“It’s hard to believe that Indiana at one time was the headquarters of virtually every major circus in the United States with the exception of Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus,” said Greg Steffe, Co-Director of the Kosciusko County Historical Society.
The Kosciusko County Historical Society has opened a new exhibit in the Old Jail Museum featuring the history of the circus in Indiana. The collection contains circus memorabilia such as posters, photos, and tickets, many of which are from Steffe’s personal collection.
“When I was 12 years old my family went to Florida on vacation. We visited a museum down there and they had a model circus there that a man had built of a 1930s era big top circus, and I was fascinated by it. I had never seen anything like it before in my life. It kind of stuck with me, and in college I started building circus models.”
The history of the circus in Indiana began back in 1882 with a man by the name of Ben Wallace who started a small traveling circus by the town of Peru, Indiana. It started as an overland circus, meaning the show traveled from town to town by wagons over the rough country roads. Over just a couple of years the show had grown to the point that it was converted into a railroad operation, traveling by train across the country. This marked it as a truly large and progressive circus.
About the same time this was going on in 1892, during the Chicago World’s Fair, there was a very famous wild animal dealer and trainer by the name of Carl Hagenbeck from Germany whose performance was incredibly successful. So successful in fact that he decided to build a small traveling circus in the United States called the Carl Hagenbeck Animal Circus.
Around 1908, he decided to return to Germany and dispatched an agent to this country to liquidate his holdings here in America. The agent soon found a potential buyer in the form of five young upstart brothers from the town of Baraboo, Wisconsin, the Ringling brothers. When word got back to Hagenbeck about the Ringling Brothers he was delighted. The Ringling Brothers had an excellent reputation since their circus wasn’t infiltrated with the pickpockets, petty thieves, and shortchange con artists that were common on many of the other circuses. For some unknown reason, this business deal fell through, and the agent scrambled to find another buyer.
He found an alternative buyer, a man named Ben Wallace who was ready, willing, and able with cash in hand. The agent, thinking his employer would be delighted with his resourcefulness, quickly signed the deal with Wallace without ever getting approval from his employer, Hagenbeck.
“However, Hagenbeck wasn’t delighted and it turned out the Wallace’s show was pretty much everything the Ringling Brothers show was not. They did have petty thieves and thrived on trouble. This so upset Hagenbeck that he actually initiated a lawsuit in an attempt to block Wallace from using the Hagenbeck name, but again for reasons that aren’t quite clear today, the lawsuit was eventually dropped, and the names of Hagenbeck and Wallace forever linked in circus history,” said Steffe.
From that point on, Wallace operated the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus out of Peru, Indiana.
When he was old enough to retire, Ben Wallace sold the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus to three gentlemen who had all been his former employees at various times. Together, these three men formed what was to become known as the American Circus Corporation. At the height of its power during the mid-1920s, they owned virtually every major American circus title in the United States with the exception of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey.
At the time they purchased Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus, this deal did not include the circus’s winter quarters in Peru. So, the first thing they had to do was establish a new winter quarters to house their circus. They purchased winter quarters for the circus in West Baden, Indiana. When Ben Wallace passed away in the 1920s, the partners were able to purchase the Peru winter quarters from his estate.
However, even after they had done so, they continued to maintain the quarters in West Baden because the Peru quarters were not big enough to house three major circuses all at the same time. They would alternate the locations the circuses went to every other year. The reason for this was because the corporation’s canvas department was located in Peru. At that time, the life expectancy of a big top tent was two years, so every two years, the big shows would come into Peru to get fitted with new canvas for the following season.
Major conflict between the American Circus Corporation and Ringling Brothers arose, and eventually John Ringling approached the owners of the American Circus Corporation and told them, “The country isn’t big enough for both of us, either you buy me out or I’ll buy you out.”
“The legend goes on to say that decision was made by the toss of a coin in a tavern in Peru, Indiana. I find that highly unlikely, as they were all astute businessmen. The fact is in the fall of 1929, John Ringling purchased American Circus Corporation for 1.7 million dollars,” explains Steffe.
Less than a month later the stock market crashed, signaling the beginning of the Great Depression. Suddenly, the man who had set himself up as the circus king of the world found himself holding the bag on virtually every major circus in the United States. By 1934, the only major circus that still remained on the scene other than Ringling Brothers was Hagenbeck-Wallace.
Following the 1934 season, a show manager by the name of Jess Atkins met with another former circus manager, Zach Terrell. They decided to pool their resources and put on another show of their own in 1935. With that partnership, they formed what became known as the Hoosier Circus Corporation, which operated under the name of the Cole Brothers Circus. They were able to lure away one of Hagenbeck-Wallace’s star attractions, a wild animal trainer by the name of Clyde Beatty. They then formed the Cole Brothers and Clyde Beatty Circus. They purchased property in Rochester, Indiana and established their winter quarters there.
In 1937, there was hope that the Great Depression was coming to an end. However, in 1938, this proved not to be true, and most circuses began to go under. Only one circus finished its full season that year, the Robins Brothers show out of Rochester. The only reason they managed to stay afloat was due to the expert management skills of Jess Atkins. Cole Brothers closed and shuttered their operation the following year.
Sadly in 1940, the Rochester winter quarters were struck with a fire that destroyed much of their equipment, and Jess Atkins died of a heart attack. This show was then moved to Kentucky State Fairgrounds.
Ringling Brothers continued to operate the Ringling Circus Farm in Peru, realizing they would never again take a major circus out of there.
A smaller, yet still very successful circus, the Gentry Brothers Dog & Pony show, wintered here in Bloomington, Indiana as well. This circus started in 1885 and closed down in 1929 also, along with all the others.
During the winter months, the people of circus would live in the winter quarters and became the town’s friends and neighbors. This led to some fantastic tales and adventures in these towns.
“There was a bar in Rochester. A lot of the performers would stay over for the winter, and they had a wire stretched over the bar. So, you would go in there sometimes and there would be guys walking the high wire over the bar. It was just kind of a different world,” explained Steffe.
Steffe recounted one amusing story in particular, capturing life with the circus.
“Clyde Beatty and his wife lived in Rochester, and they had a house at the corner of Pontiac and 6th Street. Clyde had several lion cubs that he was raising in the basement, which to these people was just normal life. One day a guy came to read the gas meter. The gas meter was in the basement, and it was an open stairway. Well, one of those cubs reached up around this guy’s leg and tried to trip him. That guy never came back to read the gas meter again,” laughed Steffe.
The Kosciusko County Old Jail Museum is open Wednesday-Friday from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM and Saturdays from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM for you to enjoy this brand-new exhibit.
On June 21st, the museum will host a “Museum Under The Big Top” event during Warsaw’s Third Friday. They will be bringing in one of the last few steam calliopes still in the United States to play, and also have face painting, circus food, and games.