Sawdust and Spangles: English Wagons arrive at CWM

Saturday, August 07, 2010

English Wagons arrive at CWM

4 comments:

Dave Price said...: I remember when these wagons were sitting in the crates. My understanding is that there was a quarantine of a certain period before they could be taken out.

Please tell the story of how they were remembered by an American soldier who had seen them in a barn in rural England during the war and how he mentioned it to Chappie and how it took a long time to track them down and then get the owners to let the museum have them.

I forget the details but surely you or some reader can help with this.; 10:01 AM
Anonymous said...: Dave- I believe the mans name was Hugo Zeiter. He told me the story at a parade back around 1994 or 1995. Apparently during WWII he was stationed in England. On his liberty time he would explore the English countryside. He happened upon these wagons one time. Obviously he made it thru the war and came back home. The CWM and Old Milwaukee Days Parades began and 30 years later Chappie was looking for something new to put in the parade. Hugo mentioned the treasure trove of wagons that he had run across during the war but for the life of him could not remember exactly where. C.P. tracked them down and got Schlitz to front the money to bring them over. The problem was that there was an outbreak of hoof and mouth disease in the area so the wagons had to be quarantined until they were deemed safe to bring into the country. After much wrangling they were brought to CWM for restoration.

One item of interest is that some local fans persist that there were more wagons. One fan tells me that he personally witnessed the burning of several wagons by CWM. The fact of the matter is that what he saw was the disposal (burning) of the shipping crates that they came in. For a number of years CWM would have a "burn pile" of junk (brush, crates, etc.) and once a year the Baraboo fire dept. would light it up for practice.
Flint; 8:48 AM
Anonymous said...: Zeiter was a long time fan and had a lot of contact with British circus fans over the years from his WWII years. His collection was sold on ebay a few years back and maybe someone has some of the correspondence?
p.j.; 6:46 PM
Dick Flint said...: The Hugo Zeiter story is correct and yes, his collection was auctioned (a "live' auction in parts from the Long Island area as I recall) and it was a surprising good one with some rare European pieces--so he found more than just wagons! One must add that when Chappie heard the story he enlisted the aid of British fan Jack Niblett who had been an exchange teacher in Wisconsin about the year CWM opened and so was acquainted with Chappie. It didn't take Jack long to guess where the wagons might be. I recall Chappie telling the story and he didn't relish the long trans-Atlantic flight! I remember him telling that the wagons had been sitting in place so long that they were half buried! I think this discovery was one of Chap's great events but others who were closer to him and the event might better answer.
In any event, Jack Niblett is an important part of the story and was a great circus fan who revisited the museum when I worked there in the early 1970s.
Dick Flint
Baltimore; 1:55 AM

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