Circus Historical Society
Hobby Bandwagon, June, 1949
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Hobby Bandwagon, Vol. 4, No. 5 (June), 1949, p. 5.
PROGRAM
1. MARCH - "Semper Fideles" - Sousa. This number was used for Ringling Bros. Grand Entree for many years.
2. CHARACTERISTIC MARCH - "Noisy Bill" - J. H. Losey, A regular old Circus Trombone Smear.
3. MARCH - "Gollmar Brothers Triumphal" - Ed Chenette. Mr. Chenette was Bandmaster with Gollmar Bros. Shows, and this number is dedicated to them.
4. MARCH - "Cleoine" - H. A. Vandercok. Mr. Vandercok was Bandmaster with the La Pearl Circus in the nineties. He wrote this march and dedicated it to Carl Clair, leader of the Barnum band.
5. MARCH - "Garland Entree" - K. L. King. Dedicated to Mr. W. P. English, bandmaster of Sells Floto Shows, and used for Grand Entree by them.
6. TROMBONE NOVELTY - "Hydrophobia" - G. E. Holmes. Written by one of Baraboo's troupers.
7. MARCH - "Barnum and Bailey's Favorite" - K. L. King. Dedicated to Mr. Ned Brill, Bandmaster of Barnum and Bailey Shows.
8. MARCH - "Gentry's Triumphal March" - Fred Jewell. Dedicated to Gentry's Famous Dog and Poney Shows.
9. MARCH - "Billboard" - R. B. Hall.
10. MARCH - "Robinson's Grand Entree - K. L. King. Dedicated to Robinson's Famous Shows,
11. MARCH - "Wanderlust" - K. L. King. Dedicated to all troupers.
12. MARCH - "Ringling Bros., Barnum & Bailey, Favorite March" - K. L. King.
13. MARCH - "Circus Historical Society" - C. L. Brown. This number was written by C. L. Brown, Bandmaster of Sells Floto and Cole Bros. Circus (1949), and dedicated to the Circus Historical Society.
14. MARCH - "On Wisconsin" - Purdy. Welcoming all members and friends of the C. H. S. to our city and state.
15. "Star Spangled Banner" - Francis Scott Key.
One sunny day early in October, 1897, Prof. Gentry's famous Dog and Pony Show exhibited at Jeffersonville, Indiana, the home town of the writer. That was the full title of the show at that time. This was the first appearance also in this city but it came many times in the following years. One of the earliest band leaders of the show was Eugene Waak who was noted for his great endurance and high notes on the cornet. I recall to this day one number the Gentry band played for the overture that night. It was "Melodies from the Opera - Bohemian Girl." Eugene Waak was a well known leader of that period and served a few years with the Gentry show. After leaving the road he played in Chicago theaters. Fred Jewell was with the Gentry Show in 1900 and later. His name is outstanding as a composer of band music and his compositions numbering perhaps 200 have been played around the world, wherever band music is known. Every circus, minstrel, and trouping band of the past 45 years have played Fred Jewell's fine compositions. His famous "Gentry's Triumphal March" which he wrote when he first became leader there was a big hit and I will venture to say every good leader of show bands had it among his music. Fred Jewell hailed from Worthington, Indiana. He was leader of the band with the Otto Floto Shows when it become the Sells-Floto Show in 1906. He was band master of the Barnum & Bailey Greatest show On Earth seasons 1909 and 1910, and with the Hagenbeck-Wallace Show season 1917. In later years he directed Shrine bands and finally had his own music publishing business in Worthington. His "Gentry's Triumphal March" has been recorded and for years has been much in demand where "show music" is required.
Harry Toomer was a band leader of the Gentry show 40 years ago, likewise E. C. Jones who was there some years prior to 1910. I saw the show at times when he was leader and he always had an excellent band of 13 including himself. The air calliope had not come into use at that time. After leaving the circus E. C. Jones was General Manager of the Terry's Uncle Tom's Cabin Company under canvas, with headquarters at Aurora, Illinois, this being one of the last Tom troupes to tour. This was formerly the Dickey & Terry Company of Little Sioux, Iowa, well known in the West. Prior to 1910 the Gentry's had on the road certain years two separate shows, and some years three, known as the No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3, show. Beech Parrott, a well known leader of Washington Court House, Ohio, served as band leader in 1905 and later, always having a very good band, likewise Harry Crigler of Oxford, Indiana, was leader in 1906 and later. The writer was with the Gentry Bros. band season in 1910. Crigler had an 18 piece band that year which was the largest ever carried by the show. This was also the first time a side show was along with the show. Crigler's favorite grand entry march was "on Dress Parade" by W. Paris Chambers. After leaving the road his services were in demand as a teacher and director of school bands. In 1907 I saw the Gentry Show at Jeffersonville, Indiana, this being the 2-car show. Thurlow Wulff had a band of but 9 men and it was great. They played the old "Olivene" march and "Troupers Tribunial" march in front of the marquee that night before doors opened.
