The Billboard 1901-04-20: Vol 13 Iss 16 (1901-04-20)

hee a THE BILLBOARD Circus Gossip. J. Henry Rice has joined the Walter Main Show as contracting agent. Eugene Wack has organized a swell band with the Gentry, No. 2, Shows. Welsh Bros. onened their season at Lancaster, Pa., April 15. Their paper this season is extra fine. L. C. Mason, lithographer and ge joined the “Wallace advance force at Ind anapolis last week. Al Martin is suffering with tumor on the brain. A dangerous operation will have to be made to relieve him. Charles Vanerder, the married last week to one daughters of Peru, Ind. The genial Clint Newton is again in charge of the amusements and principal orator for the Welsh Bros. Joseph Lavenger (Frenchy, the Chandelier Man) has recovered his health and signed with the Walter Main Shows. The Ringling Menagerie is crowded for room at the Chicago Coliseum, and the animals are not seen at their best. Ernie Earl, of the Empire Theater Indianapolis, has joined the Great Wallace Show as boss bill poster on Car No. 1. Most of the animals in the recent Hagen back consignment, which arrived in New York the other day, were sent to the Ringling Circus. H. W. Link has been engaged as general agent of the Buckskin Bill Wild West. He passed through Cincinanti en route to Paducah, April ‘ll. Mrs. Florence Main, wife of Walter Main, the showman, has given her consent for “The Billboard’ to raise a fund to enable her to prosecute her suit for divorce. L. F. Sunlin, who has been in Cuba with the Circo Pubillones since November last, will return to America in May to play parks, fairs and resorts this season. George W. Goodhart and Thomas Dailey, of Lancaster, Pa., have joined the Ringling Bros. at Chicago, to assume charge of advance cars Nos. 1 and 2, respectively. F. O. Rossman and W. C. Cantrell left the Gentry Show at Memphis, Tenn., last week and jumped to Peru, where they joined the Wallace Show opposition brigade. Mr. R. M. Harvey, the genial contractor with the Wallace Shows, spent last Sunday in Cincinnati, favoring ‘The Billboard” with a pleasant call during his stay. It is reported that the Gentry people are contemplating a trip to England. It is believed that a dog and pony show of the character that the Gentrys produce would be a great hit across the water. “Is there any danger of the boa-constrictor biting me?’ asked a lady visitor at the showman, Was of the fairest Zoological Gardnes. “Not the least, ma’am,”’ cried the keeper. “He never bites; he swallows his wittles whole.’ Clarence D. Bidwell will be general agent for Snaun’s Vaudeville Shows, with two assistants, and as he is a hustler, he certainly will let the natives know the show is coming. It is his fourth season with the show. Mr. Frank Donaldson attended the Sells & Gray Shows at Montgomery, Ala., on April 10. He says that the show did a great business there, and that the people were thoroughly well pleased with the performance. T. J. Forde, of Geneva, O., will be with the Lemen Shows this season. He says it will be his last season in the business, as next fall he will devote his entire attention to the manufacture and sale of his new patent light. Gordon Wrighter will manage the summer tour of Snaun’s Vaudeville Shows, making four seasons he has been with that attraction. He is the original “Jay from Toad Hill,” and his Rube clowning is a feature of the parade. Keigley & Axley’s Shows, which start from Du Quoin, IIL, is a vaudeville circus without riding or menagerie. They have several new ideas in this clas sof entertainment, any one of which ought to make the show a success. John H. Sparks, of the Sparks Circus, has left Hot Springs, Ark., where he spent the winter, for a short trin to the Texas oil territory, where he has made some fortunate investments in oil lands and stock, near Beaumond. It is reported on fairly good authority that Mr. ©. E. Cory, assistant general manager of the Great Wallace Shows, will shortly join the ranks of the Benedicts. His fiance is said to be a beautiful girl residing in Peru, Ind. The Gentry, No. 2, Shows, ange “age a terrific wind storm at Goldsboro, N. April 6 Eight pieces of canvas ead ten by twelve feet in size were torn out of the top and blown away, but Doc Parkhurst kept her from going down. The advance brigade of Gentry Show No. 3 is as follows: L. N. Bullington, contracting agent; Frank ©. Rossman, in charge of bill posters; Will Cantrell, banner man; Bert Personette, in charge country routes, and Stephen Hetteberg, programmer. H. Percy Hill is the general agent. All the Chicago papers were enthusiastic in their praises of the wonderful ability displayed by Al Ringling as an equestrian director. The first performance of the great show went with such a snap and bang as to create astonishment and admira tion. Al Ringling deserves all the credit for it. Charles Corson and four bill posters left St. Louis Monday to join the Buckskin Bill Wild West at Paducah, Ky. Charles Lam bert will manage the No. 2 car for Buck skin Bill. The assistant manager and treas urer of the Buckskin Bill Show this season will be J. Rus. Smith, who