From Richard Reynolds #1

!cid_X_MA1_1264877164@aol, originally uploaded by bucklesw1. Here's Blacaman on Hagenbeck-Wallace in 1938. That's good sized gator. Note how the blues are packed but the grandstand seats are virtually empty, a scene re-played on circuses everywhere in that disastrous season. As is well known, 1938 was disastrous for the economy, wiping out the slow progress we had made out of the depths of the Great Depression. Beginning in 1937 a combination of federal polices wreaked havoc - -new taxes, new increases in required bank reserves, and increased labor costs resulted in severe contraction in the economy. Unemployment rose from 14.3% in 1937 to 19.1% in 1938. That did it for circuses which depended on discretionary spending. We started 1938 with six railroad shows but by 1939 there were only two.