To the hand full of people out there who are unaware, the Ringling Show was forced into closure June 22, 1938 in Scranton, Pa. by striking members of the Teamsters Union.
The show returned to Sarasota and after a period of reorganization took part of their big top and seating, a number of their feature performers and a few menagerie attractions, including the "Pigmy" elephants and Gargantua the Great, to augment their #2 Unit, the Al G. Barnes Circus, July 11 at Redfield, So. Dakota.
This accounts for the hodge-podge of titles seen on the various wagons and flat cars. |
6 comments:
The RBBB flat cars were the familiar silver with red letters. The Barnes flats were orange with white or silver lettering.
Hi Buckles: What happened to the performers who did not transfer to the other show? Were they simply let go mid-season to scramble for whatever dates they could get or did other shows hire them to augment their performances? I've often wondered about this... Thanks!
Neil Cockerline
Minneapolis, MN
In the 1977 Nov./Dec. issue of White Tops magazine there are complete details on how this was worked out.
The only one that comes to mind off hand is that Merle Evans took over the band and Eddie Woeckner remained for a while conducting the pre show concert.
Confusion Bros. Circus.
The Barnes flats were all fishbelly Mt. Vernons, except for one Keith car. They're on the left.
The Ringling cars were Warren flats. They're on the right.
The "en route" merger of two large railroad shows was never attempted before or since 1938. At best, a couple shows were augmented in mid-season with about five car additions [Cole in 1938, Sells-Floto with Tom Mix, maybe others]. The Barnes-RBBB merger ranks as a real achievement in planning and execution, and secrecy. If anyone doubted the ability of North and his staff to that time, it should surely have changed their minds about their competency.
Several large mergers took place in circus history [Ringling and B&B; Hagenbeck & Wallace, etc.] but these all took place over the relative relaxed time in winter quarters.
Another under-appreciated action was the tragic loss of about half the Ringling show train at Cleveland in 1914. Al Ringling proved up to the task of keeping the show moving on the route. It took a huge toll on him personally and was said to be a factor in his death.
It was five cars added to Robbins in 1938 and eight cars added to Sells-Floto in mid-season 1929.
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