Bert Nelson (Cardbert Nelson Snyder) learned how to train big cats at the Selig Zoo in Los Angeles before taking out his own wild animal act, both in vaudeville and circuses. He also appeared in early silent films and as a stunt double in Tarzan movies of the 1930s. A...
Scenes such as this were a common sight in rural America a century ago. This photo, of a nice daub outside of Evansville, Indiana, dates from 1921, probably taken a few weeks after The Greatest Show on Earth visited the town. The billposters found enough space for a...
This poster is one of a handful that were produced in the 1920s and 30s to promote the great liberty horse trainer and performer Rudy Rudynoff (Rudy Gebhardt). Rudy Gebhardt was the son of a German acrobat and circus wardrobe mistress who grew up on various European...
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...
This photograph was taken on the Milwaukee lakefront July 12, 1986. Greg Parkinson, seen here talking to Lou Jacobs, was executive director of the Circus World Museum at the time, and had just brought 75 circus wagons on a train pulled by a steam engine to Milwaukee...
