Membership Application
On June 28, 1856 in Richmond, Virginia, the eleven-year old partnership between John Robinson and Gilbert Eldred came to an end. Robinson & Eldred’s Great Southern Show was no more. That it had lasted as long as it did was unusual. Most such nineteenth-century associations were a matter of one or two seasons. Spalding and Rogers were partners for sixteen years; Fogg & Stickney existed for fifteen; Raymond & Waring lasted thirteen; and Rivers & Derious was on the road nine. However, these were exceptions to the general run of events. All of them were ended when one or another of the partners decided to retire.
The peripatetic nature of the circus business is enhanced by the seasonal nature of the institution. Performers and workmen are hired by the year in most cases. The show is formed in the spring and breaks up in the fall; if it goes out a second season it is seldom manned by the identical cast.
Along with the impermanent nature of the business relationships there is the unusual pressure on performers - and on athletes and actors - that is inherent in having to produce their livelihood out of themselves, out of their own bodies. Every day they work they have to draw on their own psyches and their own prowess in a way few other occupations require. An ill, injured or anxious performer cannot depend on his co-workers to carry him through his problem; he has to produce. If he doesn’t, he’s soon unemployed. This combination of insecurity and anxiety can lead not only to damaged egos, but to personality problems.
Thus, a long-lived association between two performers such as John Robinson (1807-1888) and Gilbert Eldred (1813-1885) is even more unusual than one between a businessman and a performer such as were those between Spalding and Rogers and between Fogg and Stickney. Especially is it unusual when one considers that Robinson was wellknown as being a man with a short temper. Without knowing more about him than we do, it is probably safe to describe him as overbearing.
“Impulsive, strong-headed, but after all, kindly-hearted,” one observer said of him when Robinson once had to leave New Orleans in haste because of an argument of some sort. (1)
“Blunt, laconic, outspoken,” another described him. (2)
These qualities arc not what we see in most successful men, but apparently they limited Robinson’s success but little for he had a long career and became an extremely wealthy man.
Gilbert N. Eldred had broken into circus life as a clown in 1834, working for his brother, Edward S. Eldred, who was a proprietor from 1832 to 1836. By 1848 Gilbert had become an accomplished comic rider with all that implies in pratfalls and near-catastrophes. He began doing the ceiling walk that Richard Sands had pioneered in 1853 and was advertised in such an act through 1857. He may have purchased Sands’ equipment; there is no doubt that he used Sands’ advertising cuts. Eldred was a member of Robinson’s original circus, Robinson & Foster, from 1842 to 1845. In 1846 the two men framed the Robinson & Eldred combination.
Their success over the ensuing years may have come about through their staking out a territory, the South, and mining it consistently. In this manner they were able to come before a public that was familiar with them. As long as their show was worth paying money to see, they could be assured of loyal customers. Again, the peripatetic nature of most traveling shows gave Robinson and Eldred a leg up simply because they were a known quantity. If editorial opinion is taken at face value the citizens of the rural South were thankful that this little band of performers and workmen struggled across the bad roads and through the hollows each year just to entertain them. Acting upon these attitudes, the partners, in 1851, christened their enterprise “The Great Southern Circus” and so it remained for the life of their association. They ventured into the North in most seasons, sometimes for a week, sometimes for two months, but the great bulk of their stands occurred in the South.
Another seemingly significant aspect of their managerial style was that they were on the road and performing almost constantly. We find no evidence that they went into winter quarters between 1844 and 1854. Instead, in the winter months they made long stands - one or two months - in southern cities such as Savannah or Charleston. During these stays they would take vacations from the show, repair equipment and air new acts. Individuals rested and personnel came and went; yet in the sense of halting all activity there are no apparent breaks in these seasons. This may be unique in circus annals, eleven straight years of uninterrupted performance.
It all came to an end in Richmond in 1856. Until recently we had no clue as to the reasons this successful partnership went sour. The Chester Standard of Chester, South Carolina, is our source for one version. In its issue of June 25, 1857, this newspaper spoke editorially as follows: “It is known that Mr. Eldred is the successor of Robinson & Eldred, he having bought the interest of Robinson.
