Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Cole_Bros_TEDDY_half-sheet_panel_(1944)

From Chris Berry

By the time that this Cole Bros poster was used in 1944, the original "Teddy" had been dead for several years...killed in October of 1941 on the "World of Mirth" carnival for aggressive behavior. This poster -- along with a one-sheet flat -- was originally produced by the Erie Litho Co for "Teddy the Famous New York Hippodrome Elephant" on Charles Sparks' "Downie Bros" Circus in the 1930s. The art was reworked and retitled for Cole Bros and definitely was used in the mid-1940s (perhaps earlier...). My question is - was there a male tusker on the Cole Bros show in 1944? (I assume that if there was, it didn't measure "Four Inches Taller than Jumbo" - who I believe was about 12 feet tall...)

Posted by Buckles at 12/16/2009 06:55:00 AM

2 comments:

Ole Whitey said...

Erie made the Cole show some good deals by rehashing old designs like this. For instance, that elephant pyramid one-sheet flat was an old Sells-Floto bill.

But you don't have to have what is pictured on the poster to get by with it. We used this identical poster on Famous Cole by pasting the word "Famous" over "Bros" so the poster actually read "Cole Famous Circus."

If anybody ever made a beef about the misleading picture or copy, Mr Walters would have pointed out old Jess to them, but I never heard of any squawks.

For the most part once they get down to the lot they forget what the posters said anyway.

16 December, 2009 12:29
Bill Schreiber said...

There was a tusker bull named George that was around the old Cole Bros. Circus for a number of years. He wasn't the monster described being 12 feet tall, however.

Bill Schreiber

20 December, 2009 22:08

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