Sunday, June 28, 2009

Ringling_Barnum_TERRELL_JACOBS_-_One_Sheet_Flat_(1938)

From Chris Berry

71 years ago today the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey circus was scheduled to play Hartford, Connecticut. The posters were up - but the train never arrived, the tent was never set up, and show never happened. Following labor problems in Scranton, PA a week earlier - John Ringling North had finally succeeded in getting the big show loaded on the trains and taken to Sarasota, where a streamlined version of the circus was then recast and sent north to Redfield, North Dakota where it joined Ringling-owned Al G. Barnes and Sells Floto. This terrific litho by Strobridge was put up in anticipation of the show's arrival in Hartford on June 28 - but the circus never played there in 1938. Fortunately this poster was pulled from a window and put away so that we could enjoy it here...decades later. Incidentally - Hartford's Barbour Street circus grounds was the same lot where fire engulfed the Ringling-Barnum big top six years later, on July 5, 1944 - 65 years ago next month.

Posted by Buckles at 6/28/2009 06:13:00 AM

14 comments:

Richard Reynolds said...

I well recall seeing this same poster in Atlanta on a Sunday morning in late October, 1938.

It was a window sized one in a storefront on Pryor St., downtown, near Immaculate Conception Church. After mass we went over to Pryor St. to await the streetcar to take us home. I stood with my mother and father looking at this poster in the window. It was stunning to behold; I can shut my eyes and see it now.

I was thrilled at the prospect of watching all those trained black leopards when the circus played Atlanta on Nov. 7-8th. Of course by that point in the season the circus was the Al G. Barnes and Sells Floto Combined Circus presenting features from RBBB.

Supposedly, one of the features was Jacobs and his black leopards which had indeed been provided to the show by Frank Buck. But it was not to be.

Jacobs could never make them into a presentable number and the act was dropped after a few tries in Madison Square Garden.

I was terribly disappointed. Forevermore, my Dad referred to Jacobs as the “guy who could not train the black leopards.”

That was why I was so impressed when Alfred Court came here with RBBB two years later (1940) - - he did have them trained and I vividly recall seeing them - - -not only black leopards but black jaguars too. But at that tender age I did not know the difference.

I should add that in 1938 the John Robinson title was also appended to Barnes-SF in some of the advertising. That was because the Robinson family was planning to use the JR title, claiming that it had been abandoned by RBBB.

28 June, 2009 12:44
Frank Ferrante said...

I read "The Circus Fire" by Stewart O'Nan when it first came out a couple of years ago and found it to be a very compelling book. It's now available from Amazon in paperback for less than $10.00. ~frank

28 June, 2009 20:06
Roger Smith said...

There were definable elements wrong with the 8 black leopard act. First and foremost, was His Emminence John Ringling North. Indeed, he bought the black leopards from Frank Buck, and North developed an obsession about having this act. What was wrong with this was, North neglected to involve Terrell Jacobs in selecting the leopards. He bought them and said something to the effect of, "You're under contract to me. Here are the leopards I bought. Train the leopards." No trainer should ever have animals shoved into his contract without the trainer's personal careful selection. Circus owners are not animal trainers. As Richard points out, Jacobs could not get them working well at all. He and the leopards were sent back to Sarasota for intensive re-training, but again, as Richard notes, this act was not to be. The black leopard act JRN so passionately wanted never became presentable. That was 1938.

CUT TO: 1939. Terrell Jacobs presented what might arguably be the largest Big Act shown with an American circus. My authority here is no less than Judy Jacobs Kaye. She visited me several times at the old Compound, Jungleland, in Thousand Oaks, and she told me this: Her father carried 55 lions and tigers that year on RBBB, and worked at times between 52 and all 55 cats in a 50-foot steel arena, truly noted as the largest ever set in an American ring. Some historians claim it never came to more than 35 animals. As we all lament, no photos exist that show proof of the full act Judy described. Me, I believe Judy.

Archivist and historian Leonard Farley demanded to me that JRN was so incensed over the failure of the black leopard act that he denied Jacobs due photographic documentation and publicity of this subsequent Big Act, which was obviously a major feature of the 1939 Ringling show. Historian Bruce Royal, for whose book I wrote the epilogue, also saw the act that season in Cuero, Texas, and verified the full count at 50-plus.

Terrell Monroe Jacobs remains the Lion King of the American circus. That he was slighted so by John North is indefensible. He lived as the Lion King, and was buried as the Lion King.

Judy, if you see this, I want very much to be in touch with you. I still want to take you up on your invitation of 40 years ago to look over your father's memorabilia. I'm at steelarena314@hotmail.com., and I look forward to saying hello.

29 June, 2009 01:03
Roger Smith said...

FRANK: Thanks for this note. My friend Kim Baer's mother was Ernestine Clarke, who was on the show that year, 1944--when she and Lou Jacobs had the cover of the RBBB program. Ernestine was a photographer, and took many shots of the fire that Buckles posted here. Check his archives for them. Forgive me if I don't recall the exact date of that posting, I'm nearly 50 years of age.

