The Billboard 1924-05-17: Vol 36 Iss 20 (1924-05-17)

~ The Billboard MAY-17, 1924 fo UNDER THE ale MARQUEE | By CIRCUS CY innati offices) Communications to our Cin ¥. f. Head is handling the press back onthe Eliew th the Jobn Robinson Circus. flaire Til ngton (Babe Weldon) of Oriental D now doing aerial. tron-jJaw and swinggp the Fan Dixie Animal Shows. We ( ® with the H st Bill advar driv ng the » l car. Fay and W. H. Stokes and the Waiter Sisters are with the show. Charies Ringling is expected back sota, Fla., this week. He has show since it left the Garden. mn Sarabeen with the The Sells-Floto Circus will not play Seneca Falls, N. Y., May 30, but will probably show there some time in June. Frank B. Hu ney vertising the y f r aute tour. He is now in The Ringling-Parnum cir: date in Salem, Mass., to June 10. ‘The. show plays Lynn, June 9. Sells-Floto plays Little Mack, last year with the Gentry Bros.Patterson Circus, will have his Punch and magic on VPilmore’s Motorized Circus, opening at Bay City, Mich., May 19. Birch A. Wormald—Your mother, who has not beard from ycu in two years, is anxious to receive word from you. Her home address is 699 E. Third street, Newport, Ky. Mr. and Mrs. Harry LaPe arl, who recently finished a two-week engagement at the St. Loui« Police Circus, are putting on a show for the Police and Firemen’s Vension Fund at Lexingtom, Ky., week of May 12. Dec Williams, master mechanic and superintendent of the Golden Bros.’ Circus, which closed recently, joined the John Robinson Circus at Newport, Ky., May 8 as superintendent of props. Advertising Car No. 1 of the Ringling-Barnum cireus was in Allentown, Pa., May 6 billing the eity for May 2& The show is to exhibit on the fair grounds and will be the first in for Allentown. Writes John W. Berry, of Morristown, N. J.: “T have been reading The Billboard from the day it was born and have the first copy that came over to the Miles Orton Show, when I was advertising agent with Gus Fairbank."’ Billy Dick says: “I am the original Valda LaMarr, ‘the sword-walking girl from the Orient’, and am not with the Al G. Barnes Circus, as mentioned in the side-show lineup a few weeks ago, but was with Gold-n Bros.’ Cireus.” Robbins Bros.’ Show will play Ft. Dodge, 7a., May 21, the first circus there since Golden Gros. opened in April last year. G. W. Tremain informs that conditions are good thru that rection for white-top organizations. So Rumors that were spread in ‘Lebanon, Pa., to the effect that City Hall authorities charged the Walter L. Main Circus the exorbitant sum of $600 to parade were false. When the advance agent took out a permit for the parade April 23 he paid $15 for it, stated a Lebanon Yaily. The Alex. Brock Troupe, for a number of years with the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus, 1s with the Pollie Bros.’ Circus, playing week stands. The troupe at present consists of four people, but Mr, Brock states he contemplates enlarging next fall to six people and doing a flying act instead of aerial bars. The advertising car of the Walter L. Main (reus is moving on schedule time. Manager Clyde W -” ard is busy early and late, has a crew that is co-operating with his efforts, and red display Paper, banners and window work head of 1! circus is in quantity and location value a genuine big show billing. Ed L. Brannan passed thru Omaha, Neb., last week with a fine bunch of Indians for the Rob‘ine Bros Circus, The show } 1as enjoyed good busitiess and weather since opening. The show escaped a windstorm at Mt. Pleasant, Ia., May 2 just after the afternoon show, no one being hurt. One of the features of the Al G. Barnes Circus this year is the famous moving picture chimpanzee, Joe Martin, which the billing advertises as “‘the greatest movie star of them all.’ Joe is standing the cirens life in good shape, and Jr. ¢iunning. who attends him, cays he is in the pink of condition, Roster of Vie Graham's band with the Bob Morton Circus Company: J. H. Grimm and Joe Albert, clarinets; W. H. Reut-chow and Don McAdoo, cornets; Ralph Henry and Arthur DeLong, altos; Y. (Doc) Graham and E. W. Mauris, tr my Frank Johnson, bass; Al Wood 1 bells: C. E. Wonderlieh bass drum; ham, baritone and direc tor. All belong to the F. of M. F. M. Shortridge, manager of Riverview Park, Des Moines, Ia.. furnished the Commercial Club of Valley Junction, Ia., with a seventy-fvot top with three forties in w 1 to place al) the games at its carnival. J Mack, for many years boss canvasman with the Campbell Bros.’ Cireus, handled the top. The latter will have the exclusive popeorn and peanut privilege at Mr. Shortridge’s resort this summer. ; Val Vino. descriptive leeturer, for years with the Ringling Bros.’ Circus, who this sea pe Te fe ee ere fe re IPL ERE RRA ROLE PEPTIC WE’RE NOW pan VUeL READY WITH ANNERS Wire or Mail Your Orders to BAKER-LOCKWOOD Seventh and Wyandotte Streets, Kansas City, Missouri AMERICA’S BIG TENT HOUSE Ieee AP OUI PO PPP PE PP SEER PEEP PPP Aw epee geile) W. R. “BILL” TUMBER Side age em AT LIBE RTY. On account of a milsunderstanding, | for offers to manage Side Show or P inside tickets or take charge of wagor Nothing erie. Strictly sober and reliable. ha ve sever raecti ms wit! € Le. i small for me to handle. Years of experi ‘Address me eare "The Billbeard. Chicago. LOOK! A. B. Campbell’s Consolidated Shows WANT a Se vind a 7 acts preferred: Female In —— r uble Walk-Around BAND MEN, Clarine one, N CE, PERFORMI RS—Millers wire ALSO WANT Electrician for Lig ght ” ant a! a Me hanic ; USEFUL PEOPLE ANS WER. all mail, Howard, Kansas, or care of The Gillbeerd. "Wansas City, Missouri. ROCK PYTHONS Indian Sloth Bear, Polar Bear, Flamingos, Fancy LOUIS RUHE, -— =. Monkeys, Wh ite Peafowl, (Light Color) 7 to 12 Feet Cranes, and Ducks. 351 Bowery, New York Geese son signed with the World's Circus Side-Show, Coney Island, New York, writes that the management, Wagner, Newman & Mitchell, has the largest amusement place of its kind devoted to side-shows in the history of the resort. The latest arrival from abroad (May 3) was Mile. Gabriel, living half lady. From W. M. Coates of Binghamton, N. Y.: “In The Billboard issue of Mav 3 I saw Reminiscences of 1911, by E. W. Adams, about the Buffalo Bill Wild West and Pawnee Bill Great Far East Combined Shows exhibiting in Washington that year. Want to correct him. We did not show there, for we opened at Trenton, N. ; then played Newark, N. J., and Newburg, N. Y. I was with them from 1‘!S until the end of 1913. Before that I was with the Barnum & Bailey Circus.”’ Roy Arbright, clown marvel, closed at the Lyric Theater, Boonville, Mo., April 25-26 after playing indoor events and vaudevi lle all winter in Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri. Business was exceptionally good in the Oklahoma oil fields, says Arbright. He did net play the St. Louis Police Circus, as mentioned in the program listed in The Billboard, but was a welcome visitor the last two days of the show. Says that Harry LaPearl, Frank Stout and Pewee and the other joeys presented the last word in comedy. Word from Vhil Porter, pony boy with the Walter L. Main Circus, bas it that Billy Hart, manager of Downie’s midgets with the show, was trampled by a horse im Mahanoy City, Pa., May 6. Hart was sitting on a trunk near the midgets’ dressing room, protecting them from danger, when one of the horses coming from the ring knocked him off the trunk. The animal stepped on Hart with both front feet, and as a result he was badly bruised, but no bones were broken. Hart is resting in the car and receiving medical attention. Martin and Martin, aerialists and contortionists, closed witth the Bob Morton Cireus Company at San Francisco, Calif., to join the Pollie Bros.’ Cireus at Portsmouth, 0., but on account of ear trouble, which delayed the trip for two days, could not make the Pollie Circus ning and e&nceled the engagement. They joined the Billy Gear Productions at Corsicana. Tex., May 12. The trip was made in eleven days from San Francisco to Kansas City, Mo., by the way of Portland, Ore., totaling 2.960 miles, The Martins were with the Morton Cireus for fifty-nine weeks and state that Mr. Morton is @ prince. The Ringling-Barnnm Circus Advertising Car No, 1 reached Wilkes-Barre, Pa., May 7, one day ahead of its schedule, It is in charge of George Goodheart, of Lancaster, Pa., one of the veteran advance men of the Barnum & Bailey Show. He was accompanied by Roland sutler, representative, Owing to the Knights ‘Templar State Conclave being at Wilkes-Barre May 29, the date of the show was shifted from May 22 to May 29. The show originally had planned to show at Wilkes-Barre May 22 and Scranton May 23, but the management has worked in some old territory in the eastern part of Pennsylvania and takes up the entire week of May 18, due to improved business conditions in that section. The show appears at Allentown this year and also at Laneaster, the home town of George Goodheart and Tom Daly, veteran advance men with the show. It is the first appearance of the show at Lancaster in many years. press The Benton (11) Evening News, dated May 6, ®ave the Christy Bros.’ Circus an excellent and lengthy afternotice. It also gave Press Agent Fletcher Smith considerable mention, saying in part: “Smith is a native of Newberryport, Mass., where his father was the owner of ‘he Daily News for a number of years. It Was in that office that F her got the smell of printers’ ink and learned to know the real value of advertising selling his interest in the newspaper office he became associated with Andrew Downie as publicity manager for the Downie Shows, whik capacity he filled for a number of years Since that time he been associated with the old Adam Fore} Shows, Frank A. Robbins’ Shows, Shows, Sparks’ Circus and the ae ter L. Circus. In the capacity little to do. All of his morni is taken h calling on newspaper offices. Then at ime he plays the calliope. a during ‘rformance he makes the announcements, en when he isn't busy he takes time new old acquaintances and make new friends.”’ WITH AUSTRALIAN CIRCUSES By Martin C. Brennan Sydney, April' 7.—Sole’s Circus, now at Broken Hill (N. S. W.), will shortly leave on a tour of Western Australia. Johnnie Rougal; anima] tamer, was featuring his act in Bombay last mont! His young daughter, Valerie, and a girl partner, are playing the Fuller Cireuit here. Ed Bush, American clown, who was first here eleven years ago with the Bud Atkinson aggregation, is now holding down a position in a Melbourne garage. The New Zealand carnival season is virtually over, and most of the Australian showmen who have been playing the Dominion are naw here for the big Sydney show. Baker's Circus is still in the South Island of New Zealand. It is meeting opposition in the shape of Webb's Circus, each seeming to be bumping one another at the majority of the big towns. Dave Meekin was among the passengers from New Zealand last week. His troupe of lions, giant horse and other attractions came along with him. Joe Gardiner is one who is going to make carnival history this year on the Sydney show ground, providing anything like good weather is experienced, Gardiner is preparing an advertising campaign that will stagger the natives, His Melbourne season was a record breaker. 30b Sculthorpe, known all over the Australian carnival field as “Brother Bob"’, is back in Sydney from Brisbane, after a successful time, and is getting his house in order for the forthcoming Sydney Show. “Be for It or Don't Be With It’ is the title of a story coneerning Charles Sparks and the Sparks Cireus which was written by Karl Chapin May, and published in Collier’s, issue of May 3. It is a very interesting article and tells of Mr. Sparks’ success in the cireus business. He began with a two-car show and now has one of twerty-car size, Mr. Sparks is quoted in May's article, and says, in part: “I went on my own at the age of six, singing and dancing and passing the hat on the streets and in the dance halls and stores of Dark City, Utah, to support my Widowed mother and two sisters. The man who afterward became famous as John Sparks picked me up, taught me to play the musical bells and trap drums and put me into the minstrel business. In 1888, when I was nine years old, Jolin Sparks and I joined the Walter L. Main Circus, then a little wagon show touring the Eastern States. When I was 10 John Sparks launched The Allied Great Eastern Shows. The next year it toured the South as John Sparks’ Old Reliable Virginia Shows. It was nip and tuck with John and me for several years, We ate many a time by hocking a clarinet or cornet or drum. The sheriff sold us out in 1894, but we managed to save enough from the wreck to put into a box car we « Circus’’, shipped from tows to town, setting up ragged tent on some railroad jot and showing ten and twenty cents admission. Jobn a: were pretty much the whole show. Jobn died the front door, and most of the busin side of our wabbling ente rprise, while I q aerial acts, played bells, did clog dancing, acro batic stunts, worked performing animals, et and gave the concert alone. Somehow I man. aged ta get away with it, probably becans 7 had to—and we needed concert receipts to » for lot and license. It was then I began ¢t hear John Sparks say: ‘If you can't be it don’t be with it.’ John brought me up ¢ believe that—and there isn’t a man or woman on the Sparks show today who Cons n't beliey 4 it. That's made the show what it is. It’s th only way of pulling together. ,-* Spark Was a remarkable man in many wars Hk believed in a square deal. Two years befor he died he told me that half of the show wa mine. When he died from blood poisoning thre days after a Pee clawed him and left no w I still knew that he believed in a square eva And his tamil y had no one to look after them I passed up my claim to half the property y had helped create, appraised the show—a two car affair—at $12,000, gave John’s widow and children my notes for $6.000 for a half fnters and started out to run the shew with 300 cash. That was im 1903. My share of that season's profits paid those notes and neither | nor the show has owed a dollar since The show has been built up to a twenty-car outfir that cannot be replaced for $300,000—byilt yy without borrowing a dollar or cheating anvon outwof a dollar It goes into the same tow: year after year because it sells full-value me, chandise and dispenses a lot of the cheapest ani best-paying commodity in the world—courte« —and because the people on my payroll! are for the show as well as with it. They have to } or there wouldn't be any show. The Spar} Sparks Show can now go into almost any city and get good business, but it is still a family affair A lot of the performers and bosses have been around the show a long time."’ ON MAIN ADVERTISING CAR —_—_— On the advertising car of the Walter lL. Main Cireus, which Clyde Willard is manager, are Ed Orth, boss bil'poster: Mike Noonan, W. Frenchy) Perrault, James Chaffee, Thos. East, Wm. Hanning, Robert Merrill, L a Jo S. D. Hanford and E. 8S. Carr, bill Chas. ( Steaman, boss lithographer: . Konesky, Polk Hemphill, -Al Stine and Bruce Grenhaw, b vosters; Ralph Guy, banner squar Harry Vivan« n charge of banners: John MeAdams and Harry Seymore bannerm< n; W. A Hancock, programs; Jobnny Lavenswe maker; Harry V nio, steward: Chas ! chef. Charles Bernard bas his office for adva press work on the car and makes it his head tellefonte, Pa., is the twenty-sixth stand billed, twenty-five of them being in the State of Pennsylvania The car has not been later lock arriving in any town and has billed every stand on the date the car was due to arrive. On May 3 the circus was ex in Shamokin, Pa., and the advertising at Sunbury. only fifteen miles from show, billing Sunbury for May 17. Eleven of the twenty-six cities billed have been opposition stands and in ten of the opposition ‘‘squabbles'’ the Main Circus has been the first show in. and Manager Willard and his crew of ‘‘on-time’’ boys have really enjoyed the opposition billing, as the owners of all the preferred locations for daubs, banners and lithagraphs seemed to give the Main Circus bors preference, With the result that the dominating display of circus paper and banners in all the oppos! ition stands read ‘‘Walter L. Mair Uniontown, Greensburg, Mt Carmel and Beth! ehem are samples of oppositi en billing that W lard’ s “‘on-time’’ boys enjoy “telling the world’ about. All of which is according fo Charles Bernard. SPARKS CIRCUS AT AKRON, O. Akron, ©., May 9.—Maintaining the same high standard for which the show has always been known the Sparks Circus played its aunual Akron engagement May 5 to very sats factory business. Sparks, being the first 0 three billed for Akron within six weeks, did exceptionally well, Among visitors we Mr and Mrs ‘lint V. Meyer, Karl A. Bauer and s of Bushey Miller and wife of the Sparks -show, all of Canton; Rex Metor nell, Canton representative of The Billboard; Mrs. Sam Cele and party and others. Eddie Jackson, press representative, was busy. but found timg to say the show was the best yet “Altho we have been out more than a month we have not had an even break with the weather,’ said Charles Sparks. “When we get Weather we get business," he declared. M Sparks views the future optimistically ind believes the show will do @ satisfactory bus'ness. The performance is running smoot is replete with new features, and many old feature acts have been retained. Pete Mardo and Company, Akron clowns, got a big ovation here A striking feature of the Sparks per formance is the flashy and originally design: wardrobe, this part bringing much from public and press. The parade this yea is also a revelation. May Feature MINER’S CLOWN WHITE 30c. COLD CREAM Yr Lb., a 7 hh Lb., $1.00 yo IOUS one