 Ringling%20Barnum%20LET%20FREEDOM%20RING%20(1943)%20Coming%20to%20Tokyo%20&%20Berlin, a photo by bucklesw1 on Flickr. When Robert Ringling took control of Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey in 1943, several new posters were introduced - including the Lawson Wood "Monkey Circus" design, and posters promoting the Liberty Bandwagon and the spec "Let Freedom Ring". For its part building morale among servicemen during that critical war year, Ringling-Barnum created special date tails for these new designs and posters such as this one were distributed to USO clubs around the world, the idea being that men an women in the service would have a humorous reminder of yet another thing that they were fighting for - the circus. Very few of these "Tokyo/Berlin" posters survive today - this one is in the permanent collection at the Circus World Museum. |
Sunday, February 26, 2012
From Chris Berry
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Many circuses, but notably Ringling-Barnum and Cole Bros, contributed millions of dollars worth of free tickets to those who bought war bonds.
This may have been a nod to the Office of Defense Transportation, which was responsible for train movements.
As Roland Butler put it in the 1943 Ringling-Barnum Route Book: "Facing the toughest problems ever confronted by a circus...they adjusted it to wartime exigencies in such masterly manner as to win the approval of the U. S. Government."
Butler also noted the support that the Big Show gave to both Bond Sales and free admissions: "...while the circus contributed to the public morale by diverting the minds of its patrons from the tragedy of war, it stimulated war bond sales tremendously. Through tickets donated to the U. S. Treasury Department and distributed by its local War Savings Staffs this season, 194,656 purchasers of extra war bonds saw the circus free and at the same time helped defray the cost of Victory to the extent of one hundred million dollars.
Nearly 37,000 men and women in the U. S. Armed Forces were admitted to the show without charge in 1943. James A. Haley, the Big Show's first vice president, who has never forgotten the time a circus in France extended him similar courtesy during World War I, took a keen interest in their attendance."
I remember the many soldiers stationed in Nashville coming to the show here in 1943. I also remember Emmett Kelly offering one of them a leaf from his signature head of cabbage.
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