Reminiscences of a Showman

Of the articles which Mr. Louis E. Cooke has hitherto written in his series of reminiscences, none are more interesting, and not one so well worth filing away for future reference as the article printed today.

In this chapter Mr. Cooke gives vivid pen pictures of some circus notables whome he has not discussed at length before, and has something to say of the shows that have ceased to exist. It concludes with a chronological history of the circus from ancient times, which is invaluable to the student of history in general, and to the student of the circus in particular.

Early In my career as an advance agent for a hall show attraction I happened to be in a small town up in northern Michigan where there was no bill poster and, as usual in such cases, I donned my overalls and with posting brush and paper, proceeded to "bill the town" after having made my other contracts. While busily engaged upon a ladder, pasting the paper upon a high wall, with considerable dexterity, I noticed a rather fine-looking gentleman watching my movements and observing the bills, as he remarked:

"Are you the agent for that show or the city bill poster?"

To which I replied, "I am both agent and the bill poster in this instance."

"Well," said he, my name is Robbins - Burr Robbins, manager of the Bill D. T. Travers Panorama of the Civil War, painted by himself and upon which he lectures at the town hall tonight, and I would like to have you come around and see us.” To which I readily assented, and continuing his personal introduction, he stated that he was new in the show business and that he would be willing to travel one season for nothing just to learn to post bills as I was doing it.

I told him that it was easy enough to learn the trick of posting, but it was not so easy to climb ladder and keep the paper on a dead wall on a windy day, which I was doing. Finding the gentleman very genial I accepted his invitation to see the panorama, which was a most interesting and well executed piece of canvas. That night and during evening we became very well acquainted and passed several pleasant hours together after the exhibition.

About two years later I noted that Burr Robbins was starting a small wagon show or circus from his home at Paw Paw, Michigan, and I watched his activity with a great deal of interest as I was then on the road with other shows.

From year to year his outfit grew in importance and by keeping in a new territory entirely to himself he made considerable money and increased the show every season until it became one of the very best of the wagon shows, and gradually extended the territory in which it prospered. I frequently met Mr. Robbins at the various points with his show and we often laughed over our first introduction to each other.

Being a keen cut business man, Robbins conducted his show in the most wholesome manner, always insisting on discipline and clean work with his outfit. He left an enviable reputation everywhere and soon established a home and winter quarters at Janesville, Wis., where he purchased a large farm and considerable town property and continued increasing his show until it grew into such proportions that it was impracticable to handle it overland by wagon. Thereupon he converted it into a railway proposition, still making a feature of playing the smaller towns, except in extreme cases, where he found no opposition, and gradually accumulated quite a fortune.

Having acquired sufficient of the world's goods to treat himself to some of its pleasures, he purchased a small steam launch with which to ply upon the Fox River between his home and the city. This luxury nearly cost him his life, and his escape from death's door at that time was almost miraculous.

Early in the year, when the river was rising rapidly from the spring floods, Mr. Robbins made a trip in his launch to the city one afternoon, with some difficulty, owing to the high water. On his return, later in the evening, he did not notice that the river had risen several inches since his downward trip, and in passing under one of the bridges his head was caught between one of the girders and the smokestack of the launch which he was operating. The crash was terrific and literally tore the top of his head from his body, crushing the forehead just above the eyes and causing the eyeballs to protrude from their sockets. The victim was rescued from the torrents in this condition and conveyed to the leading hotel in town, where he received the best medical assistance available and where he laid for several weeks hanging by a very slender thread between life and death. His case was watched by the medical fraternity throughout the world, and finally he recovered from the awful shock, although greatly disfigured for life.

With indomitable will and energy Mr. Robbins continued his show for several seasons, but finally concluded to retire from its active management and devote himself more directly to real estate affairs and business at home and in Chicago, where he acquired numerous interests, among others that of financing two or three printing concerns, amusement enterprises, and eventually a controlling interest in the American Bill Posting Company of Chicago, with R. C. Campbell, an old agent of mine, and which is still managed and operated by his son, Burnett Robbins, and is considered one of the great industries of the Lake City.

