| John Robinson Circus | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Origin | |
| Country | United States |
| Founder(s) | John H. Robinson |
| Information | |
| Fate | Purchased by the American Circus Corporation and then by John Ringling |
John H. Robinson created the John Robinson Circus, whose winter quarters were in Terrace Park, Ohio. [1] [2]
"Chief", an elephant from John Robinson's circus, killed his trainer in Charlotte, North Carolina. [3]
Tillie the elephant was part of the circus. [1] She was known to walk the streets of Terrace Park, Ohio and is buried there. [1]
The Circus had its winter quarters in Terrace Park, Ohio. [1] Tillie the elephant was known to walk the streets of Terrace Park and is buried there. [1] The owner's house is a mansion. [1]
The circus performed in the neighborhood of Northside, Cincinnati (formerly Cumminsville, Ohio) starting with a parade from the railroad crossing at Blue Rock and Hamilton to Luckey's Field in South Cumminsville. Tillie led the procession. [4]
The John Robinson Circus toured from 1842 until 1911 (69 years), it was one of the longest running family owned circuses in the United States. The Circus was owned and managed by four generations of "John Robinsons".
The circus became part of the American Circus Corporation.
In 1929, John Ringling bought the American Circus Corporation, which consisted of the Sells-Floto Circus, the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus, the John Robinson Circus, the Sparks Circus, Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, and the Al G. Barnes Circus. He bought them from Jerry Mugivan, Bert Bowers, and Ed Ballard, for $1.7 million (approximately $26,828,000 today). [5] With that acquisition, Ringling owned all of the major traveling circuses in America. [6]
The basement of the St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Terrace Park contains a museum of the Terrace Park Historical Society that includes the history of the Robinson Circus. [7] [8]
Emmett Leo Kelly was an American circus performer, who created the clown character "Weary Willie," based on the hobos of the Great Depression in the 1930s.
Terrace Park is a village in Hamilton County, Ohio, and a wealthy suburb of Greater Cincinnati. The population was 2,355 at the 2020 census.
The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is an American traveling circus company billed as The Greatest Show on Earth. It and its predecessor shows ran from 1871 to 2017. Known as Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, the circus started in 1919 when the Barnum & Bailey's Greatest Show on Earth, a circus created by P. T. Barnum and James Anthony Bailey, was merged with the Ringling Bros. World's Greatest Shows. The Ringling brothers had purchased Barnum & Bailey Ltd. following Bailey's death in 1906, but ran the circuses separately until they were merged in 1919.
Showmen's Rest in Forest Park, Illinois, is a 750 plot section of Woodlawn Cemetery mostly for circus performers owned by the Showmen's League of America The first performers and show workers that were buried there are in a mass grave from when between 56 and 61 employees of the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus were interred. They were killed in the Hammond circus train wreck on June 22, 1918, at Hessville, Indiana,, when an empty Michigan Central Railroad troop train from Detroit, Michigan, to Chicago, Illinois, plowed into their circus train. The engineer of the troop train, Alonzo Sargent, had fallen asleep. Among the dead were Arthur Dierckx and Max Nietzborn of the "Great Dierckx Brothers" strong man act and Jennie Ward Todd of "The Flying Wards".
The Circus World Museum is a museum complex in Baraboo, Wisconsin, devoted to circus-related history. The museum features circus artifacts and exhibits and hosts daily live circus performances throughout the summer. It is owned by the Wisconsin Historical Society and operated by the non-profit Circus World Museum Foundation. The museum was the major participant in the Great Circus Parade held from 1963 to 2009.
The Hagenbeck–Wallace Circus was a circus that traveled across America in the early part of the 20th century. At its peak, it was the second-largest circus in America next to Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. It was based in Peru, Indiana.
