Shows on the road in 1902

Shows on the road in 1902

Well you can see the title if nothing else. The microfilm is in fantastic condition but the microfilm reader at the Library needs some work.

Shows on the road in 1902

Shows on the road in 1902

Shows on the road in 1902

Ringling Trial

As many of you may know, the trial that took eight years in the making began yesterday. The Feld Press Release is protected so I can not copy and paste it here for you to read. I believe Ringling is basically going to bat for all elephant owners as the repercussions will be felt throughout the US.


Go to the Feld Trial site for all the details at http://www.ringlingbrostrialinfo.com/

Go Ringling!

Shows on the road in 1902

Shows on the road in 1902

Shows on the road in 1902

The season of 1902.

It's snowing in South Carolina again and the booking agents are working the route together. The Advertising Depts are gathering in the news. The Posters are being printed. In addition to the big names like Erie Litho, Riverside, Courier and Strobridge, other printing companies were working the trade as well and for just a few dollars, you could post a town quite well.

( You can double click this to enlarge it. )

RBBB info.

( I recieved this from Gary today. I'm glad to see the info being kept up to date on the CFA website. )

To all,

Here we go! Once again, the lawsuit filed by animal special interest groups on the treatment of circus elephants is UP! It has been put off 8 years while the extremists capitalize on the publicity value of their meritless allegations.

Soon the jig will be up! The trial is to begin Wednesday! You can stay up to date with the facts by going to the CFA website www.circusfans.org. Under the CFA logo on the left, look for "search site" - key in the word "trial" and click on "go". It will bring up the links to the latest information from Feld Entertainment. This is the same site to which they will be directing reporters. The people at Feld have been kind enough to include we CIRCUS FANS in their daily updates. You will be privy to the same information as the press. Use it often.


We are ready to support Ringling Bros. & Barnum & Bailey, The Greatest Show On Earth. We have several other affirmative grass roots campaigns about to kick off in the USA! Be alert. Be ready. Be with it and for it! This is OUR day in court at last!

Regards,

Gary C. Payne
CFA Nat'l Animal Welfare Chairman

Cruelty to elephants circus case heads to trial

THIS WAS IN THE COLUMBIA, S.C. NEWSPAPER "THE STATE" YESTERDAY!

After more than eight years of legal skirmishing, a trial is scheduled to open Wednesday in a lawsuit filed by animal welfare groups alleging that Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus routinely abuses its performing elephants.
The plaintiffs - including the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Animal Welfare Institute - allege that trainers' use of sharp tools called bullhooks and the prolonged use of chains on the Asian elephants add up to an egregious violation of the federal Endangered Species Act.
They seek an order from U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., halting these practices, which some activists hope would force Ringling Bros. to give up elephants altogether.



( In this Jan. 26, 2009 file photo provided by Feld Entertainment, elephant handler Trudy Williams tends to "Barack" at the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Center for Elephant Conservation, in Central Florida. The 250 pound male Asian elephant was born at the center on Monday, Jan. 19, and according to the center, is only the fourth elephant to be born in the United States as a result of artificial insemination. Barack's mother, Bonnie, joins them in the pen. )
- Feld Entertainment, Inc. /AP Photo

The rest of the article can be found at http://www.thestate.com/166/story/670832.html

The Ringling Center for Elephant Conservation website is well worth your time to go and read for yourself. http://www.elephantcenter.com/

The Circus Scrapbook

This was a great publication while it lasted. This was printed four times a year with a subscription costing you $1.00. I was lucky enough to get four complete years. The Editor and I'm guessing the owner was F. P. Pitzer. I don't know anything more about him. I also don't know if this lasted more than just the 4 years I have. All the articles inside were from magazine and newspaper clippings as they asked for anyone with Circus Scrapbooks to send them to the Publication. Unusable material would be returned if postage was provided. Anything they used would be compensated for its use. There are a lot of great articles in these.

The Circus Scrapbook

This is on the bottom of page 13 and continued on to the top of page 14.

The Circus Scrapbook

The Back Cover.

Circus World Museum looks forward to parade in Milwaukee, better days ahead

By BRIAN D. BRIDGEFORD/NEWS REPUBLIC
Rock Springs resident Craig Janzen paints one of the colorfully-decorated, steel-rimmed wheels that will carry historic circus wagons through city streets July 12 when the Great Circus Parade returns to Milwaukee. He was working Thursday morning in the C. P. Fox Wagon Restoration Center of Circus World Museum. Visible behind him is the Pawnee Bill Bandwagon made in 1903.