Notwithstanding his great wealth and the many enterprises in which he was engaged, Mr. Robbins always took particular pleasure in entertaining his numerous circus friends at his home on the Lakeshore Drive, where he proudly pointed to the fact that when he first purchased that property on the sand beach it was very shallow, but by picking up the pine boards, or blocks, which had been discarded at the Printing house, where the show bills were printed, and driving them on end into the sand, the waves from the lake would soon fill the intervening space and another row of the blocks then driven still farther out, to be again filled by the sand washed from the inland sea, thus created a beautiful lawn extending from his residence to the lake shore several hundred feet away, where his land was anchored. The thrifty manager seemed to think more of this accomplishment than anything else he had undertaken.

An Amazon of the Arena.

Mrs. Agnes Lake, whose first husband was William Lake, a clown of great notoriety in the early days of the circus in America, was, undoubtedly, one of the most famous of the lady exponents of the arena. Her history is full of romance. She was born in Dohme, Alsace, in 1826. Her maiden name was Mersman. Her parents came to this country when she was only four years old and settled in Cincinnati. When Agnes was about seventeen there came to her home town, on one of its periodic visits, Spalding & Rogers' Circus. It had with it an attractive young fellow named Lake, who was a clown, a man of good looks and keen wit, the stamp of a man of which court jesters used to be made. Agnes fell in love with him, ran away and married him, and from that time on her life was linked inseparably with the circus. Her husband's real name was Thatcher and he came from a well known family of Bordentown, N. J.

The young bride got tired of doing nothing on the journeys with her husband and under his direction she practiced the slack-wire performance. She soon became so expert at it she was known through the land as the greatest in her line.

For fifteen years she worked with her husband, saving their money until they were able to form a partnership with John Robinson, and the Robinson & Lake circus was founded. This partnership lasted for three years, when each went his way, and Lake started a circus of his own. With the Robinson & Lake circus there had been a small boy who had attracted some attention as a hard worker, who had been picked up in a hotel at Pontiac, Mich., to help out the general agent of that show, and who eventually took the name of his benefactor. When the Lake show became one of itself Mrs. Lake insisted, against her husband's judgment, in making the young fellow, who had grown up, general agent of the show. The wisdom of her judgment was shown when it is known that the young man was the late James A. Bailey, who has since done so much to make show history.

Mrs. Lake continued to ride in the show, also doing a slack wire act and helping out with the management. During the winter seasons at their beautiful home in Covington, Ky., she taught her only daughter, Emma, how to ride, and the young lady soon became one of the very best high school riders in the profession, and afterwards married Gil Robinson, a son of the famous John Robinson.

Mrs. Lake also studied the play of "Mazeppa" very carefully, and being an excellent horsewoman and able to speak German, went to Berlin and played the part for a season with great success. When she came back she adapted the play to the circus ring. Incidental to the action, and at the proper time, she was lashed to the horse's back, when the animal would be turned loose and dash madly around the ring, and finally make its escape into the dressing room. It was a great hit, and the Lakes made a lot of money with this feature.

The Lake circus usually toured the West and was known as far as Kansas and Colorado, which in those days was considered quite beyond civilization. One day the circus stopped at Granby, Mo., and while there Lake had some trouble with a desperado named Jake Killen, who had already lost an eye in an encounter for which he was noted, and when it came time to collect the tickets for the concert, usually given after the big show, Killen refused to pay and insisted on staying. Lake, who knew no fear, put him out.

A few moments later, while standing at the door with Mrs. Lake, taking tickets, Killen slipped up behind him and shot him through the heart. Killen was tried and convicted, but only served about three years for his dastardly deed. When he got out he went after the man who took his eye, but the other fellow saw him first and the circus world was troubled with the man whose name was "Killen" no longer.

