The Sells Floto Circus was a combination of the Floto Dog & Pony Show and the Sells Brothers Circus that toured with sideshow acts in the United States and Canada during the early 1900s.
11-609: Frederick Gilmer Bonfils and Harry Heye Tammen owned the first outfit as well as the Denver Post , and the "Floto" name came from the Post's one-time sportswriter, Otto Floto . The Sells Floto circus absorbed Buffalo Bill's Wild West shows, and the Sells Brothers Circus, it was also a "combined" show. It later became the concessions department of Ringling Brothers Circus , along with Haggenback Wallace, who made
22-739: A monopoly of traveling circus in America. On April 17, 1908, the Sells-Floto circus appeared in Riverside CA . When the animals were ushered off the train, a vapor flashback explosion occurred at the adjacent oil storage tank. This frightened the animals, and led to an elephant stampede into downtown Riverside, leaving one person dead and six others injured. Feld Entertainment later used the Sells-Floto name for their supply division, located in Laurel, MD, that provided logistical support for all of
33-1225: The Kansas City Post , and the Sells Floto Circus . Born in Troy, Missouri , he entered the United States Military Academy in 1878, but resigned in 1881 and went into land speculation in the Kansas , Oklahoma and Texas booms. Bonfils had met Harry Heye Tammen at the Windsor Hotel in Denver , where Tammen was a bartender, an editor of the Great-Divide Weekly Newspaper , as well as inauthentic Native-American memorabilia. Together, in 1895, they bought The Denver Post . In December 1899, Tammen and Bonfils were shot in their office by W. W. Anderson , an attorney representing cannibal Alferd Packer , after they published an article that had accused Packer of cannabalism. In
44-744: The Sells-Floto Circus , the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus , the John Robinson Circus , the Sparks Circus , and the Al G. Barnes Circus . It was owned by Jerry Mugivan , Bert Bowers and Ed Ballard . They sold the company in 1929 to John Nicholas Ringling for $ 1.7 million ($ 30.2 million today). With that acquisition, Ringling owned virtually every traveling circus in America. The Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus
55-522: The Feld shows for supplies and merchandise, including not only the three units of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus , but the numerous On Ice shows ( Disney on Ice , Ice Follies , etc.). This unit has since been renamed Feld Consumer Products. Frederick Gilmer Bonfils Frederick Gilmer Bonfils (December 21, 1860 – February 2, 1933) was an American businessman and publisher who, alongside Harry Heye Tammen , owned The Denver Post ,
66-639: The floats and other equipment. The circus had four elephant births, three born to "Alice" and one to "Mama Mary." The sire of all four was "Snyder." None survived longer than five months. By 1929, the Sells Floto Circus was part of the American Circus Corporation which consisted of Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus , the John Robinson Circus , the Sparks Circus , and the Al G. Barnes Circus . John Nicholas Ringling then bought American Circus Corporation for $ 1.7-million creating
77-528: The quote "a dogfight on a Denver street is more important than a war in Europe." In 1902, Bonfils and Tammen bought the Sells Brothers Circus . Tammen rebranded the show to the Sells Floto Circus, after Otto Floto , the sportswriter of The Denver Post, who was involved in the publicity work for the show. Bonfils and Tammen, known together as "Tam and Bon", owned the show until 1921, when it
88-510: The scuffle, Bonfils was shot once in the neck, and Tammen once in the chest. Anderson was tried three times, but never convicted while Tammen and Bonfils were convicted for jury tampering in the third trial. Bonfils took $ 250,000 of bribes from Harry Ford Sinclair to not report on the Teapot Dome scandal . Bonfils and Tammen both justified their style of sensationalistic journalism, as well as crediting their success as newspapermen, with
99-566: Was a circus that traveled across America in the early part of the 20th century. At its peak, it was the second-largest circus in America next to Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. It was based in Peru, Indiana . Al G. Barnes Circus was an American circus run by Alpheus George Barnes Stonehouse . The Sells Floto Circus was a combination of the Floto Dog and Pony Show and the Sells Brothers Circus that toured with sideshow acts in
110-762: Was closely tied to the rise of the Tom Pendergast political machine in Kansas City. Bonfils died of encephalitis at his home in Denver, Colorado in 1933, and was interred in the Fairmount Mausoleum at Fairmount Cemetery , Denver. At the time of his death, he was pursuing a libel lawsuit against the Post 's competitor, the Rocky Mountain News . American Circus Corporation The American Circus Corporation consisted of
121-637: Was one of a number of shows acquired by the American Circus Corporation . In 1909, Bonfils and Tammen bought the Kansas City Post , and owned it until selling it to Walter S. Dickey in 1922, who then bought the Kansas City Journal and combined them into the Kansas City Journal-Post . J. Ogden Armour was a silent partner in the endeavor. The Post with its tabloid format, red headlines and yellow journalism
SECTION 10
#1732798686373#372627