Circus Canvas #2

RBBB 1939 big top interior set up, originally uploaded by bucklesw1. The transition to a blue big top began in 1939 with the wide center blue dome seen here that extends to just beyond the inner-most row of quarter poles of the big top; the next year's tent was solid blue. For 1941, however, Billboard reported a series of colorful changes in the tent lineup when it reviewed the show at its under-canvas debut here in Baltimore. The side show top was orange with blue sidewall, the menagerie tent red, and the big top was (to quote Billboard) "the familiar dark blue." Along with so many other changes initiated by J.R. North starting in 1938 but especially with the involvement of theatrical and industrial designer Norman Bel Geddes in 1941, these are some of the reasons that many fans loathed the new Ringling operation they were seeing. Déjà vu? Dick Flint Baltimore