The Billboard 1909-04-03: Vol 21 Iss 14 (1909-04-03)

The Billboard MILLER BROS, PLANS. Miller Brothers’ 101 Ranch Real Wild West Show will make its appeal to the public this ear with added emphasis on the Real.’”’ essre. Joseph C., Zack T. and George L. Miller and Edward Arlington, equal owners, will adhere implicitly to the promise made when the amusement institution had its professional inception a year ago, that no theatrics, melodramatics, circus or vaudeville will intrude. The show will remain true and typical of the frontier west of past and present, and its owners promise an organization and an entertainment which they believe will mark an epoch in the history of out-of-door traveling exhibitions of its character and type. All who have watched and studied the career of the 101 Ranch Show, must concede to Messrs. Miller and Arlington, credit for an accomplishment which deserves praise and pride. The show made its entry into the professional field at the most unpropitious time for years. The country was in the throes of fivancial stress | Among the performers who bave beea engaged and meteorological conditions could not have been more untoward. For the first two months last spring, the show progressed through cold and snow which sent other older shows into bankruptcy or back to winterquarters and which shook even the most firmly financially intrencbed Organizations. It emerged smiling and sanguine when clear skies finally smiled a welcome and received crowds which came unceasing during a season which was longer than that of any other pretentious tented institution on the road. The show journeyed as far north into Canada as the railroads stretched and did not scamper home until it had shown its wonders to Mexico City, eight hundred miles south of the Amerfean line. The record of the 101 Ranch Real Wild West Show during the first year of a life which is scheduled for indefinite honorable length, is one which is equalled by no other organization of its kind. The amusement going public has -: that it wants the show and approves t. The books of the new Institution exhibit that fact unmistakably. Mr, Joseph C. Miller has publicly announced that he will be amply satisfied if the gross receipts are never less than the first year of his experience as a professional showman, yielded. The personnel of the 101 Ranch Show will not be materially changed this season. The men who served so capably last year will remain in the ranks under Messrs. Miller and Arlington, striving for added fame and profit for the show which they already call “Home.”’ Mr. Arlington will again have sole and exclusive charge of routing and advance. The circus world admits no superior to him in the responsible and intricate duties of the position. He combines with the long and stern experience gained under the intimate scrutiny of that master mind, James A. Bailey, a peculiar natural gift which qualifies him above others. Mr. Arlington's subordinates like and respect and admire and trust him. The results which are accomplished his department are not entirely those which a prosaic salary contemplates. His men are alWays eager to assume the initative of the man and show they represent, whether or not the duty or requirement is routine and usual. Mr. Arlington demands ‘results’ and the man in his employ who accomplishes them with intelligence and voluntary avidity, is sure of evidences of substantial appreciation. harles W. Hayes will return as contracting agent. Joseph Rosenthal will be an important assistant of Mr. Arlington. Paul W. will have charge of the No. 1 Car and Al, Riel will manage Car No. 2. The pick and pride of billposters, lithographers and banner men have enlisted with the show. The manifold, onerous in behalf | Harrell | and perplexing exigencies which naturally pre| : — . y Ay | dicts a good season for the carnival business. Sented themselves during the first season of the show summoned Mr. Arlington peremptorily back to the show many times. He has served | notice upon his associates that this year he will | confine his time and his efforts to the advance. Mr. Arlington has given no further intimation of his definite plans as to the territory which the show will visit other than that the season will open in Ponca City on Saturday, April 17. Guthrie, Oklahoma City and other cities adjacent to the 101 Ranch have already sent in mperious demands for the appearance of the organization. It will be recalled that most of these cities, last year, refused payment for lot or license and paid the almost unprecedented compliment of declaring a legal holiday in honor of the three Miller Brothers, than whom all Oklahoma is no more justly proud. While Mr. Arlington is busy with his plans in the Knickerbocker Theatre Building in New York City, Messrs. Joseph and Zack T. Miller, are actively formulating the arrangements for an arenic entertainment which will be worthy the honored name of the 101 Ranch. Both will give the show their undivided time and attention. Mr. George L. Miller will remain home. During its long and profitable career, the 30 mile square area never prospered more than it did while Mr. Miller directed the multifarious work last year. The 101 Ranch