Reminiscences of a Showman

In this chapter of him reminiscences Mr. Cooke dwells lovingly upon the early career of his lifelong friend, the greatest of the showmen, James A. Bailey, giving many particulars that have not heretofore appeared in print. It is a most important contribution to contemporaneous circus history.

On next Thursday Mr. Cooke will bid adieu to the columns of The Star, where he has been a most welcome guest for many mouths. In his concluding article, “A Day at the Circus," he will take us with him to view all the manifold operations incident to a show day. We will see the show arrive in town, pitch its tents, give its performances, pack up and move to the next stand. It is a unique and most informing article that no reader of The Star can afford to miss.

It is a pleasure to inform the readers that owing to the tremendous popularity of theme articles, Mr. Cooke has been compelled to put them into the form of a book which will presently be upon the market.

To tell the life story of a man who has made the most of the circus history of the last half century is no easy undertaking, although the writer is perfectly familiar with all the circumstances, having received the greater part of the information from his own lips. To concentrate the record of the Herculean efforts of such a man into a single chapter, which covers his eventful career from the cradle to the grave, is a task beyond the power of the most potent pen. It is for these reasons the author has reluctantly approached the subject and deferred going into the details of the intimate, personal life and character of his close friend and associate, the renowned James A. Bailey, who stood like a colossus among his fellows to bestride this narrow world of ours, and by his individual efforts erected a high standard of entertainment that will endure for all time as the symbol of pure, clean, wholesome amusement in its most stupendous and magnificent form.

In writing of this marvelous man and master mind in the show world, it is only necessary to speak of him as I found him from day to day for a period of over twenty years, during which I was brought in close, confidential contact with him and enjoyed, as I have every reason to believe, his utmost confidence and personal friendship in revealing his birthright and true identity, I feel that I am disclosing no secret of which he was ashamed, as on two or three occasions he took particular pains to tell me the story of his early life. Once, when viciously attacked by an opposition show, which sought to belittle his name and prestige, he invited me into his private tent and there related the circumstances of his boyhood days.

Among other things he stated that he had never disclaimed the name that he bore at his birth - that of James Anthony McGinnis - when he was ushered into this world on July 4, 1847, at Detroit, Michigan, in 1847, poor but honest family, consisting of his parents, a brother and sister. His father died in 1852 and a few years later his mother left him an orphan. He then went to live with his sister, whose husband proved anything but a kind brother-in-law, and young “Jimmy” was made a sort of a drudge on the farm, working late and early without a word of complaint. Submitting to numerous indignities and being compelled to work with a favored son of his task-master, much older and larger than himself, who was more or less abusive and domineering, he finally resented the insults heaped upon him by declaring that his antagonist might be bigger and older, but that he (Jimmy) did more work and could lick him, which he proceeded to do then and there.

To avoid any further trouble he left the unpleasant home or shelter and went to work for a farmer, to do chores, his wages being $3.50 per month and board.

An Errand Boy.

His next movement was to walk from Detroit to Pontiac, Michigan, where he succeeded in securing employment as an errand boy in the old Hodges Hotel, now standing in that city. A part of his duty was to look after the hotel barns and wait on the guests of the house. In the course of a few months, on June 17, 1860, to be exact, it so happened that a circus agent by the name of Frederick H. Bailey drove into the town with his bill wagon, accompanied by one man by the name of Benjamin Stevens, in advance of the Robinson & Lake, Circus, which was then a small affair traveling by wagon across the country. Young "Jimmy" assisted the elderly Bailey in taking care of his horses and looking after his interest so attentively that he excited the curiosity and admiration of the wide-awake circus man and he asked the young fellow how he would like to travel with the circus to help put up the bills, drive a team, and make himself generally useful.

This was a new idea and it seemed to fill an aching void in the heart of the young man, who had never seen much of the world and thought that he would like the job, but he must first consult with the landlady of the hotel, who had assumed a maternal care and treated him with great kindness, and she gave her consent to his going with the proviso that if he did not like traveling with the show he was to come back to the hotel as her boy. He never went back.