was with the show last year. Henry C. Hedges, manager of the Buffalo Bill Advance Car No. is one of the real old-timers. He was with the Van Amberg Show in its haleyon days, and has been in the employ of Mr. Bailey continuously for the past twenty-two years. Mr. Hedges is recognized as one of the very best men in his line of work. < In an account of an “old horse” sale of unclaimed freight in San Francisco, Cal., recently, the Post of that city says: ‘Wal ter L. Main’s Cireus failed to claim three packages of printing, and they are now in the possession of a man who has no use for them, but did want the household goods with which they were sold. Harry Heikes, manager of L. J. Whit ney’s Dog and Pony Show, writes **The Bol board: “IT received a copy of your Special Street Fair Number and have shown it to a number of professionals, all of whom join me in pronouncing it the best paper ever published. 1 feel proud of "The Billboard,’ as it is published in my old town.” Kid Raymond, who is with the Buffalo Bill opposition brigade, has the most won derful capacity for work of any circus bill poster in the country. He never tires, and never quits. Under the great leadership of Fred. Beckman, who has no superior in America, Kid Raymond simply astounds the natives by his celerity and evergy Another American who has found good times abroad is Billy Burke, the clown. He had his comic mule act copyrighted all over Europe, and went abroad with the Barnum & Bailey Show and made a hit. Now about a dozen performers are paying him royal ties, and he and his wife are riding about London and enjoying life to the limit. Frank J. O'Donnell, general press agent of Buffalo Bill's Wild West, who is with Advertising Car No. 1, was a “Billboard” caller last Friday. Mr. O°’ Donnell is a very efficient man in his position. The advance force covered more than 8,000 feet of boards in Cincinnati. They are billing the country as it has never been billed before. Mrs. R. H. Hamilton wife of Tody Hamilton, general press agent of the Barnum Shows; Mrs. Clarence Dean, wife of the general agent, and Mrs. C. L. Hutchinson, wife of the treasurer of the Barnum Shows, have arrived in New York after an extended visit to Europe. It is expected that Mr. James A. Bailey will arrive home next month from Europe. A lengthy letter has been received from Gus Lambrigger, whose Zoo is in winter quarters at Orrville, O. He has added a large number of rare animals to his collection, and he will make his first stand at Mansfield, O., April 27. Robert Taylor is his agent, and H. E. Henry, ventritoquist and mimic, and Db. F. Taylor, juggler, have recently signed with the show, which will be booked for week stands in large towns of the West. At Montgomery, Ala., on April 10, Sells & Gray’s Shows were given almost an ovation. At both performances the canvas was filled to its capacity. The Eddy Family of acrobats, the Earls Sisters, with their fly ing trapeze performance, and Miss Edna, in her unique feature act, were the participants especially of universal approbation. The Montgomery Journal, a leading paper of the city, says that “‘the parade was the cleanest and most wholesome ever seen in the city.” ’ L. J. Whitney's Deg and Pony Show will open at Spokane, Wash., about May 15. The show will have a unique and entertaining street parade. The show is being organized by Harry Heikes, formerly manager of Sells Brothers’ side shows during their Austra lian tour, and who has been connected with the John Robinson and other shows. The band of the show will be in charge of Prof. © Conners, Jack Sullivan will be superin tendent of canvas; William Green will look after the stock, and Joseph Fleming will have charge of the advance, with four assistants. One day last week at C. M. hotel, which, by the way, is the winter quarters of the Charles Lees Shows, at Wilkesbarre, occurred a scene that the few who saw it will not soon forget. A large bear, recently purchased for the menagerle, and which had been tied in the barn while the help was at dinner, in some man ner became untied and began to search for trouble. The first object that met his gaze was one of the best horses that the man agement owned. This he attacked, and be fore assistance arrived the bear killed the horse. The brute was captured, however, and immediately taken to the farm of Mr. Honeywell's father in Dallas. H. M. Bennett, the millionaire theatrical manager who is lying at the point of death in Pittsburg, was a circus owner in Call fornia in IS57. The show was known as Lee & Bennett's Great North American Cir cus. He was the first to engage the great rider of that day, James Mellville. He came East just before the civil war and did not engage in the theatrical business until about twelve years ago. He is said to be worth over $3,000,000, Those who are sup posed to be “in the Know" say that his vast fortune will go te R. M. Guilick, his partner, and Mr. Veter MeNulty, who looked after Mr. Bennett's many interests. Ilarry Heikes, manager of L. J. Whit ney’s Dog and Pony Show, which is organized at Spokane, Wash., writes as follows, viz.: “‘We have a very nice little show, consisting of 30 Shetland ponies, well bro ken: a large troune of performing dogs, monkeys, goats and pigs, and we will put out a very neat miniature parade. We will travel overland, using 36 head of horses and 12 wagons to transport the show, and show under a seventy-foot round-top, with three thirty-foot middle nieces. We will earry a side show, concert and candy stands, and, in faet, everything that will get money on the square. We will oven here about May 5.’ Mr. Heikes can be addressed at 310 Riverside avenue, Spokane, Wash. The Bonheur Bros.’ Show will open in Augusta, Okla.. May 1. Augusta is a new and rapidly-growing town, two miles long from the west limit of old Augusta to the eastern limil of New Augusta, yet is twenty-five miles from the nearest railway station. Frem Alva, Okla., a mail coach runs daily, and another from Kiowa, Kan., wakes a daily trip to and from Augusta. The Roek Island Railway is building a line from the Southeast toward Augusta. The Choctaw is coming from the south, and the Orient Short Line is building rapidly from Kansas City to Augusta, which from pres ent appearances is destined to be a great railroad center at no distant day. Performers joining the show take the Santa Fe Route to Alva, and arrive at Augusta by the Stage line. The roster of the Wintermute Bros.’ Shows, with the features, is as follows: People so far engaged with us are as fol lows: Halsey Wintermute, in charge of advance; Lew Comstock, George Hollinger and John Reichel, bill posters: Clarence Black, in charge of steck: By Cornel. in charge of canvas. Performers: John Honeywell's a Schneider, Albino bar performer; and Stokes, bars, double trapeze and re volving ladder act; Ray Fortune, one-legged wire walker and song and dance performer: Joseph PP. Rdwards, juggler and high wire Rose and Schneider, comics; Ed Holloway, contortionist and sailor perch; Tommy Win termute’s Dog and Vony Show, embracing spotted trick vonles, drill acting ponies performing goats, somersault riding and high diving dogs, ete. The parade consists of five cages, band and ticket wagon, Lew Freiberg’s brass and reed band of ten pieces, a fife and drum corps, led ponies, mounted people, ete. If the question were asked, Why do the rhinecert grow their horns upon their nose instend of on the head, like other mam mais’ says Pearson's Magazine, the an swer would probably be that they require them for root digging and such like pur poses as well as for war, and the usual po sition renders them more generally useful than if they were fixed on the top of the skull At vresent the rhinoceros is) the only quadruved which has a horn of this kind, but a study of fossil mammals shows that he is the sole survivor of a vast num ber of creatures whose natural weapons were bul't on the same general plan In fact, In the days of the rhinoceros’ early forefathers, horns of this kind were proba bly much more common than those such as we how see on the heads of oxen, ante lopes and sheep. In the course of ages the fashion In wearing horns has undergone a radical change, but the rhinoceros, who is essentinily a conservative beast, has stuck to the older method, George SS Martine Ely’s two big shows opened their tenth suecessive season at Crainville, Hh. on April 6 They have 12) wagons, 36 head of stock, more than 30 people, and will carry the strongest ring show they bave ever bad, len G. Shelby is general agent. The roster of the show ix as follows: George Ely, proprietor and manager; Kate 8S. y. treasurer; Len G. Shelby, general agent; Prof. Short, musical director; Hi. Costella, equestrian director: Rob Miller, boss canvasman, with six men; G. E. Grace, boss hostler, with four men; John Weese, chandelier man; Daisy Mar tin, steward; Kid Rucker, boss property man. Performers: Bob Ronalze, clown and tumbling: the Costellos, aerial act: Johnny Saur, contortionist and high wire; Ib. H. Clark, Rube in parade and concert: May Sisters, double trapeze: Prof. Ely and his trained ponies, goats and dogs; Mlle. Rosa, snake enchanter: Viek Vedder, ere ator. All people eat two meals on the lot; lodging and breakfast in hotel. The show will tour Ilineis and lowa and take everything that comes, big and little. A Work of Art. “The Billboard” is indebted to Mr. Frank J. O'Donnel, of the Buffalo Bill Shows, for a splendid specimen of the lithographer’s art in the form of a renroduction of the famous portrait of Colonel W. FL Cody, painted by Rosa Bonheur in ISS It rep resents the Colonel mounted uwooen a mag nificent plebald gray horse, and Is as true to life as any of the famous Bonheur paint ings. The specimen is neatly framed, and the Colonel's genial face now beams from a prominent place on the wall over “The Billboard’ editor's desk. By the way, it may be a matter of news to some of the many friends of the Colonel to learn that be has recently been made Judge Advocate General of his adopted State, Wyoming This shows the vlace held by him in the opinion of the people who know him in his home life. ee mt ra eo + No 1 Advance Car of the Sells G Grey Shows, ‘