Struck by the urge to escape for an hour or so? Preferably to another time or place?
The Howard Brothers Circus, which is on display through June at the National Geographic Society Explorers Hall in Washington, D.C., may be just the right Never Never Land for you. It certainly is for Howard Tibbals.
Tibbals, an executive at Hartco (a parquet flooring company in Oneida, Tennessee), has spent over thirty years building this one-sixteenth scale replica of the Ringling Brothers Circus, beginning in its heyday in the twenties and thirties.
Every detail has been duplicated exactly, from the trapeze acts and the menagerie animals down to the spaces between the stakes that nail down the tent. The tiny circus only takes up the space of a couple of rooms, but it is so complex that it takes eight weeks to set up. As with its big brother, the Ringling Brothers Circus, all of the performers, animals, concession stands, and vehicles fit into fifty-two railroad cars.
It is this painstaking attention to detail, combined with the artistry of the National Geographic Society staff in presenting this exhibit, that makes the Howard Brother Circus come to life. Greatly enhancing the show are collections of old photographs and circus posters provided by Tibbals and Harold Dunn, as well as rare footage of circuses from 1920 through the 1940s.
The color, detail, and imagination of the circus posters dating back from the nineteenth century are exquisite. Passing by the posters en route to Tibbals's miniature circus, one is drawn to the jungles of India and Africa and to ancient Egypt. The intelligence and imagination are in turn teased and insulted by pictures of elephants three times the size of an adult walking peacefully among the circus crowds, women with "flowing tresses averaging no less than seventy-two inches in length," and oddities such as a Moss-haired girl or a man with a terrier face, as well as references to the biggest, best, and most fantastic of whatever a circus can provide.
One of the most elegant examples of circus, or show, art is a poster upon which are printed the likenesses of five members of European royalty, including Queen Victoria, the Queen of Belgium, and a Grand Duchess Serge of Russia. These personages had attended a Buffalo Bill Wild West show that Queen Victoria arranged in London during 1887. A matching poster with likenesses of male European royalty exists, although it is not present at the exhibit. It is believed that the likenesses are produced from tintypes because the texture of the hair and skin is so fine. According to Tibbals, no matter what method was used, these posters, which were printed by the now defunct Hoen Publishing Company, are among the finest pieces of lithographic art in the country.
Since radio and television were unavailable during most of the time when circuses were popular, posters were practically the sole means of advertising used. On the average, four thousand posters, handbills, newspaper ads, and "news" stories were produced per show.
Walking from the sideshow back to the main event, one cannot help but be impressed by the orderliness of the Howard Brothers Circus, especially
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