While doing some thesis-related research on the Circus Historical Society online archive this evening, I came across a digitized copy of this marvelous 1934 Illustrated Circus World. It’s really an advertisement for the 1934 season of the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus, the second largest traveling circus in the USA in the early twentieth-century. The images of the performers and animals are delightful to look through, but I was even more captivated by the vintage commercial advertisements included throughout, like the $715 Pontiac, the Frigidaire, indigestion gum and Dr. West’s double-quick toothpaste. I’m also enamored with the particular way some of the headlines are worded: “A dazzling paragon of rainbow gorgeousness” “Sure the circus is fun…but so is making things with batteries!” “Nothing seems impossible when your digestion is good.” I think it’s a real treasure of advertising ephemera.
I’ve kept the pages in order from top to bottom, so you can get a feel for what it might have been like to browse through it in 1934! (You can also access the original digital file here). What are your favorite details?
// Images from The Illustrated Circus World, Volume XXVI, Number 88, Season of 1934. Via the Circus Historical Society (document can be found here).
Elsewhere on the Museum of Ridiculously Interesting Things:
- Vintage advertisements for medical leeches
- Damaged wax figures from 1925 Madame Tussaud’s fire
- The Bone Mother: illustrations from Russian fairy tales
- Cleaning the elephant skin
Pingback: Tippoo’s Tiger | The Museum of Ridiculously Interesting Things
Spot on with this write-up, I really believe that
this website needs much more attention. I’ll probably be returning to read more, thanks for the info!
Pingback: Horses, balloons, bunnies and smoke: Surreal photographs by Andrea Galvani | The Museum of Ridiculously Interesting Things
Pingback: 17th century palm-reading chart | The Museum of Ridiculously Interesting Things
Pingback: Tibi Tibi Neuspiel’s strange sandwiches | The Museum of Ridiculously Interesting Things
Pingback: The Museum of Broken Relationships | The Museum of Ridiculously Interesting Things
Pingback: Eternity clocks by Alicia Eggert and Mike Fleming | The Museum of Ridiculously Interesting Things
Pingback: Strange and lovely, Part One: Translucent bodies in the sculptures of Christina Bothwell | The Museum of Ridiculously Interesting Things
Pingback: From the dusty corners of the museum…Cornelia Parker | The Museum of Ridiculously Interesting Things
Pingback: Three ridiculously interesting photographs from the history of art | The Museum of Ridiculously Interesting Things
Wonderful images. Such fun. Makes me wonder if, decades from now, people will look back on our popular papers and magazines and say, “How quaint!” I don’t think so…I think they’ll say, “How superficial!”, but who knows?
Reblogged this on Mark Solock Blog.
Pingback: GUEST POST- Claire Atwater on The Bone Mother: Arresting images from Russian folklore | The Museum of Ridiculously Interesting Things
Fantastic documentation here, Chelsea, and consistently great posts. I discovered Hagenbeck while I was doing a research project on exoticism in W.G. Sebald’s work and a German professor to whom I was speaking referred me to the work of Eric Ames. An incredible volume is his book on Hagenbeck, with an amazing amount of pictorial documentation and good analysis of his theme parks. Here it is at: http://www.amazon.com/Carl-Hagenbecks-Empire-Entertainments-Mclellan/dp/0295988339 . Depending on your interests, it’s worth a perusal. Best regards, Jacob
Fantastic! Thanks for the recommendation- looks like a very interesting read.
I saw your research topic on the about page, and thought of another title I can’t help mentioning it. You might already be aware of it: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Human-Zoos-Science-Spectacle-Empire/dp/1846311748 What a difficult topic to speak of, human zoos! I found it towards the end of my research on exoticism and so I couldn’t very effectively integrate it, but this critical anthology is an amazing synthesis of the historical staging of the exotic. And one more, a bit more soporific, but I can’t resist mentioning it: http://www.amazon.com/Origins-Museums-Curiosities-Sixteenth-Seventeenth-Century/dp/1842321323 Cordially, Jacob