Great Circus Wagon history from Richard Reynolds

All Circus Historical Society members had special passes to sit in the bleachers next to the reviewing stand (in front of that old Federal Bldg, kitty-corned from the Pfister). I sat with Bess and Dr. Vickie Clyde, the youngish lady vet from the zoo. Very nice person who had spent time at the Knoxville zoo. I was not expecting too much from the parade, but it turned out fine though there were some long gaps between units. Actually, the parade supposedly had more units than ever before but Rick Pfening (who did the PBS telecast) thought some of the wagons never left the grounds. A few of the wagons were in need of a new paint job. Not surprisingly, they discovered that after all the non-use since 2003 many of the steel tired wooden wheels had to be re-done. So, they sent them to Indiana to an Amish wheelwright for re-working. One big disappointment was the steam calliope at the end. When it passed our location the guys inside seemed to be working on the pipes, and it was not playing. About a block past us, the keyboard player finally let go with "On Wisconsin" - - clouds of steam billowing out. In my opinion, the most beautiful wagon in the parade is the one now called "Ringling bandwagon no 1." Here are two photos of it taken by Fred Dahlinger in 2000 when it had just been redone with $40,000 in gold leaf alone. Fred was then the director of the Parkinson research library at CWM.
It was built for the Philadelphia based Adam Forepaugh circus in either 1881 or 1882. At the time Forepaugh's circus was fully equal to Barnum's, his intense rival. So, here it is, still parading after some 128 years. Fred Dahlinger, our foremost circus wagon authority (now that we have lost Stuart Thayer), feels that the chassis was probably produced by the Sebastian wagon works of New York City. However, the late historian Dick Conover was of the view that it was done by the Fielding Brothers also of NYC. Both firms were major wagon makers in the days when that was the way everything was hauled. Per Dahlinger, the magnificent wooden carvings were likely executed by the NYC woodcarving shop of Samuel A. Robb, specifically by master carver Thomas White. In my opinion they have no equal. In its original configuration, it was not a bandwagon like we saw it in the parade on the 12th. No, it was an allegorical float. On its top was a large carving of St George slaying the Dragon. This gave the wagon the name "St. George and the Dragon." Here is an artist's expression of the original top mount from an 1882 Forepaugh poster executed by the Strowbridge Lithographing Co of Cincinnati. - - - -

Though there is artist's license at work here you get the picture. St. George and the figures are pretty accurate. Here's the only known photo of it in a Forepaugh parade - -in Lansing, Michigan on 28 May 1887:
Note that the carvings of St. George et. al. sat in a well. A mechanical device allowed them to be lowered into the body of the wagon when not parading. For that reason, this genre of circus vehicles became known as "Telescoping Tableaus." They were quite popular in the 1870s and 1880s and a number of circuses had them. However, there was soon an operational problem. Mazes of low hanging telephone and electrical wires were being strung above all downtown streets. They often hung so low that the wagons could not pass underneath when their top mount carvings were fully extended. So, what we see above soon faded away. In many cases the top mount cravings were removed and placed on smaller floats. That happened with St. George sometime around 1888 or 1889 while still on the Forepaugh circus. In 1890 the rapidly growing Ringling circus had become a railroad one, meaning that it switched from wagons moving overland via crude dirt roads to a show moving on its own trains. In December 1890 John and Otto Ringling went to Philadelphia and purchased the big St. George wagon plus the separate float carrying the top mount carvings. By then old Adam Forepaugh had died (27 Jan 1890) and his circus had come under the control of Messrs. Barnum and Bailey. In time the Ringlings remodeled it, removing the well for the top mount carvings. They fitted the top with a floor and seats for bandsmen so that it looked like what we just saw in Milwaukee. When used on Ringling it was referred to as simply the "Big Bandwagon." Circus wagon aficionados later called the wagon the "Lion and Mirror" bandwagon for obvious reasons. After 1915 this fine wagon was stored by the Ringlings at their Baraboo winter quarters. Then it was sold to the Christy Bros. Circus and by it to the Cole Bros. show which last used it in 1937. More time in storage was followed by its sale to Peoria's Block and Kuhl Dept. Store which used it in its Thanksgiving Day parades through 1961. It was then donated to CWM where it is luckily preserved. For much of this we are indebted to the late Dick Conover who wrote about it in the article cited below the last photo. Tracking down all of this lineage is the essence of life for the circus wagonologist. However, our ranks grow thin.