C. L. Brown was also a well known leader with one of the Gentry shows years ago and later was leader of the Sells-Floto Circus 1917-1920, when H. B. Gentry was General Manager of that show. He afterward had his own act "Brown's Saxophone Six" and toured the vaudeville circuits during the 1920's and met with success. C. L. Brown has been located in South Bend, Indiana, in late years as instructor and leader of bands, and is now Bandmaster of Cole Bros. Circus. He hails from What Cheer, Iowa, a town that has turned out some well known names in the show world. Although John DelVecho was never a leader of the Gentry show his name deserves special mention here. For years he played the steam calliope with the show being one of the best in that line. His other duties were selling reserve seat and concert tickets. He was a clever musician and arranger. Many of the special musical numbers were arranged by him he having been with a few of the prominent minstrel shows in his younger days. DelVecho hailed from Buffalo, N.Y., and his last trouping was with Downie Bros. Circus playing the air calliope. He arranged the "spec" music for that show. I have no record of other leaders who were connected with the Gentry shows up to 1923 when the show was sold to James Patterson of Paoli, Kansas, who had the Gentry-Patterson Show on the road.
H. B. Gentry took out a motorized show in 1931 and operated same to the close of 1934 season. The leaders who served this motorized show were John Fingerhut and Henry DeArmitt. It was not unusual during the glorious and glamorous days of the Gentry Brothers Shows while walking off the lot at night as the crowds come from the big top to hear some circus goer remark, "Say! Didn't that show have a good band?"
FOREPAUGH-SELLS CIRCUS SHOWS HERE THIS AFTERNOON
Features a Street Parade and a Varied Performance
Hobby Bandwagon, Vol. 4, No. 5 (June), 1949, p. 10.
The great Forepaugh-Sells circus arrived in this city at an early hour this morning and exhibits here this afternoon and in evening.
The grounds where the circus is quartered are on the Cockshutt near the Parkdale Hotel.
These have been converted into a small city in which all is activity and bustle, but where despite hundreds of people and animals, there is still system and order.
The principal streets of the city were paraded this morning, the splendid pageant being witnessed by large numbers.
For hours before the parade was due this morning crowds of ladies and children lined the streets, and every point of vantage was eagerly snapped up. When the first notes of the band accompanying the parade could be heard workmen in stores and clerks in business houses dropped their work and hastened to the windows.
The parade left the show grounds at 10 o'clock this morning, and when it was fully stretched out it measured over a mile. It was certainly one of the best that has been seen in this city in years, and well repaid those who turned out to see it. All the way the crowds on the streets were twenty and thirty deep on both sidewalks, whilst the windows were packed with children eager to see everything and interested to the very end.
The features that delighted every one were the splendid collection of horses of all shades and sizes and the fine equestrians the circus has with it. A troupe of Mexican cowboys in their picturesque native costumes made a fine showing. The parade was punctuated with music from the seven bands that are carried.
The animals are always a drawing card and the Forepaugh-Sells Bros. circus is not lacking in these. As the lions, tigers, leopards, polar bears and hippopotamus in open dens passed the admiration of the crowd, and camels, each animal bearing a gorgeously dressed driver and riders were perhaps the feature of the animal part of the show.
Particular mention must be made of the splendid exhibition of firemen and apparatus which was another popular item in the parade. The brigade was one of which any city might be proud to own.
Features Of The Performance
When such features as "looping the gap" and "the death leap" were introduced by circuses in past years, it was said that the limit of human ingenuity and daring had been reached, but the Adam Forepaugh & Sells Brothers Show put on a feature which is so much in advance of any of these former blood-curdlers that it is designed "Beyond the Limit." It is the act of Mlle. La Raque, and it certainly is a thrilling one. Mile. La Raque rides in an auto weighing 1,200 pounds, her own weight being 150.
The plane on which the car descends has an elevation of about 45 feet and an angle of 65 degrees. At the bottom of the descent the car takes a sudden jag, ascends into space at an angle of about 60 degrees, rises 30 to 40 feet, and then the front of the car dips and it describes a complete revolution in midair, descends and lights upon a platform with its daring rider smiling.
