Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Hagenbeck Wallace TIGER TITLE (c.1930) one-sheet

From Chris Berry:

During the late 1920s and early 1930s, Hagenbeck-Wallace was truly a "Wild Animal Circus". At a time when Ringling-Barnum had very few wild-animal acts, Hagenbeck Wallace was heavily promoting them not only with Clyde Beatty's center ring performance - but also the work of his predecessor's, John Helliott and Robert M...cPherson. This attractive litho was used by America's second largest circus at the start of the Great Depression.

5 comments:

Ole Whitey said...

When I used to door-to-door putting circus posters in windows, merchants would often ask, "What kind of circus is it?" Or sometimes they would ask, "Is this an animal circus?"

I wish I had seen this poster back then. I would have answered, "It's a Jungle-Bred Trained Wild Animal Circus."

Jeff Swanson said...

Hi Buckles, just a historic elephant question not related to this 1930 one-sheet. Some time ago I met a lawyer in Grand Rapids, Mich., who told me he was involved in a case when a shrine show (don't know who) had a elephant mistakenly electrocuted. The elephant died. Are you familiar with this incident and might you know more. Thanks, Jeff Swanson

Chic Silber said...

Whitey your quoting the caption

reminds me of part of the Beatty

introduction "Consisting Of Black

Maned Jungle Bred Nubian Lions

And Royal Bengal Tigers In One

Assemblage"

Buckles said...

That was a Tommy Hanneford elephant named "Trumpet".
They were showing some sort of Sports Facility in 1982 and the grounds people insisted that they stake out the elephants in a designated area where they wouldn't tear up the ground.
One of the stakes went through a buried power line and when the sprinkler system came on "Trumpet" was electrocuted.
It could have been worse, if they had used a picket line they would have lost all four.

Roger Smith said...

Helliott and McPherson were around before Beatty, but when his star was on its ascendency,they were very much his contemporaries, too.