Thursday, February 07, 2008

Ringling-Barnum 1919


RBBB - gamma corrected, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Shannon spent about 15 minutes working on this picture, it was so badly faded you couldn't even see the tents in the background.
A very strange layout. It looks like a "10 in 1" banner line at left, a side show banner line at right, the marquee out of sight and the ticket wagons spotted helter-skelter in between.
To the uninformed, this was the first season of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey merger.

Posted by Buckles at 2/07/2008 05:59:00 AM

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting photo that raises some questions! That does not appear to be the main side show bannerline on the left even though it fronts a substantial tent. However, on the right one can see the backside of a pair of double-deck banners and, further to the right, the onion-dome silhouette of the additional, solid folding bannerline already in use by B&B for several years (along with some canvas banners as shown). There are not many photos of RBBB for 1919 and it is an under-researched era of the GSOE considering all that we know about most other rail shows of the time. It is known that the show did have some single-banner pit shows during this time. Looks like Shannon did a great job on a fascinating photo! Maybe some other historians can add clarification or some collectors might have additional photos.
Dick Flint
Baltimore

07 February, 2008 14:54
Anonymous said...

That should be the 8-pole big top in the center right background. RBBB used it in 1919 and I think 1920 as well.

I think the late Issac Marcks made a list of the individual pit shows he saw on the RBBB midway around this time.

08 February, 2008 12:57

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