At her death, quite recently, at the home of her son-in-law, in Jersey City, N. J., Mrs. Lake was the widow of the still more famous frontiersman, "Wild Bill" Hiscock, who, himself, was assassinated in the Black Hills several years before. Had Mrs. Lake lived but a day longer she would have been eighty-one years of age. She was the first woman owner of a circus in this country and the first to adapt the drama to the circus ring, producing several equestrian plays in which she took the chief parts.

A Rare Old Bill.

As a curiosity I shall offer the copy of a rare old bill printed in 1850 at New Orleans, for the old St. Charles Street Circus, in which both Mr. and Mrs. Lake appeared with other celebrities who are now passed and gone.

Madam Lake belonged to that early school of Arenic Amazons which numbered in its class such heroines as Adah Isaac Menken, the greatest actress ever to impersonate the famous character of "Mazeppa," and from whom Mrs. Lake took her primary lessons in that historic equestrian drama. The introduction and ambition was consummated through the professional courtesy of the loan of a horse from the Robinson and Lake circus stables in Cincinnati, for the use of Miss Menken, while playing an engagement at one of the theaters in that city. A warm friendship was kindled between the two ladies, which induced Mrs. Lake herself to essay the title role in that heroic play. Miss Menken continued to tour the country as a dramatic star for years, winning great renown, and was married to the noted pugilist, John C. Heenan, who had won many hard-fought fistic battles but finally had to surrender to disease and died on a railway train while crossing the great divide on the Rocky Mountains, on the overland route to the Pacific coast, in search of a milder climate in an effort to regain his health.

In addition to her many professional achievements, Mrs. Lake also gave to the arenic world a daughter, Emma Lake, who became one of the most exemplary horsewomen of the day, and I am able, through the courtesy of her husband, Gil Robinson, to furnish a picture of the lady mounted on the last horse she ever rode in public as a professional.

Gil Robinson.

It is to Gil Robinson that I am indebted for many old-time pictures, trophies and relies of the past, and especially for the history of the famous Robinson family, of which he and his brothers, Jack, or the Governor as he is called, and Charley, are the only surviving members. As I write, the oldest brother, "Jack," is lying critically ill at his home in Miami, Fla. Gil Robinson was, practically, born and brought up under the white circus tents, and, without risking any chances in his life as a young man, I will say that he is now seventy-one years old and living at Atlantic City, N. J., full of vigor and rich in anecdote. He made his first entry into the world's arena in the little town of Buchanan, Va., exactly seventy-one years ago. His mother was traveling with her husband's show, and during the afternoon performance she found it necessary to retire from the ring to attend to a little act of her own, and that night there was an addition to the family of Robinson. They called him Gilbelt, but all the boys called him "Gil," and so it has ever been; and from that time to this he has been closely identified with the circus calling. At four years of age he was put in a posturing act with his fellow performers, and his brother Jack was doing a riding act when he was six years of age. Both of these boys grew up in the shadow of the circus tents, serving in every capacity from performing to the management and building of great shows.

Since his retirement Gil Robinson has made several trips around world, “just to see the country,” he says, as it is rather tiresome with nothing to do but rest. I would like to give my readers his picture, but he has not sent me one, and, perhaps, he is too modest at this age, and I may be able to get one before these reminiscences are published in book form, as they will be later on.

In this group of notables I am also able to present some portraits and records of a few circus celebrities not previously named, among them being Signor Sebastian, a veteran rider of great repute, and Charles Fish, in his youth, who in his wide career qualified as one of the very best bareback somersault riders of his time. Among his many other accomplishments he was a clever sketch artist and took great pride in art work and literature. The elderly Alexander Robinson, here mentioned, was a brother of the more famous John Robinson, and in the early sixties he also ran a show of his own with considerable success for a number of years.