The effect upon the vast audience this afternoon as rider and car took their places on the upper platform was intense. A silence and stillness that could be felt come over the crowd. When the descent, the sudden ascent, the somersault and the final landing are accomplished the crowd breaks into the most demonstrative applause.
(Taken from the Brantford, Ont., Canada, newspaper of June 15, 1907, by E. W. Cripps).
Pagel's First:
With the death of William Pagel still a matter of recent history, I found it particularly interesting to learn that in the programme of what was the first Pagel Circus proper were The Flying Eugenes, "supreme monarchs of the air;" Mr. Ernest Shand, premier jockey rider; Miss Montgomery, principal lady equestrienne; Carl Wirth, the champion six-horse rider; the Olympians, lady and gentlemen equestrians; the Pedros, experts on the Roman Rings; Mons. Carlo with his superb troupe of performing horses; Gilliaume and August, musical clowns, Azoda, the flexible marvel; Miss Alice, the equestrienne juggler; Coco and Chico, the educated chimpanzees, with their canine companion Toodles, who perform on the revolving ladder; Titto, tumbling and talking clown; Signor Enrico on the flying trapeze; Alfonso the famous cyclist balancer; with Pagel presenting the elephants and other animal acts.
A Book To Look For:
The absorbing history of William Pagel's early struggles and ultimate rise to fame is coming out in South Africa in book form under title of "The Pagel Story." Carel Birkby is the narrator and extracts from the story have been appearing in serial form in "The Cape Argus." Thanks to Mr. Arthur Fenwick, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, I have been able to read some of these, and as a result I have a very strong desire to acquire a copy of the complete book.
In Uncommon Mould:
For Pagel was no ordinary man. Some may say that no circus proprietor is, but that one can let pass. His patently genuine feats of strength have carved for him an exclusive niche in circusdom's Hall of Fame; his deep affection for his animals entitle him to an inscription in letters of true gold.
A Thorough Biographer:
Taking the extracts as a criterion, Carel Birkby has done his work as Pagel's biographer with thoroughness. In a sense one may envy him for having such a subject. 'Tis indeed absorbing, this Pagel Story. Those lucky enough to get hold of the book will read how this Pomeranian-born "Hercules" carried a horse up a ladder; of his meeting with the Mary Dinsdale whom he was to marry and who become one of the most colourful personalities ever known to circus anywhere; of early adventures in Australia and New Zealand; of Pagel's famous wrestling lion "Hopetoun" and how the police at one place, convinced that his life was in danger, turned up armed with revolvers, all ready to shoot if they thought occasion merited it; of early travels through Boer War country with its memories of Buller, Lord Roberts and the sieges which enthralled the world; of Wally Ricardo, the first performer ever to draw a salary from Pagel's Circus (he was a South African who had learned trapeze work from a Spaniard); of the many maulings, severe and otherwise, suffered by Pagel. They will read too how Pagel secured his first elephants and the twists of fate which robbed him of them. How elephant "Tempest" walked the "wire." All that and a great deal more.
ASTLEY'S
Hobby Bandwagon, Vol. 4, No. 5 (June), 1949, p. 11.
One hundred and four years agoon December 12, 1844 - Astley's Royal Amphitheatre of Arts under the propriatorship and management of William Batty, staged a performance for the benefit of the Widows and Orphans Fund of the North London District of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, M. U. Principal feature was a "new, National, Local, Patriotic, Panoramic, Pedestrian, Peculiar, and Equestrian Drama (in 3 Acts) written by that celebrated Author, W. T. Moncrieffe, Esq., introducing the Double Company, Mr. Batty's beautiful Stud of Horses, Ponies, Pack of Hounds, Fox and Trained Steeds, embodying the progress of our National Sports - the Turf - the Chase - Agricultural and Military Fetes - blending under every variety of circumstances, in good and bad fortune, Life's Course of Man and Horse, entitled the Royal Fox Hunt, or, Life as it Gallops."
The British Grenadiers:
The set-up as outlined on the daybill looks very elaborate, the sequence beginning with "The Race Horse" at Epsom Race Course, and proceeding with "The Hunter" with its "Splendid Fox Chose" on stage and in the Circle; "The Post Horse" on the Great North Road in winter; "The Cab Horse" in London, it all coming to an end with the "Death of the Race Horse" and the "unparalleled Effect produced by the Twelve Grenadiers carrying the Dead Racer on their Shoulders." So to a piece of pageantry, "England's Queen."
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Last modified November 2005.
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