By the end of 1916, the remaining Gentry Bros. were in financial difficulties and sold the show to two of their staff, J. D. Newman and Ben Austin. The show was a 14 car show and remained almost untouched through 1922 when they came off the road. Floyd and Howard King picked up the title again in 1926 after laying untouched for the last three years. The King Brothers altered the title from Shows to Circus and kept it on the road for three years until hard times hit them also. This for sale ad was in Billboard Nov. 2, 1929. The three elephants, Mom, Danny, and Eva were sold to the Otis L. Smith Carnival.Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Floyd and Howard King's Gentry Bros. Circus
By the end of 1916, the remaining Gentry Bros. were in financial difficulties and sold the show to two of their staff, J. D. Newman and Ben Austin. The show was a 14 car show and remained almost untouched through 1922 when they came off the road. Floyd and Howard King picked up the title again in 1926 after laying untouched for the last three years. The King Brothers altered the title from Shows to Circus and kept it on the road for three years until hard times hit them also. This for sale ad was in Billboard Nov. 2, 1929. The three elephants, Mom, Danny, and Eva were sold to the Otis L. Smith Carnival.
Another Gentry Bros. Letterhead
The title using Gentry Bros. Circus was not one used by the Gentry Bros. I can not speak with absolute certainty here but I believe the United Circus Corporation title on top with a California address indicates that Sam B. Dill was the owner from 1930 to 1931 with Mr. Dill being a west coast guy. Can someone give us a better insight on this corporation?Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Gentry Bros. Famous Shows
The Gentry Bros. began their operation in 1887 as Professor Gentry's Canine Paradox. In a couple years the show had grown to two seperate units called Professor Gentry's Famous Dog & Pony Show. There were four brothers, Henry B., Frank, Walter W., & J. W. Gentry. By 1899 all four had their own unit on the road with 5 rail cars in each show. They bought their first elephant in 1890 which broke it's leg being unloaded and was euthanized immediately. 8 years later they bought a baby elephant again and named it Pinto. Same thing happened again. In 1899 they again bought another Indian female elephant and named her Pinto again. This was the first performing elephant in the Gentry lot. The Brothers started getting out of the business after 1906. Only Walter and Henry remained in business until they sold out in 1916. The title continued many times after 1916 by various owners. This ad was from 1914.
Gentry Bros. Circus
This is glued on a piece of paper. I suspect it is a cover off of the Circus Historical Society periodical the Bandwagon but I'm not sure.
Monday, July 28, 2008
"My Father Owned a Circus" by Robert H. Gollmar
This is the cover of the 1911 route book as printed in its entirety in this fabulous book by Judge Gollmar. The Gollmars as every one knows were cousins to the Ringlings. They called Baraboo home as well. Their show existed for 25 years closing under Gollmar ownership in 1916. I can't explain why, but rarely do you find anything about the Gollmar show. No posters are displayed in the books that have been printed. You just don't see contracts and other paper laying around. A Great legacy left behind and Judge Gollmar's book captures the essence of the Gollmar bros. Circus completely.Gollmar Bros. Circus paper # 1
This is the oldest letterhead from Gollmars that I have. It didn't scan worth a hoot. It is very brittle. It is like the old 1st grade drawing paper, a tannish color.
Gollmar Bros. Circus paper # 3
This is a color copy of the original letterhead I have. Unfortunately the white paper on the white background wouldn't show up.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Gollmar Bros. Circus newspaper ads # 1
Well, I hope everyone was able to avoid the long lines and pushy crowds with those Christmas in July sales. We saw three Christmas movies this week on the Hallmark Channel. Now we can get back to the matter at hand. If you are going to get people in the seats, you need to advertise. Here are several ads the Gollmar Bros. Circus used. This one was from Iowa City, Iowa - 1908.
( By double clicking them, they will enlarge enough to read them. )
Gollmar Bros. Circus Newspaper ads # 3
Fairbury, Nebraska - 1912. The town had already had a tremendous amount of Circus excitement when the home town heroes, the Campbell Bros. Great Consolidated Shows had returned on August 10th for a tremendous showing only to be foreclosed by the bank for over $50,000.00 in loans two days later. Al G. Campbell was a part owner of the Cole Bros. Circus also and they played Fairbury on August 16th. Now here comes the Gollmar Bros. Circus on Sept. 12th.
Gollmar Bros. Circus Newspaper ads #5
These aren't the best in the world I know. I took them all off of microfilm but they all display an inherent beauty to the artwork that just isn't seen anymore. This is from Iowa City, Iowa on Friday May 20, 1916.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Christmas in July
In order to celebrate all the Huge, Huge Christmas in July sales going on now, I thought I should get out there and direct traffic to keep the crowds from running over the Red carpets and such.
This is allowable by Blog regulations 3.1.24 of the International Blog Rulers Association as pointed out to me by my mentor, like father like son figure and co-conspirator, Mr. Jim "Da Bagpipe Guy" Peterson who has graciously shown me all the technical, untechnical, and who's being technical aspects of this Blogdom Hoopla!
Which explains the stool in my front room that has Technical wrote on it so that when you sit down on it, you now have technical support! Thanks Jim!
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
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