It must likewise be recorded that John Robinson, the father of them all, was the first manager to throw up a dirt ring-bank in lieu of a curb for the circus ring. This change in crude construction was caused by the fact that when the roads became wet and heavy and almost impassable for the wagon trains, especially in the South, it was found necessary to throw away every stick of timber to be spared, even to the seat planks and tent poles and fresh ones cut or secured in each country town, to save the burden of transportation. Pine knots were often used as torches to illuminate the canvas at night as it was impossible to carry either oil, lamps or tallow candles to light the tents.

Often the roads became so muddy wagons were mired and broken, while the horses and mules fell by the wayside completely exhausted, and it was then that railway cars were first employed to move the show from town to town for a few days at a time, in order to give the stock a respite and save their lives. This enforced system of travel frequently alternated, in bad fall and winter weather, in the South and, undoubtedly, was the first suggestion for future shows traveling exclusively by railway.

All this is in striking contrast to the big circuses of today, which come to us with their mammoth waterproof canvas, grandstands, reserved seats, electric lights and every modern device and improvement for the benefit and comfort of their patrons.

Retired Showmen and Shows.

Among the retired showmen, that is those who quit Me calling with sufficient means to live in comparative luxury and enjoy life without worry, may be mentioned such men as Seth B. Howes, George F. Bailey, J. L. Hutchinson, W. W. Cole, John F. Robinson, Gil. Robinson, Burr Robbins and Benjamin E. Wallace. As the most of these gentlemen have been frequently referred to in these records, the remarks will be confined principally to Mr. Wallace, who has been a prime factor in the show world since 1884, when he started his first circus. Previous to that time he was engaged in the livery business, farming and dealing in real estate, which largely accounts for the fact that he has always taken particular pride in his horses, animals, winter quarters and general equipment, which ranked with the very best.

During all the years of his activity he conducted various shows under different names with great success and as an individual owner stood foremost with Cole and Forepaugh.

One of his greatest achievements was to consolidate the famous Wallace-Hagenbeck shows and eventually become sole owner of both, but in 1913 he disposed of his interest in that enterprise to a syndicate of which his nephew, C. E. Corey, became president and general manager, with Ed M. Ballard as an associate. Upon his retirement from the white tops Mr. Wallace retreated to his home and farm at Peru, Ind., where he has large holdings in bank stock, real estate and buildings of great value, and is numbered among the most thrifty and progressive citizens of that community.

As recited elsewhere, the disastrous floods of May 27, 1913, nearly wiped his farms and shows off the earth, entailing a positive loss of over $150,000.

The Wallace farms, consisting of approximately 2,000 acres, are situated just outside the city limits of Peru, in the rich bottoms of the Wabash and Mississinewa rivers and were completely at the mercy of the raging floods which swept horses, elephants, lions, tigers and other wild animals before them like the deluge.

Big George, the "Behemoth of Holy Writ," otherwise the giant hippopotamus, occupying a large tank in the corner of the elephant barn, was the only living thing that came out of the flood smiling, and he was under water for more than twelve hours at a time.

Of the shows that have failed, retired or ceased to exist there is a long record. I recall the most of them from memory, although not in the order in which they were disbanded. Nixon, Costello & Howes, VanAmburg & Co., L. B. Lent's New York Circus, John O'Brien's, Yankee Robinson's, Hardenburg's, Sheldenburg's, W. C. Coup's, P. A. Older's, J. E. Warner & Co., Roston, Springer & Henderson, John B. Doris, Howe's Great London, Central Park, The Great Eastern, American Racing Association, Stone & Murray, Clark Ames, Dan Castello, J. H. French's, Don Stone's, Haight & Chambers, Anderson & Co., J. B. Murray, Montgomery Queen, Howes & Cushing's, Den Stone's, Haight & Chambers, An-Hamilton, Ad Nathans, James, Robinson's, Paddy Ryan, Rechie, Colvin & Nathan's, French & Co., S. H. Barnett, Melville & Maginley, Cook & Whitby, Cooper & Jackson's, Adam Forepaugh, Sells Brothers, King & Franklin, Walter L. Main, Buffalo Bill and Pawnee Bill's Wild West, The Young Buffalo, Wild West and a host of other less important tent shows that may have sprung up and been closed for various causes before the season ended. The Sells & Downs show, which operated under the name of the Cole Brothers, may also be added to this list, as the death of Mr. Downs compelled the sale of the show at auction. Thus, one by one many of the old time shows were eliminated from the roll call.

