Barnum & Bailey’s Two Hemispheres circus bandwagon sold for $250,000, the highlight of the spring Heritage Auctions Americana & Political Auction in Dallas, Texas.
The auctioneer’s hammer fell and Barnum & Bailey’s Two Hemispheres circus bandwagon sold for $250,000, the highlight of the spring Heritage Auctions Americana & Political Auction in Dallas, Texas. After 114 years, the famous wagon is once again on the move and what an intriguing history this wagon has had.
In 1902 Barnum & Bailey commissioned the Sebastian Wagon Company in New York to build the wagon so it would be ready for the 1903 circus season. The design was by Harry Ogden of the Strobridge Lithographic Company of Cincinnati, Ohio, and the massive wood carvings were supplied by the Spanjer Brothers of Newark, N.J. The show proudly distributed a new poster created by Strobridge Lithographing Company featuring the 28-foot-long, 13,000-pound Two Hemispheres pulled by a 40 horse team.
The Two Hemispheres wagon is prominently shown in the center of this poster created for the 1903 Barnum & Bailey season. Value of this poster today is $1,000-$1,500. (Image courtesy of the Ringling Circus Museum, Sarasota, Fla.)
In advance of the show’s arrival in each city, copies of Realm, A Magazine of Marvels, were circulated, promoting the wonders to be seen when Barnum & Bailey’s Greatest Show on Earth arrived in town. The 1903 edition of Realm devoted seven pages describing the free street parade. Quoting from the article describing the Two Hemispheres:
“This is unquestionably the most enormous float ever built for any purpose in the world. It is not only the greatest in size, but the noblest in conception, design and execution. The general color scheme is gold. The central figure upon either side is one of the two hemispheres. Upon them is reproduced in bas-relief the continents. Upon either side of each of the hemispheres there are about quadruple life-size lions and bears. In front there are great eagles while the rear comprises huge elephants with uplifted trunks. Upon the side of the Eastern Hemisphere there are mounted high in the air the exquisitely carved coats of arms of Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Belgium and Italy. Upon the side of the Western Hemisphere there are the coats of arms of Chili, the Argentine Republic, Brazil, Mexico, Canada and the United States. The reproduction of these coats of arms is absolutely perfect and no finer specimens of the art of wood carving can be seen anywhere in the world. This float is so vast in size and enormous in weight that it requires a team of forty horses hitched abreast in quaternions.”
(NOTE: During World War I the Germany medallion was replaced by one of Belgium. Austria was replaced by Spain.)
Barnum & Bailey’s Realm couriers are highly sought after by collectors of circus memorabilia.
This 1903 edition contained 98 pages of photos and articles. In 2012 a copy like this sold for $110.
In its first few years the wagon was pulled by 40 horses, but by 1905 that number was reduced to 24 horses and by 1919 and 1920, when Ringling Bros. combined with Barnum & Bailey, just 10 horses were used. Daily Street parades were discontinued in 1921 and the Two Hemispheres retired to Winter Quarters, located at that time in Bridgeport, Conn. Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey moved the Winter Quarters to Sarasota, Fla. in 1927.
Soon after The Greatest Show on Earth moved the wagon to Bridgeport, it was sent on to Robbins Bros. Circus. It was extremely difficult to transport, so it was next given to the Circus Fans Association of Iowa, placed into the care of the president of the association, Jacob Wagner. In his will Wagner passed ownership of the Two Hemisphere’s to Cole Bros. Circus. Cole Bros. included it in a few parades, but its great size continued to be a problem.
Finally, Cole Bros. stored the wagon at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines. Zach Taylor, owner of Cole Bros. Circus, eventually gave the wagon to Col. B.J. Palmer, a circus fan, with the stipulation that he restore it and place it in a permanent building. Palmer moved the wagon to the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds in Davenport, Iowa and hired woodcarvers to rebuild the wagon. It is said Palmer spent $8,500 for gold leaf to be applied to the carvings.
In the early years of the Second World War, the wagon was used in parades to help sell war bonds. Then in the mid-1940s Palmer constructed a building to display the Two Hemispheres. According to a 1946 article in Billboard, the building was made of brick and glass and cost $8,000. For 25 cents you could buy a souvenir program filled with photos and a history of the Two Hemispheres. The photos in the program are outstanding, but the history written there was a combination of fact and fiction. Much of the fiction has been perpetuated by others who have written about the wagon over time.
Admission to see the Two Hemispheres was 25 cents. For an additional quarter you could buy this 56-page souvenir program. These collectible programs can be found on the Internet and usually sell for $20 to $30.
Some of the myths in the program are quite exaggerated and humorous. The writer asserts that the chariot was built in 1896 and in another section writes, “Jumbo—the largest elephant on earth, pushed this chariot about with his head, in Barnum & Bailey Winter Quarters (Bridgeport, Connecticut)…” Since Jumbo died in 1885, it would have been difficult for him to push a wagon that had not yet been built. It was actually built in 1902.
