Monday, December 13, 2010

Beauty Tab

Legendary Circus Historian, Joe Bradbury kept an index card on parade wagon histories over the years. I was fortunate enough to get a copy years ago. According to Joe's notes, the Beauty tab was built in the 1880's or 1890's for Adam Forepaugh as a cage.

1894 - Adam Forepaugh Shows
1895 - not on the road
1896 - Forepaugh-Sells ( Probably for several years )

1910-1913 - Downie and Wheeler
1914 - Jones Bros. and Wilson
1915 - Jones Bros.
1916 to 1917 - Cole Bros.
went to G.W. Christy and converted to a Tableau
1922 to 1930 - Christy Bros. Circus
1936 - Ken Maynard
1937 to 1949 - in storage at US Tents and Awnings
1949 to 1955 - Bradley and Kaye's Kiddieland in Los Angeles
1955 - Disney
Disney later donated it to the Circus World Museum

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Beauty originated as a tableau cage on Barnum & London in 1883. Joe didn't get this one right.

The Beauty name was coined by George Christy, who created the decorative configuration known today.

I would discount the remainder of what he listed until the Jones Bros. entries.

This is not critical of Joe, but there's been a good bit of work in the subsequent thirty years since he first compiled those notes. Use with caution!