It's a confusing, almost chaotic, scene. The camera points upwards at men seated outdoors on a kind of elaborate stage decorated with ornate carvings. Some men are in fancy military-like uniforms while others are in top hats and long coats. What are they doing? A trombone and tuba give good clues as to who they are.
They are members of a circus band riding on a bandwagon called The Five Graces. Here is a more recent color photo of this grand tableau carriage. It's looking pretty good for a wooden vehicle almost 150 years old with thousands of road miles on it. Though now parked in a Florida circus museum, once upon a time this celebrated bandwagon led parades for the Greatest Show on Earth.
This postcard of the Five Graces Bandwagon
raised several questions that found enough answers
to inspire a much longer story than I expected about
the four year European tour of Barnum & Bailey's Circus.
raised several questions that found enough answers
to inspire a much longer story than I expected about
the four year European tour of Barnum & Bailey's Circus.
The full postcard image shows a bandwagon pulled by dark horses on a city street. A policeman directs a crowd of spectators around it. The wagon driver leans into his task, holding onto two fistfuls of reins.
This half-tone photo was published by the Walter Bernhardt company of Berlin, Germany and the caption is in German.
Circus Barnum & Bailey
Prunkwagen von 40 Pferden gezogen.
~
Ceremonial chariot drawn by 40 horses
Prunkwagen von 40 Pferden gezogen.
~
Ceremonial chariot drawn by 40 horses
On the front of the card is a simple greeting from Fritz to the recipient Fräulein Martha Ebert of Marburg, a town about 54 miles north of Frankfurt. The postmark is dated 8 October 1900 from Wiesbaden, a city in the western German state of Hesse, about 22 miles west of Frankfurt and 65 miles southwest of Marburg. Fritz had such beautiful penmanship that I hope he made a good impression on Martha.
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| Four Years in Europe, the Barnum and Bailey Greatest Show on Earth in the Old World Seasons 1897-1901 Source: Milner Library, Illinois State University |
I discovered the answer to my question in a fascinating account entitled: "Four Years in Europe, the Barnum and Bailey Greatest Show on Earth in the Old World Seasons 1897-1901" written by Harvey L. Watkins. Watkins was personal secretary and later press agent to James A. Bailey (1847–1906) one of America's greatest circus entrepreneurs who built a show business empire.
Born James Anthony McGinnis in Detroit, Michigan, he was orphaned at an early age and left home to seek his fortune. In his teens he met Col. Frederick Bailey, a nephew of Hachaliah Bailey (1775–1845) who is regarded as a pioneer of the first American circus. Frederick was then an advance man for a traveling circus and took James on as his assistance. They formed such a close bond that James changed his surname to Bailey.
After an interruption caused by the Civil War, in 1866 James Bailey rejoined the circus world as a general agent and then in 1872 as partner in the Cooper & Bailey Circus. This company became known as the Great International Circus, once making a profitable two-year tour of the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Java, and several countries of South America. It proved so successful that it became chief competitor to the circus owned by P. T. (Phineas Taylor) Barnum (1810–1891), arguably the most famous showman of the 19th century. Barnum had established his fame through his popular museum of oddities in New York City. Among the many strange and unusual people Barnum exhibited were the very tall couple Martin and Anne Bates, both over 7½ feet in height, whose story Here Be Giants I wrote back in August 2018.
Barnum recognized James Bailey's hardworking business talent and in 1881 the two men agreed to combine their shows into what became "Barnum and Bailey's Circus". It was on Bailey advice that Barnum acquired their first major star—Jumbo (1860–1885) an African elephant promoted as the world's largest.
In April 1891 P. T. Barnum suffered a stroke at his home and died at age 80. Bailey continued to run their circus, perpetuating Barnum's celebrity. Bailey increased the size of his circus which traveled on its own special train complete with rail cars designed for the large numbers of exotic animals in the circus's menagerie. The late 19th century expansion of America's railroads produced a boom in the entertainment industry which spawned dozens of traveling minstrel shows, theater troupes, wild west shows, and circus. Big money could be made in show biz but it was also a very risky business with many companies going under or selling their shows.
In 1890 Bailey acquired the Adam Forepaugh & Sells Bros. Circus. This purchase included the Five Graces bandwagon which was made for Forepaugh in 1877 by the Fielding Bros. Wagon Company of New York.