The opening page of the program states, “Cost of the chariot was Forty Thousand ($40,000) dollars. Today it would cost twice that.” This figure has been repeated over and over in articles, but according to Circus Historian, Fred Dahlinger, who has done extensive research on the 1903 Barnum & Bailey parade, the cost was only $4,200.
The most accurate information about the Two Hemispheres can probably be found in Gene Plowden’s book, “Singing Wheels and Circus Wagons.” Plowden was a diehard circus fan, but his career was in the newspaper business, where he started as a sports reporter for the Sarasota Herald Tribune in the 1930s. He was with United Press International for five years and spent 23 years with the Associated Press. He wrote several circus books and his press background obligated him to fact-checking.
“Singing Wheels and Circus Wagons” can be found for under $10. Unfortunately, it was not properly bound, so most copies are falling apart. But the information is there along with many photos.
Col. Palmer’s exhibit of the Two Hemispheres in Davenport, Iowa wasn’t a success so he kept trying to give the wagon away. Museums in Washington, D.C., Chicago and Detroit all turned him down because they didn’t have room for it. In the early 1950s a business group in Sarasota, Fla. was developing a new circus museum to be called Circus Hall of Fame. Palmer grew interested in the project and sent the wagon to Florida by train. The Circus Hall of Fame opened its doors on Jan. 4, 1956 with more than 5,000 people lining up to get in. The Two Hemispheres was beautifully displayed in the large glass entrance building. You could walk in, view the wagon and browse the gift shop without even paying admission to see the rest of the museum.
This view attracted tourists arriving in Sarasota from the south on U.S. Highway 41. The Two Hemispheres Wagon is clearly visible in the large glass entrance building.
The Circus Hall of Fame souvenir Program devoted an entire page to the Two Hemispheres.
These programs are valued at $5-$10 (with the incorrect $40,000 construction cost repeated.
Rack brochures promoting the Circus Hall of Fame were distributed throughout Florida, attracting tourists to come see Barnum & Bailey’s 10-Ton Two Hemispheres Band Wagon.
When Walt Disney World opened near Orlando on Oct. 1, 1971, the face of Florida tourism changed forever. Smaller attractions like the Circus Hall of Fame watched in dismay as their attendance kept dropping. The owners began looking for a possible buyer. In early 1972 Hunnicutt & Associates in St. Petersburg was hired to appraise the Circus Hall of Fame. Although Hunnicutt, a nationally recognized appraisal firm, was familiar with all aspects of commercial real estate, it had little knowledge of the values of circus memorabilia. I lived nearby and was hired as a consultant to help with that part of the appraisal. We arrived at a figure of $100,000 for the value of the Two Hemispheres wagon.
On May 22, 1980 the Sarasota Herald Tribune announced the sale of Circus Hall of Fame. The collection was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. John Zweifel of Orlando. Zweifel, a circus fan, was well-known for his miniature White House models which traveled the world. The land and buildings were purchased separately.
Almost immediately, the Chamber of Commerce in Peru, Ind. began talking with Zweifel about purchasing the collection. Peru was the former winter quarters of Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus. Five years later a group of Indiana residents, businesses and the state government contributed funds to complete the purchase. According to an article in the Logansport (Indiana) Pharos-Tribune newspaper, the price was $410,000 and included the name, “Circus Hall of Fame,” approximately 20 circus wagons, costumes and other memorabilia. Zweifel retained ownership of the Two Hemispheres and other circus memorabilia from the Hall of Fame, but the article stated that Peru secured a 20-year option to purchase the Two Hemispheres wagon should Zweifel decide to sell it.
For a brief period, the Two Hemispheres was on exhibit at the Ringling Circus Museum located at The John and Mable Ringling Museum in Sarasota, Fla. In 1984 the famous wagon was the centerpiece at the circus-themed party for Super Bowl XVIII at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa. More recently, it has been on loan to Circus World Museum in Baraboo, Wis. It returned to Orlando, home of John Zweifel, earlier in 2016. In April 2016 it was announced the Two Hemispheres would go on the auction block at Heritage Auctions in Dallas on May 14. The wagon remained stored in Zweifel’s warehouse in Orlando during the auction.
In 2013 this Two Hemispheres model sold on eBay for $97.50.
So who won the auction on May 14? Tom Slater, director of Americana Auctions at Heritage in Dallas revealed, only that “the buyer prefers to remain anonymous until he announces his plans for the Two Hemispheres, but we can disclose that he flew to Dallas from his home in Canada just to bid on the bandwagon, and he went home a very happy collector.”
The news of a Canadian buyer set the circus world buzzing. It was rumored that Cirque du Soleil, located in Montreal, Quebec must be the buyer. But just as I finished writing this article, I learned through reputable sources that the buyer is Peter Gorman, owner of Gorman Studios, Inc. in Vancouver, British Columbia. Now we’ll have to wait a little longer to see what’s revealed about the next chapter in story of the Two Hemispheres.
The Two Hemispheres Wagon as it appeared in the Heritage Auction catalog.
Larry Kellogg is a Worthologist specializing in circus memorabilia.
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