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More Photos from the Glory Days of the Sideshow Banner

Posted in art, Photography, tagged Ben Shahn, freak show, Jack Delano, Millard & Bulsterbaum, sideshow, sideshow banner on November 23, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Rutland, Vermont Fair Sideshow, 1941. Photo by Jack Delano for the U.S. Farm Security Administration Collection, Library of Congress

Among the more than 200,000 images of rural life by photographers working for the U.S. government’s Farm Security Administration during the New Deal are hundreds of images of the American sideshow. Taken by Ben Shahn, Jack Delano, and Russell Lee at state and county fairs in Vermont, Ohio, Louisiana and Texas, the photos document the midway shows of the late 1930s and early ’40s and their glorious banners.

Sideshow attraction, county fair in central Ohio, 1938. Photo by Ben Shahn for the U.S. Farm Security Administration, Library of Congress

The two banners seen above–Human Freaks and Personality Fat Girl are the work of the Coney Island studio of Millard & Bulsterbaum. The firm’s name and address — 2894 W 8th Street — can be seen in the lower right corner of the banners. “Just one more bolt of cloth will make it,” says a tailor depicted fitting the glamorous fat girl with a new costume. Algernon Millard and John Bulsterbaum, who were in business from 1915 though the Depression, were considered the best in the business.

Rutland, Vermont Fair Sideshow, 1941. Photo by Jack Delano for the U.S. Farm Security Administration, Library of Congress

This banner for a 28-toed cat and a cat with six paws was part of a banner line also featuring sea gull ducks, midget mules, a pop-eyed cow, and a “Charlie Chaplin chicken.”

Sideshow attraction, county fair in central Ohio, 1938. Photo by Ben Shahn for the U.S. Farm Security Administration, Library of Congress

In this nicely framed shot by Ben Shahn of a homemade front for the single-o “Ramo- 4 horns, 3 tails,” a weird, alligator-like creature appears on the bally stage.

Sideshow attraction, county fair in central Ohio, 1938. Photo by Ben Shahn for the U.S. Farm Security Administration, Library of Congress

After a sideshow promoter made Zorine, Queen of the Nudists and the Zoro Garden Nudist Colony the sensation of San Diego’s 1935-1936 California Pacific International Exposition, imitators sprang up on carnival and fair midways. This banner for the “Nudist Colony” at a county fair in Ohio asks “Are they ever ashamed?” Shows featuring talkers and inside lecturers dressed as nurses and doctors helped explain the wonders and mysteries of medical science in the days before television and the Internet. Step right up to the College of Hygiene Science!

Sign at sideshow at Gonzales, Texas county fair, 1939. Photo by Russell Lee for the U.S. Farm Security Administration, Library of Congress

Photo Album: Early November in Coney Island

Posted in amusement park, Coney Island, Photo Album, Photography on November 8, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Coney Island Boardwalk Stores Are Open, November 2, 2013. Photo © Tricia Vita

Here are some photos that we snapped last Saturday of an early November day in Coney Island. It was the first weekend after the amusement parks closed for the season. Most of the shops, bars and restaurants will be open this weekend too, along with the Eldorado Bumper cars and a few independent games on the Bowery and West 12th Street. The dancing doll “Miss Coney Island” and adjacent games will open at 2pm, weather permitting. See “Coney Island Always: Visiting the Big CI Year-Round” for info on what’s doing in Coney’s amusement area in November.

Ruby’s Bar, November 2, 2013. Photo © Tricia Vita

Photographers at Coney Island Beach. November 2, 2013. Photo © Tricia Vita

Eldorado Bumper Cars, Surf Avenue, Coney Island. November 2, 2013. Photo © Tricia Vita

Catch 1 Ball Win This Prize, West 12th St, Coney Island. November 2, 2013. Photo © Tricia Vita

Roll-A-Coaster Game. West 12th St, Coney Island. November 2, 2013. Photo © Tricia Vita

Jimmy’s Balloon Game Under the Wonder Wheel Sign, Coney Island. November 2, 2013. Photo © Tricia Vita

Player at Jimmy’s Balloon Game, Coney Island. November 2, 2013. Photo © Tricia Vita

Pretty the Cat at Jimmy’s Balloon Game, Coney Island. November 2, 2013. Photo © Tricia Vita

Cars Removed from Wonder Wheel for the Winter, Coney Island. November 2, 2013. Photo © Tricia Vita

Coney Island Beach from Steeplechase Pier. November 2, 2013. Photo © Tricia Vita

Photos from the Glory Days of the Sideshow Banner

Posted in art, Auction, Photography, tagged freak show, sideshow, sideshow banner on November 7, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Anonymous Photography. Crowd In Front of Freak Show Banners. Slotin Folk Art Auction, November 10, 2013

This weekend, a selection of vintage photos of carnival and circus sideshow fronts is up for bid at Slotin Folk Art’s fall auction. Though the photographs are black-and-white or sepia-toned, they convey how the flashy, spirited canvas banners entranced the eye and reverberated in the imagination.

Anonymous Photography. Juanita Snake Dancing Woman. Slotin Folk Art Auction, November 10, 2013

When P.T. Barnum first brought itinerant entertainers together under one roof in his dime museum (which actually cost 25 cents), he had the building’s facade emblazoned with oval paintings and oversized banners. It boosted his ticket sales by $100 a day, or so he claimed. After the turn of the century, hundreds of circus and carnival sideshows toured the country, and long, glorious banner lines advertising a variety of popular entertainments competed with each other to attract customers.

Simmer Studio Wenatchee. Mason’s Wonderland A Circus In Itself. Black and white photography. Slotin Folk Art Auction, November 10, 2013

The above photo shows half of the banner line from a 17-inch wide photo for “Mason’s Wonderland – A Circus In Itself – Living Wonder of Air, Land and Sea.” A Giant Devilfish, Baboon Dog, Kangaroo Goat, and Mouse Circus were among the attractions in this sideshow, which toured the West Coast in the 1920s when carnival midways consisted of a dozen different sideshows and just a few rides.

Kay Bros. Sideshow & Menagerie. Black and white photo. Slotin Folk Art Auction, November 10, 2013

Professional banner painters working for canvas companies and private studios in New York, Chicago and other cities vied for commissions. “It’s the FRONT! of the show that gets the dough” was the catchy slogan that Caldwell’s Banner Studio in Los Angeles stencilled on the back of their canvases and trumpeted in trade magazines.

Anonymous Photography. The Bandit King. Black and white freak show banner postcard. Slotin Folk Art Auction, November 10, 2013

By the 1950s, Billboard reporter Tom Parkinson was not exaggerating when he wrote that sideshow banner lines had “stopped more people than all the art museums in the nation and set more jaws ajar than surrealistic art.”

Slotin Folk Art’s live auction will be held at Historic Buford Hall in Buford, Georgia on November 9 and 10. Absentee, phone and online bidding are also available on auction days.