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Circus poster Ringling Bros Mr/Mrs. Gargantua 1942

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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.



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