Posted By thecircusblog on August 31, 2008
These are the cars used by the advance man and the 24 hour man . They would go from town to town ahead of the show and hang paper on barns, fence posts or anywhere you could hang circus advertisement for the show. They also took care of any last minute business and going to the post office, or what ever. They most likely are back at the show now to get a little Geedas for any fixing.
Posted By thecircusblog on August 30, 2008
This is called the long mount . Training new tricks is a must it will always make your act a little better.
Posted By thecircusblog on August 30, 2008
J.E. Henry’s house trailer. I guess there was no time to level it, one day jumps were rough. This is a home made trailer. The undercarriage is from a model T ford. I know this as a fact J.E. Henry invented the first semi trailer with a steel king pine, He also built the first house trailer. As all the invention from the circus. The ideas came from pure necessity. My grandfather was not alone when it came to inventing what was needed to make the job easier and faster.
Posted By thecircusblog on August 30, 2008
Clowns….. a circus is not complete without them . I wish I knew their names. I will do more research 0n this photo, What I do know is they were on grandfather circus around 1927 or 1928.
Posted By thecircusblog on August 30, 2008
All of the un-caged animals were rounded up to herd to the next town. The trail sometimes was long and hard. The water wagon was pulled by a team of horses that followed behind. This is a wonderful old picture but much of it has been destroyed by time. If you look closely you can see an elephant and beyond that part of one of the lion wagons and also two other wranglers. There is a man standing behind the ponies hazing them forward. Photo taken in 1893?
Posted By thecircusblog on August 30, 2008
This letter head is one of the first J.E used for the show. Later he had printed more flamboyantly with Bears & Elephants, as he gathered more performing animals.
Posted By thecircusblog on August 29, 2008
It is called “spec”, short for spectacular. Performers and animals enter the tent for the grand parade. The wardrobe is very beautiful , and the clowns are fun to watch as they go through their antics. Indeed a most important part of the show! I believe this photo was taken in 1924.
Posted By thecircusblog on August 29, 2008
After the show is over, the tear down starts. Everybody works as a massive team taking the circus apart and loading the trucks & trailers. Repairs are made on the tent as you see in the picture, the boss canvas man sewing. Photo taken early 1920’s.
Posted By thecircusblog on August 29, 2008
In the old days, there wasn’t any water on the lots. J.E. had large tanks on a wagon which were filled at a river, well or at the fire department pumper. They would often bucket water to the tanks. If there was a stream nearby, they could herd the animals to the stream for drinking.