Like the brook, shows will come and go, but the circus will go on forever, but we must have new men and new shows to provide new attractions and inviting features for future generations.

Chronological Circus History.

The year 776 B. C. was regarded as the date of the first Olympian games, created for amusement by the Greeks, and the victors were crowned with wreaths of honor.

Four hundred years later the Romans copied these Greek festivals, or tournaments, and founded the circus.

The Circus Maximus was then built by the great Romulus, the founder of Rome, and it is reported to have seated from 150,000 to 200,000 persons.

Caesar enlarged this structure and dug deep channels, or trenches, ten feet wide between the seats and the concourse to protect the spectators from the wild beasts when fighting in the arena. Nero filled up these trenches to make the exhibition more hazardous and thrilling.

Augustus, who found Rome built of brick, left it built of marble, restored the building completely, about the year 10 B. C., but in the time of Antonius Pius a multitude of people were killed by the falling of the seats.

Claudius again rebuilt the stadium and the carcers of stone were replaced with marble, and the matae, or goals, of wood by bronze and gilt.

This work was finished by Trojan, and the lower seats in the structure reserved for persons of rank, with the state box about midway in the range of seats.

Free shown were given by the politicians to curry favor with the populace, and Pompey, 61 years B. C., gave a five-day circus, during which twenty elephants and 500 lions were killed.

The Colosseum, the Flavian amphitheater at Rome, was begun by Vespasian and finished by Titus, A. D. 80. In general outline it still stands, one of the most magnificent ruins in the world. In the arena of this great building the famous gladiatorial displays and mimic naval battles used to be given, and 70,000 spectators could be accommodated. So strong was this structure it became proverbial that, "When the Colosseum falls, Rome, shall fall." And so it was.

After the fall of Rome centuries elapsed before the circus was revived.

We next hear of a "Wilde Beaste Showe" during the reign of Alfred the Great, A. D. 901, with mummers, posturers and montebanks, in the Danish camp at Berkshier.

In 1038 A. D. when William, Duke of Normandy, afterward the Conqueror, visited England he had in his train a troup that performed great feats of strength and agility.

The great earl of Warwick, in 1420 A. D. surnamed the King Maker, had in his household a troup of jugglers, merry andrews and mountebanks to entertain his guests.

Mary, Queen of Scots, on her return from the French court, 561 A. D. brought with her French singers, actors and a troup of remarkable benders, posturers and strong men to astound the straight-laced Scots.

The early English fairs were the next nearest approach to the circus. Their sports consisted of dancing, fiddling, wrestling and fighting. The first lions and tigers imported into England were used for fighting bulldogs and with each other.

The first real circus in England was established by Philip Astley, in his remodeled riding school, and called Astley's Circus, on the banks of the Thames, in London, about 1702 A. D.

Philip Astley was the first man to stand on a horse's back while going at full speed.

In 1845 the Astley Circus was leased to DuCrow, a Frenchman, and afterwards to the brothers George and John Sanger, who are acredited with being the first men to have a traveling show in England.

In 1892 the Astley Circus, an old, epoch-making landmark, which I often visited to get its history, was destroyed, and when I was in London last, in 1914, the place where it stood was covered by an annex to St. George's Hospital.

The first circus ever given in America located on the Boston Common in 1767.

The first successful American circus to travel was founded by Aaron Turner, about 1820, at North Salem, N. Y. Previous to that all shows, such as they were, confined themselves to buildings.

