Circus History Society

Here in Sarasota, Florida at the Circus History Society Convention. I just met john Polacsek, the circus historian who found the "Gaza" poster featuring Mattie Lee Price as "Gaza the Mysterious Wonder" in the 1894 Walter L. Mains circus!  It is the poster on the front cover of Mattie's story.

It is exciting to meet circus history buffs and not only tell them about Mattie, but to glean information on my next project, The Wardrobe Mistress.

Off to the races!

What is a Dime Museum?

22 Oct 1893, Chicago Daily Inter Ocean
Kohl & Middleton S. Clark Street

What is a dime museum?  In this 1893 advertisement Mattie Lee Price, the Georgia Magnetic Girl is listed on the same venue as Harry Houdini (doing business as "the Houdin brothers, French illusionists.") Clear in the advertisement is "Kohl & Middleton's South Clark street ...dime museum."

Mattie and other performers such as Houdini, Joe Joe the dogface boy, the bearded lady and others with physical anomalies, musicians, dancers, animal acts, and such often worked in "dime museums" during the winter months when the circuses were repairing and resting up for the coming summer season.

Dime museums evolved when the need for more entertainment came about after the Civil War.  Once the locals had seen all the dusty old artifacts in a museum, they rarely came back to pay the entrance fee to come look at them again.  Thus, was born the "dime museum" with entertainment.  The acts had to be "tame" and "family friendly."  The goal was to change the entertainment very often and invite the public to come in, enjoy, stay as long as they wanted during the day and only charge one-thin-dime!

The acts like Houdini's and Mattie's would "jump" from one dime museum in one city to the next so as to present their entertainment to a new and curious audience.  Often the acts followed a circuit.  In 1893 Harry Houdini wrote about how he was on the same venue with Mattie Lee Price and her husband in Chicago.  Here Houdini talks about "jumping" to the next museum while giving his high praise to both Miss Price and her husband, W.W.White.

In "Miracle Mongers and Their Methods: A Complete Exposé of the Modus Operandi ..." Houdini wrote:

Some twenty-six years ago I was on the bill with Mattie Lee Price, who, though less well known, was in many ways superior to either Miss Hurst or Miss Abbott. For a time she was a sensation of the highest order, for which thanks were largely due to the management of her husband, a wonderful lecturer and a thorough showman. We worked together at Kohl and Middleton's, Chicago, and the following week at Burton's Museum, Milwaukee; but when we made the next jump I found that White was not along. They had a family squabble, the other apex of the triangle being a circus grafter who "shibboleth" at some of the "brace games," which at that time had police protection, so far as that could be given. The dime museum was an important step in the entertainment industry and is considered by many to be the birthplace of vaudeville. C. A. Bradenbaugh’s (dime) Museum Northwest corner of 9th and Arch Streets 1890 (Free Library of Philadelphia For more information on Dime Museums, I highly recommend "Weird Wonderful.  The Dime Museum in America," by Andrea Stulman Dennett.  It is a wonderfully well-researched book and although chock full of facts, very easy to read.   Mattie Lee Price, The Forgotten Georgia Wonder grew up in the dime museums in America.  To read more about her, you can find her on  Amazon, Barnes & Nobel, Wikipedia and more.

The Barnum Effect

Did someone tell you that you’re beautiful today?  Smart? Clever? Joyful?   Did your horoscope tell you that you’d have a wonderful day and meet someone special?  Did a palm reader tell you that you’d have a long life? Two marriages, or two children?

 Chronicling America

If you heard these things and believed in them, it is likely you are under the influence of “The Barnum Effect.”

P.T. Barnum (1810-1891) probably never actually said, “A sucker is born every minute,” but some laughingly say he did.   In psychology this is loosely interpreted as “people are inclined to believe what someone tells them about themselves.”  And this is known as “The Barnum Effect.”

I am currently reading “The Life of P.T. Barnum” downloaded from Amazon for the huge sum of $1.75.  When I did an Internet search of this fellow to find out some fact I don’t recall, up popped, “The Barnum Effect.”  Naturally, I became totally focused on this discovery and forgot what else I was looking for. 

Surprised that there was such a term, I asked my publisher (A guy who has read a LOT of books) if he knew of it.  He had not.  My husband, also very well read and a virtual Fort Knox of trivia, had never heard of it either!   So far I have presented the question, “have you ever heard of the Barnum effect?” to dozens of people and it was new to all of them.  Go ahead!  Ask your friends!  You'll feel pretty smart!

Lesson learned here is that although the book was written in 1885 about a man that has been gone for a very long time, I learned something so fundamental, I can hardly imagine I didn’t know it before.

Bigger than life, P.T. Barnum was an amazing entrepreneur.  Just in case you are curious, he didn’t even start an actual circus career until he was about sixty years old!  So!  It’s never too late to start on a new adventure.

Free Old Newspapers can be found at the Chronicling America website.

This YouTube video demonstrates how the "Barnum Effect" works.  Funny!

Happy Summer!  Go tell someone they are amazing today!  ~ Donna

W. W. Cole's Gigantic Shows! Helena, Montana 1884

Cole's Colossal Circus was slated to give their show on the 19th and 20th of June in Helen, Montana in 1884.  Samson the biggest elephant ever would show up as wells as bears, buffalo, baboons, beasts, and birds.

Montana was still a territory and Helena wasn't very big, but the circus would give two shows each day.

The Daily Independent (20 June, 1884 page 5) reported that eight thousand people had attended the first performance of the "splendid entertainment."  Mlle. Aimee, called the "human fly" was most exciting.  It took three trains to bring the show to Helena.

It was not without controversy, though.  A large band of thieves and pickpockets follow the circus wherever it goes and takes advantage of the distracted crowd.  However, these evil people are in no way connected to the circus.

What an event it must have been to go to the circus if you lived in or near Helena, Montana in 1884!  What an EFFORT it must have been to pull a circus together, transport it to wild places out west, put on successful shows, and keep everyone healthy and the circus profitable.

Entertainment people occasionally become famous, and rarely become rich, but those that spend their lives in makeup on stages have traditionally worked very hard for their livelihood.  So kudos to those who showed up in Helena (Montana Territory) in June of 1884.  The folks probably really enjoyed your show!

Mattie Lee Price Trailer

Mattie's story is published, in print,  and soon in bookstores!

Mattie Lee Price, The Forgotten Georgia Wonder

Wonderland in Denver, Colorado January, 1890

   

The story of Mattie Lee Price will be available in print format very soon!  I sent the final edit back to the publisher just this week.  I am really excited to have her story out in the world.  It is long overdue.  The more I researched her life, the more I became determined to tell her story publicly.   

Mattie was used by others to generate money.  She was a woman in a time when females could not even vote.  Ladies were meant to be seen and not heard and they had very little voice.  On her death certificate, under "occupation," it lists "wife of..." instead of her true occupation.  She was the money-maker in the family.  Her husband was just the mouthpiece that sold her act.

So, this story is about women and how far we have come.  It is about Mattie's struggle, fame, and her being remembered even though some political men wanted this adventure forgotten.  It's about the late 1800's and what it was like in dime museums and circuses.  It is about a time (almost) forgotten.

Her story is still available in electronic format at the Amazon and Barnes and Noble and you can find it at Smashwords.