Circus

A poster for the Sells-Floto Circus, most likely dating from shortly after the turn of the century. The Sells Floto Circus came into being with the merging of the Sells Brothers Circus and the Floto Dog and Pony Show. Now I’ve heard the expression “Dog and Pony Show” many times, often used to describe an [...]

Born in Budapest in 1845, Imre Kiralfy was a renowned producer of of plays, pageants and spectacles of every sort. His production, The Life of Columbus, is said to have had a two-year run, that show was almost certainly different than the one promoted on this poster, Columbus and the Discovery of America. He created [...]

This Ringling Brothers Circus poster focuses on Professor Lockhart and his “Elephant Comedians”. An article in Salt Lake City’s Deseret Evening News from May 6, 1899 described the spectacle: “Lockhart’s elephant comedians compose the most novel dramatic company in the world. These huge pachyderms actually present plays and farces with an intelligence and clever appreciation [...]

One has to picture a time before television, before the automobile, to fully grasp the novelty of exotic animals at the turn of the century. Many hadn’t seen an ostrich before, and few had even heard of an Emu. It was spectacular sights such as these that were the stock-and-trade of the circus. This Adam [...]

Another poster for the Forepaugh & Sells Bros. Circus, this one showing a frenzy of activity. The poster puts it best: “The frolics and amusing antics of twenty funny felt-crowned fools, a series of comical mishaps, ludicrous incidents, side splitting laughable feats and apt burlesques on famous hits of the day occurring concurrently in the [...]