sold more corn last year than any other private area country, and its operations in cattle, horses and hogs reached a magnitude that would seem Incredibie to the lay reader. Mr. Joseph C. Miller will tive and recognized manager of the show, but bis presence will be more vigorously asserted. He feels that he is no longer a student In the profession; that he has surmounted the obStacles and obtained the experience which now qualify him to assume definite control in any and all contingencies which confront the traveling show with such annoying frequency. Mr. George Arlington and Mr. Fred Beckmann will be his associates. The ability of these two al ies is a matter of conceded circus record. There is no brench or detail of the circus busi ness with which they are not familiar. Owen Dowd will continue as legal adjuster and all the other men in responsible positions who proved their worth and integrity last year will return. Mr. Zack T. Miller will direct the performance and be a conspicnons figure In the arena. Mr. Miller will make individual entry in a number which will display bis skill as a marksman, a-horse. His plans embody an exhibi tion which wi!!l depart radically from the stereotyped displays familiar in “Wild West" | shows. The ranks of the small army of cowboys who are regularly enrolled in the 101 | Rench will be depleted of their crack experts | with lariat and gun, and the bucking horse champions will lexve the prairie for the sum mer's tour. Every number of his program, Mr. Miller declares, will be a variation from the conventional. Indians wi!! have a predominat again be the ac finz part in the show. Red men and women, | belles and beanties of the wigwam, famous | chiefs and warriors and papooses will leave | their tepees to show their native life and cnstoms in the 101 Ranch Wild West Arena. Mr. Miller bas ransacked the West for its prettiest | cowgirls. There will be several dozen of them in the arena and in parade and every ene of them will be an edept in some department of reckless and rugged western physical endeavor. RICE BROS.’ R. R. SHOW FORECAST. “Purity of amusement the foundation of our success."" This is the motto of Rice Bros.’ Colossal R. Shows, Circus and Menagerie. It is needless to say that this policy is strictly adbered to by us, Which iu a measure accuvunis for the long life of vur orgauizativn. The Kice Bros.’ Shows was organized in 1859, and during ite period of existence, fifty years, this aggregation bas gaived for itseif a reputation fur the purity and cleanliness of its amusements. General Agevt Harry J. Moore contends that this rule is a very profitable ope, aud states that it will pot be deviated from this seasun. for the seasvu are as follows: Art DaComa Troupe of Aerialists, two in pumber; Aloo Troupe, society acrobats; Albion ‘Troupe of Acrialists; Lohse and Sterling, trapeze and rings; Two Chesters, hand balancing; Six Ortons, wire and tumbling; Copeland and Doran, | acrobats and clowus; Mile. Uane Deoma, lady principal; Samuel Bennett, principal aod car| rying act; Jvhn McMasters. superiotendent of rough riders. Besides tuls there will be ene lady menage riders and eight chorus | girls. The heads of the various departments this | season are as follows: Martin T. Rice, geaeral manager; Dao Rice, Jr., treasurer; Harry | R. Moore, general ageot; James Babcock, boss | hostler; Eugene Knowlton, superintendent of | animals; Samuel Benuoett, equestrian direc. | tor; Cash. Wray, musical director: R. At. | terbury, privileges; Mr. Radcliffe, manager | side show, aud W. Casey, boss canvasmwau; 0. R. Laughlin, contracting agent; UU. R. Wright, press agent; O. K. Rice manager Advance Car No. 1; Jas. Long, boss billposter, and Joe Mack, twenty-four-bour man. The show will carry four ftlat cars, sixty feet; three sixty foot stock cars, one sixtyfive foot combination, three sixty-foot sleepers, and one advance car, fifty bead of borses and ponies will also be carried. The canvas is one hundred and twenty feet with two fifty middles. Thirty lengths of blues with foot rests and 1,024 folding back reserves, making a total seating capacity of 3,400. The me| nagerie tent is seventy feet with a fifty mid dle. The side show is sixty feet, with a fifty | middle. | The winter quarters of the show are located | in St. Louis, Mo. NOTES FROM THE SMITH GREATER SHOW. After many weeks of hard work in winter-— quarters, at Columbia, 8. C., building new shows, painting, etc., the Smith Greater Shows opened its season, Monday, March 29, at Gaffney, S. C., under the auspices of the mayor and council of that city. Mr. Smith has greatly enlarged the show for this season, carrying 12 high-class paid attractions. The animal show, especially, has been enlarged, several thousand dollars worth of animals having been added. Mr. /. &. Cherry, the geaoeral agent of the show, has been out since January 1, booking towns for this season, and now has the show booked well into the summer months, and pre furnish the amusements for the Police Relief Association of Kooxville, Tenn., the week of April 19. At their carnival last spring, the Smith Greater Shows furnished the amusements and played to the largest business of any previous carnivals. The