Snap Wyatt Sideshow Banners – Clyde Beatty Cole Bros. Circus
This view of the 1961 Clyde Beatty Cole Bros. midway shows not only the big top in the distance, but also the bannerline painted by the best known of sideshow artists, David “Snap” Wyatt.
Originally from North Carolina, Wyatt began painting banners in the 1920s producing as many as 300 a year. In those days nearly all were on canvas and at the end of the season they would have to be replaced with new ones.
Wyatt continued painting banners well into the 1970s, working from his studio in Gibsonton.
Snap Wyatt died in 1984 at the age of 79. Today his surviving canvas banners are highly collectible. -Chris Berry