29 June, 2009 01:10
Roger Smith said...

Let me gently remind that it was July 6th.

29 June, 2009 01:12
Wade G. Burck said...

Roger,
Are you kidding me.
North neglected to involve Terrell Jacobs in selecting the leopards. He bought them and said something to the effect of, "You're under contract to me. Here are the leopards I bought. Train the leopards."
After doing it that way for over 30 years, are you now telling me it wasn't the way it should be done?
Wade Burck

29 June, 2009 07:10
johnny said...

I do not believe that during the season of 1938 that Mr. Jacobs along with the leopards were sent back to wntrqtrs. for intense additional training, and if so what cat act or trainer would have replaced him? Not when special paper on Jacobs heralded him as a sensational star of the 38 RBBB.

I understand that the labor union unrest in 38 started in the Garden and that The two stars of the show [jacobs and concello] got up a petition that they circulated that proclaimed their allegiance to RBBB and a number of employees signed it, but not enough for a majority. One of the non-signers was great horse trainer Rudy Rudynoff and after the show closed in Scranton he was persona-non-grata. I believe that Jacobs being the new kid on the block and very much aware of his being a star with the GSOE after some initial hardships along the way would have agreed with JRN to train armodillos if requested and that he got in to a training method and procedure that was way over his head and naturally North was pissed off, so Jacobs came up with increeasing the number of cats in his act, however I believe logistics alone would determine that there were absolutely not that many cats in his act. When I knew Terrel he worked around 17 and in his training-arena barn in Bunker Hill I would suggest 20 or so would be the limit. I am a great fan of Terrel and also valued his friendship, so this is not a knock to be sure. Now, it is not unusual for performers of any endeavor to promise more than they can do in order to keep a contracy, or get one. I am sure the Felds hear this on a regular basis and in fact hear rumours that it is happening right now. This is only my opinion but I believe the labor part in the Garden to be essenally correct.

29 June, 2009 09:25
johnny h. said...

P.S. I believe that both Beatty and Jacobs in their prime would have been Around 30. And this is about the number on RBBB. Maybe 40.

29 June, 2009 09:27
Chic Silber said...

WOW Roger nearly 50

(poor excuse)

It only gets better in the

next 50

I still feel like a kid at 66

but my looks give me away

I remember when one of the

Felds (shall remain nameless)

surprised GGW with a white

crosseyed tiger that he gave

away (maybe to Sigfried)

29 June, 2009 09:59
Casey McCoy Cainan said...

Isn't that the big difference between training your own stuff, and working or training for someone else? If it is your own, you can pick and choose the animals you want to do what you want. Where as working for someone else, you may have to use what is there and train what the guy paying you wants trained.

29 June, 2009 10:19
Eric said...

According to Joe Bradbury’s very excellent articles on the 1938 and 1939 Ringling-Barnum seasons, the 1938 BILLBOARD review mentioned that Terrill Jacobs worked 19 lions in New York. The 1939 BILLBOARD review mentioned 38 lions in the act. When the show moved from Boston Garden to Long Island, 9 lions died from suffocation when their shifting boxes were covered too tightly with canvas. According to Bradbury, fans who saw the act later in the tour counted 25-30 cats in the arena.

29 June, 2009 12:09
Jim Clubb said...

I am sure the story is correct that John North bought the panthers and told Terrell Jacobs to train them. This was a common occurance in European shows, where the director didn't understand that the trainer should select the animals. It occurred on Bertram Mills with Alex Kerr and the same on Smart's. So I am not surprised.

Aside from a jaguar, I don't think there is a more difficult big cat to train than a black panther. They are completely different from the spotted ones. Even when they are trained there is no guarantee they are going to work in front of an audience. Even the captive-bred ones and hand-reared ones are still as unpredictable. I had one that worked perfectly until he made his first show. Then it was like he had just been captured in the jungle and thrown into an arena.

It is one of the very few animals I cannot guarantee a success rate with. If you look back to Alfred Court, who as you know I have great admiration for, he only had four in his panther act and most of the time only two. I am sure he encountered all the problems Terrell Jacobs experienced. Most of the stock was wild caught or perhaps mother-raised if you were lucky in a zoo. This is why the success rate was so poor. I cannot name one trainer before Court that included a black leopard in their act. Not even Hagenbeck. This I am sure was due to only being able to obtain wild-caught panthers and probably only Javan specimens, which are undoubtably the most dangerous subspecies.

29 June, 2009 12:44
tanglefoot said...

We find that in alot of cases the show or owner has already bought ba group of animals and is now looking for a competant trainer. I have had that experience and know of other trainers in that situation. I have also picked out the animals and of course done my own thing as well. In most cases you see one you see them all.

29 June, 2009 13:05
Justin Banse said...

i wonder if jacobs did train his cats to walk on a ball

18 November, 2018 14:12

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)