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Seven years was a common term of apprenticeship in the early nineteenth century. In that time a boy in his teens, or younger, supposedly could learn the trade of his master. He received no pay beyond pocket money, but was provided with room and board and tools. Apprenticeships were capital to the master, and were bought, sold and transferred. We have found circus apprenticeships as short as two years, and as long as eight in our research.
A fourteen year-old boy named Joseph Pentland or Pendleton bound himself to circus owner Aron Turner of Danbury, Connecticut, from 1830 to 1837. Beginning his career as a balancer (what we now call a juggler), he learned rope-walking, singing, ventriloquism and clowning during his apprenticeship. He was born in Boston in 1816, and rose to become famous as a clown and circus manager before he retired in 1871.
Pentland’s real name could have been Pendleton; he was so listed in Turner’s advertising in 1830 and 1831. That these could have been errors in spelling by the agent or the printer is possible; these were the usual source of misspellings. However, for such usage to extend itself over two seasons seems to be begging the question.
Those first two seasons saw him juggling, as we mentioned, and in 1831 he added a song, “The Good Old Days of Adam and Eve,” to the program. After Turner ended his 1831 season, Pendleton and one of the riders, Jackson, switched to the Tremont Circus Company, which showed in Providence in December, and in Boston the first four months of 1832, and again that December. Here he was called Pentland, and appeared under that name henceforth.
One of the problems that arise for the researcher in delineating Turner’s progress and programs is that he was a most impecunious operator and his ads are few. Nor have we found a single handbill for him before his partnership with James M. June in 1835. Thus, though it appears that Pentland was with the circus, we find no mention of him from 1833 through 1835.
Despite Turner’s proclivities, we have two descriptions of his 1836 show. They come from George Cole, an observer, and P. T. Barnum, who served as Turner’s treasurer in that season. Cole, a sometimes showman, described Turner’s operation as having a seventy-five foot round top, eight-high seats (no reserves), a forty-foot ring, twenty-five cents admission, and lighting by candles.
Barnum, the treasurer and ticket seller (at $30 a month and 20% of the profits), hired Pentland in December, 1836, when Turner’s company ended its season in Columbia, South Carolina. This appears to be the end of Pentland’s apprenticeship.
Using the title “Grand Scientific and Musical Theatre,” and traveling in four wagons he purchased from Turner, Barnum, toured the South until May, 1837. He described Pentland, “besides being a capital clown, was celebrated as a ventriloquist, comic singer, balancer, and legerdemain (i.e. magician) performer.” This is the first notice we have found that Pentland was a clown, though logic would assume he had been at the task for Turner.
Crossing Georgia, which was still Indian territory, Pentland played a trick on the little show’s plate spinner, Signor Vivalla, which Barnum relates in his autobiography. Dressing as an Indian, Pentland “captured” Vivalla, tied him to a tree, and extracted eleven dollars from him. Later, having changed to his usual clothes, led a “rescue party” to the scene. Vivalla told them a wild story of having been set upon by half a dozen Indians. Pentland then told him the truth, and offered the Signor his money back, but Vivalla, having told his lie, could not accept it.
Barnum disbanded the troupe in Nashville, whereupon Pentland hired some of the people for a company of his own, and bought Barnum’s wagons and horses. This enterprise toured until June, 1838, when it, too, closed.
Our man next caught on with “The Bowery Amphitheater,” the circus branch of June, Titus & Angevine. He served in an administrative position until December, 1839, when he was once again listed as clown. He continued with the Bowery Amphitheater in 1840 and 1841.
He was now beginning to be the subject of press notices. The Kingston, Ontario, Chronicle said of him: “Mr. Pentland, the clown, is the most irresistibly droll, comic, eccentric, witty performer living. He is the life and soul of the performance, and keeps the audience, particularly the juvenile portion of it, in a continual roar at his brilliant sallies and good humored countenance.
