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Circus Parade
August 19, 1915
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World's Best Circus Coming
Barnum and Bailey Show Announced for an Early Engagement Here
Watertown Gazette, 04 29 1915
Circus for Watertown
Mayor Kading has been in communication with
Ringling Bros. and they promise to put
Watertown on the 1915 route for the Barnum & Bailey circus of 82 cars. The following letter has been received by
Mayor Kading:
Hon. C. A. Kading, Mayor,
Watertown, Wis.
Dear Sir: We were very glad to
have your favor of March 23, which has been referred to me for reply.
The delay in the reply being occasioned by the fact that we were not
able until just now to say as to whether or not we would be able to include
Watertown, and now find that we can do so, but in as much as our shows have
grown so large it would be rather an experiment, but if your commercial club
cares to offer us a little inducement in the way of free license, water and
grounds we would be glad to consider it for a date with our Barnum Bailey show
of 82 cars.
The Ringling show will not be in Wisconsin this season.
If interested will be very glad indeed to hear from you further with a
view of including Watertown with our Barnum & Bailey show.
Yours truly,
Chas. C. Wilson.
Watertown Gazette, 07 29 1915
Click to enlarge [Gazette ad / WHS_005_989]
The Barnum and Bailey Greatest Show on earth is
announced for two performances in Watertown on Thursday, August 19. The day is awaited with great interest. A new and brilliant street parade, a new
menagerie and a large company of European artists are promised.
This circus has stood at the head of the amusement business for more
than fifty years. The policy of P. T.
Barnum and James A. Bailey is still active in its management. These are the two greatest names in the
history of the world's circus affairs.
Their show is the source of perfect satisfaction. It is recognized in every country on earth as
the leading spirit of amusement enterprises.
It has traveled in every land where the sun shines. It has entertained millions upon millions of
the earth's peoples. Its world-wide
tours have given it many advantages over the other tented shows. They have kept it in constant touch with
remote corners of the globe whence came all wonders.
Nearly all great arenic novelties originate in Europe and Asia. No sooner have they been exploited in foreign
audience rooms than they are secured by Barnum and Bailey's agents. Invariably novelties are introduced to America
by this circus. When they cease to be
novelties, they are passed down to other shows and another imported budget of
wonders takes their places. This year's
program is particularly abundant. It is
a circus of all nations. Over 100
startling acts are presented by 480 of the leading artists of the world. The show employs 1,280 people. It has 700 horses. In its menagerie are 110 cages, pens, tanks
and dens, in which are displayed 1,200 wild and semi-domestic animals. Among them are forty elephants and thirty
camels.
The main performance is given in three rings, on four stages, on an
immense hippodrome track and in a dome 400 feet long.
The circus has newly built equipment.
It was devised and executed in the foreign workshops of the show in
England. Five long railroad trains are
needed to haul it from city to city. It
cost the management $3,500,000. With all
these added improvements and expenses, the Barnum and Bailey show now stands in
the zenith of glory. Never before in the
history of splendid achievements has it been so attractive as now. It opened its spring engagement in Madison
Square Garden, New York City, before the most distinguished audience that ever
assembled in a circus arena.
Portfolio set of
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Both assumed
to be 08 19 1915, Barnum & Bailey Circus
Circus a City in Itself
Has Its Own Stores, Hospital, Shops,
Hotel,
Laundry and Lighting Plant
Watertown Gazette, 08 05 1915
The show ground of the Barnum and Bailey circus is a city in itself,
lacking only a town council and a state charter. It has its own lawyers, postmaster, dentist,
doctors, carpenters, electricians, wagon makers, laundrymen, barbers,
shoemakers, tailors, sailmakers, harness makers, store keepers and
photographers. It supports an electric
lighting plant, a hospital and a hotel, where 4,000 meals are cooked and eaten
every day in the week. This circus has a
population of 1,280 people, 700 horses, 40 elephants and 1,200 other wild and
semi-domestic animals.
At night the home of this army is a train over one mile in length. In a single season this train travels about
40,000 miles, making stops in about 200 cities and giving 400 performances.
In its fifty-five years of life the show has exhibited in every city of
any size in the world. Royalty has
applauded it. The peasantry has hailed
its appearance with delight. Its
prestige is established in every country.
It is, of course, an American institution, though it is quite as well
known in Europe and Asia as in the United States.
The wonderful policy of P. T. Barnum and the remarkable system put into
operation by James A. Bailey are still the active principles of the
management. Not a year has passed
without improvement and growth.
On Thursday, August 19, the show will come to Watertown with an entire new
equipment from the great imported vehicles of the forenoon parade to the last
stitch in the fourteen acres of canvas.
The program offered is the best ever presented by this show. Almost without exception it is made up of foreign talent. There are 480 artists on the list. The program opens with a new and elaborate spectacular pageant, entitled "Lalla Rookh," and in which 1,200 characters take part.
Circus Has New Parade
Barnum and Bailey Show Presents
Something Different in Street
Pageantry
Watertown Gazette, 08 12 1915
On Thursday, Aug. 19, the Barnum and Bailey Greatest Show on Earth will
present upon the streets of Watertown something entirely different from what
people are in the habit of seeing on circus day. They have devised something new in the way of
pageantry. It was built last winter in
the workshops of the show in England. It
is three times as long as any seen in the past.
It represents an expenditure of ten times as much money.
For the last two years the foreign agents of the show have been
gathering novelties for this parade.
They overlooked nothing that money could buy, unless it was too big to
ship by boat. They invaded savage islands.
Their expeditions extended into jungles where white men had never trod
before them. They stripped art galleries
and ancient palaces. They stopped at
nothing. They spared no expense. The fruit of their labors cannot be expressed
in words. It is a sight for the eye.
Naturally enough this parade bears not the slightest resemblance to
those of the past. It excels anything
before attempted in beauty. It is
world-wide in its variety. In novelty it
is right up to the last tick of the clock.
Every strange type of the human race is found in it. Every animal recently discovered by science
is displayed, in an open cage. It is a
world's fair on wheels with a thousand wonders in every mile of it. Constantly passing before the eye are the
crude vehicles of savagery, the howdahs, rickshaws, palanquins and chariots of
Oriental despots, carriages of state from rich empires, fanciful floats of
bronze and burnished gold, engines of war, grotesque images of the pagan,
Italian statuary, mythological spectacles, horse fairs, fairyland carnivals,
brass bands, barbarian orchestras, tom-tom players, weird pipers, silver
chimes, cathedral organs, siren pipes, chanters, dervishes, Castanet ballets,
kirmiss scenes, fete-day tableaux, and mardi gras pageantry.
The hundreds of vehicles are built of the finest materials. They are carved by hand labor and emblazoned
with pure gold leaf. The tapestry and
throne rugs were woven in Persia and Turkey.
The costumes were made in France.
The laces are from Ireland. The
scarfs, flags and banners are from Japan.
In this parade are employed 1,280 people, 700 horses, forty elephants,
thirty camels and many teams of zebras, deer, dromedaries and llamas.
When under canvas the Barnum and Bailey show covers fourteen acres of ground. It operates its own dining room, where 4,000 meals are cooked and eaten every day in the week. It has its own post office, library, practice rooms, dynamo plant, doctors, dentists, detective force and lawyers. Every kind of shop found in a small city is there.
Cross Reference:
History of Watertown, Wisconsin