shows will NOTES FROM THE GREAT WAG-. NER SHOWS. Everything is in readiness for the opening of the season. George E. Wagner, better known as Jolly Jenaro, the clown juggler, and owner of the Great Wagner Show, bas sold bis home | and winterquarters of the show in Milwaukee, Wis., and will, after May 1, be located in his new home and quarters at Germantown, 0. On | May 1 the entire outfit will be shipped to Obio, | in the | where the 1909 season will open. THE SELLS-FLOTO SHOW. By HARRY EARL. | The Great Sells-Floto Shows Consolidated made its appearance many years ago. It consisted at that time of a small band of travel ing showmen, going overland from town to town, by wagon. One elephant—about the only in the country at the time—was the extent of its menagerie, and the entire equipment then could easily have been loaded upon one of the fifty mammoth cars that are now required for the transportation and housing of the present big show. Behold! ditions! A great army general once said quired as much capacity, ability, How changed are the times and con. | that it re| executive | | force, brains and ingenuity to successfully man| | Shows Consolidated, | Invades hundreds of cities and age a great show like the Sells Flote—to route it through states and across the continent—as it required to command, equip, transport and feed an army of invasion fn a hostile country. and that managing a great show was as wuch of a fixed science as commanding a brigade. Every department of the Great Sells-Fivto which now takes its place with the largest that travels, is in charge of a master mind, and all work harmoniously | under the direction of W. E. Franklin, the gen eral manager. Absolute system, discipline and order must prevail in every movement, for In a season this monster show moves each day and towns, in many of miles, in all climes, braving rains, storms, heat and cold, but always on time, moving wiih the greatest precision and accuracy, exhibiting each day as billed weeks in advance, bringing to the re mote country districts the wonders and marvel« of the animal world, from darkest Africa and from jungled Asia, from the everlasting snows of the Artic to the shimmering heat of the tropics, from ocean and mountaln—in fact, the present Great Selle-Floto Shows Consolidated is a universal exposition of perfect men and | women performers of pronounced abiliity. States, traveling thousands | the coming season: | partment: Every known business is represented with this great show, from finance to blacksmiths, constituting a world in Itself, The Great Sells-Floto Shows Consolidated has fifty double length rallroad care—a cireus city on wheels. Nearly a thousand people are emploved—natives from many nations—each one filling a particular necessity—for the patrons of this brilllant exhibition. The horses are the best carried with any show and pumbers some four hundred. Double herd of camels aud dromedaries—form Sahara and Liberia. Ethnological Congress— among the best and biggest ever seen in United States. Menagerie of the most curious, rare and wonderful animals from all quarters of the globe. All new street display, as never before attempted or seen—a fruition of entirely new ideas. Under the mammoth tents a new world is brought before the public, this grandly appolated cireus, with it swealth of glitters and spangle, gold and colors, and its rich out pouring of muyje and melody, life and gladness, | In this enchanted dreamland dwells naught but beauty and all the inhabitants are marvels of impossibility. High overhead queens of the air sweep with the grace of birds from point to point—gyrating grmnasts gyroscopically defy the laws of gravitation and in time, with music | of the grandly augmented military band, swing and circle at dizzy heights. phants walk on their hind feet, stand on their heads with the ease of a small boy, and turn | somersaults with enjoyment, displaying all the intelligence of human kind. Beautiful horses will perform the most intricate evolutions to music, with aM the grace of a ballet. Men and animals meet upon a common plane of actiun, understanding and intelligence, and man the most perfect of all animals, becomes a wizard, soaring through space, leaping over whole herds of elephants, balancing on slender wires high in the peaks of the mammoth tents, plunging from | dizzy points, and marshalling into one compact army the fine array of clowns, athletes and animals. And thus the Great Sells-Floto Shows of 1900 is briefly described. HARRY EARL. AL. F. WHEELER’S NEW MODEL. SHOWS. Notwithstanding all reports to the contrary, the Al. F. Wheeler Shows will continue as a wagon show, but it will go out this spring in such an enlarged and improved condition as to make it scarcely recognized by those who have seen it in former seasons and watched its growth from a very small concern to its present handsome proportions. At the close of the 1908 season Mr. Wheeler declared his intentions of making the “‘New Model” the swellest wagon show in America for its 1909 tour, and that he has succeeded in this effort is yet to be disputed by the score of visiting showmen who have luspected the outfit since it left the hands of the