As with most ante-bellum clowns we have very little evidence of Pentland’s actions in the ring. That clown routines involved riddles, conundrums, jokes, and repartee with the ringmaster is proven, yet the words are seldom reported. Dan Rice’s biographer, David Carlyon, has put forth the suggestion that possible source of clown humor can be found in “Joe Miller’s Joke Book,” (ca. 1739). Certainly, reviews of the day have many references to “the stale jokes of the clowns,” indicating a certain monotony and repetition. There are several accounts of employees of circuses being pushed into clown work because of illness, drunkenness, etc., and being able to do a credible job, simply because they had heard the contents of the acts so many times. Only the clown and the ringmaster had non-dramatic speaking parts in the one-ring circus, yet little or none of the content has come down to us.
The acrobats and rope-walkers and riders rested in the ring between feats, and the clown then entertained until the athletes were ready to resume their presentation. The clown also assisted by, for instance, holding the hoops the riders jumped through, and the garters they leaped over in their acts.
In January, 1841, in Boston, Pentland was given a benefit, a performance the proceeds of which went to him. Benefits were a matter of contract granted to the more important members of a troupe. On this occasion Pentland appeared seven times in the program. He sang a comic song, juggled, appeared on the slack-rope, and was clown to three of the horse acts.
By 1842 Pentland had reached the point in his career where he was in demand by managers. Richard Sands took a circus to England in that year, and chose Pentland to be its clown. Incidentally, it was this show that introduced the use of the canvas tent into Europe.
The Van Amburgh menagerie was also in Europe in 1838-1844, and for the last two of those years Pentland served as one of their clowns. When he returned to America in 1845, with the Sands company, he caught on with Welch & Mann’s Mammoth National Circus, Sands’ rival in size among circuses of that time. He stayed but one season with Welch & Mann, and then rejoined Sands & Lent, as the show was titled in America.
From 1846 through 1849 Pentland was the first clown with Sands, Lent & Co., Sam Lathrop assisting him as second clown. An 1848 poster was one mark of Pentland’s success. Only the very best performers were honored by having their own paper.
He was advertised as “the greatest American clown” by his employer, Crane & Co. in 1850, but still there is no evidence of his performance. Clown had a universal meaning for the public, and apparently needed no descriptions.
James M. June and Nathan Howes operated the Crane circus in 1851 under the title “James M. June & Co.” They had sold the concern to Crane in 1849, and he had sold it back to them after the 1850 season.
Pentland worked for June and Howes in 1851. In 1852 “the great American clown,” received the ultimate honor, a circus in his own name. We do not believe he owned it, but have no proof for our belief that June and Howes financed it, except for the fact that June & Co. ended their 1851 season in Worcester, Massachusetts, which was where Pentland’s company began the 1852 season. It was called “Pentland’s Dramatic Equestrian Establishment,” and had many of the performers from June & Co. of 1851, as well as some of its equipment. It advertised sixty performers, an unlikely number, headlined by Charles and Virginia Sherwood, and William O. Dale, all very competent riders. Frank J. Howes was the agent for the company, lending support to the idea that James June and Nathan Howes were the financial backers.
It was not unusual for a clown to head a circus; Dan Rice was in that position in 1848, but accumulating capital on a clown’s salary, $50 to $100 a week, was an unlikely proposition. Thus, outside capital was usually necessary.
The circus went west in 1852, after opening in Worcester. They crossed Canada to Detroit, and visited Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio by turns. The last date we have for them in this season is Columbus, Ohio, on November 6.
There is a mystery of sorts about Pentland and his performers in 1853. They are nowhere to be found. No newspaper ads or handbills have surfaced. But there is a clue in that James M. June & Co. was on the road in that year, and they began their season in Ohio. Unfortunately, June’s ads did not list his personnel; but these circumstances would seem to indicate that Pentland’s 1852 troupe was June’s in 1853. Why this should be the case, we don’t know.
