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Just as Caesar attacks Matt in deadly earnest . . .

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. . . Nick enters the steel arena with a gun loaded with blanks . . .

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. . . and distracts Caesar away from Matt.

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Caesar then attacks Nick.

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Retrieving Nick’s gun, which still has some live blanks left in it . . .

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Matt drives off Caesar . . .

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. . . and is able to get to Nick . . .

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. . . and carry him to the cage door and safety. [In all the excitement, few people probably bothered to keep track of how many blanks were fired during this sequence. I counted a total of 6 shots.]

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Back stage, the dying Nick makes his final peace with Mary, Matt and Flo.

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Just before expiring, Nick wryly speculates that perhaps a good promoter will be needed where he’s going.

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Hilton Twins #1 (From Chic Silber)

Hilton Twins #2

From Dave Price

When Central was cleaning their shelves in the mid-fifties I bought this Quigley litho for $1. Have seen them go on eBay for up to $700.

The Wagons Roll At Night (From Eric Beheim)

Released in 1941, THE WAGONS ROLL AT NIGHT stars Humphrey Bogart as Nick Coster, the tough, cynical and somewhat shady owner of a carnival. (When this film was made, Bogart was not quite the box office draw as Warner Bros. other stars James Cagney, George Raft and Errol Flynn. THAT would change after the release of his very next film THE MALTESE FALCON.) The plot is a reworking of the 1937 Warner Bros. film KID GALAHAD, which deals with professional prize fighting.

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The film opens with an establishing shot of the midway of Nick Coster’s Original Coney Island Carnival.

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The featured attraction of Nick’s carnival is a lion act worked by The Great Hoffman (Sig Rumann)

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The Great Hoffman is, in fact, a drunk with whom Nick often has to take drastic measures to sober up before a performance.

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With the act about to go on, Hoffman tells his crew to let the lions into the big cage.

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As the lions are making their way down the wooden chute . . .