By the time that this lithograph was printed in about 1907, the John Robinson title had already been used for some 65 years, and three generations of “John Robinsons” had managed the show.
The first John Robinson was born in 1807 and by the time he was 15 years old he was already in show business. After operating a variety of indoor shows and assisting with circus management he started the first John Robinson Circus in 1842.
In the years that followed his son and grandson also managed the show. The circus left the road after the 1911 season and after several years of not touring it was sold to The American Circus Corporation in 1916. At that time the shows winter quarter is moved from Ohio to Peru.
John Robinson was among the titles and property that was purchased by John Ringling when he acquired the Corporation in 1929.
The combination of the Great Depression plus the desire to reduce the field against the Ringling Circus put an end to the John Robinson Circus at the close of the 1930 season.
As historian Robert Parkinson pointed out, the John Robinson name was not done yet. It was dusted off again in 1932 in a last ditch effort to save the Sells Floto show.
Attesting to the value of the Robinson name in the south, advertising of the Sells Floto show in the South, used the combined John Robinson-Sells Floto title. Robinson clearly took the lead over the Floto name in that area.
The Robinson title was also used on a few lithographs with the Barnes-Floto show of 1938, comprising one of the most powerful name-combines ever used – Al G. Barnes Sells Floto John Robinson Combined Circus. When date tags later added “Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Features,” the result was the all-time champion title.
John Franklin Robinson (the oldest son of the original John Robinson and pictured in the center) was a partner with Anthony Russell and Robert Morgan in the Russell-Morgan poster company which produced this lithograph.
About the time this poster was printed, Russell-Morgan evolved into the United States lithograph company which produced among other things playing cards. The US Playing Card Company still exists today and is known for its Bicycle and Bee playing cards – a legacy that began with a firm that originally produced circus posters….
-C. Berry