From Richard Flint

Hall%20training%20-%20Jackson%20photo, originally uploaded by bucklesw1. Russell Hall, grandson of “Popcorn” George, and his one-man circus The juxtaposition of an elephant and a bear is unusual to me (Buckles, J.C. Hall, and others please comment!) and so this photo is interesting in many ways, as is the prolific trainer of many animals shown in the photo and his one-man show. Moreover, the photo also intersects with several recent discussions. First, this is what another prolific photographer of circuses wrote on the back of his photograph: “Russell Hall, Grandson of “Popcorn Geo.” W. Hall the man who introduced popcorn bricks to the circus, opened the Geo. W. Hall wagon show out of Evansville, Wis. and Walter Gollmar married one of the [grandfather’s] daughters [Jessie]. Russell probably had the world’s only one man circus, the entire performance (mostly animal acts) being given by him and it consisted of one trained bear, one elephant, camel, pigs, goats, dogs, ponies and a menage [sic] horse. The bear was kept chained alongside the elephant. -- Eddie Jackson, Box 477, Macon, Ga.” Photographer Eddie Jackson was a billposter and press person with several shows in the first half of the 20th-century. His camera documented especially well the Sparks show and Ringling-Barnum and, like W.H.B. Jones discussed on this blog last week, he sold sets to many circus fans. Each image is generally identified on the back. The once well-known Hall family (and no relation to William P. Hall, the Missouri-based horse and second-hand show property dealer) came out of Evansville, Wisconsin. The Massachusetts-born George W. Hall, Sr., settled there during the Civil War era after having run away to join Nathan Howes’ circus as a peanut salesmen in 1848 at age 10. He was highly successful though he never had ambitions to run big circuses. Before sending this photo, I wanted to pinpoint how Russell Hall fit within the progeny of Popcorn George for I was certainly familiar with the more famous of the brood, George, Jr., and Frank E. as well as the patriarch himself. The state of Wisconsin has three excellent histories of its many circuses: Dick Conover wrote the appropriately subtitled booklet “Wisconsin’s Unique Heritage” in 1967, Dean Jensen conducted further research at CWM and interviewed many surviving showfolks throughout the state for his literate book in 1975, and Stuart Thayer and Fred Dahlinger built on both for their fine “Badger State Showmen” (1998). In a sense, none speak of Russell. Charles R. Hall is noted and, as the last pair of authors wrote, “usually referred to as Charles Russell to distinguish him from his uncle Charles …” But this blog and Billboard several times speaks of Russell Hall; on Saturday, Randy Peterson even corrected a small fact posted here in 2006 about the death of an elephant once owned by Russell. The original posting spoke of Russell having to sell the elephant Tena because he was drafted at the time of World War II. Charles Russell Hall’s dates are 1897-1956 and the US was not drafting men aged 44 for the war so who is the man in the picture? So I turned to the Bible, the showmen’s Bible that is—Billboard. In Feb 1942 it reported that the then-young Al G. Kelly-Miller Bros. circus (not the present “Kelly-Miller”) purchased Russell Hall’s elephant (it was the show’s third elephant). Then, in March 1944, I read that Russell and his animals were to be on Monroe Bros. where he would be equestrian director. It didn’t seem as if he was in the military and so brought into question the oral history explaining why he sold his elephant. In addition, the elephant shows up in Billboard’s big 1952 elephant census as having been acquired from Russell Hall, but in 1943! Already, likely errors were accumulating in the historical source material we often depend upon. I was able to establish that this Russell was the same Russell who was partnered with brother Frank Hall in the 1934 Vanderburg Bros. circus per another Billboard report about this Russell and Steve Fanning jackpotting about both being on that show. While there might still be a slight loophole, the evidence was beginning to allow a historian to reach the conclusion that Charles R. Hall and Russell Hall were the same. It’s a fun lesson in historical research. Good sources like Billboard can make errors of fact just a decade after an elephant is sold, the oral tradition of show people can be in error as Russell was not drafted, and historical writers not in the business miss the mark as well since none of the four knew that our subject really should not be referred to as Charles R. but as Russell, the name he was known by in the business. And this weekend bloggers discussed the origins of some circus words, including “manage.” It has been mis-used and mis-spelled and Eddie Jackson made such an error when he annotated the back of this photo. (In the Feld era, of course, manage had male clowns on elephants {!} but words and their meanings have always evolved to the frustration of an older generation.) And don’t think that I am not aware of inaccuracies I might create! My point is we need an abundance of information in order to weigh it all for any sort of accurate (sensible?) portrayal of the past. This blog, with its back-and-forth discussions, anecdotes, and corrections is vital and I hope the great John Herriott, Jackie LeClaire, Chic Silber, Buckles and others can make many more comments to all that they see on this blog and with which they are acquainted. And that is not to exclude remarkable historians like Richard Reynolds whose work is exacting and whose writing and conversation is so delightful. There is even an anonymous who is quite the historian and I respect and relish his additions. But what about the date of this photo, not supplied by Eddie Jackson as is usually encountered? The photo came to me in a pile of pictures, lost from any association with the sets sold by Jackson. Jackson, I believe, issued an oversize sheet listing his picture sets for sale. I thought I had a copy but it is not with my collection of photo dealer lists, probably because of its size. Ugh. Russell is likely at some show quarters in this picture and one can even discern an overland baggage wagon in the back right. Russell Hall did not stay in Wisconsin as various reports have him in Macon for a few seasons, Texas, and likely Kansas as well. I have understood that his elephant Tena came from some that Andrew Downie acquired in 1926. Is this Tena photographed between a supposed Downie-Hall sale and the 1942 transfer to Obert and son D.R. Miller? Russell, who sports the curly hair of his father George, Jr., in this picture, is about the age for such a range of dates. Dick Flint Baltimore