Six weeks later business called the elder Bailey back to his show and Mr. Stevens was taken ill at Jackson, Mich. Young "Jimmy," who had by this time become so attentive and industrious, often being taken for Mr. Bailey's son, because of his dutiful and thorough methods, was frequently called "Jimmy Bailey," a name which was first forced upon him and afterwards adopted in honor of his foster-father and for all legal purposes. Having been left on his own resources, young Bailey, despite his diminutive size and youthful age, was undismayed, but went ahead and made all the arrangements for the exhibition and did all the work, with the assistance of some men that he employed in town, and did the work well. His success on that day determined his eventful career most definitely. When the elder Bailey returned and saw how well the little fellow had performed the work of himself and another experienced man, he was amazed and delighted. It was not long before the proprietors of the show heard about it and young Bailey thenceforth was regarded as a most valuable acquisition to their forces.

He continued to work in advance of the same show during the summer seasons until 1862. The work averaged about seven months in the year, and the remaining five months the young man had to "hustle" for himself, but managed to keep busy as a billposter or working around the theaters in Louisville and Cincinnati during the off seasons.

As an incident of the trials, hardships and ingenuity of the youthful financier, it is related by the man who loaned him the money that one day while sitting in the office of his hotel in Louisville, Ky., "Jimmy" came to him in a very confidential mood, requesting the loan of 10 cents.

"What for?" queried the prospective banker.

"I want to buy a ball of twine."

"What do you want to do with a ball of twine?"

"Why, my grip is upstairs and I want to let it out of the window. I am owing a little money here for my board, and I have the offer of a good job in Nashville, at one of the theaters, if I can only get there. I think I can work my way through on the railway, as I know some of the conductors and trainmen whom I have often met here in town or around the theater."

In a Theater.

The money was loaned and "Jimmy" disappeared, and we next find him in the employment of Duffield & Flynn in the old Nashville theater. During the day he posted and carried bills from house to house round town, and at night sold tickets for the gallery or acted as an usher in the theater. Nashville at that time was full of Federal soldiers and the theater usually crowded to suffocation. One evening a gentleman by the name of A. H. Green, who was a sutler in the Fourteenth Army Corp. and who served, specially, the One Hundred and Fourteenth Ohio regiment, went to the theater and was unable to secure a seat. He took standing room, however, and once inside proposed to Usher Bailey that lie would give him $5 if he would find him a good seat. The little gentleman hustled around, found a desirable seat but indignantly refused the money and told the auditor that all money was taken at the box office and that it was his business to see that everybody got a seat. This honesty and politeness on the part of the boy made a deep impression upon the sutler, who was a frequent visitor at the theater, and he at once offered the young man $75 a month to become his clerk. He accepted the offer and remained with Mr. Green until the end of the war, taking entire charge of the sutler's business and often, as Mr. Bailey has frequently told me, carried as much as twenty to twenty-five thousand dollars in cash on his person. As soon as the war was over and he could get away, he went back to Louisville and paid that board bill.

Military Service.

During the war he saw and was in all the battles from Chattanooga to Atlanta, as the regiment to which he was attached was in the midst of all these engagements and he was frequently left in charge of all the sutler’s supplies. He voluntarily acted as agent for the regiment and frequently distributed mail to the soldiers while the battles were raging. At the conclusion of the war he re-entered the show business as an agent at the age of eighteen years, and I am offering a picture taken of the youth at that time for which I am indebted to Mr. Gil Robinson, the son of old John Robinson for whom Mr. Bailey worked and the financial agent who loaned him the ten cents to buy the string, therefore, I am quoting some authority. At the age of twenty-one he became a general agent and was, probably, the youngest man that ever occupied such a responsible position and received the highest salary the place had commanded up to that time.

In the Circus.

