Tuesday, January 17, 2017

#18 Barnum & Bailey

Hard to imagine assembling and manipulating this operation six days a week.
.....as my father used to say, "Wagons Of Wood....Men Of Iron!

Posted by Buckles at 1/17/2017 05:45:00 AM

8 comments:

Patricia said...

I think there were two drivers of the 40 horse hitch: Dick Sparrow and Jake Posey. When I was a kid (barely 20) and was working at Jungle Larry's, I liked to go up to the old Circus Hall of Fame on my day off.
There was a life size picture of Jake Posey's hands holding the bundle of reins, and another of the palm of his hand so you could compare your own hand size. His hands were the size of a dinner plate. If Mr. Posey were still alive, it would be interesting to see him shake hands with our incoming President...

17 January, 2017 08:09
Bob Momyer said...

We had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Sparrow at the last parade he did. He and his family could not have been nicer...invited us into the tent during a rain storm and made us feel very welcome. He also had a pleasant sense of humor.

17 January, 2017 12:01
Roger Smith said...

This site has posted a great shot of Jake Posey, in advanced age, with Arky and Tony Scott and their two sons. For my money, no parade feature ever staged matched the 40-horse hitch. Read more of it in Bradna's THE BIG TOP. Bradna doubled as parade marshal and was faced with negotiating the streets, corners, hills, and turns in town after town for the successful appearance of the Forty. Mr. Posey was a man the industry never forgot, and he was honored by showfolks on many occasions to the end of his days.

We can be thankful to Dick Sparrow for reviving the Forty, and achieving renewed respect for horsemanship shared with only one other man.

17 January, 2017 17:41
Richard Reynolds said...

I believe this photo was taken in Brooklyn where the show paraded for its first under canvas date.

17 January, 2017 19:10
Unknown said...

Bill Ballantine’s book HORSES & THEIR BOSSES includes a lengthy interview that he did with Jake Posey in 1960. The 40-horse team’s original driver was a man named Jim Davis. According to Posey, Davis was a boozer and was also slovenly and dirty. A tobacco chewer, he would slobber all over his coat and spit all over everything. Bailey was disgusted with him and, when he learned that Posey could also handle the 40-horse team, gave it to him. If you want to learn what it was like, driving the 40-horse team, read that interview.

19 January, 2017 00:12
Patricia said...

Thanks for the info, Mr. Beheim. So there were three men after all! I have never heard of Jim Davis. What an impressive accomplishment. In this photo, I see guys walking alongside the teams just in case. I always thought "outriders" were on horseback. So were these guys called "outwalkers"? just kidding, sort of

19 January, 2017 09:03
Unknown said...

Jake also wrote a book, Last of the Forty Horse Drivers. It is not easy to find perhaps but the stories are great. Taking a portion of a pub wall out in England is a great story. The pub became a landmark.

I have quite a bit of correspondence between Jake and my Dad. Posey had great penmanship, but later he typed his letters. Some of that info went to Chappie to help set up the Schlitz hitch.

Bob Good

19 January, 2017 09:09
Unknown said...

Fans of the forty horse team may want to check the recent pic as comments seen to disappear to the back page in short order.

Also, it is interesting how few pics were taken of the team. Glasier's pics are probably the best and my Dad had the negs which are now in Baraboo. Several of these were in the circus books back in the day. Pictorial Histoy of the American Circus has a dandy in it.

Bob Good

19 January, 2017 11:24

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