearts "greed", "violence" and "sex". The villian would be William P.Hall pictured at his Circus Brokerage in Lancaster, Mo.who playing on Orton's vanity, explained that a man of his stature should put his show on rails. Previously during the winter months the Ortons would buy parcels of property in the Des Moines area upon which they constructed houses themselves. Aware of this, Hall insisted that this serve as collateral. I'm sure you can see where this story is headed.

Posted by Buckles at 8/04/2005 07:19:00 AM

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

He even looks like a villian. I assume the Orton's were part of a long line of showmen who were "taken" the same way. I always wondered about the endless stream of shows framed at Hall's that ended up back there when a season went bad.

04 August, 2005 11:42
Anonymous said...

Thanks for this, Buckles. Reminds me that I should re-read "Gus the Great" one of these days. It's a fine novel and even better when you know the context of the main characters.

06 August, 2005 23:39

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