April 2022
Unknown photographer (American)
Dryden Fair Circus
Dryden, NY, September 1890
Cabinet card mounts
Images: 2 5/8 x 2 5/8″
One image depicts painted banners outside a tent; the other a crowd gathered around a stage, with a stand offering “Hot Taffy” in the background.
More fascinating circus photographs from the 1890s-1980s, some from the excellent Edward J. Kelty to supplement an earlier posting I did on the artist.
Please remember the photographs of burlesque and “girl revue” show fronts for next week’s posting (and the work of Susan Meiselas).
I have added bibliographic information for the circuses, photographers and sitters where possible. All photographs have been digitally cleaned and colour balanced.
Dr Marcus Bunyan
All photographs are used under fair use conditions for the purpose of education and research purposes. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.
Edward J. Kelty (American, 1888-1967)
Barnett Bros. Three Ring Circus Sideshow. Morristown, NJ
New York: Century, 1929
Silver gelatin print
11 x 19″
Sepia toned photo depicts the side show cast in front of their accompanying banners that feature “The Mexican Knife Thrower,” “Prof. Jackson’s Jazz Band and Minstrels,” “Mille Leatrice: Charmer of Reptiles,” and the “Venetian Glass Blower.”
The Barnett Bros. Circus was founded in Canada by Vermont native Ray W. Rogers in 1927. The circus showed both Canada and the United States. In 1929 the show closed it’s season in Easley, S.C. and began wintering in York, S.C..
In 1937 Rogers joined with financiers George and Minter Wallace and the circus changed the name to Wallace Bros. Circus for the seasons of 1937 and again 1941 to 1944. Ray Rogers died in 1943 and in 1944 the Wallace Bros. circus merged with the Clyde Beatty Circus.
Information from the York County Library
Edward J. Kelty (American, 1888-1967)
Ready for the Spec – Ringling Back Yard
New York: Century, 1926
Silver gelatin print
7 x 10 1/2″
Edward J. Kelty (American, 1888-1967)
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Combined Circus in New York’s Mammoth New Coliseum in the Bronx
New York: Century, 1929
Silver gelatin print panoramic photograph
12 x 20″
Edward J. Kelty (1888-1967) moved to New York City following his service in the Navy during World War I, and opened up his first studio, Flashlight Photographers. Kelty was drawn to the circus and visited Coney Island often. In the summer of 1922, he transformed his truck into a mini studio, darkroom and living quarters, and traveled across America. His panoramic views captured the performers – human and animal – associated with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, Hagenbeck-Wallace, Sells-Floto, Clyde Beatty, Cole Bros. and other train, wagon and truck shows.
A typical day for Kelty would have him waking at dawn to set up cameras and tripods, gathering bearded ladies and sword swallowers, snake charmers and giants and shooting all morning. At times he had as many as 1,000 people in a picture. Afternoons were spent processing film and making proofs, taking orders and printing well into the night. The following day, he distributed prints, most often to circus staff and performers, before returning to his New York studio to work on his wedding and banquet photography business.
Kelty was hit hard by the Depression, and by 1942 had cashed in his glass plate negatives to settle a hefty bar tab. He moved to Chicago and, as legend has it, never took another photograph. His extant negatives eventually made their way into a Tennessee collection of circus memorabilia. Since Kelty used Nitrate-based film, which is unstable when improperly housed, the negatives self-destructed and were disposed of.
After Kelty died in 1967, his estranged family found no photographs, cameras or negatives among his belongings – just one old lens and a union concession employee ID card identifying him as a vendor at Chicago’s Wrigley Field. There was no evidence of the man who, along with his custom mammoth-size banquet camera and portable studio, documented America’s greatest traveling circuses.
Anonymous text from the Swann Galleries website February 2015 [Online] Cited 28/04/2022. No longer available online
Edward J. Kelty (American, 1888-1967)
Harold Barnes Featured with Cole Brothers – Clyde Beatty Circus, Little Falls, N.Y
New York: Century, July 17, 1935
Silver gelatin print panoramic photograph
11 1/2 x 19 1/4″
The World’s Youngest Wire-Walking Wizard (1934)
Edward J. Kelty (American, 1888-1967)
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Blacksmith Shop Dept.
1938
Gelatin silver print
Unknown photographer (English?)
