Friday, July 31, 2009

Ringling_Barnum_5_HERDS_OF_PERFORMING_ELEPHANTS_(1938)_One_Sheet_Flat_

From: Chris Berry

In one of the followup notes from an earlier posting this week there was some discussion about Ringling-Barnum's usage of the title "Combined Shows" as opposed to "Combined Circus". As Richard Reynolds pointed out - "Combined Circus" was first used during the early 1930s when Samuel Gumpertz was running the show during a time of great financial uncertainty.

As I mentioned in a followup message, John Ringling North reinstated "Combined Shows" into the title when he took control of the circus in 1938 and contracted the Strobridge Litho Co. to design a number of very powerful posters that carried that use of the title. Despite the fact that those great Strobridge lithos were used during that tumultuous 1938 season - a number of older pieces were also used on the bill car that year. This particular poster is the third treatment of this elephant artwork. It was printed by Central Print and Illinois Litho although similar designs were executed earlier by Ringling-Barnum by both Strobridge and Erie.

This particular poster marks the performance of "Al G. Barnes and Sells-Floto Presenting Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Stupendous New Features" in Milwaukee, exactly 71 years ago today. Incidentally, when Chappie Fox gave me this poster over 30 years ago he told me that by 1938 he was 25 years old - and had cut back on the number of posters that he actually pulled out of store windows once the show left town. (I'm glad he saved this one!)

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fox also took quite a few photographs during this engagement that have been printed in various of his publications.

He was originally interested in horses, not the circus, and only realized later that the circus remained a safe harbor for horses until 1937.

His first circus photos weren't taken until he visited Hagenbeck-Wallace one day, maybe about 1932, but don't hold me to that year.