11/30/2022 0 Comments Tyke the elephant buried![]() ![]() ![]() And both of them could never hope to compete with Barnum & Bailey’s number one circus, with its impressive 84-car railroad caravan. Sparks had five elephants, Robinson had twelve. It consisted of a dozen cars, against the 42 cars of his main rival in the South, John Robinson’s Circus. The reason why owner Charlie Sparks limited himself to stress his show’s transparency and decency, was that he didn’t have much else to count on, in order to lure the crowd.ĭespite Sparks’ excellent reputation (he was among the most respected impresarios in the business), his was ultimately a second-category circus. Where one could expect to see emphatic titles and hyperbolic advertising claims, Sparks circus - in a much too unpretentious way - was defined as a “ moral, entertaining and instructive” spectacle instead of boasting unprecedented marvels, the only claim was that the show “ never broke a promise” and publicized its “ 25 years of honest dealing with the public“. The billboards for Sparks World Famous Shows, which appeared in small Southern American towns a couple of days before the circus’ arrival, seem quite anomalous to anyone who has a familiarity with this kind of poster design from the beginning of the Twentieth Century. ![]()
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