“Lil” the performing elephant
c. 1920s
Gelatin silver prints
4 3/4 x 6 1/2″
“Lil” interacting with pedestrians and a trainer in an unknown location, but probably in England. Interesting to note that the trainer is a bowler-hatted black man back in the 1920s.
Unknown photographer (American)
Performing elephants
1920s-1930s
Gelatin silver prints
Unknown photographer (American)
Monkeyland
Early 1950s
Gelatin silver print
Unknown photographer (American)
Carroll’s Shows
Minneapolis, June 1964
Gelatin silver print
Unknown photographer (American)
Carroll’s Shows
August 1961 Austin, MN
Gelatin silver print
Unknown photographer (American)
Carroll’s Shows
Austin, August 1964
Gelatin silver print
Unknown photographer (American)
Dales Circus
August 1965
Gelatin silver print
H.H. Bennett Studio (H.H. Bennett photographer, American 1843-1908)
Grand Electrical Display
Moving Pictures
Positively Free From Flickering
See the Great
Valu Artillery Battle
Japanese Soldier Buried Alive
c. 1904
Gelatin silver print
The only reference I can find to the “Valu Battle” is an entry in the Bendigo Advertiser newspaper from Mon 9 May 1904 when commenting on the Russo-Japanese War, found on the Trove website. The reference to a Japanese soldier “buried alive” can only be a reference to this war.
The H. H. Bennett Studio is a historic photographic studio and photography museum located in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, United States. The studio building was built in 1875 by noted landscape photographer H. H. Bennett. It was operated by his family until 1998, when the studio was donated to the Wisconsin Historical Society. Today the studio, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, serves as a historical museum.
Henry Hamilton Bennett (January 15, 1843 – January 1, 1908) was an American photographer famous for his pictures of the Dells of the Wisconsin River and surrounding region taken between 1865 and 1908. The popularity of his photographs helped turn the city of Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin into a major tourist destination.
For more information on H. H. Bennett please see the Wikipedia website
Unknown photographers (American)
Carnival light towers
1950s-1970s
Gelatin silver prints and colour photograph
Collins Shows possibly mid-late 1950s (right)
Frank W. Babcock United Shows September 1959 (top centre)
Other photographs are August 1969 (bottom centre), October 1970 (bottom left ) and the colour photo, early 1970s
Unknown photographers (American)
Wild animals and motordromes and motorcycle “hell riders”
Various dates
Gelatin silver prints
Art 3. Thomas July 20, 1968 Canada
Morris-Hannum
1959 (prints July 1965)
Wild Animals Alive
Nd
Queens of Speed
Thrill Arena
Lady Hell Riders
Nd (mid-late 1950s?)
Unknown photographers (American)
Astro Wheels and Roll-A-Whirl
Various dates 1920s-1970s
Gelatin silver prints and colour photograph
Unknown photographers (American)
Carnival entrances
Various dates 1950s-1970s
Gelatin silver prints and colour photograph
James H. Drew World’s Fair & Exposition
1960s
Dobson Shows
Blue Earth, MN July 2, 1961
Gayland Main Entrance
August 1970
James H. Drew World’s Fair & Exposition
June 1965
Penn Premier Shows Main Entrance
1950s?
Bill Dillard Presents Myers Amusements Co.
August 1973
T. S. & W. T. Main Rides Shows Entrance
Nd
Unknown photographer (American)
James H. Drew Shows
Torture Show, Sadistic Atrocities First Time Here
See Them Suffer
How Could They Be Unfaithful
September 1959
Gelatin silver print
Unknown photographers (American)
Shooting galleries and Prize Games carnival “fronts”
Various dates 1960s-1990s
Gelatin silver prints and colour photograph
Long Range Shooting Gallery
February 1966
Prize Every Game
19th April 1998
Unknown photographers (American)
James E. Strates Shows Inc.,
1940s
Logo and Gelatin silver prints
Hitler’s Monsters(?) after Death
Hitler and Tojo: See The Now
c. 1946-1948
Dwarfs
1947
Magician banner
1948
Wild animals
1947
James E. Strates Shows trailer
1947
James E. Strates Shows Massive show passes
King of the Midways
1950s-1960s
Unknown photographer (American)
Zola Alive
1950
Gelatin silver print
Unknown photographer (American)
The Great Lester’s Museum of Magic
1952
Gelatin silver print
Jack Zipf and unknown photographers (American)
The Great Lester
c. 1950
Gelatin silver photo collage print
8.5 x 10″
Photo collage print of The Great Lester and his performance feats, publication honours, and Museum of Magic
“The Great Lester’s Museum of Magic
The LESTERS’ (Top right): Picture (right) by Jack Zipf, Staff photographer THE PROGRESS, Clearfield, Penna.
