Friday, March 09, 2012

Columbia Bandwagon

Here is the Columbia Bandwagon at the Circus World Museum in the early 1960's. According to Chappie Fox's book "Horse Drawn Wagon Collection" on Page 63, the Columbia was the first wagon ever obtained by CWM before CWM ever opened with the founding father John M. Kelley getting it from the Cole Bros. Circus in 1954.

2 comments:

Ole Whitey said...

Bob: I believe Bill Brinley acquired Columbia from the Cole show and Kelly got it from him.

The Shoe float from Roland Wilde and Mother Goose from Chappie were also very early CWM arrivals.

Dick Flint said...

Connecticut circus fan Bill Brinley, who exhibited his model circus in advance of the show when William "Hopalong Cassidy" Boyd owned it, got the Columbia wagon from Cole and it was he who later sold it to the future CWM. I don't believe the multi-color paint scheme shown here lasted beyond the opening year of the museum (1959).
Dick Flint
Baltimore