Friday, January 04, 2019

OUTDOOR #2


Posted by Chic Silber at 1/04/2019 12:49:00 AM

9 comments:

Jim Alexander said...

This might be Chicago's Soldier Field. Ringling played here after the Hartford fire. I was told I attended the show but I would have been very young. RBBB played the Soldier Field parking lot with the tent.

04 January, 2019 07:38
Chic Silber said...


I think you're right Jim

Hugo Schmitt is recognizable

with his hat & cane hook

04 January, 2019 10:31
Chic Silber said...


This photo only shows about

2/3rds of the entire herd

04 January, 2019 10:56
4pawfan said...

I think this is the rehearsals after the fire at the Akron Rubber Bowl. Rehearsals started July 31,1944 and they opened on August 4th, 1944. p.j.holmes

04 January, 2019 11:30
Eric said...

This might also have been taken during a rehearsal in the Akron Rubber Bowl, where the Ringling show made its first appearance after the Hartford Fire. Back when I was in college, I had a part-time job in a little fine arts theater located just off campus. When the theater’s regular projectionist found out that I was a circus fan, he told me that, during World War II, he had served in the Coast Guard and was stationed in Sarasota. In 1944, he wanted to return to Ohio to get married, but obtaining long distance transportation during the war years was almost impossible unless you had some sort of high priority. Right at that time the Ringling train was getting ready to pull out for Akron, where it was to reopen in the Rubber Bowl. The head porter on the circus train was also in the projectionists’ union and was able to get my projectionist friend a free ride on the Ringling train for the trip north.

04 January, 2019 11:32
Jim Alexander said...

Upon the light of day and a few more hours awake, I'll go with the Rubber Bowl. I quickly assumed Soldier Field because the large Park District Administration Building was at the far end BUT the grandstand doesn't have columns a the top and probably not as many seats. As to Hugo, don't know where Hagenbeck had sent the act in 1944 but it wasn't Ohio.

04 January, 2019 13:08
Eric said...

The heavy-set man with a cane and not wearing his coat might be Robert Ringling. Robert has somewhat crippled due to a childhood accident. He also was on hand to oversee the show's reopening in Akron.

04 January, 2019 15:31
Roger Smith said...

These elephant tubs are seen in the seasons the Changing Of The Guard number worked. Buckles commented extensively about this major display. Certainly an impressive elephant act never equalled since. I recall Richard Shipley being named at the time.

04 January, 2019 18:15
Roger Smith said...

Wish we had an ID on that tall girl, R of Center, in the black pants.

05 January, 2019 21:57

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