1 – With the great Ringling-Barnum show about to move into new quarters and its Red unit now appearing in Bridgeport, Conn., it is appropriate to look back at the show’s first winter home. When Bailey joined Barnum for the upcoming 1881 season, a new complex to house their great circus had to be built. Barnum, a large land owner in Bridgeport, utilized a plot he owned on the west edge of Bridgeport; only a few years before a small but very long and narrow shed was a lonely occupant in the middle of the block. Scattered homes dotted the area just north and east toward downtown; today, it is a residential area fully engulfed by the city. On a city block nearly 500 wide by approximately 760 deep Barnum erected two large wooden buildings, seen here in this marvelous 1882 poster (there was an edition in 1881as well but it lacks the three portraits). The view fairly represents the main structures and what they housed but the artist suggests barns that seem larger and longer than reality. This view of the colorful fronts is more accurate in showing the curve of the railroad tracks and how the building on the right was set further back then is the next drawing of the entire complex. |
Saturday, October 20, 2012
From Richard Flint #1
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2 comments:
Once many years ago a sign painter was asked to letter the side of a wagon with the words "Barnum and London Circus." After the job had been completed, Mr Bailey looked at the wagon and studied the lettering a minute. Then he said to the sign painter, "That will need to be done over."
The sign painter asked what was wrong and Bailey then made a statement in which one of the words on the wagon was repeated FIVE TIMES IN A ROW. What did Bailey say?
He said, "The spaces between 'Barnum' and 'and' and 'and' and "London' and not equal."
If I recall correctly in the 60s the
Beatty Show played either on or near
that site in Bridgeport & 1 year we
had a near riot on the midway of
local town punks that needed to be
cleared by a couple of elephants with
swinging lengths of chain (exciting)
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