An Old Bill Poster's Trick (From Dave Price)

Buckles; Here's something if you feel like using, it explains a little about billposting that some may find of interest. People who build sheds and barns rarely consult with circus billposters to find out how long or how high we prefer, so we just have to make do a lot of the time. Here we see a 1935 daub for Cole Bros playing Charlotte, North Carolina, on October 7th, on a small wooden building that is level on the front but slants down on the side. The right side of this shed is a little taller than the front by virtue of the downhill slope, so the billposters decided to go three high on the front and four high on the right. As always posting from left to right, at the far left end are a three-sheet date and then a three-sheet pictorial. The owner of the shed wanted his door left unposted so he could still get it open. The guys were out of six-sheets, so they posted a nine-sheet of Harietta, turning the corner with the right end of the bill, which as you see is too long for the available space. Then posting the right side they got out the four-high paper and covered the rest of the Harietta paper with an eight sheet of Harold Barnes, then a three-sheet date with a one-sheet date at the top, and finally an eight sheet of Allen King. King had left the show July 27 but they still had plenty of his paper. The half and one-sheets were crosslined to read "Clyde Beatty" but the posting sizes were used as they were. Harietta was Harriet Hodgini despite some postings saying that she was Harietta van de Velde.