Forepaugh-Sells courier 1907 (From Richard Flint)

Forepaugh-Sells courier 1907, originally uploaded by bucklesw1. The Fighting the Flames phenomena was sparked, so to speak, by George C. Hale, a Kansas City fire chief in the 1880s-90s. This was an era of significant advancement in the technological and professional advancement of the fire fighting services. Hale invented the water tower and other important fire fighting devices of major importance. Most interesting of all for circus fans, he hired a former John Robinson circus acrobat as a fireman to instruct his men on skills to improve their agility on the pompier ladder--sort of a long, hooked pole (like a cane) with horizontal pegs for steps that was hooked to a window sill above enabling agile firemen to climb out a window and climb up or even swing across the exteriors of burning buildings. A national leader among US fire chiefs, Hale took a demonstration team from his department to a firemen's congress in London in 1893 and the Paris Exposition of 1900. Fully devoted to his department, Hale was unable to survive Kansas City political infighting. Soon thereafter he organized a spectacular live fire show at the St. Louis world's fair of 1904 that also featured Edison's "Life of a Fireman" movie. He then toured the spectacle while some of his lieutenants mustered their own productions, both touring and others that were resident at many of the developing amusement parks of the era. Early motion pictures exist of one of the two such shows presented at Coney Island. Interestingly, Hale also developed "Tours of the World" shows for many parks that were simulated trolley rides bouncing in place as a moving picture travelogue was shown on a screen. The Ringling-owned Forepaugh-Sells featured this Fighting the Flames as their opening display in 1907 (as shown here for Newport, exactly 100 years ago to the day) and then their Gollmar cousins acquired the spectacle for the season of 1908 using the same cover for their courier. Viewers will note that the image quality of this 10x15 inch advertising tabloid of 16 pages is less than the best. That's because printing in color from half-tone plates was still in its infancy. In addition, the registration, or the printing of the separate colors to align correctly, is not good either on my copy! Dick Flint Baltimore