The Circus Moves By Rail

TOM AND CHARLES PHILIP FOX PARKINSON

Publication: Pruett Publishing Company, 1978, Boulder

First edition. Oblong 8vo. Inked name on front free endpaper, "Edward A. Lester, Wagonmaster, Royal America Shows." Quarter yellow cloth and dark brown fabricoid, titles stamped in brown ink on the spine, pictorial front and rear endpapers, [10], 391 pp., color frontispiece, acknowledgements, prologue, double column, illustrated mostly from photographs, facsimilies, index. Lester, of Midwest City, Oklahoma, worked for 22 years helping circuses and carnivals move by train from one town to another. He helped move Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, Clyde Beatty, and ended his career as wagonmaster for Royal American Shows. This is an exciting book that describes the colorful trains that brought the circus to town. It captures all the brilliance of the circus in a beautiful volume of over 400 photographs, posters, and text. The contents include the first attempts at railroading, how shows function by rail, routing, rates, tariffs, advertising cars, flatcars, stockcars, living aboard the show train, famous long and short runs, famous disasters, two-car shows, and modern out-growths of the circus. Fine, bright copy in a bright dust jacket with minor wear to the bottom edge of the front cover.

Inventory Number: 43192