John Nicholas Ringling was an American entrepreneur who is the best known of the seven Ringling brothers, five of whom merged the Barnum & Bailey Circus with their own Ringling Bros World's Greatest Shows to create a virtual monopoly of traveling circuses and helped shape the modern circus. In addition to owning and managing many of the largest circuses in the United States, he was also a rancher, a real estate developer and art collector. He was inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame in 1987.
Clyde Beatty was a famed animal trainer, zoo owner, and circus mogul. He joined Howe's Great London Circus in 1921 as a cage boy and spent the next four decades rising to fame as one of the most famous circus performers and animal trainers in the world. Through his career, the circus impresario owned several circuses, including his own Clyde Beatty Circus from 1945 to 1956.
Northside is a neighborhood in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was originally known as Cumminsville, but changed names to "Northside" several decades ago after I-74 divided the neighborhood into Northside and South Cumminsville. The population was 8,096 at the 2020 census. Northside has a very racially and socio-economically diverse population, with concentrations of college students, artists, young professionals, and many members of the creative class. In recent years, Northside has earned a reputation as welcoming to Cincinnati's gay and lesbian community.
The Sells Floto Circus was a combination of the Floto Dog & Pony Show and the Sells Brothers Circus that toured with sideshow acts in the United States and Canada during the early 1900s.
Charles Edward Duble was an American band musician and composer. He played for 23 years in circus bands.
The International Circus Hall of Fame is a museum and hall of fame which honors important figures in circus history. It is located in Peru, Indiana on the former grounds of the Wallace Circus and American Circus Corporation Winter Quarters, also known as the Peru Circus Farm and Valley Farms. The property includes rare surviving circus buildings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and was designated a National Historic Landmark for its historical importance.
Connie Clausen was an American actress, author, and literary agent.
The American Circus Corporation consisted of the Sells-Floto Circus, the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus, the John Robinson Circus, the Sparks Circus, and the Al G. Barnes Circus. It was owned by Jerry Mugivan, Bert Bowers and Ed Ballard. They sold the company in 1929 to John Nicholas Ringling for $1.7 million. With that acquisition, Ringling owned virtually every traveling circus in America.
Al G. Barnes Circus was an American circus run by Alpheus George Barnes Stonehouse that operated from 1898 to 1938.
John Franklin Robinson II was a second generation owner and operator of the John Robinson Circus, based in Cincinnati and wintered in Terrace Park, Ohio. The John Robinson Circus became part by American Circus Corporation.
Tillie was a female Asian elephant that was the mascot of the John Robinson Circus. Tillie was acquired by John Robinson, owner of the circus, in 1872. She was the leader of the elephant pack. Tillie was one of four elephants that the Robinsons kept when they sold the Robinson Circus in 1912.
Hugo Schmitt, born July 19, 1904 in Bann, Landkreis Kaiserslautern, in Southwestern Rheinland-Pfalz in Germany, dead August 9, 1977 in Sarasota, Florida, USA, was a German-American circus artist, animal trainer and one of the worlds most famous elephant trainers with a record of 55 elephants performing in the ring. Starting his career at Carl Hagenbeck Circus-Stellingen in Germany, Schmitt was elephant superintendent at the world's largest circus, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in the USA from 1947 to 1971.
Benjamin E. Wallace was an American circus owner and Civil War veteran who founded the Hagenbeck–Wallace Circus, the second-largest circus in America.
John Ringling, head of the Ringling Brothers-Barnum Bailey Combined Circus, has purchased the five circuses, with Winter quarters, of the American Circus Corporation, it was learned yesterday.
In 1929, reacting to the fact that his competitor, the American Circus Corporation, had signed a contract to perform in New York's Madison Square Garden, Ringling purchased American Circus for $1.7-million.John had power and money. In one fell swoop, Ringling had absorbed five major shows: Sells-Floto, Al G. Barnes, Sparks, Hagenbeck-Wallace, and John Robinson.
The Cincinnati Museum has a collection of manuscripts related to the circus:
Resources listed in OCLC WorldCat Identities:
Other: