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Show Here Comes the Circus! Gorgeous! Colossal! By WILLIAM C. UTLEY STEP right up, folks, and see the eighth wonder of the world I Mighty In magnitude! Matchless in merit! Majestic In magnificence! The mammoth mam-moth marvel of the century 1 The colossus of all amusements! lou ve guessed it. Circus days are here again. Spring brings not onlv balmy breezes and refreshing showers, but the glamor and glitter of the Big Top, with its "train after train of wonders from many lands, hundreds hun-dreds upon hundreds of tons of equipment, acre after acre of rainproof canvas, herds and more herds of elephants, camels, zebras ze-bras and zebus, scores upon scores of funny fun-ny clowns, company upon company of the most remarkable exponents of physical culture, cul-ture, nvenue after avenue of cages, corrals and enclosures a stupendous spectacle of fairyland gorgeousness 1" Everybody Is familiar with the fanfare of the big show, and nearly everybody has r , vr ;-'-' .-. 1 I s . $ " 'Vt 1 vv:, - ; - fc-v x 1 x4 'i v V ; 1 Top, Estralla Nelson, Elephant Trainer, With One of Her Pachyderms. Center, Clyde Beatty Returns to . Conquer Samson, Lion Who Laid Him Up for Sixteen Weeks. Below, the Circus Moves Into Town. f seen a circus at some time in his life, but few are really acquainted with the extent of the circus industry indus-try in America today or are fully aware of the job of producing one, a job that is far more "stupendous" and "colossal" than the show itself. Yet the American circus is more than a century and a half old. The first circus fan on record in this country is none other than George Washington, who is something some-thing of a stupendous figure himself him-self as history goes. The Father of His Country attended the first performance of a circus In the United Unit-ed States, in Philadelphia in 1792. It was a small show compared to the modern circus. It had no menagerie; me-nagerie; the principal attraction advertised by its owner, one John Bill Rlcketts, were "Seven Beautiful Women." Eicketts' circus was born amid plenty of opposition. The circus in general is a hangover from the palmiest days of the Roman empire. em-pire. It began cleanly enough, with chariot races (no doubt considerably con-siderably more spirited than those which still remain as an important part of the circus), athletic contests, con-tests, and gladiatorial combat, but Roman capacity for thrills was not well enough satisfied and eventually helpless Christians were thrown into the arena to do battle against helpless odds with lions and warriors. Mighty Barnum Appears. This preserved through the ages an unsavory name indeed for all circuses, and when John Bill Rlcketts captured the imagination of the young Republic with the first announcements' of his show, righteous indignation flared widely forth from pulpit and press. Human Hu-man nature then must have been something like it is now, however, for this opposition served only to whet the public interest, and there have always been circuses In America Amer-ica from that time. And every President since Washington bas attended at-tended the circus. The Big Top, the huge show of several trainloads of equipment and participants, as we know it today, to-day, did not make its start until the immortal hand of Phlneas T. Barnum took hold in 18S0; even Barnum did not enter the circus until he was past sixty. At that time he was running a freak museum in New York and a man named Bailey was operating a menagerie which seriously competed com-peted for the dollar of the "sucker" that was "born every minute." Bailey announced a "blessed event" in 1SS0 that would have startled even Walter Winchell a baby pachyderm born to his female ele- -, ;VJ , ' - J 1 phant and the first to be born in captivity. Barnum openly declared the tiny (?) newcomer a humbug and sent Bailey a telegram offering him $100,000 for proof. Bailey had the telegram reproduced and used It for an advertising poster with such financially successful results that Barnum gave up and bought into partnership with his rival for a large sum, and the Barnum and Bailey combine became the first great circus. Ringling Brothers opened in 18S4 and eventually absorbed ab-sorbed the older circus in 1907. There were other names which gradually grew to Importance: John Robinson, oldest of them all; Sells-Floto, Hagenbeck-Wallace, Al G. Barnes, Sparks and others. Just before