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Up for Auction: Vintage Sideshow Banners & Carnival Curiosities

Posted in art, Artifacts, Auction, Carnival Games, tagged Fred Johnson, Homer Tate, monkey speedway, Mosby & Co Auctions, Penny Pitch, Poker Pitch, sideshow banner, sideshow gaff on November 24, 2014| 1 Comment »

Monkey Speedway Banner “The Race” by Sigler Studios, circa 1950s. 248″ x 96″. Mosby & Co Auctions, November 29, 2014.

Vintage monkey speedway banners by Sigler Studios, sideshow banners by Fred Johnson, and shrunken head and mummy gaffs by Homer Tate are among the midway artifacts up for auction at Mosby & Co. Auctions’ November 29th live and online sale. A selection of carnival games that have disappeared from the midway will also be in the sale. The catalogue is online and one can bid now or in real time during the auction.

“The Monkey Speedway ‘The Start’ and ‘The Race’ are the two best Sigler banners we have ever handled,” said Mosby’s owner Keith Spurgeon, who noted that it was probably painted by Jack Sigler Sr. The banners drew people over to a midway attraction that was popular on carnivals through the 1950s and 60s. Trained monkeys in little metal cars raced around a wooden track while customers (more…)

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Up for Auction: Zola the Wizard Sideshow Banner

Posted in art, Auction, sideshow, tagged magician, sideshow banner, Zola the Wizard on November 7, 2014| 1 Comment »

Double, double, toil and trouble. Fire burn and cauldron bubble. This early 20th century sideshow banner advertising “Zola the Wizard” will be on the auction block this weekend at Slotin Folk Art Auction. Phone and online bidding is available for the sale in Buford, Georgia. The pre-sale estimate is $1,000-$2,000 for the piece, which measures over 10 feet high by 6-1/2 feet wide.

Up for Auction: Andreas Feininger’s Time Lapses of Coney Island Rides

Posted in Amusement ride, Auction, Photography, tagged Andreas Feininger, Charles Hermann, gyro, Gyro Globe, Jimmy Kyrimes, Rocket Ships, Time Lapse on May 5, 2014| 3 Comments »

Andreas Feininger, The Gyro, Coney Island, 1949. Skinner Auctions. May 16, 2014.

In 1949, LIFE photographer Andreas Feininger took a series of now classic time lapses of Coney Island rides including the Ferris Wheel, Hurricane and Gyro Globe. The pictorial was titled “Coney Island: Its Stomach-Curdling Rides Make Beautiful Light Patterns At Night.” This gelatin silver print of the Coney’s Gyro from the private collection of György Kepes is up for auction at Skinner’s May 16th sale (Presale estimate $3,000-$5,000).

In the magazine, the Gyro was described as “a metal monster which simultaneously spins and tilts its victims, looks weird enough by day, becomes a fantastic skein of light threads at night. Billed as the only one of its kind in the world, it is known as a ‘laughing ride.'”

It turns out the “Gyroscope” was the creation of Charles Hermann, who is best known as the inventor of Coney Island’s famous Wonder Wheel, for which he assigned the rights to the Eccentric Ferris Wheel Company in 1920. According to a 1947 article in the Billboard, park operator Jimmy Kyrimes leased a lot on the Bowery at 12th Street to Hermann for his new thriller, which was brought to Coney after debuting in Long Beach, California. Members of the Garms family, the original owners and operators of the Wonder Wheel, were partners in Hermann’s Gyro Amusement Corporation. Two decades later, the one-of-a-kind ride disappeared from Coney Island.

Another Feininger photograph in the sale is titled ‘Merry-Go-Round,’ though it’s a Rocket Ship ride. The marquee of the RKO Tilyou Theater on Surf Avenue can be seen in the background (Presale estimate $1,000-$1,500).