Sunday, January 09, 2011

Sells Bros ELEPHANT RACES (1894) One Sheet Upright

From Chris Berry

Buckles...a few days ago you mentioned how you have always discouraged the idea of "Elephant Races" - which this litho indicates was a popular feature on the Sells Bros Circus of 1894. Although it isn't specifically included in this image - the description at the bottom of the poster indicates that Sells Bros may have also raced elephants "against horse or man". Can you fill us in on your thoughts about the disadvantages of racing elephants?

Posted by Buckles at 1/09/2011 05:59:00 AM

1 comments:

Dick Flint said...

The concluding act to the Sells Bros. performance in the early 1890s was, as so frequently the case with the big shows of the time, the hippodrome races. There were always several different kinds of races including on Sells for 1890 and 1891 a race between three elephants. I have no information for 1892 and 1894 but I know elephant races were not part of the 1893 and 1895 shows. In both cases the elephants participating were Queen, Dutchess, and Topsy.

Judging by the title design and border framing, the poster shown here may, in fact, be 1893 but I certainly would welcome knowing how Chris assigned 1895 to it. The image was used for the seasons of 1891-93 but each year is distinguished by a different border and title design. Of course, it was not unusual to rehash a design when a feature was no longer part of the show.

While the Sells Bros. inaugurated the competition for more elephants with their famous “7 Elephant” show of 1878, they never tried to keep pace with the Forepaugh and Barnum herds in the big numbers race of the early 1880s. Another fact that few realize is that the Sells elephants almost never did an act in the circus performance. The races discussed here were their only appearance in the show for the years mentioned except, perhaps, when the leaps took place each year but it is only in 1893 that they are actually mentioned as appearing for the leaps. The show carried only five elephants named Dutch, Queen, Topsy, Mack, and Sid in 1893. Throughout this period the show’s elephants traveled in two rail cars, suggesting that the size of the herd probably did not change as well as the fact that rail cars of that era were much shorter.

It seems as well that the turnover for the elephant superintendent job was frequent for a while based on the following route book listings:
1890 (titled Sells Bros. & S.H. Barrett) – George C. Curry
1891 – Jerry Ward
1893 – William Badger; John Gibson, assistant
1895 – William Badger

Dick Flint
Baltimore

10 January, 2011 00:23

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