MYSTIFYING and marvelous, THE GREAT LESTER’S MUSEUM offers magic and illusions which battle but entertain and fascinate. The refined and clean manner in which the show is presented has brought laudatory comment from the press and educators the nation over. Gorgeous girls add charm and intrigue to the mystifying fantasies. LOOK and LIFE magazines proclaimed Lester the greatest and top magician of the times. Always anxious to witness things which are mysterious, the crowd above is ready for the “come on in” invitation.”
Unknown photographers (American)
Monstrosities and oddities shows
1880s-1960s
Gelatin silver prints
Calcutta Monster sideshow “front”
c. 1957
Adolph-Rudolph Siamese Twins
27 years old
Born, Vienna, Austria
c. 1880s
Adolph and Rudolph were false Siamese (cojoined) twins traveling with P. T. Barnum in the late 1800’s. Rudolph had tiny malformed legs. It seems Barnum considered the affliction not unique enough in itself and thought there was more money to be made by rigging a “cojoined twin harness” with his twin brother.
Rudolph had malformed legs and considered the affliction not curious enough to command the amount of money that Siamese twins were making at the time, so he rigged a conjoined-twin harness to attach to his twin brother.
The Man with the biggest Feet in all the World
“Francisco Sandoval Rios”
Weight: 180 Height: 5’2″
Speaks Spanish Only
He Can Walk
Comes from Central America
Printed in U.S.A.
1970s
A Nicaraguan man in his 30’s who probably had Milroy’s disease, as did many who were billed as “Big Foot” people.
Arctic Whale
Clyde Beatty Circus
1950s
Clyde Beatty (June 10, 1903 – July 19, 1965) was a famed animal trainer, zoo owner, and circus mogul. He joined Howe’s Great London Circus in 1921 as a cage boy and spent the next four decades rising to fame as one of the most famous circus performers and animal trainers in the world. Through his career, the circus impresario owned several circuses, including his own Clyde Beatty Circus from 1945 to 1956.
Unknown photographer (American)
Calcutta Monster sideshow in Florida
c. 1957
Gelatin silver print
Primarily a snake show, boas were very rare and were a good draw for a sideshow during this era.
Unknown photographers (American)
Monsters shows
1950s-1960s
Gelatin silver prints
Calcutta Monster sideshow
February 1959
Giant Kongo Family Alive
September 1964
Hagen Bros. Circus
Alive! Giant Snakes Alive!
January 1962
Front and rear of the same sideshow trailer.
Hagen Bros. truck show that was on the road from 1949 until 1961. The circus was owned by Howard W. Suesz who also owned the “Clyde Bros. Circus”, which was an indoor circus, playing in buildings and stadiums.
The Clyde Bros. Circus played mostly Shrine dates in larger towns and the Hagen Bros was set up to show under canvas in smaller cities. The circus was managed by Robert Couls and Joe McMahon was the general agent. The Circus made Edmond Oklahoma it’s winter Home.
Anonymous text from the Circuses and Sideshows website [Online] Cited 09/02/2022
Globe Poster Corp. (printer)
Hagen Bros. 3-Ring-3 Circus
between 1950 and 1961
Colour lithograph
71.44 x 52.07cm (28 1/8 x 20 1/2 in.)
The Jay T. Last Collection of Graphic Arts and Social History, Huntington Digital Library
Unknown photographers (American)
Human attractions
1960s-1970s
Gelatin silver prints
World’s Strangest Married Couple
Alive
Richard King
America’s Smallest Man
27 in tall
“Ronnie & Donnie” In Person
Ronnie and Donnie Gaylon were conjoined twins, born on October 28, 1951 and died on July 4, 2020, making them the world’s longest-surviving conjoined twins who worked in carnivals and circuses as a sideshow act from the age of three.
“The twins exhibited themselves in an air-conditioned trailer for most of their carnival show careers. They lounged about watching television while spectators paid to peer in the window to observe them conduct daily life. Old advertisements read: ‘Still a sensation! The Gaylon Siamese twins, the U.S.’s most visited attraction on any Midway.’
