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2009 CHS Convention Information Updated!

Did you know . . . On May 9, 1893, a circus parade passed the nation's capitol just before the convening of the two houses of congress today and broke up practically every committee meeting in the big gray buildng. Groups of senators and representatives raced over to watch the animals and gaily caparisoned riders and to listen to the bands and the strident notes of the calliope. Champ Clark, minority leader in the house called attention to the fact that the G. O. P. elephants in the parade were not so welcomed by the crowd as the Democratic donkeys, ridden by the clowns. Racine Daily Journal, (Racine, WI), May 9, 1910, p. 1.

Did you know . . . Small railroad circuses continued to parade on a regular basis through the mid 1920s. A select few staged street demonstrations through the 1930s. The last regularly scheduled street parades with steel-wheeled, wooden body wagons were in 1939, the Cole Bros. Circus. The last parade wagon in daily circus use was 1953, RBBB air calliope, preserved at John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. Fred Dahlinger, the last regularly scheduled daily processions were those of the 1939 Cole Bros. Circus. Thereafter a couple parade wagons at most were carried, for nostalgic reasons, by two circuses. A single circus parade wagon, housing an air calliope, last toured with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in 1953, bringing to a close the 106 year association between the circus and ornamented parade wagons. Fred Dahlinger

New! March 2009

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