Friday, August 10, 2012

Fred Buchanan winter quarters

Fred Buchanan had been a circus owner for many years. He had the Yankee Robinson show out from 1906 till 1920. He got out of the ownership end for a couple years only to come back out with his World Bros. Circus in 1923. He then changed the title to Robbins Bros. in 1924 and remained out through 1931. As in most cases, the show was broke. Wm. P.. Hall had a lien against most of the show and the Robbins Bros. train rolled into Lancaster, MO to the Hall farm.

Several of the grand parade wagons from years past however were not on the road in 1931 and as a result, they weren't on the train that went to Lancaster. Manny Gunn was fortunate enough to have visited the Granger, Iowa winter quarters in November of 1936 when he took a boat load of photos from the abandoned quarters. Here are a few from over the years. All of the photos from 1936 are some of the Manny Gunn photos.

1 comment:

Ole Whitey said...

What great pictures.

You remember Joe Rettinger was really hung up on this circus farm and used to advertise for a photo of the Yank train on a siding there at Granger.

He added $100 to his offer every year until it reached $1,000 but he never got such a picture to come out of the woodwork.

I think I'm telling this right.