Getting socked by June flooding interrupted rising attendance at Circus World Museum in 2008, the director said Thursday. However the museum can look forward to a successful Milwaukee Great Circus Parade in July and rising visitor numbers in 2010, he predicted.

CWM Executive Director Steve Freese met with members of the executive committee of the Circus World Museum Foundation, the non-profit organization that operates the museum on behalf of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. They conducted a review of the shortfalls and successes of 2008 and looked forward to the next budget they must prepare, the one for 2010.
In 2007, visitors coming to Circus World Museum was rising for the first time in years and reached about 56,000 people, Freese said. Attendance was rising again in 2008, until the Baraboo River overtopped its banks in early June and forced the closure of the museum grounds.

CWM has been recovering from the floods and that trend should continue, Freese said.
"We'll be back on the growth we did in 2007, and up through the flood in 2008," he said. "We had 15 percent growth in 2007 in attendance, and we were up to 8 percent growth before the flood, That hit us pretty badly and we lost attendance," he said. Museum staff are working hard on the big project for the year, the parade through Milwaukee, Freese said. It will be the first since 2003.

CWM has already completed contracts with the horse teams and drivers who will be pulling the wagons, Freese said. Restoration of the historic circus wagons that will appear in the parade is also moving along well, he said.

In the C. P. Fox Wagon Restoration Center, Wagon Superintendent Harold "Heavy" Burdick and a crew of museum employees and volunteers were busy preparing 50 elaborately-carved and colorful circus wagons to make their best showing during the Great Circus Parade July 12 in Milwaukee.

On one side of the wagon workshop, Baraboo carpenter Jeff Fry used an electric saw and chisel to shape part of a wooden frame for the Ken Maynard Air Calliope Wagon. Time and again, he tried the fit of the part before taking it back to his workbench to shape it further.
The calliope wagon, a type of musical instrument circuses used to attract crowds, stood stripped to bare wood, waiting for completion of its restoration. Burdick flipped a sheet over and displayed the gleaming, brass pneumatic pipes of the wagon's music-making mechanism.
"It needs some loving," he said of the antique circus wagon.

In another area, Rock Springs resident Craig Janzen and Donald Sanders of Baraboo painted the colorful wood and steel-rimmed wheels that carry the wagons along the parade route. Overlooking them were the ornately painted scenes and faces of the museum's Pawnee Bill circus bandwagon, originally made in 1903 for Pawnee Bill's Wild West Show.
As part of preparations for the parade, Burdick said they had the wheels squeezed by a giant hydraulic machine to make sure the steel rims cling tight to the wooden spokes and hubs. Each wheel can weight up to several hundred pounds, he said. "That's 200 wheels, we have to make sure they go three miles (of the parade route)," he said.

Fry said the last six months of working on wagon restoration rather than home building has been a new experience for him. "You get to use the same skills," but it's always interesting here," he said. "You never know what they'll pull in here." Fry added it is a lot better to be working in a heated workshop rather than an outdoors construction site.

On another side of the workshop near giant garage-type doors a second air calliope wagon stood, the Cole Brothers Air Calliope No. 82, ready to take part in the parade. This one gleamed with a new coat of red paint and looked as if it was ready for work almost a century ago in the golden age of circuses, parading through the streets to draw adults and children to the performances under the big top. "That was a total restoration too," Burdick said. "It worked out really nice.
"A compliment to my guys, because I couldn't do it without them," he said. "They deserve a lot of credit for what they do here."

Burdick said he expects he and his co-workers will not be done restoring all the wagons until shortly before the Great Circus Parade hits Milwaukee's streets this summer.

In the CWM conference room, Freese said he is optimistic about the future of the museum. However, with the economic slowdown, he didn't expect attendance in 2009 to rise above that of last year, about 53,000 people.

But as the economy revitalizes in 2010, Freese said effective efforts to promote the museum will again bring rising numbers of visitors. His strategy has been to be "really out there with the public." "I think because of the different marketing style and approach that I've taken to the management of the facility, I think we can reasonably expect an uptick in the attendance," Freese said. "We have basically two-and-a-half years evidence for that."