The first these shows made their appearance in America at the beginning of the nineteenth century and were known as "rolling shows,” as they traveled by wagon. They were crude affairs, and not until about 1825 had they improved in standing.

The first organized circus to cross the Atlantic was brought to this country in November, 1836, by Thomas Cooke, the grandfather of W. W. Cole.

In 1824 John Robinson, who was born in 1804, started his first circus. From 1840 to 1855 he was in partnership with Gil. Eldred, and from 1859 to 1862 a partner with William Lake, the famous clown of that period.

In 1847 Louis Jones carried his circus as far West as Chicago, then an outpost on the frontier.

Spaulding & Rogers owned the first circus to be moved by railroad, in 1858.

Haight & Chambers, in 1863, had the first circus to travel exclusively by steamboat.

The VanAmburg show occupied the site of the old Broadway Theater, below Duane street, New York, in 1858, and in 1863 VanAmburg and Barnum consolidated, but dissolved partnership after the fire of March, 1865.

The first elephant ever brought to this country was imported by Hachadiah Bailey, in 1821, and it was assassinated by some superstitious fanatics in Rhode Island while crossing a bridge in a lonely road at mid-night.

Giraffes were first brought to their United States from South America, in 1836, by Captain Clayton.

The first rhinoceros ever seen in England was in 1685.

Seth B. Howes took the first American circus to England in 1857.

It is a fact that the first circus to bear the name of P. T. Barnum started from Delavan, Wis.

The E. F. & Jerry Mabie's show also originated at Delavan, and afterwards became the great Forepaugh show.

W. C. Coup was the first to travel the Barnum show by rail and to have special cars built for circus transportation exclusively.

Dan Rice was the first and only man to run a "one horse circus," in 1854.

Philip Astley, founder of the English circus, was the first man to stand upright on the back of a running horse.

James Robinson, the world's champion, was the first to ride a bareback horse, remove the bridle and girt and turn "back-to-back" and forward somersaults on a horse going at full speed.

The first hippodrome to exhibit in America was Franconi's in New York city, in 1853.

Adam Forepaugh was the first to use separate tents - one for the menagerie and one for the circus - in addition to the other tents.

Two rings were first introduced by George DeHaven, who also originated the idea of reserved seats with back and foot rests, in 1870.

W. W. Cole took the first circus and menagerie to California, traveling entirely by rail, in 1872, when the through railway was first completed. He was also the first to visit the Puget Sound country by rail and boat.

Cooper and Bailey and W. W. Cole were the first to use the electric light with a circus, in 1879, and Cole was the first to exhibit American Indians, and those modern inventions, the electric light and phonograph, then known as the talking machine, in Australia, in 1880-81.

Buffalo Bill's Wild West was created at North Platt, Neb., July 4, 1882, and its first professional performance given at Omaha, Neb., in May, 1883.

Old Yankee Robinson's was the first circus to travel on the canal by special boats.

When the Ringling Brothers shows were first organized they traveled overland on three wagons. Now they own more show property than any other men in the world and are rightly named the Circus Kings of today - 1915.

The greatest combined circus performances in show history was the united engagement of the Barnum and Forepaugh shows at Madison Square Garden and in Philadelphia, in 1887, by arrangement with the compiler of these records.

The longest continuous circus tour in history was that of the W. W. Cole Show in 1880-‘81, covering Australia, New Zealand, the South Sea Islands and two trips across the American continent, making 305 stands in 431 days, traveling 44,172 miles with fifty-six days at sea, during which time the writer was its general agent and advance courier.

James A. Bailey took the first American circus to Australia, and by all odds the biggest show the world ever saw, twice to England and on a three-years’ tour of European continent, massing a great fortune and returning the show intact.

Buffalo Bill’s Wild West has made three tours through Great Britain and Europe and is the only American exhibition that has ever visited Italty and pitched its tents on the soil where Columbus, the discoverer, was born.

Top