Wednesday, February 27, 2013

1920's John Robinson Circus #4


Gil Robinson aboard "Lizzie".
This picture was probably taken while the show was playing  Cincinnati, long time home of the Robinsons.
Mugivan and Bowers had owned the John Robinson title since 1916.

3 comments:

Ole Whitey said...

I believe this photo was released in 1923 the supposed 100th tour of the Robinson show.

Dick Flint said...

Gil lived in Somers Point, NJ, and before that had long resided in Jersey City where his mother-in-law Agnes Lake lived (she had settled there because rider Linda Jeal had a practice barn that Agnes’ daughter, Emma, Gil’s wife, could use).

Apparent long-time family friend and writer Harry Barnet did several interviews with both Old John and Gil over the course of two decades. In 1926 he wrote that though “he retired from the circus business some years ago, Gil makes frequent visits to the John Robinson show—‘Pa’s circus,’ he always calls it, because his father founded the show more than a century ago, and Gil spent his active life with it [much of it as show treasurer].”

In excellent health with a head covered by thick white hair and self-described as being “almost as nimble as a working acrobat,” Gil was in Hamilton, Ohio, to visit the show, just two days after his 80th birthday in 1925. “‘Of course,’ Gil mused as we walked along, ‘there are some things I used to do that I can’t do very gracefully now. One of them is to get up on an elephants back by stepping into the curve of its trunk, and letting the animal lift me to the top of its head so I can step back and get into the howdah. A few years back [1923] this show opened its one hundredth annual tour in Marion, Indiana, [on April 21] and I was there, as the son of the founder, helping to celebrate. Nothing would do but that I must ride an elephant around the hippodrome track, and then into the center ring, and make a speech to the audience before the performance began. I had to use a ladder to get up on that elephant’s back. It was a cold day, and I was wrapped in a heavy overcoat [see Buckles' photo], which made me pretty clumsy. But it was a great day.’”
Dick Flint
Baltimore

Dick Flint said...

Correction: Barnet interviewed John F. ("The Governor"), not Old John, father of both the Gov and Gil.
Dick Flint
Baltimore