Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Gargantua
Original Vintage Circus Poster
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Gargantua the Great Lithograph Poster, c. 1942. Size: 27.5 x 51". Very good-Excellent condition
Hartford, Connecticut, was the scene of the tragic Great Hartford Circus Fire. 135 people lost their lives when the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus tent caught fire. It would be more than 30 years before Ringling Bros. would return to Hartford, but never to the Barbour St. show grounds.
"Buddy," was born in the Belgian Congo and lived on a freighter with the
boat's captain. One day a drunk sailor threw acid in his face marking
him for life physically and mentally. This heinous act left him with a
grotesque and frightening look. Becoming aggressive, he was given to a
wealthy New York woman who dressed him in clothes and drove him about in
her car! After he climbed into bed with her for comfort from thunder
(all 460 lb of him!) she sold him to John Ringling in 1937. Ringling
immediately changed his name to "Gargantua" and exhibited him from 1938
to the gorilla's death in 1949. Ringling always admitted that millions
of circus goers drawn to "Buddy's" exhibit saved Ringling Bros. from
bankruptcy during the war years.