Thursday, February 04, 2010

Ringling_Barnum_MR&MRS_GARGANTUA_(1941)

From Chris Berry:

This is another in the series of posters produced for Ringling-Barnum by the design studios of Norman Bel Geddes during the early 1940s. This poster is a composite photo and promotes the addition of M'Toto (Swahili for "Little One") who was billed as "Mrs. Gargantua" following a "courtship" that began in the spring of 1941. Although John Ringling North had hoped to mate the two gorillas - it never happened.

Incidentally this poster features a date tail for a one-day stand in Oakland California on September 7, 1941. Three months later the United States was at war - and travel restrictions during the ensuing war years kept the Ringling-Barnum circus from returning to California until 1948. Oakland didn't see the Big Show again until September 1949 - the last time it played that city under canvas and just two months prior to Gargantua succumbing to a case of double-pneumonia.

Posted by Buckles at 2/04/2010 05:41:00 AM

5 comments:

Richard Reynolds said...

Bel Geddes was employed to remake the show beginning in 1941 so these gorilla posters date from that season (the first when the female Toto was aboard).

The new designs, costuming, art work, et al were dramatic, with art deco much in evidence. North hired Bel Geddes, an industrial designer, after seeing his spectacular work for General Motors’ Futurama at the 1939-40 New York World’s Fair.

This was the first RBBB effort to produce a themed show (note that I refer to the combined show).

The original idea was to have Old King Cole make a dramatic entry and be positioned so that he was the centerpiece before whom the performance was staged.

There were some logistical problems with that, not least how to work in Court’s three-arena wild animal act. Given Court’s imperious personality, he would not likely be fond of bowing to clown Felix Adler who played Old King Cole.

There is a huge file of Bel Geddes/RBBB documentation at CW's Parkinson Library giving much insight into the conceptualization of the 1941 show and problems that arose. It makes a fascinating read.

The old allegorical specs of the separate Barnum and Ringling shows were close to what Bel Geddes had in mind. Some of those things took up as much as half the running time of the shows.

Those were abandoned when the shows combined in 1919, replaced by an opening tournament or grand entry. It was a potpourri of exotica winding around the hippodrome track.

By the 1930s it had become jaded. Though the 1930s saw different names, e.g., Durbar of Delhi, Nepal, India, World Goes to the Word’s Fair, they were all about the same.

But 1941 saw something totally different. For the first time, the spec, “Old King Cole and Mother Goose,” was moved well down on the program. It presented a cornucopia of new colors and floats. In this, the work of a young Miles White was much in evidence.

04 February, 2010 12:05
Roger Smith said...

It's somebody else's turn to tell the story of Art Springer's indelible announcement introducing Old King Cole.

04 February, 2010 16:37
Jack Ryan said...

Richard Reynolds,

This is invaluable and fascinating information. Thanks so much.

Jack

04 February, 2010 18:00
Mike Naughton said...

I've mentioned this before, but I think it is worth repeating in this thread.

Norman's daughter is Barbara Bel Geddes, accomplished actress who breakout role was the daughter in the motion picture "I Remember Mama".

Much later in her career, Miss Bel Geddes played Miss Ellie in the television series, "Dallas".

Bel Geddes was the housewife in the Alfred Hitchcock television special where she beat her husband to death with a frozen leg of lamb, then cooked the murder weapon and served it to the investigating police.

Obviously, talent runs in this family. I am not sure about their culinary skills.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Bel_Geddes

04 February, 2010 20:24
filmguy695 said...

Mr. W I don't know if you will remember me but I was on the miller Johnson show the year vargas took over. I was a clown. I used to bug smokey to teach me how to make whips and he eventualy did. I remember when he got Tiki she was so small and he was so worried she wasn't going to make it because she was so little. I went on to train elephants because of yours and smokeys influence . I was at the zoo in St.Louis for awhile but ended up in the film business. I worked several times with Gary and Kari on a couple of film shows and talked to karen Cristiani on face book last week you have a great blog and I love reading it and miss the road.

05 February, 2010 01:14

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