Pentland’s name was back in the title in 1854, and the Sherwoods, among others, were again the chief riding acts. Charles Sherwood, whose real name was Charles Champion, was famous for his “Pete Jenkins” act, to which he gave the name to the flying wardrobe act of many years standing. Cayetano Mariotini presented one in his 1810 circus.
Pentland’s 1854 route included the canal route from Albany out to Buffalo, a month in Ontario, and a trip through Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. On 20 November, the troupe began a winter show at the Howard Athenaeum in Boston. Gleason’s Pictorial was impressed enough by Virginia Sherwood’s act at the Howard to illustrate it. Gleason’s saluted Pentland by saying, everyone knows him as “a favorite clown, a fellow of infinite humor, and a man of tact and taste.”
For the three seasons beginning in 1854, Pentland’s chief acrobatic act was the Nicolo family, headed by an Englishman named John Nichols. Nicolo had three apprentices and two trained dogs. Pentland advertised them as being, “juvenile wonders.” The whole Nicolo troupe died together when their ship sank during a cross-Atlantic voyage in 1866.
Pentland’s 1855 season again began with a tour of the canal route from Albany to Buffalo, but in this season instead of going into Ontario, he turned south into Pennsylvania. He was in the state until August, when he moved into Maryland and then New Jersey.
Starting from New Jersey in 1856, Pentland no longer had the Sherwoods as the equestrian stars, but substituted Sam Stickney, his daughter Eloise, and Sam, Jr. He also featured the youthful and accomplished Juan Hernandez. By this time, in his fourth (or fifth) year as manager, Pentland’s show was a good-sized one. He had 60 draft horses and 16 ring horses, 21 wagons and several carriages and buggies for the personnel. For a circus without a menagerie attached, this array put him among the larger shows.
The 1856 route went into New England and Ontario, ending in Detroit. On 6 January 1857 the circus was offered at auction in Detroit, for reasons unknown to us. It was bought, in advance of auction, by John G. Sloat and James G. Shepard. These worthies operated in 1857 under their own names, Sloat & Shepard’s Great Northern Circus, but in 1858 and 1859 used the Joe Pentland Circus title.
Meanwhile, Pentland had gone to England again, with Howes & Cushing’s United States Circus. They departed New York in March, 1857, and were abroad for four years. Pentland, however, was with them only until February, 1859, when he returned to America. Howes & Cushing had bought two very well trained mules, Pete and Barney, from Dan Rice. Pentland and clown Jim Myers presented them in the ring. The Illustrated London News published a page of drawings of the act, which we have included above.
Idle until December, 1859, when he appeared with Dan Rice’s show in Philadelphia, Pentland joined James Nixon’s circus in January, 1860, with which he remained until September of that year. Nixon went south in September, and Pentland declined to make that trip. He was evidently able to pick and choose his work, indicating a certain fullness of pocket.
He began a six-year stint with Lewis B. Lent in 1861, which placed him with one of the largest, and most successful circuses of the decade of the 1860s. Lent had comic mules during this period, and Pentland may well have presented them. In 1866 Lent put his show on the railroad, the first time any manager had carried a circus on rails. Because of the loading restrictions, there was no menagerie, and an abbreviated parade, but none of it went overland, as previous railroad attempts had incorporated. Pentland was with it in both 1866 and 1867, and then seems to have retired. We have found no mention of him after the latter year until 1870, when he rejoined the Lent circus. He was there as well in 1871, and then retired for good. Joe Pentland died in New York City on 2 July 1873.
It is clear from the years he was advertised by the larger circuses that he was a headline performer, one of five or six of the leading clowns of his day. It is most unfortunate that we have no method of recapturing what he said in the ring; nor what any clown of the time made of his appearances. We can only cite what reviewers said of him. For Pentland we have this description from the Kennebee Journal of Augusta, Maine, in 1861: “Each act is interlarded by the side-splitting jokes of Joe Pentland, whose clownishness turns out very decided wisdom, or very approvable patriotism.”
CHS webmaster J. Griffin, last modified December 2005.