At the close of the season of 1873 he invested the savings of several years in a quarter interest in what was then known as the Hemmings, Cooper and Whitby circus. The following year Mr. Whitby was killed. Mr. Bailey then secured his interest also. In another year Mr. Cooper was able to buy the Hemmings interest and the Cooper and Bailey's show was founded. With the daring that older showmen considered youthful madness, be took his first step toward international fame by taking the Cooper and Bailey show to Australia and through the Southern zones. This being the first American circus to visit the antipodes, it met with enormous success the first year, but did not do so well when it came to repeat in the same towns the second season. It journeyed to New Zealand, where it remained for several weeks, when he set sail for Callao, Peru, where, after a long voyage on a slow-going vessel which was often given up as lost, they finally landed at Callao, a famished cargo of men and beasts, they had lost one of their most valuable trained elephants and for days been compelled to subsist on short rations, saving everything in the line of meat for the carnivorous animals.

The show exhibited at Callao, Lima, Santiago, Valparaiso and through the Straits of Magellan and up to Montevideo and Buenos Ayres with indifferent success in most of the cities except in Buenos Ayres.

The show proved to be entirely too big and expensive to handle in that far-off country. Mr. Bailey reduced everything as much as possible and started homeward. He was induced to go up the Santos river and exhibit in a town of the same name. He then went to Rio de Janeiro where, after exhibiting for a week to indifferent business, he loaded the remainder of his show on a ship and started for home, arriving in New York in December, 1878, in a rather depleted condition. The South American trip was the only unsuccessful one Mr. Bailey ever experienced, and this was caused more particularly by the enormous expense of transportation and loss of time between points than for a lack of patronage or receipts.

Mr. Bailey often, laughingly, referred to his landing in New York in the middle of December with no clothes in his trunk nor on his back except the light tropical goods that they had been wearing in South America. He and his treasurer, Merritt Young, walked up Broadway, shivering with cold, until they could get into a clothing store to purchase another suit.

It is said that all things come to him who waits - or goes after it. Mr. Bailey had no sooner landed in New York than he called upon his old friend Dr. James Reilly, the printer, who had been furnishing him with posters all those years and who then considered him the greatest showman in the world. He at once stated that he was awfully glad that he had returned to America, as he (Reilly) was holding a mortgage on the Great Howes-London show, and that it was for sale at a very low figure, and if Mr. Bailey would take it over he could have it on time and at his own price if he could find someone to finance the scheme.

J. E. Cooper, his former partner, came on from Philadelphia and he was equally as anxious to furnish the capital. With the purchase of the Howes-London show and consolidating it with the Cooper and Bailey great international allied shows, the unexpected happened, and before the circus season opened one of the herd of elephants belonging to the Howes-London managerie gave birth to the first baby elephant ever born in America. The notoriety caused by this event made that institution famous s around the world, and so anxious was Mr. Barnum, who was then running the biggest show in this country, to secure this extraordinary creature, he at once telegraphed to Cooper and Bailey offering them $100,000 for the baby with its mother.

This proposition was too valuable to accept and Mr. Bailey wired back that no amount of money would buy the baby. Later on when the two shows came into opposition, down East in the old Barnum stronghold, Mr. Bailey caused these telegrams to be printed in all of his newspaper advertisements and bills, showing what Barnum thought of the baby elephant, and as the animal proved to be an extraordinary attraction, commanding the attention of the press and public, the newly organized show made a clean sweep of the country and beat the Barnum outfit, of which the old "flatfoot" party were the managers, to what in vulgar parlance, we might call a "frazzle."

Barnum Capitulates.

This opposition continued, very frequently, for almost three years, and victory was usually with the Cooper and Bailey aggregation, which made Mr. Barnum extremely anxious for peace and to secure the ability of Mr. Bailey. He offered J. L. Hutchinson an interest in the outfit, without any money consideration, if he would induce Mr. Bailey to join hands with him. Mr. Hutchinson finally succeeded in doing so and the Barnum, Bailey and Hutchinson show was thus established.

