| P.T. Barnum's Greatest Show on Earth 1873. "In 1871 William Cameron Coup and Dan Castello induced P.T. Barnum, then 60, to enter the circus business for the first time. Coup and Castello framed a huge wagon show and opened April 10th on the Fulton Ave. & Hoyt St. lot in Broklyn and moving overland traveled no further west than Niagara Falls, NY. 1872 was the landmark year that Coup put the Barnum Show on rails and revolutionized the circus business. The feat was accomplished gradually by trial and error and the breakthrough came when the decision was made to load the wagons from the end of the flat cars with the use of cross-over plates rather than from the side via loading docks. The year the above picture was taken (1873) the Barnum show began the unique policy of opening in one New York building and closing the season in another, in this instance Mar. 29 thru Apr. 15 at the American Institute (3rd Ave. and 63rd St) then the N.Y Hippodrome (Oct. 20 thru Nov.15). Charles White was was the featured animal trainer presenting his cat act as well as one of the elephants. 1873 Program- Display No. 9: The Great Performing Elephants.........Ring 1 "Gipsey" introduced by Col. Chas. White........Ring 2 "Betsey" introduced by Frank Dooley." Buckles |
Saturday, February 09, 2008
19th Century Tents #3
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This remarkable big top interior from a stereo in my collection shows the mammoth P.T. Barnum show just three years after its debut. The image was taken by Haverhill, Mass., photographer, A.W. Anderson when Barnum's show played the city on June 2, 1873. Barnum boasted having three rings that season, the first ever for a circus, but that count included the hippodrome track. It is clear that the tent shown here has only one middle piece but the ring arrangement cannot be clearly seen. Tent circuses were accustomed to having the center pole of their round top in the middle of the ring so it is probable that the two center poles of this tent sit in the middle of two performance rings with the pair then surrounded by the track that constituted the third ring. Charles McLean headed up a big top canvas crew of 52 men that season who handled what may well be a 200-foot round end tent.
Dick Flint
Baltimore
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