Thursday, September 20, 2007

Robbins Bros. Circus 1938


Scan000010201, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

From Anonymous:The replica of the United States is likely the wagon in question.

"Might this be the one you mean?"
Buckles

Posted by Buckles at 9/20/2007 09:06:00 AM

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know anything about the history of this wagon? Is it still around?

20 September, 2007 10:11
Anonymous said...

No, the one originally built for Ringling in 1903.

20 September, 2007 10:12
Buckles said...

Destroyed in the 1940 Rochester Winter Quarters fire.

20 September, 2007 10:17
Anonymous said...

To John Goodall-
There is an excellent history of this wagon in the Jan-Feb 1962 Bandwagon. The wagon was originally built by Bode (1 of 15 or 16)) for Frank Spellman's US Motorized Circus around 1916 and mounted on Kelly-Springfield truck chassis. It is a mate to France which is currently at CWM. Buchanan wound up with the sides and mounted them on wagon undergear. They eventually went to Adkins and Terell and were lost in the Feb. 20, 1940 Rochester fire.
Flint

20 September, 2007 11:05
Anonymous said...

I think The one they are looking for is the America wagon which was rebuilt in Baraboo. It could be a twin sister to the Columbia Parade wagon.
I searched for a photo of it but could not find one ...I am sure someone out there has one.
Randy

20 September, 2007 11:32
Anonymous said...

There appears to be some confusion among fans about the history of wagons with the moniker United States. What is on loan to Baraboo is built from the one surviving side made by Bode for Ringling in 1903. It was part of a series of five nation wagons built in response to the big influx of new wagons built for B&B in 1903 following their return from Europe. (Also part of the Ringling order was the snake den now in the CWM collection; ironically, only one side mysteriously survived and got to Baraboo about 1972 in an immaculate state of preservation of the carver’s art but was later incorporated into a full reconstruction.) Beware, there are also wagons known as “America,” including one at CWM, and one went through a renaming process while two experienced a re-build! (The Columbia wagon is a separate and unrelated wagon save for the name once being early term for the young US.)

Frank Spellman's U.S. Motorized Circus of 1919, which took three years to organize but only three days of operation to go bust, featured 16 Kelly-Springfield trucks with sides carved by Bode to represent a different country on each. The sides were removed and saved when the show closed. Eventually, we know that five were sold to Frank West's carnival and eight, mounted on standard baggage wagons, went to Buchanan's Robbins Bros. in 1924. Robbins promoted their "Parade of Nations" which must have been a grand affair since it was also led by the old B&B Two Hemispheres in the waning days of the free street procession. When Robbins failed in 1931, the equipment went to the Hall farm from whence Adkins & Terrell acquired five of the old Spellman tabs. They were not used until they framed their 1938 Robbins unit (as shown in this blog photo). Unfortunately, 4 of their 5 Spellman tabs including the U.S. were destroyed in the February 1940 Rochester, Indiana, winterquarters fire. France survived and eventually ended up in Baraboo, the loan remnant of any early truck show though not especially representative of those pioneer efforts of Spellman, Downie, or the countless small wagon shows that only slowly made the transition from horse to horsepower.

So much of what we know about the classic parade wagons of the 1910s-30s is due to the writings of Joe Bradbury who drew on many sources including Buckles’ dad, Bill Woodcock. Most of Bradbury’s work appeared in the 1960s in his “Circus Wagon History” series in the CHS Bandwagon and they are definitely worth reading by every fan for a basic orientation to parade wagon history. Many of the issues are still in print and can be purchased from the CHS; they are frequently available on eBay as well as being readily found on the CHS website (click on the Bandwagon link near the top of the left column of the homepage, then "topic index" and finally click on "wagon history" in the list that will appear). This was also the decade when Chappie Fox was sweeping up all the old surviving parade wagons for CWM and Schlitz brewing inaugurated the famed Milwaukee Fourth of July parades. What Adkins & Terrell did in the 1930s for fans, Fox and Schlitz did in the 1960s. It was a great decade for a then-young circus enthusiast like me as each issue of Bandwagon was a treasure trove of knowledge, pictures, and news from Baraboo!

Dick Flint
Baltimore

20 September, 2007 12:34
Harry Kingston said...

Dick Flint,
Thank you so much for teh great explanation about the wagon.
You are the Websters of the circus information.
I think if it weren't for George Christy buying those wagons from Ringling in the first place and then selling them to Akins and Terrell buying them for Cole Bros. many would be gone today.
I always wondered why they made the America in to a steam calliope in the first place???
Dick thanks as always for those detailed answer's.
Harry

20 September, 2007 17:00
Anonymous said...

Everyone Calm down,relax.. I meant the U.S. Bandwagon,,,,not America..The sun is hot in Chicago, and if the Museum had photos of the wagons on there web site,I would of put up a link to that wagon.
Sorry I got Out of control...
Randy

20 September, 2007 17:13
Anonymous said...

Some corrections to "Webster's" are in order.

The replica of the 1903 Ringling "United States Tableau" is not on loan at Baraboo, but wholly owned. A fraction of original carvings, maybe 20% [part of a skyboard, a Goddess of Liberty, etc.] from both sides served to provide the dimensional basis for the remaining carvings, which were constructed anew, as was the frame, body, undergear, etc. The accumulated carvings were purchased from John Zweifel. He owns no interest in the vehicle. One original figure carving from United States is in the Ringling Museum, also removed when the wagon was rotting away in the RBBB winter quarters.

The 1903 order to Bode included four nation wagons [United States, Russia, Germany and Great Britain], not five. Two other wagons ordered from Bode at the same time were a snake den and a wagon to haul a pipe organ. The United States replica, the snake den relica and the altered Great Britain are at Baraboo, as are a few carvings from Russia. Other Russia carvings exist elsewhere. The principal figure of Germany [later known as France and America] might exist. It was documented in the Index of American Design, the WPA make-work project for artists.

An update of the Spellman circus truck bodies is in Bandwagon, Sept-Oct 1996.

20 September, 2007 17:41
Anonymous said...

Harry's question about why the America was remade for the steamer also relates to the 1940 Rochester fire.

The show had built a "new" calliope wagon using assorted parts from other wagons for their 1940 parade (I believe their last year to march) and this wagon burned in the fire.

So eventually the America was rebuilt as a steam calliope. I know it paraded in Harry Truman's inaugural January 1949.

20 September, 2007 18:11
Anonymous said...

Rats!

I missed part of my answer and these historians will jump all over it.

Damn!

20 September, 2007 19:39
Anonymous said...

Dave, 1939 was a great year for movies, Gone With the Wind, Wizard of Oz and others.

21 September, 2007 08:23

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