Ronnie and Donnie found a community among the sideshow performers and workers who ran the concession stands. Their friends included Johann the Viking Giant; Little Pete, who was billed as the smallest man in the world, and Margaret Pellegrini, an actress who starred as a munchkin in The Wizard of Oz.
‘When we were on the road, it was all like one big family,’ said Ronnie to MLive in 2014.
As freak shows and carnival acts became taboo in the United States during the 1970s, the ‘Sensational Siamese Twins’ took their act to Central and South America where they performed as the headlining act in the circus doing magic tricks.
‘They were treated totally different down there,’ said their brother Jim. ‘They were treated like rock stars’.”
Tate Delloye. “World’s longest-surviving conjoined twins who worked in carnivals and circuses as a sideshow act from the age of three – and always insisted they ‘lived a good life’ – die together at the age of 68,” on the Daily Mail website 7 July 2020 [Online] Cited 10/04/2022
He weighs 800 lbs
You must See… to believe
ALIVE World’s Biggest
92 st
Fat Albert
T.J. “Fat Albert” Jackson (Kent Nicholson) (American, 1941-1988)
One of the last performing fat men in the United States was Kent Nicholson, who used the alias T.J. “Fat Albert” Jackson. He was born around 1941 in Canton, Mississippi. Although he was exceptionally large since birth, his parents taught him never to be ashamed of himself. His highest recorded weight was said to be 898 pounds. Albert’s wife Carrie and daughter Arkeba accompanied him on tour for nine months out of the year. He continued appearing at carnivals and fairs well into the 1980s, along with Eddie Taylor, a dwarf known as the World’s Smallest Man, and successfully avoided being shut down by politically correct reformers who found his show “insensitive”.
“HI! My name is T.J. Albert Jackson, better known as Fat Albert. I was born in the U.S.A. At birth I weighed 22 lbs. 6 ½ oz., and was 26 ½ inches long. At present I am 872 lbs. and 6′ 4 ½” tall and still growing! I also have a wife. She is 110 lbs., and 5’3″ tall. WE ALWAYS LIKE TO MEET NEW FRIENDS. GOD BLESS YOU. HEY, HEY, HEY! FAT ALBERT. Thank you.”
Albert died in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on December 18, 1988.
Text from the Find A Grave website 24 Oct 2010 [Online] Cited 10/04/2022
Unknown photographers (American)
Girl Shows: Girl reviews and Rock ‘N’ Roll
1960s
Gelatin silver prints
Kitty’s Starlite Review
Nd
Vals Girls
July 1965
Mickie Girl Review
January 1962
Rock ‘N’ Roll
October 1960
Burlesque and “girl revue” shows at carnivals
Unknown photographers (American)
Century 21 Shows Presents Roxanne’s Playgirls
Century 21 Shows Presents Broadway A-Go-Go
1960s-1970s
Gelatin silver print and colour photographs
Burlesque and “girl revue” shows at carnivals
Triangle Poster & Printing Company (printer)
Kunz Century 21 Shows: world’s largest motorized midway
c. 1966
Colour lithograph
71.12 x 55.56cm (28 x 21 7/8 in.)
The Jay T. Last Collection of Graphic Arts and Social History, Huntington Digital Library
Midway (fair)
A midway at a fair (commonly an American fair such as a county or state fair) is the location where carnival games, amusement rides, entertainment, dime stores, themed events, exhibitions and trade shows, pleasure gardens, water parks and food booths cluster.
The term originated from the World’s Columbian Exposition held in Chicago, Illinois, in 1893. It was the first world’s fair with an area for amusements which was strictly separated from the exhibition halls. This area, which was concentrated on the city’s Midway Plaisance, included amusement rides (among them the original Ferris Wheel), belly dancers, balloon rides, and other attractions.
After the Exposition, the term midway came into use as a common noun in the United States and Canada to refer to the area for amusements at a county or state fair, circus, festival, or amusement park.
Text from the Wikipedia website
Unknown photographers (American)
Drugs and Weird Creatures carnival “fronts”
1960s-1970s
Colour photographs
Drug Horror
Nitemares, Scream!
Drug Abuse
Can A Show Go To Far
See The
Weird Creatures
From Outer Space Alive
They’re Watching Us!
Weird Creatures
Menace from Outer Space
Art Blart _ art and cultural memory archive 
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