Sells Floto Circus
| Sells Floto Circus | |
|---|---|
 Sells Floto Circus Band in 1915 |
|
| Origin | |
| Country | United States |
| Information | |
| Operator(s) | Frederick Gilmer Bonfils |
| Fate | Incorporated into the American Circus Corporation by 1929 |
| Type of acts | Buffalo Bill Cody |
The Sells Floto Circus was a combination of the Floto Dog & Pony Show and the Sells Brothers Circus that toured with sideshow acts in the United States during the early 1900s.
Contents |
[edit] History
Frederick Gilmer Bonfils and Harry Heye Tammen owned the first outfit as well as the Denver Post, and the "Floto" name came from the Post's one-time sportswriter, Otto Floto. During the 1914-1915 seasons the circus featured Buffalo Bill Cody.
The circus had four elephant births, three born to "Alice" and one to "Mama Mary". The sire of all four was "Snyder". None survived longer than five months.
By 1929 the Sells Floto was part of the American Circus Corporation, along with the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus, the John Robinson Circus, the Sparks Circus, and the Al G. Barnes Circus. John Nicholas Ringling bought the conglomerate organization outright for $1.7-million. With that acquisition, Ringling owned virtually every traveling circus in America.[1]
[edit] Members
- Novelist and cookbook author Isabel Moore's "first career" was as a trapeze artist with Sells Floto ca. 1928. She took the job because she had "courage, but no brains."[2]
[edit] External links
- Sells Floto Page 1914-1916 photos from the Karl King Website - includes Sells Floto routes for 1912, 1914-1916
[edit] References
- ^ "Bailey and the Ringlings". Feld Entertainment. http://www.ringling.com/explore/history/bailey_2.aspx. Retrieved 2008-07-21. "In 1929, reacting to the fact that his competitor, the American Circus Corporation, had signed a contract to perform in New York's Madison Square Garden, Ringling purchased American Circus for $1.7-million. In one fell swoop, Ringling had absorbed five major shows: Sells-Floto, Al G. Barnes, Sparks, Hagenbeck-Wallace, and John Robinson."
- ^ " 'Other Woman' Inspires Book," Brookfield Courier (New York), July 21, 1949.
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