By the late 1940's early 1950's, the John Wixom owned Wixom Rodeo and Circus Combined Show had been reduced to a mere travelling menagerie carrying 7 lions and other caged animals and livestock.
By 1960, the John Wixom Menagerie was done and over with. My dad found out that five of the cages were sitting at Zane Caverns in central Ohio. The Caverns were owned by Richard Zeigler at the time. There were three of these large cages and two small ones with a single axle under them. The three large cages were all on the ground. My uncle supplied a chassis from his farm and they got it raised up and mounted. I remember it stayed outside at our house at least one winter until Dad got it in the garage and started rebuilding it.
This is the final product a few years later. The center upright carving on the skyboards came off of a bed. All the other carvings came from the Parker Carousel at Kiddieland in Cedar Point when the horses were sold off piece meal. My dad's friends, Leonard and Thelma Jefferson owned it and they gave Dad several of the skyboards and mirrors.
Hey now here's some great stuff. The original Super Circus with Mary Hartline and Claude Kischner just released 6 episodes on a DVD today. I got my shipment in. I'll have them on eBay starting tomorrow at my eBay store The Circus World LLC and starting next Monday, I'll be carrying them in my Circus Store at http://www.thecircusworld.com
This is the Two Jesters Steam Calliope. The wagon was originally built around 1919 by Leonard Aylesworth and Charlie Luckie in Denver, Colorado for the Sells-Floto Circus. Some of the carvings were on the building of the "Denver Post". They were removed from the building and became the start of the design. From 1920 to 1924 it was on Sells-Floto and maybe even 1925. 1925-1933 it was in storage at the Peru, Ind. WQ. Hagenbeck-Wallace then used it in daily parades in 1934 and lot concerts only in 1935. After being stored at the Peru WQ for years, RBBB used it in specs from 1941 to 1946. It was stored at the Sarasota WQ then in 1949 it went to the Museum of the American Circus at the John Ringling Estate. Now called the Ringling Musuems, you'll note the wooden wheels are leaning against the rubber tires actually on the wagon.
During a Christmas break, we made a trip from Ohio to Florida for a few days. While at the Ringling Museums, dad took a few pictures in the back end when the marble pieces from Italy were still stored out there. Notice, one seat wagon was there then.
The local newspaper did a small write up two weeks ago on the display I put in the Library. Just to slow things down abit, our local newspaper is still a once a week event. ( double click to enlarge )
Many of you know that the "America" was originally a telescoping tableau on the Barnum & Bailey Circus in 1903. It was built by the Sebastin Wagon Works. In 1917, the telescoping portion was removed and the line above the portraits was added to the wagon's structure. Barnum & Bailey kept this wagon from 1903 to 1918 and then stored it at the Bridgeport winter quarters until 1927. It was then sold to George Christy who had Christy Bros. Circus. In 1934 it was sold to Jess Adkins and Zach Terrell for their new show, the Cole Bros. Circus. They used it in their parades from 1935 through 1938 and left the wagon in storage in 1939. The Steam Calliope was added in 1939 and the wagon went out on Parade again in 1940. From 1941 to 1945 it was again left in storage at the Louisville, Ky. winter quarters of the Cole show. From 1946 to 1950, it was back on the Cole Bros. Circus. The Cole show was going bust by then and it was sold in 1952 to Cleavor Brooks which is a steam and boiler company out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Cleavor Brooks kept it until 1959 when they donated it to the Circus World Museum. The wagon is 21 feet long, 10'9" tall and 8' wide weighing about 9 tons. The photo is a Universal Slide Company issue.
Jungleland, located in the heart of film country in Thousand Oaks, California, provided many an animal for the film industry over the years. As you can see here, they also provided some wagons. As you look at these other photos you'll see the Whirling title covered over on the ticket wagon. A different movie title is on the parade wagon. There is a ton of interesting history out of Jungleland with the likes of Mabel Stark, Roger Smith, Dick McGraw, Pat Anthony and a slew of other great trainers.
The grand old ticket wagon at use again. This photo was taken on the Cristiani Bros. Circus when the played Los Angeles, Ca. in 1959 near Jungeland.
Many of you know that the wagons at Jungleland were old Circus wagons with most of them having a Hagenbeck-Wallace background. Many were then used in various movies being filmed in California. I have never heard of the title on this wagon. Maybe someone can gives us some insight as to which movie this was used in.
This is the other side. I'm pretty sure this is the Arthur Bros. Charging Tiger at the Circus World Museum now. Any thoughts out there?
This slide was in my dad's collection while I was going through them this weekend. After sending it to the Ringling Historian, Dom Yodice, Dom came back with this great answer.
My good Friend, Hal Guyon, sent this to me last night. To see some really fine circus posters go to Buckles Blog at http://bucklesw.blogspot.com There has been some great discussion of the combination of show titles in the last two days.
This fine cage act and the Wallendas overhead came from Joe Yow. The arena was all made out of brass. A real nice looking piece. As a reminder, you can double click the image to enlarge them. The wagon models were absolutely beautiful. This photo is courtesy of Fred Heatley.
This slide was imprinted July 1961. Notice the RBBB ticket wagon in the bottom right hand corner.
Getting back to some good stuff, these four photos were taken of the Olson Shows Carnival in Toledo, Ohio in 1968 by my dad.
This is actually the beginning of this entire series. As you can see from the following posters, this was an incredible display of posters, some of which haven't been seen in many, many years. I told Chris Berry that I photographed every poster that was there as I had no idea if I would ever see half of them again. While I didn't publish them all here on my blog, I provided what I considered to be the best of the group. ( if you double click the image, it should enlarge for you to read it.)
This beautiful poster is a 1/2 sheet flat that was produced by the Strobridge Litho Co. This poster was provided by Emily Parkinson.
This one sheet flat was produced by the Donaldson Lithograph Co.
This is a one sheet flat as produced by the Erie Litho Co.
This amazing 1894 two sheet flat poster was made by the Strobridge Litho Co. It features the Ethnological Congress in the giant midway of the menagerie. This is part of the Chris Berry Collection. This entire exhibit was made possible by Greg Parkinson Enterprises. You may or may not know about Chris Berry. He has known the Parkinson family for years so the assembling of a project of this magnitude was easily fixed with Chris supplying a great majority of the posters for this exhibit. Chris heads up ABC Radio news and travels quite extensively which has helped his locating posters to add to his collection. He is a Circus Historical Society member and has his own blogsite at http://circusposters.blogspot.com/ where he offers simply for trade many great old Circus posters. I have a link for him below simply titled Circus Memorabilia for trade.
This wonderful poster is a one sheet flat printed in French by the Strobridge Litho Co. for the 1902 season of Barnum & Bailey's European tour. It is part of the Chris Berry collection.
This beautiful poster was produced by the Strobridge Litho Co. for the 1900 season of Barnum & Bailey's European Tour. It is printed in German. This is part of the Chris Berry collection.
This fine piece is a One sheet flat produced by the Strobridge Litho Co. for the 1900 season of Barnum & Bailey's European tour. It is printed in German. This is part of the Chris Berry Collection.
This one sheet flat was produced by the Strobridge Litho Co. for the 1900 Barnum & Bailey European tour. It is printed in German. This is from the Chris Berry Collection.
This incredible 2 sheet upright was produced for the European tour by Strobridge Litho Co. but was never used. It is printed in French. The folds still showed behind the glass. Courtesy of the Chris Berry collection.