In 1894 Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show was heavily in debt, partly caused by poor attendance at its long run at Ambrose Park in New York City. Its owner and headliner William Frederick Cody, "Buffalo Bill", (1846–1917) was forced to seek financial help from James Bailey who agreed to cover transportation and touring expenses of the show in return for a share in its profits. Bailey was now manager of two mammoth entertainment enterprises. In 1895 he transformed Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show by having it travel by rail to more small towns rather than remain stationary in one city for a season. That summer B.B.W.W.S. covered 9,000 miles, playing 131 performance in 190 days. The company used 52 rail cars which was double the number used by the Barnum & Bailey Circus.
This introduction is to explain how Bailey became a master of show business logistics. His next big production deserved a book.
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| Four Years in Europe, the Barnum and Bailey Greatest Show on Earth in the Old World Seasons 1897-1901 Source: Milner Library, Illinois State University |
Mr. Watkins' self-published book is archived at the Illinois State University Milner Library which has a large collection of circus route books. These detailed business histories were produced for investors and bragging rights in the entertainment trade world but they soon became souvenirs for avid circus fans who wanted to follow their circus heroes. A typical circus route book listed every show's date with the city or town played, the distance traveled as well as the number of shows lost to bad weather or accidents. It often included a diary account of significant events which occurred during the tour, like illnesses and deaths in the company, poor crowds, or mishaps. All cast and crew for the season were listed which included not just performers but also the name of every staff member and laborer—cooks, musicians, ticket takers, ushers, animal handlers, canvas riggers, and hundreds of others.
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| Four Years in Europe, the Barnum and Bailey Greatest Show on Earth in the Old World Seasons 1897-1901 Source: Milner Library, Illinois State University |
The Barnum & Bailey organization was a complex organization with hundreds of non-performers employed to manage the complex logistics and promotion of a traveling entertainment troupe. Older traditional circuses that performed in a single ring tent were small affairs compared to the gigantic enterprise of the B & B show.
On 27 July 1897 the circus was in Iowa where Bailey traveled to inform the whole company of his decision to take the circus on a tour of Europe, beginning in Britain. For several months he and his directors had been contemplating this idea, scouting out locations, working out schedules and itineraries, and finally negotiating contracts. This grand excursion would truly establish the Barnum and Bailey Circus as the Greatest Show on Earth. But now the hard work would really begin.
The plan was to have a winter season in London with the regular tour beginning in April 1897. All the performers, livestock, animal handlers, props and equipment would be shipped across the Atlantic by steamship from New York. They expected to open their first winter show at West Kensington's Olympia Exhibition Centre on Boxing Day, December 26. Transporting acrobats and clowns was easy but moving zebras, camels, giraffes, and elephants, not to mention hundreds of trained horses required special Transatlantic handling and accommodations. The main cargo ship left New York on November 12 and arrived at London's Albert Docks twelve days later on November 24. The only casualties were one giraffe that broke its neck, two baggage horses, and one show horse stallion.
After a successful winter series in London, in April 1898 the Barnum & Bailey Circus began its first season touring Britain. It started in Manchester and traveled by rail to 7o more cities in England, Scotland, and Wales covering 2,976 miles over 186 days. The circus finished on 12 November in Stoke-on-Trent where it made its winter quarters.
The following year the B & B circus made its second tour of Britain, this time visiting 112 towns for 349 performances, losing only 23 to bad weather. Total miles traveled during the 1899 season was 4073 with the longest run from one city to another 113 miles and the shortest 6 miles.
Settling in at Stoke-on-Trent for another winter's rest the Barnum & Bailey company prepared for next season's tour of Germany.
The sailing distance from London to Hamburg over the North Sea was a fraction of the Atlantic's expanse from Britain to America but it still posed logistic challenges for transporting a circus 500+ nautical miles. The biggest issue was moving the show's British rail cars, purposely built in England for European rail gauge. Each 60 ft long car was loaded onto a cargo ship without being disassembled. However it still required two trips to move them all.
Then there was taking delivery from America of all new tent canvas which had been made fireproof to satisfy German requirements. Another company was suppling two steam-powered electric generators to run a new lighting system for the show. Smaller tasks included hiring production staff who spoke German and printing all new posters and adverts in German. Since Barnum & Bailey promotions had already stretched the English lexicon of descriptive adjectives, adverbs and superlatives, converting the vocabulary into German equivalents was no easy endeavor.
Finally all groundwork being completed, Barnum & Bailey's full complement assembled in Hamburg for its first parade on Saturday 14 April 1900. Led by the Five Graces bandwagon drawn by a team of 40 horses. "Die größte Schaustellung der Welt" had arrived in Europe—in the rain.
