Saturday, December 01, 2007

RBBB 1932 #3


Scan000010520, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Madison, Wisconsin, the last year John Ringling ever sat with authority in this wagon.


Posted by Buckles at 12/01/2007 06:11:00 AM

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

This wagon was built to replace the RBBB red wagon lost in the 1924 fire. It last served with the circus at the New York world's fair. Paul Ringling was inside the wagon when it was surrounded by the mob at Scranton, PA in 1938. It's preserved at the Circus World Museum, but presented in a primitive paint scheme by comparison to the elegance shown in the photo.

01 December, 2007 08:53
Anonymous said...

I first met Fred Pfening and Chappie Fox inside this wagon at Milwaukee's lake front.

01 December, 2007 09:42
Anonymous said...

Yes, but the current paint scheme at CWM is still very classy.

Does anyone know how this RBBB ticket wagon was preserved and the others weren't?

01 December, 2007 11:07
Anonymous said...

Some of the other RBBB ticket wagons were preserved. There's at least one in Baraboo and perhaps another in Peru.

01 December, 2007 15:27
Anonymous said...

Richard Reynolds adds - -

I doubt if John Ringling ran things from this wagon in 1932. He was sick when the show went out and was convalescing at the Half Moon Hotel in June and July 1932 when the cabal of investors, Gumpertz and John Kelley confronted him with the result that he gave up control to a new RBBB corporation.

He seems to have visited the show a couple of times thereafter during the season, but was never in the wagon running things.

02 December, 2007 14:22
Bob Cline said...

I don't know if it does now or not, but the ticket wagon associated with the Hall of Fame still had the right end of the fabulous front on it. It was painted blue and white striped. The last time I saw it with the front raised to show a clown figure, I believe. I can't see the picture and type this both.

The one preserved at the Circus World Museum is painted yellow and sitting on one of the Flatcars in the Wagon building up on the hill.
Bob

03 December, 2007 09:20
Anonymous said...

Steve,
It's time for you to wade in on the different ways that the decor was applied to this ticket wqagon.
How is Dawn doing?

06 December, 2007 19:43
Anonymous said...

The RBBB Red Ticket wagon and office at Circus World Museum is number 123.

The yellow RBBB Ticket wagon mentioned by Bob Cline is number 121.
There is an another RBBB ticket wagon in Baraboo. It is wagon number 122 and was the white ticket. (The white ticket was loaned to Kenneth Feld to front BARNUM'S KALEIDOSCAPE at the California opening in 1999.)

Both wagons 121 and 122 were purchased in 1935 from Springfield Wagon & Trailer Companyof Springfield, Missouri.

08 December, 2007 16:53

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