In 1902 the publishers of the Denver Post newspaper, Harry Tamman and Frederick Bonfils, started a circus. They named it “The Floto Dog and Pony Show” after their well-known sportswriter Otto Floto. Four years later the newspapermen hired William Sells to manage the circus and the title “Sells-Floto” was first used.

In 1919 Tammen and Bonfils were approached by circus operators Jerry Mugivan and Bert Bowers about selling to their upstart “American Circus Corporation” which had also acquired Hagenbeck Wallace.

This poster was used during the years that the show was operated by Mugivan and Bowers. Sells-Floto was among the circuses acquired by John Ringling when he purchased the American Circus Corporation in the fall of 1929 just days before the stock market crashed.
Although the Sells-Floto circus title was retired from the road at the end of the 1938 season, the name lived on as the concession subsidiary of Feld Entertainment, providing souvenirs and other consumer products to all of Feld’s various live shows around the world.
– C. Berry