The circus would stay in Hamburg for a month and then go to Germany's capital Berlin for another month. Despite inclement weather the German audiences were very good, so when the company headed off on tour in June, everyone was confident of a positive reception.
Mr. Watkin's book on the first European tour of the Barnum and Bailey Circus contains several pages of photos devoted to the star performers. I do not own a copy of this book but have digitally clipped these excerpts from the online edition stored at the Milner Library archives of the Illinois State University and display them here out of their original order. Unfortunately Watkins did not offer any descriptions or details about the acts, so we are left to use our imagination. However I found online a number of colorful posters produced for the 1898-1901 tours in England and Germany which give us a better, if not thrilling idea, of what these circus performers were capable of.
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| Source: Milner Library, Illinois State University |
Harvey L. Watkins included dozens of photographs of the Barnum & Bailey company officers and staff but men with bushy mustaches are really not as interesting as the photos of its performers. Here dressed in white spangly unitards are the "Original Seigrist-Silbon Troupe" a family of five trapeze artists. They were promoted as "the world-famous Silbons the masterful monarchs of the air in a series of most difficult, ingenious and startling aerial feats."
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| Source: Milner Library, Illinois State University |
The circus featured a great many equestrian performers like Neta Johnson and presumably her daughter Miss Minnie. Netta used the term "menage rider" which is a type of horse riding in a closed ring. There were also several clowns like Spader Johnson, presumably Neta's husband, whose comedy had made their names well known to the public.
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| Barnum & Bailey Circus poster circa 1900 Source: Wikimedia |
One of the big draws for all circuses was introducing novel acts from foreign lands. In the 1890s Japan was no longer a developing country but its culture was still little known outside of Asia. The Nanakusa Japanese Troupe presented a high wire act called the "Japanese slide for life. Executed with amazing celerity & startling accuracy of judgment." I expect they also performed many other balancing and acrobatic feats.
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| Barnum & Bailey Circus Advert circa 1900 Source: Wikimedia |
Miss Nellie Reid, High School rider and driver, is pictured with a horse and cart that surely showed her mastery of horsemanship on several levels. Walter Lowe was a Parfore Cyclist who did amazing jump tricks on a bicycle which at the time was still a novelty. Not all acts were of a daredevil nature. Charles Diamond was a "Milanese Minstrel" who played a small folk harp while dressed in tight trousers and a velvet jacket festooned with medals. He accompanied M'lle Beatrice, a soprano saxophone soloist who stands next to him with her instrument, the one often mistaken for a clarinet.
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| Barnum & Bailey Circus poster circa 1900 Source: Wikimedia |
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| Barnum & Bailey Circus poster circa 1900 Source: Wikimedia |
Clever and amusing tricks played on bicycles and roller skates were likely as popular in Europe as in America. This poster promoting the Barnum & Bailey Circus was printed in Cincinnati for the German part of the tour.
Many entertainers were family groups with parents and children or husband and wife. On this page we have Rose Wentworth, equestrienne, standing on a white horse and Harry Wentworth, manufacturer of fun, astride a very large white pig. Below are photos of James and Millie Savoy, boxing speciality. I'm not certain what pugilistic skills the Savoys may have demonstrated fighting between themselves, but I suspect their act used the teardrop-shaped speed bag.
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| Barnum & Bailey Circus poster circa 1900 Source: Wikimedia |
Some acts were less skill and more spectacle. Frank Howard, the American tatooed (sic) artist, and his wife Annie Howard, Barnum & Bailey's original tatooed (sic) lady, were part of the circus sideshow where people with unusual talents or appearace were put on display. Their daughter, Miss Ivy Howard, a cornet soloist, is pictured on the same page with her instrument. But as she wears a tight fitted white dress with long sleeves and high collar, I'd bet her audience came not so much for her music as for her reveal of some skin.
On this page of Mr. Watkins' book he published photos of seven of the more unique members of the circus sideshow. Beginning top left going clockwise we have: Miss Zolino, magnetic wonder; Miss Clifford, sword swallower; James Morris, elastic skin man; Mable Milton, long haired lady; Annie Jones, bearded lady; Charles B. Tripp, armless phenomenon; and center: Sig. Tomasso, human pin cushion.
On another page is a similar medley of unusual people, again beginning top left going clockwise we have: Jo-Jo, the Russian dog-faced man; Alfonso, the human ostrich; Rob Roy, albino dislocationist; Billy Wells, iron skull man; and in center: John W. Coffey, 59 lbs. with John McDonald, 458 lbs.
