Saturday, March 29, 2008

Wm. P. Hall Animal Farm 1915 #1 (From Buckles)


Scan000011013, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

William Preston Hall "Horse King of the World".

Posted by Buckles at 3/29/2008 07:12:00 AM

4 comments:

Bob Cline said...

According to one of the local newspapers, the Lancaster Excelsior, "Matt Goodwin, the artistic show and scenic painter is doing some attractive animal painting and decoration on Wm. P. hall's fences enclosing his wild animal quarters."
Dated March 31, 1916.
Bob

29 March, 2008 11:33
Anonymous said...

Bob, you mentioned that at the time of his death in 1932 Hall's estate reported debts of $60,000 -- which I presume reflected the failing fortunes of the small to mid sized shows he dealt with during those early Depression years. But given his reputation as a shrewd operator, was any value given reflecting his properties, equipment and animals on hand, and outstanding debts owed to Hall by shows still on the road? I guess I'm wondering if his fortunes had "fallen" or if the $60,000 was a short term cash flow issue? I'm curious, over the years how many elephants did Hall import directly from India and elsewhere?

29 March, 2008 12:40
Bob Cline said...

Hi Ben,
While I have learned a lot about the Hall dealings through all the letters and contracts that were saved and now stored at the Circus World Museum Library, the contracts I found in Lancaster and the newspapers, I think I'm fairly safe in saying, I really don't know a lot about what all he touched.
For me, one of the most mysterius items is all the mining photos from Missouri in the Hall papers at CWM. True, they mined in Missouri but I've not found a news item yet that relates Mr. Hall to the mining so that's a big question.
Some of his business savvy is shown in a Fred Buchanan example from 1931. Fred Buchanan had his Robbins Bros. Circus out. Fred Buchanan sold Wm. P. Hall his elephants. Mr. Hall then leased Fred Buchanan elephants for the 1931 season. The show went broke and Mr. Hall got all the equipment and animals back but still was owed $9,730.00. So he sued Mr. Buchanan. They had a Sheriff's sale at the Hall farm and Mr. Hall bought it all for $400.00. He now has the entire attachment free and clear in his name and still has the $9,730.00 less the $400.00 purchase price to collect yet. Now whether he ever collected it or not remains a mystery as well.
He had a tremendous amount of land holdings and all of that went through probate and eventual sales with the family buying back many key parcels.
The greatest detriment to learning more about William P. Hall is that he had a photographic memory and remembered things for a long time in great detail. As a result, a lot of items of interest are not written down. He kept no records at all except for his 1905 show. Those records are at the CWM Library as well.
Was he cash poor but asset rich when he passed away? I have no idea. The crumbling economy certainly had alot to do with it. Historians have speculated if he would have stayed with the horse business and left the circus alone if the outcome would have been the same?
He was a wheeler and a dealer. It was nothing to buy an elephant today and have it leased somewhere with in a week. The 5 act of elephants on the Barton & Bailey show in 1915 came off the road to the Hall farm and were out the door two days later to join the Hugo Bros. Circus.
As for his importing of elephants, YES, he did but how many is another Question. Art Eldridge, one of Mr. Hall's elephant men, returned from India in May of 1914 after having been in India for a while to oversea the round-up and selection of elephants. On May 29th, 7 baby elephants arrived. He also bought elephants from the Selig Studios on a few occassions. He directly imported 8 elephants in 1923. He also bought and sold one or two elephants here or there from and to other show owners. He was known for having a slew of male elephants over the years. My elephant records follow 105 different elephants from the Wm. P. Hall farm. I'm sure Buckles could add considerably to that account.

I hope that answered some of your questions, Ben. Take care out there.
Bob

29 March, 2008 18:05
Bob Karczewski said...

Buckles,
Did your Dad ever say what Mr. Hall was like to work for? Was he a good boss or a bad boss?

29 March, 2008 20:45

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