Saturday, May 13, 2006

This is an extremely colorful ink blotter issued with the showing of the "Greatest Show on Earth" in 1952. Many posters, photos and other memorabilia were produced for the show making it a Great collectors Movie. The newly remodeled Ringling Museum in Sarasota, Florida shows four of the model Railroad cars used in the wreck scene. All but 5 of them are owned by Howard Tibbals who helped build the huge $5 million dollar Tibbals Learning Center in cooperation with the Florida State University at the Ringling Museums.

1 comment:

4pawfan said...

Hello,
Found your site yesterday and going over your old postings. I haven't made the trip yet to the new Ringling Museum, so I haven't seen the railcars from the Greatest Show on Earth on display there. But, I was thinking that Harold Dunn had these cars displayed with his model circus when he and Barbara had their show on display. I was thinking he built these for DeMille, but I couldn't find any information on the internet. My question would be,are these the same, or are these the ones that sold on e-bay a few years ago that came from a private collection
out west? Its been 30 years ago since I talked to Harold about them so I might be a little rusty on the subject. Harold had planned on giving his collection to the Ringling back in the early 70's before the dark times. I am sure he would be very proud of Mr.Tibbals work at the Ringling.
P.J.Holmes