decorators, Messrs. J. MeCormick and G. E. Johnson. While this department bas been receiving the most careful attention, the arenic performance has not been lost sight of, and many new trained animal acts will be explotted this season. Captain H. Snider will again have charge of the menagerie which has been enlarged to a twelve-cage affair. Following is a complete roster of the heads of departments engaged for Al. F. Wheeler, owner and manager; Adam Gillespie, as<istant manager: Captain H. Snider. superintendent and in charge of the menagerie: Garrett E. Johnson. secretary: Will T. Miller, superintendent of the annex; D. . Miller, boss hostler and master of transportation; N. H. Walker, as sistant: Fred Qualters in charge of ring and hotel stock: John Lewis, ponies: Frank Hood, superintendent of canvas: Guy Rogers, sssist ant: Frank Kelly, boss property man; Ed. H. Rell, lessee of privileges; Gus Berry, chef in charge of “New Model’? Hotel. Advance F. J. Frink, general agent: J Pettit, in charge of second brigade; Fred E. the | Ponderous ele| APRIL 3, 1909. Ranken, special agent; E. H, Hayden, bows bil poster, with six billposters. Our season wil) open at Oxford, Pa., early in April, BUCKSKIN BEN’S WILD WEST SHOWS. As the spring advances there is evidence that there Is ‘‘Something doing’’ around the winter quarters of Buckskin Ben's Wiid West Show at Cambridge City, Ind. In addition to his handsome residence there, Ben has a large bara with all the comforts of a home for his dogs, ponies and all other live stock where they are given the best possible attention during the winter. Two new wagons are being built to be used in transporting the show to and from the cars, thereby saving considerable time which has heretofore been wasted in bunting up trans portation in the towns visited. These wil) both be knock down wagons and can be loaded in the car with the other stuff, The entire outfit ts being overhauled and re | painted, new costumes for the band have beep ordered and when the opening stand is called, the show will be complete in every particular from stake to bale ring. NOTES FROM ELSTUN BROTHERS’ UNITED SHOWS. The approsehing tour of Elstun’ Brothers’ United Shows promises in every way to exceed that of 1908. The winterquarters in Kansas City, Kan., is the scene of much activity and various improvements are being made which will strengthen the show in many ways. Per formers and musicians are being engaged every day and the roster will soon be complete. General Agent B. E. Benson has his advance | and opposition brigade well under way, so the | publicity department will be in good working order by the opening date, which takes place in Kansas City, some time In April. TENT SHOWS. Sam Fields, of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, was in Kingston, N. Y., ome day last week as the guest of Chas. A. Chapman the city billpester. The Buffalo Bill and Paw nee Bill Combined Shows are booked to exhibit in Kingston, June 16. George Wormald will be boss canvasman, and C. W. Williams will be traip master with Gollmar Brothers’ Circus this sea son Harold R. Cushman, the German comedian. bas joined the Diamond Bar Ranch Wilé West Show for the season. Mr. Cushman Is te de principal ‘joy.’ John H. Pearson, novelty performer, has been engaged for the coming season with Tiger Bill's Wild West to do his novelty shoot ing act. Jack Barnell was a Billboard caller Mareh 22. Mr. Barnell was en route to Kan sas City to join the Campbell Brothers’ Show at the Hippodrome there. Carl M. Johnson will be connected with the working staff of the Miller Bros.’ Ol Ranch Wild West Show this season. Otto Weaver and wife left their home at Decatur, Ill, March 26, to join the Sun Brothers’ Cirens at Macon, Ga. Will P. Gallagher has returned to Pern, Ind., after a winter's season at the New York Hippodrome. It is rumored that the 101 Ranch is coming East early in the season. CALL —!—!—!— All People Engaged for the -CALL Tenting Season 1908 for the —!—!—!— Cole Bros.’ World-Toured Shows Report as follows: Creek, Pa., and report Saturday, April 17. Working men acknowledge call to the heads of different departments, Harbor lerformers, Musicians and all others report, New Castle, Pa., Wednesday morning, April 21, 9 A. M. Musicians acknowledge call to C. H. Tinney, Memphis, Mo. Performers and all othere engage! acknowledge to M. J. Downs, Box 452, Erle, Va. Show trains will leave Harbor Creek, T’a., Tuesday, April 20. P. 8,—Can use a few more first-class ici Address ©. H. Tinney, Memphis, Mo. O LD HOME WEEK CELEBRATION Wants all manner of good, clean, up-to-date moral amusements and attractions, state nature and price of same MITTEE, Old Home Week Celebration. Vositively no gambling. Companies wil Address THE ADVERTISING com CORRY, PENN. July 4th to 9th, Inclusive WANTED AT ONCE Actors, Actresses, to pose for Moving Pictures; state age, height, weight, apectalty, comie or dramatic, past experience, list of wardrobe. FILM C©O., 1873 Park Ave., New York City. Send photograph. Apply letter only, CENTAUR Horse and Pony Plumes For Show Varades, Horse and Pony Acta, Advertiain men, OFC, Pur Bend for price Het, Manufactured 7 BS, 612-614 Metropolitan Ave., Brooklyn, N.Y.