Ringling's 22nd baby elephant born

RINGLING BROS. AND BARNUM & BAILEY® PROUDLY ANNOUNCES ITS FIRST ELEPHANT CALF BORN FROM ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION

It’s A Boy! The 22nd Calf Born into the Ringling Bros.® Conservation and Breeding Program
(January 27, 2009 -Vienna, VA) – The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Center for Elephant Conservation® proudly announces the birth of a healthy male Asian elephant – marking the twenty-second birth in what has proven to be the most successful Asian elephant breeding program in the Western Hemisphere. Most importantly, this is the first calf in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey assisted reproduction program born as a result of artificial insemination (AI). Born on Jan. 19, the inaugural eve of the 44th President of the United States at 11:50 p.m. and weighing 250 pounds, the calf has been named Barack, This calf is a first for fourteen-year-old Bonnie, who also was born at the Ringling Bros. Center for Elephant Conservation, and until recently was performing with The Greatest Show On Earth®. Two male elephant donors from the Ringling Bros. herd contributed to the AI procedure and Ringling Bros. veterinarians will soon be taking blood samples to determine which donor is the calf’s father. As with each calf born at Ringling Bros., Barack will have a team of veterinarians and elephant husbandry specialists that will watch over and care for him as he grows and develops.

“The reality is that the worldwide elephant population is declining, which means the overall mortality rate is increasing and that is a heart breaking fact. That is why at Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey practical solutions that help to care for and to save these magnificent animals are critical,” says Kenneth Feld, Founder of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Center for Elephant Conservation. “Our priority at Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey is to invest in and support health and conservation programs for captive populations that in the future may help save range country populations. We are thrilled that Bonnie and now Barack are living tributes to our commitment at Ringling Bros.”

Barack is only the fourth elephant to be born in the United States from artificial insemination (AI). The first calf born from an AI was in 1999 at Dickerson Park Zoo in Springfield, Missouri under the watch of Dr. Dennis Schmitt, Chair of Veterinary Care and Director of Research for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey. AI procedures are considered a viable option in conservation programs where species like the Asian elephant are endangered. The AI procedure is meant to complement natural breeding efforts not replace them. It also helps to manage and increase the gene pool population without the logistics of relocating and introducing a male elephant (solitary by nature) to an established herd of female elephants.

Read more at http://www.elephantcenter.com/press/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=17472

Makes a lot of sense to me!

AIN'T IT THE TRUTH!!?

Joe Smith started the day early having set his alarm clock (MADE IN JAPAN ) for 6am.

While his coffeepot (MADE IN CHINA )was perking,

he shaved with his electric razor (MADE IN HONG KONG )


He put on a dress shirt (MADE IN SRI LANKA ),
designer jeans (MADE IN SINGAPORE )

and tennis shoes (MADE IN KOREA )


After cooking his breakfast in his new
electric skillet (MADE IN INDIA )


he sat down with his calculator
(MADE IN MEXICO )
to see how much he could spend today.

After setting his watch (MADE IN TAIWAN )

to the radio (MADE IN INDIA )

he got in his car (MADE IN GERMANY )

filled it with GAS (from Saudi Arabia )

and continued his search for a good paying AMERICAN JOB.

At the end of yet another discouraging and fruitless day

checking his Computer (Made In Malaysia ),

Joe decided to relax for a while.He put on his sandals (MADE IN BRAZIL )
poured himself a glass of wine (MADE IN FRANCE )
and turned on his TV (MADE IN INDONESIA ),

and then wondered why he can't find

a good paying job in AMERICA ....

Sept. / Oct. issue of Bandwagon

The Sept. / Oct. issue of the Circus Historical Society's periodical the Bandwagon, featured two show cards from the Sig Sautlette season of 1911. They measured 10 1/4" x 14". Both were printed by the Erie Litho Co. Both are in the Pfening Archives. To learn more about Circus History you can go to the Circus Historical Society's web page at http://www.circushistory.org/ Anyone can now fill out the application for membership and mail it in or we now have the website set up to use the PayPal system of online payments which allows you to become a paid member instantly. No other organization features a complete review of every show on the road each year as well as some of the most detailed accounts of Circuses past and present. Join the Circus Historical Society today. You'll be glad you did!

Sept. / Oct. issue of Bandwagon

This is another window card from the 1911 season. It was also printed by the Erie Litho Co. It is in the Pfening Archives.