Canada’s Traditional Favorite Conklin Shows Banner by Fred Johnson. Photo via Treadway Gallery
We’ve come across vintage circus-style posters advertising carnivals but have rarely seen a painted banner except for the sideshow attractions. This one painted for “Canada’s Traditional Favorite Conklin Shows” circa 1950 by master banner painter Fred Johnson will be up for bid at a June 8th auction in Oak Park, Illinois held by Treadway Gallery. Bidding is also available online via live auctioneers.
The show’s founder J.W. “Patty” Conklin was born Joe Renker in Brooklyn and worked as a sideshow talker in Coney Island before arriving in Winnipeg in 1924. In the 1940s and ’50s, the Billboard frequently described him as “a Canadian midway biggie” and one of the keenest, most practical of midway operators.
In the era when the banner was painted, Conklin Shows played fairs and exhibitions in rural Quebec and Ontario before heading to Toronto’s Canadian National Exhibition for Labor Day, according to a website on the carnival’s history. The show grew to become the largest touring carnival in North America, with a route that stretched from the South Florida Fair in West Palm all the way to the Calgary Stampede until it was swallowed up by midway consolidation in 2004. In the Northeast, Conklin played the Eastern States Exposition in Springfield, Mass., and the now defunct Westchester County Fair and Belmont Fair, where we visited in 2003 to write a story for Education Week about the show’s traveling classroom for carny kids.
Measuring 94 inches high by 117 inches wide, the Conklin banner is signed by Fred Johnson, who painted canvas advertisements for all the big circuses, carnivals, and amusement parks during an illustrious 65-year career. It has a pre-sale estimate of $3,000-$5,000.
Related posts on ATZ…
March 3, 2013: Up for Auction: Bill Lynch Shows Vintage Carnival Poster
February 4, 2013: Rare & Vintage: Girl to Gorilla Sideshow Banner
October 10, 2012: Up for Auction: Sideshow & Magic Banners by Fred Johnson
August 10, 2009: Westchester County Fair Mementos
Amusing the Zillion 
Conklin had trouble moving the big show back and forth between Canada and the US. So they bought Deggeller Amusements and their route from Irv and Evelyn Deggeller and brother Alan and made the show the Conklin unit for the USA. Deggeller Amusements was one of the shows I played with when I owned “Goliath, The Worlds Largest Blood Sweating Hippopotamus.” Alan Deggeller’s sons started Deggeller Attractions and they operate on a large scale to this day.
Would’ve loved to have seen the hippo show!
It’s ironic that two spots played by Conklin in NY — the Westchester County Fair and Belmont Fair–both at racetracks– are now defunct as well