Mr. Watkins related how the 1898-1901 European tour of the Barnum & Bailey Circus produced a remarkable change in how curiosities like these people were presented to the public. In January 1899 during the quiet winter season there was a protest, an "Uprising of the Freaks" to use Mr. Watkins words, of the performers in the circus sideshow. They had organized to complain to James Bailey about how their section of the circus was often described to the public
.
They considered that "the word 'Freak' was opprobrious and without any special meaning. particularly as a large number of those who constituted this department were free from any peculiarities to designate them as different from the ordinary being, and it was therefore determined that the word 'Freak' should be from this time on abolished, and a committee...appointed to select another word in place of the objectionable one."
After meeting with Bailey there was further discussion in a committee of several learned people, including Canon Wilberforce of Westminster Abbey, who suggested the word "Prodigies" as a suitable replacement. When it was presented to Mr. Bailey he immediately agreed and ordered that all promotions of the sideshow department change "Freaks" to "Prodigies." You can see the change in this next poster as well as the different characters in the sideshow. The caption reads:
(Click to enlarge the image.)
"The Peerless Prodigies of Physical Phenomena
& Marvelous Living Human Curiosities."
& Marvelous Living Human Curiosities."
(Click to enlarge the image.)
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| Click to enlarge the image |
On another page we have the Ceballos Family—Teodulo, Zarah, Hilarion and Rosalie, aerialists and gymnasts. Below them is a portrait of the Sutcliffe Family dressed in Scottish tartan garb. They were acrobats, pipers, and dancers who had a long career performing around the world in vaudeville, circuses, and music halls.
In 2013 I wrote a story about them featuring several of their postcards as a pipe band, The Sutcliffe Family Pipe Band. But as you can see in the next Barnum & Bailey poster they were much more than just bagpipers. This unique troupe started in around 1897 and continued performing until 1923, exchanging several members for new people who all assumed the Sutcliffe name.
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| Barnum & Bailey Circus poster circa 1900 Source: Wikimedia |
Clowns are perhaps the one universal act found in every circus around the world. On this page of Mr. Watkins book we have Toto, a comique who featured trained dogs; Piccolo "The Auguste"; Little Sandy, a classic tramp clown; and Bell and Albion, comedy acrobats. I think Bell played the straight man.
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| Barnum & Bailey Circus poster circa 1900 Source: Wikimedia |
Another page shows Brother Leonard, horizontal bar artists and grotesques; the Two Friskeys, pantomimic comedians; Jules Carr, bear trainer, with his bear dressed in coat and "holding" an American flag; and Charles Siegrist, aerialist, the young star of the Silbon Troupe.
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| Barnum & Bailey Circus poster circa 1900 Source: Wikimedia |
This last page from Mr. Watkins' book has a photo of Carl Clair's Famous Military Band who were the concert band for this European tour of the Barnum & Bailey Circus. It's a thirty piece group of brass, woodwinds, percussion and a string bass. Not all of them would fit on the Five Graces bandwagon which was reserved for only the loudest and flashiest instruments. Carl Clair (1868-1911) was born in Lisbon, Iowa and became a cornet soloist and circus bandleader at age 16. In an 1892 interview Carl Clair said, "I am constantly watching the different riding acts while playing. The various tricks need an immediate change of music. Animals are so sensitive to the sound of music that they are often taught in that way alone, and so accustomed have they become to the correct pauses and drum signals, that should any delay occur in giving them, it would seriously interfere with the performance." While on this tour in October 1899 Carl Clair married Christina Matilda Weedon at St. Anne's Church in London. The couple were given an engraved silver tea service from his band.
Below the band are portraits of four serious men: Will Propyn, Dave Carter, Frank Ross, and James Carr who are presumably the funny members of the New York Comedy Quartette pictured as the costumed characters in the center.
From there the company would travel to Wien, i.e. Vienna, for a winter season at the Rotunde, a hall built for the 1873 Austrian Exposition at the Prater Park along the Danube. Performances were planned to begin in December when the hall was usually empty. James Bailey arranged to have the Rotunde modified for more seating and better electric lighting but local people thought it foolish to expect much of an audience to turn out during Vienna's typically very cold winters. But Bailey anticipated that by hiring a company to install 6 boilers and a radiator pipe system in the hall to provide steam heat. It proved reliable and kept the patron comfortable except for a few days in January when one boiler sprung a leak.
