Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Unknown

Is this Schroder or Konnselman, possibly?

4 comments:

Jim A. said...

Looks really old, my bet is Schroder -- who went on to become the Director of the Detriot Zoo. The Konselman act was sold to the Dailey show around 1948. Just looked at a photo of Konselman with Proske and Damoo - doesn't look like the guy in the photo.

Dennis said...

Sure looks like a square arena.
Is it?

Richard Reynolds said...

This would not be Konselman because he did not come to the USA for RBBB until 1947.

This photo is from the 1921 – 1924 seasons. RBBB used square arenas for the cage numbers set up on the stages like this.

There were two Schroder brothers with performing polar bears, Ted and Christian. Both were on RBBB at the same time. Here the trainer is too far away to make a positive ID, at least for me.

The photo is good in another respect. It shows how the stages were jacked up on uneven ground so as to present a level surface for performers. Note that the left side sits above the ground, supported by wedges or jacks of some sort.

In this day of indoor arenas with perfectly level floors, it is little recalled how field shows had to make do with lots that were not flat. The performers in the rings had to make do with slopes and bumps.

Wade G. Burck said...

RJR,
Great eye, I hadn't noticed the jacked up floor. I think we should also note, in discussing "what happened to the circus animal acts today," is that at some point the field shows as well as the building show's didn't give a damn and everybody and everything worked on any damn surface you were by God told to work on. It is refreshing to learn that at some point the shows actually realized animals needed special considerations.

Wade