Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Hagenbeck Wallace CAPT. BEATTY (c.1933)

HAGENBECK WALLACE "Capt. Beatty" (c.1933)
From Chris Berry

Clyde Beatty was - by far - depicted on more circus posters than any other individual or act. The artwork on this Hagenbeck Wallace poster, printed by Erie about 1933, was also reworked for Terrell Jacobs and used on the advance of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey in the late 30s. There is also an extremely rare version of this poster for Capt. Beatty on Ringling-Barnum! As historians know, during his long career Beatty only appeared on the Ringling-Barnum Circus during the seasons of 1931-34 and then ONLY at the indoor performances in New York and Boston. As a result posters for Beatty with the RINGLING title are very scarce and only a few examples are known to have survived.

Posted by Buckles at 3/17/2010 06:59:00 AM

6 comments:

Buckles said...

I remember a framed poster in our living room in Hot Springs.
The charging lion was so close that his claws appeared to almost be combing the hair of an unfazed Clyde Beatty.

17 March, 2010 07:06
Harry Kingston said...

Buckles.
I know the poster that you are talking about with a big lion withi it's claw almost in Beatty's hair.
That one is my favorite Beatty poster and also have it hanging in my home.
Chris,
You can bet that Ringling-Beatty poster that Fred Pfening and Dave Price have it.
That one is a real collectors item for sure.
Thanks for making my day with that Beatty poster as he is my favorite circus performer.
And what a cat act and the trill of a life time to see him in the cage.
Harry

17 March, 2010 08:21
Roger Smith said...

It would be of interest to have expert accounts of paper. It's been said that equal, or closest to equal in the paper depicting Clyde Beatty was given to Dorothy Herbert. While we're at it, I'm still trusting someone will give us a true count of which performers were honored by the coveted "gold cards" issued for the 50th RBBB anniversary, for stars on all their titles. Clyde Beatty on Hagenbeck-Wallace was one, for starters.

17 March, 2010 18:52
Anonymous said...

I would almost bet that the amount of paper for Lillian Leitzel would be very close also if you did it as a year by year contest. If you look at some of the Strobridge orders from the 1920's she got top billing and a hugh amount of paper was put up.
To go a little further back, maybe Buffalo Bill could win over all of them with the number of years starting in 1884 and his last litho I think bearing his image being a Sells-floto 1 sheet in 1926,long after his death in 1917.
p.j.

18 March, 2010 00:15
Roger Smith said...

PJ: Good stuff. I hope your comments spur others with better paper knowledge than mine.

18 March, 2010 22:11
Anonymous said...

Ringling-Barnum also used a poster with sevral western characters including Buffalo Bill right in the middle in 1931, after John Ringling had acquired the Buffalo Bill title in his American Circus Corporation purchase of 1929. I believe that was the last year an image of Buffalo Bill was used on any poster prior to more modern times.
Neil Cockerline
Minneapolis, MN

22 March, 2010 17:34

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