 Added this little gem for my musician friends. The Withers Washington Concert Band aboard the Chariot of Imilgon, surmounted by the "Golden Steed of Agragantrium" and being drawn by an elephant and eight camels. (This picture taken in Wisconsin Dells and the only article absent is a double bladed assagai.)  |
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
George F. Bailey Bandwagon 1868
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
assagai.- the slender spear of the Bantu-speaking people of Africa)
George F. Bailey had G. F. Bailey & Co's Circus from 1863 -1868. He was sole properitor. He first used this title in 1855.
In 1858-60, he used the same title but shared ownership with Gerard Quick, Richard Sands and John Nathans. In 1861, he was sole proprietor in G. F. Bailey & Co. French and American Circus.
He followed with George F. Bailey & Co.'s Circus and Menagerie 1869-1871 where he and John J. Nathans were proprietors. In 1972 he put out G. F. Bailey's Quadruple Combination and finally in 1973, his show was named G. F. Bailey's & Co.'s Circus Combined With Melville's Australian Circus.
I was hoping that some expert like Rick Pfening or Stuart Thayer would get into the wagon history here. It is possible that the origins of the Orchestmelochor wagon are seen here.
Seth B Howes brought back several wagons from England in I think 1864 and then George F Bailey imported some similar ones with Golden Horses in 1868.
Bailey and associates bought into the Barnum show in 1876 and one of these wagons was eventually rebuilt into the Orchestmelochor and went the route Barnum & London, Barnum & Bailey, the Ranch Show, Buffalo Bill-Jess Willard, George Christy (both Christy Bros and Lee Bros), Ken Maynard etc etc (with various alterations along the way).
It appeared as a ticket wagon in "Chad Hannah" and knocked around Hollywood before coming from Disney to Baraboo, where much restoration took place. The current skyboard is off an old Ranch Steer float.
Someone with the full story please speak up here.
There were two Golden Horse bandwagons in 1868, one each on the George F. Bailey and the Great European shows. Both shows were owned the second generation of Flatfoots—G.F. Bailey, Lewis June, Avery Smith, and John J. Nathans who would all later operate the Barnum show in 1876-1880. It is unclear whether these wagons were new imports in 1868 or whether historians simply have not found records of their earlier existence. In any event, the mudboard and ellipses on the sides are remarkably similar to that of a three-tiered tableau wagon imported in 1864, part of a spectacular group brought back by Seth B. Howes following his seven-year sojourn in England touring Howes & Cushing and thus suggesting a common source. Within a year or two of his return, Howes sold out to the Flatfoots and they divided up the wagons among their several shows. In 1876, one of these wagons with its side ellipses appears on the Barnum show (now managed by the Flatfoots) topped by a giant Liberty Bell for the nation’s centennial year. While a partial poster exists for the Liberty Bell wagon, evidence is scant on the use of the other Golden Horse wagon. In 1879, however, the Orchestmelochor makes its debut on the Barnum show and its subsequent history is as Dave Price describes above in his Ole Whitey contribution. The only difference between the Orchestmelochor and the earlier Golden Horse (the one Buckles uses taken in 1868 at Wisconsin Dells; no image of the second Golden Horse wagon is yet known) and Liberty Bell wagons is the carving in the center medallion. The earlier two wagon views show Mazeppa tied to the back of a wild horse; the Orchestmelochor appropriately displays a group of musical instruments.
The mystery of these wagons was unraveled by the late wagon historian Dick Conover, father of Jake (of bullhook making fame) and the late model builder Albert. During the summers of 1972-73 while an employee at Circus World Museum, I had the pleasure of being assigned to sleep in this wagon on the Milwaukee lakefront during parade time. The returning ghosts of George F. Bailey and his associates all confirmed this history late one evening while I rested on my cot.
Dick Flint
Baltimore
One of the "twins" dates to 1864, the other to 1868. The latter was fabricated for George F. Bailey and the lineage leads thereafter to the 1876 Barnum show bell tableau, the 1879 Orchestmelochor and the tableau/ticket wagon on B&B, Ranch/Willard, Christy/Lee, Maynard, etc. Pfening III completed a Conover thesis for Bandwagon, Nov-Dec 1972. By the time Disney was done with the wagon, little was left but a few carvings. The current wagon is a replica fabricated at CWM. The Great European wagon ended up on John Robinson as late as 1898.
Post a Comment