the crash of 1929, John Ringling formed the American Circus Cir-cus corporation and bought them all. Within the next three years he retired all but Ringling Brothers-Barnum Brothers-Barnum and Bailey, Hagenbeck-Wallace Hagenbeck-Wallace and Al G. Barnes. Ringling, however, was doomed. He borrowed heavily in order to gain a monopoly of the circus industry; in-dustry; when the depression came he could not meet the payments. His New York creditors, headed by S. W. Gumpertz, a Coney Island concessionaire, took over the American Circus corporation and Ringling was only a name under the Big Top. Few spectators realize the magnitude mag-nitude of the activity In the winter win-ter quarters of a circus. Here are the railroad shops which must keep all the rolling equipment in shape. There must be a great harness shop, painting shops (for fresh, glittering paint must go on every square Inch of equipment every year) and costume factories, as well as barns and stalls for the animals and stages and arenas for the rehearsing re-hearsing of 200 or more acts. The place Is seething with activity. Only three localities in the United Unit-ed States are used for winter quarters; quar-ters; Hagenbeck-Wallace and Cole Brothers winter in Peru, and Rochester, Ind., respectively, which are only a few miles apart. Ringling winters in Sarasota, Fla., and Barnes, on the Pacific coast-where coast-where the show is best known. The Indiana location Is considered best, because of proximity to centers of hay and food supply. Food bills for animals of any one of these circuses cir-cuses may run from $30,000 a year up. Looks Like "Circus War." With the coming of an independent independ-ent circus for the first time in years, the American Circus corporation corpora-tion is apparently trying to get ahead of it in bookings. Both Hag enbeck-Wallace and Cole Brothers opened in Chicago on the same day for the same run, and concurrent bookings are in evidence elsewhere? in the schedules. Showmen say it may be another of the old-time "circus "cir-cus wars." Circuses open In the manufacturing manufactur-ing centers first, usually . about the-mlddle the-mlddle of April. They wait till the-farmers the-farmers have cashed In on crops-before crops-before swinging out into the less-populated less-populated areas; when they do, they follow the route of cash-crop harvest. har-vest. Drouth and dust storms will accordingly, cut down their schedules sched-ules in the west central states.. Dayton, Columbus, Detroit, Baltimore, Balti-more, Norfolk, Houston and Dallas-are Dallas-are considered great circus towns, for the Big Top is always jammed there, whether the people seem to-have to-have money or not. In an average-season average-season of 30 weeks with 170 stands, the average circu3 plays to 800,000 people who create a gross revenue-estimated revenue-estimated at well over $1,000,000. Large circuses carry from 600 to 1,600 peolpe, about one-third of whom are performers. Usually, the first railroad section leaves a town before the show Is over. Meats for the giant cats are shipped front the stockyard towns a week In advance ad-vance to keep the show supplied. Hay for animals and food for humans hu-mans are bought by advance agents who enter a town two weeks before be-fore the circus. The shows carry their own staffs of detectives, dentists, doctors, nurses and teachers teach-ers for the children. Tastes Change Little. Years have made little difference differ-ence in the tastes of the public in its circus fare. Buffalo Bill Cody and his Wild West show-were show-were great drawing cards, whil the old man lived, and there are still wild West acts In the circuses of today. Lillian Leitzel, whose beauteous form caused many a pal-! pitatlon of the heart, as it dangled, from a flying ring in mid-air, is dead now, but the Flying Nelsons, Conchita and others, have taken 1 her place and still form a large part of the bill. Our fathers and some of us can remember when little boys innocently inno-cently took jobs watering 'the elephants ele-phants in return for passes and found themselves with a job more backbreaking and more endless than that of Sindbad carrying the Old Man of the Sea. King of the menagerie today Is Clyde Beatty, who makes his animal ani-mal training doubly dangerous hy putting three dozen or more lions and tigers, who are born with a natural hatred for each oilier, through their paces nt the sanm time. a Western NewaDUDor Union |