During the first weeks of performances that winter many of Wien's high society came to watch the show from 84 theater boxes placed around the hall just like at Wien's opera house. Many government officials and ministers, foreign ambassadors, and members of Austria's and Hungary's aristocracy honored the circus by attending and sometimes meeting the performers. Kaiser Franz Joseph came once and gave James Bailey a gold cigar case embellished with the royal cypher. Mr. Watkins also noted that Archduke Leopold Salvator and his family attended one show. I featured the Salvators in a September 2013 story, A Royal Family, which was about a set of photo postcards of this musical family.
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| Barnum & Bailey Circus poster circa 1900 Source: Wikimedia |
In the spring of 1901 the Barnum & Bailey Circus set off on its fourth season touring Europe. From Wien, Austria they would travel to Budapest, Hungary and continue into other towns in Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Galicia, all regions within the vast Austrian-Hungarian Empire. By July they would be back in eastern Germany heading to Holland in September and Belgium by November. The winter season would be in Paris.
1901 was a difficult year of transition for the world. Queen Victoria died on January 22 succeeded by her son King Edward VII. On September 6 President William McKinley was assassinated in Buffalo, New York while attending the Pan-American Exposition. Days later Vice President Theodore Roosevelt was sworn in as the 26th president of the United States.
During this year the company. Mr. Watkins wrote, "that during our thirty-one weeks on the road, we exhibited in Five great empires, visited 125 cities, gave 449 performances, and traveled a total distance of 11,110 kilometers or 6905 miles. The longest run from one city to another was 241 kilometers, while the smallest was a distance of 21 kilometers." Consider that everyone in the circus traveled by train and helped in some way to setup and take down the whole production every day. I'm exhausted just writing about this.
The last pages of Harvey L. Watkins' account of Barnum & Bailey's European tour are devoted to a roster of all the people employed by the company. It is a fascinating directory with many names reflecting the international nature of the circus world. Besides Carl Clair's military band, there was also a small Concert Company with M'lle Beatrice on soprano saxophone, Charles Diamond, the Milanese minstrel, and Ivy Howard, cornet soloist. A third musical group was a Concert Orchestra of nine players led by Robert P. Scoville. The next page listed a fourth ensemble, the Side Show Band of nine musicians led by Mr. F. Farally.
There were nine sleeping car porters listed. The Baggage Department counted 57 men including drivers approved for eight horse, six horse, and four horse teams. However no one was listed as a 40 horse driver for the bandwagon.
The canvas department was the largest section with almost 100 men responsible for rigging the big top and assorted other tents. There were numerous men in the animal department which included eight men to look after the elephants. Even the cooks, ushers, waiters and dishwashers were listed. The Barnum & Bailey company was better organized than many civic governments and probably run more efficient than an admiral's battleship.
That's the story hidden
in my 1900 postcard
of the Five Graces bandwagon in Berlin.
in my 1900 postcard
of the Five Graces bandwagon in Berlin.
I'll finish with another color photo of The Five Graces bandwagon. This shows it in the Ringling Museum of the Circus in Sarasota, Florida. The caption on the back notes that is was built in 1878 and is "the most widely traveled circus parade vehicle in existence. The bandwagon, drawn by 40 horses, led the Barnum & Bailey European parades, 1898-1902."
The postcard was sent from Sarasota on 17 June 1970 to Miss Helen Speakman of Philadelphia. I like how the sender's handwriting is beautifully clear in both cursive and block letters. She must have had a great 4th grade teacher.
Dear Aunt Helen,
Today we went through
the Ringling Circus Museum
and the Ringling residence
in Sarasota. It was interest-
ing looking at the old
parade wagons, costumes,
and circus posters dating
back to 1860. Tomorrow
we're going through tthe
Ringling Art Museum and
the Asolo Theater.
It's really been hot down
here! Dad bought us a
raft. Take care! Love, Shelley
I could not find a good video
of a circus bandwagon pulled by 40 horses.
But I found this one
of an impressive 10 horse team,
so just use your imagination and multiple by four.
It was taken at the
2013 Tilligte Oldtimer Show
in the Netherlands.
of a circus bandwagon pulled by 40 horses.
But I found this one
of an impressive 10 horse team,
so just use your imagination and multiple by four.
It was taken at the
2013 Tilligte Oldtimer Show
in the Netherlands.
It could use some band music.
Maybe a gallop rather than a polka.
Maybe a gallop rather than a polka.
This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where a Saturday ride is
just as fun as Sunday drive.
just as fun as Sunday drive.