With renewed vigor, and with the energy of more youthful partners, the Barnum show became one of the most formidable amusement enterprises the world has ever known. All the details and practical management was turned over to Mr. Bailey, who put new life into the old oak, which grew into magnificent proportions. Mr. Bailey became "the young Napoleon of the show world," as innovation after innovation was the order of the hour and nothing was too big or expensive for that enterprise.

Bigger tents, more cars, more horses, more animals and more performers were added until the public gasped in amazement at the magnitude of the modern circus of Mr. Bailey's creation. Then came "Jumbo" to be made a big feature of the big show by the masterly manner in which he was widely advertised by Mr. Bailey, which fully demonstrated his true genius and ability. Then at the height of his success and by reason of the great strain put upon him, Mr. Bailey's health failed and he realized the necessity of taking his first vacation. This opportunity was afforded by my old friend, W. W. Cole, coming into the field, at the solicitation of Mr. Barnum and Mr. Hutchinson, to purchase the Bailey interest and allow him to retire, for a time at least.

After two years of inactivity and at Mr. Barnum's urgent appeals to him to again assume the direction of the great enterprise, brought him back once more into harness where he remained up to the time of his death, but I shall not dwell upon this latter calamity as I have yet a most interesting career to record with Mr. Bailey as a prime factor.

I have already told of the daring which led him to take the Barnum & Bailey show to London. I must also carry him with me through all the years of my voyage in the amusement world while he was at the helm and tell of the burdens which would have staggered others, but did not daunt him. I have also told of his return from his first trip to London and subsequent purchase of the Adam Forepaugh show immediately after the death of that veteran showman. We also have the story of his connection with the Buffalo Bill Wild West and the consolidation of the Forepaugh-Sells shows and other great enterprises which were carried out under my personal supervision; and, again, his return to the metropolis of the world to tour England and Central Europe with the "Greatest Show on Earth," creating a sensation everywhere and establishing a fortune which ran up into millions.

Personally, Mr. Bailey was extremely modest and retiring and, while he was always open handed and generous to a degree, he tried to conceal these traits and shrunk from attracting any particular attention to himself, yet he was ever ambitious to exploit and conjure with the name of Barnum and his show. Ever on the alert for the interest of his employes and animals, he never lost an opportunity to see to their welfare. The best of everything was at their disposal and no just appeal was ever made to him without ready recognition.

It is no idle boast or disparagement to others to say that James A. Bailey was the "King of Showmen." His greatest compeers gladly paid him this tribute. Not only did he build up, but promoted the best interests of all others, and made the profession honorable, upright and worthy of recognition in all lands. Shrewd in all business matters as he was, his word was absolute and good as a gold bond, and thousands who worked with and for him preferred to leave the money due them in his hands, rather than to trouble themselves with banks or unknown friends. Respected by his compeers and loved by his employes, surely no one could have a better fame. Temperate in all things, except hard work, of which he was never satiated, his chief enjoyment was in the few hours of leisure snatched from a busy life at his home, or to take a drive behind one of his favorite horses, of which be always had the best.

Mrs. Bailey.

During one of his winter seasons he found it convenient to lay over at Wellsville, O., stopping at a small country hotel in that village which was owned and conducted by a Mr. McCaddon, who was also possessed of a fair-sized family of boys and girls, and, as Mr. Bailey frequently remarked, “he picked out the finest-looking girl in the family.” In the fall of 1868 he married Miss Ruth Louise McCaddon, who was his constant and thoughtful companion, administering to and anticipating his every wish. They were almost inseparable, and in his will the great showman paid a most touching tribute to her love and devotion through their many vicissitudes, by leaving his entire estate in her hands, as there were never any children to bless the union or perpetuate the name which he made renowned by his tireless energy and ambition to place it on the highest pinnacle of fame.

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