“The separation took place on account of the barbarous cruelty of R, which he extended even to the wife of his bosom.”
The comment was based on an interview with Eldred or one of his agents. Eldred’s circus played Chester on June 22, 1857. It would behoove us to assume an ax was being ground here, yet with our knowledge of Robinson’s temperament it is not difficult to believe this account.
According to Gil Robinson, John’s second son, Eldred told Robinson at the time of their parting that in five years he (Eldred) would be the richest showman in the world and that Robinson wouldn’t have a cent. (3)
As it turned out, just the opposite occurred. Robinson returned briefly to Cincinnati and then journeyed to Albany, New York, where, sometime in the latter part of August, he purchased Flagg & Aymar’s International Circus. This was a new show in 1856, and, obviously not a successful one. Keeping the same personnel as the former owners he began showing under the title “John Robinson’s International Circus and Menagerie,” in Geneva, New York, on September 1. With variations the title was on the road almost every season until 1930.
Eldred kept the “Southern Circus.” It was no doubt his purchase of Robinson’s half that allowed Robinson to buy Flagg & Aymar. When Robinson left, so did the performers. The Franconi Troupe, Henri, his wife and daughter joined, and with Sam Long, Jimmie Reynolds, William O’Dell and others the season was continued. They visited North Carolina, Georgia and Florida prior to the turn of the year. In 1857 they slowly moved north, touched Washington and Baltimore, and went through Pennsylvania into Ohio. On October 21, 1857, in Medina, Ohio, G. N. Eldred’s Great Southern Show was attached by the sheriff.
In 1852 Robinson & Eldred had made what was for them a deep penetration of the northern section of the country, going as far as Portland, Maine. In late season they began advertising that they had Sands & Quick’s menagerie as part of their show. They must have picked up the animals as they traveled south from Maine. We first find the menagerie in Robinson & Eldred’s advertising in Raleigh, North Carolina, on December 9, 1852, however no ads have been found for them between Sing Sing, New York and Raleigh.
The menagerie came from the Richard Sands group. Sands & Quick, who had two menagerie/circus combinations, advertised in 1852 that they had animals recently imported from England. If this is true, then they had a surplus. Whether the menagerie was purchased outright or leased we don’t know. Whichever the case, Eldred couldn’t keep up the payments as the lien on his show was placed by Sands, Nathans, Quick and Avery Smith.
G. N. Eldred’s Great Rotunda Southern Circus and Menagerie was on the road in 1858, but it was owned by Sands, Nathans & Co. (if one believes the April 17, 1858 New York Clipper) or partially theirs (if one believes the April 10, 1858 Cincinnati Daily Commercial). Late in the season the circus became one of the earliest American shows to visit Mexico. In 1859 the title became Franconi & Eldred. In October of that year they went to Cuba. Chiarini, Quick and Smith had purchased the residue (though not the title) of the Sands show in late 1859 and sent it to Cuba as well and we think the two operations were combined. This marked the end of Gilbert Eldred’s American circus career.
After years of advertising “Southern Men, Southern Horses and Southern Enterprise against the World” Eldred may not have felt comfortable in the United States once the Civil War began. On the other hand, John Robinson didn’t seem to be affected by that history. Eldred went to Europe in 1861 and never returned. He exhibited trained horses in England and on the Continent as late as 1867. He died in England in 1885.
We are not privy to the personal characteristics of many of the showmen of the nineteenth century. However, John Robinson’s irascibility is noted often enough by contemporary spokesmen for us to accept it as a fact of his personality. Having said that, we feel justified in offering this version of the break-up of the Robinson & Eldred Circus.
Footnotes
1. New York Clipper, 18 December 1858, p. 26.
2. Billboard, 20 August 1910, p. 20.
3. Billboard, 9 December 1911, p. 22.
CHS webmaster J. Griffin, last modified December 2005.