The first time Vera McGinnis entered the Big Top at Madison Square Garden in New York City, she looked like a giant Dresden doll.
She was atop a black horse, wearing a gigantic hoopskirt that hung from her waist, its flounces reaching the ground. Her head held a giant picture hat with ostrich plumes.
“The huge backstage seemed a fairyland to me,” she’d later write. “The costumes were all crisp, new and beautiful. Everyone went in ‘Speck’—the spectacular parade that opened the show—dressed in fancy costumes. The six of us from the wild-west division had the most beautiful costumes a designer ever dreamed up—also the most uncomfortable.”
This was “The Greatest Show on Earth” and the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus paid a lot of attention to the flash and dash of showmanship.
The 1923 run at the Garden was easy and fun. There was enough space for everyone to be camped right by the big tent, and it was a cinch to do several costume changes in one day, either to show off or to perform. So Vera wasn’t prepared for how different things would be on the road.
She soon found that her Wild West dressing room, known as the “Hooligan,” was at the bottom of the pecking order. The big dressing rooms of the circus stars were, naturally, adjacent to the back door of the Big Top. Then came the “band top” for musicians and their instruments, the circus doctor’s office, the wardrobe tents and the pad room for the performing horses. After all that came space for the Hooligan, and finally, the cages for the performing animals.
Denne historien er fra May 2023-utgaven av True West.
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Denne historien er fra May 2023-utgaven av True West.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Where Did the Loot Go? - This is one of those find the money stories. And it's one that has attracted treasure hunters for more than 150 years.
Whatever happened to the $97,000 from the Reno Gang's last heist? Up to a dozen members of the Reno Gang stopped a Jeffersonville, Madison and Indianapolis train at a watering station in southern Indiana. The outlaws had prior intelligence about its main load: express car safes held about $97,000 in government bonds and notes. In the process of the job, one of the crew was killed and two others hurt. The gang made a clean getaway with the loot.
Hero of Horsepower - Los Angeles lawman William Hammel tamed one of the West's wildest towns with hard work and horseless carriages.
Los Angeles lawman William Hammel tamed one of the West's wildest towns with hard work and horseless carriages.
From the Basin to the Plains
Discover Wyoming on a road trip to Cody, Casper and Cheyenne.
COLLECTING AMERICAN OUTLAWS
Wilbur Zink has preserved the Younger Gang's history in more ways than one.
Spencer's West
After the Civil War, savvy frontiersmen chose the Spencer repeating carbine.
Firearms With a Storied Past
Rock Island gavels off high profits from historic firearms.
She Means Business!
An energetic and ambitious woman has come to Lincoln, New Mexico, to restore the town's legendary Ellis Store.
Ride that Train!
HERITAGE RAILROADS KEEP THE OLD WEST ALIVE ACROSS THE UNITED STATES.
Saddle Up with a Western
Old West fiction and nonfiction are the perfect genres to fill your summer reading list.
RENEGADES OF THE RAILS
RAILROADS WERE OPEN SEASON FOR OKLAHOMA AND INDIAN TERRITORY OUTLAW GANGS.