by Paul R. Spitzzeri
We continue our look at some of the history of the Al. G. Barnes circus, including its years when winter headquarters were off the east bank of the San Gabriel River in Baldwin Park, on land on the former Rancho La Puente lost by William Workman to Elias J. “Lucky” Baldwin due to a foreclosure of a loan made by the latter to the Temple and Workman bank. We’ll look to cover some of the early history of that community in a later post, but, here, we have to head west to the Venice and Culver City areas to pick up out story.
An early series of references to the Barnes enterprise in greater Los Angeles came in the fall of 1911 when “The Show That’s Different” and broadcast that it was twice its previous size with “more animals and special features than you ever saw before” was advertised for an 8 November duo of performances, preceded by a street parade, in Monrovia.
This was a 3-ring circus with 300 “animal actors” and the same number of “performing animals,” including camels, cheetahs, elephants, leopards, lions, pumas, sea lions and tigers, among others, presumably among the former, while the latter comprised “Russian stallions,” “boxing kangaroos,” “wrestling bears,” “high school horses,” this latter being akin to dressage performers, and baboons, dogs, goats and ponies. All of the animal and human performers, with tents and other components, arrived on 20 double-length cars on a special train.
In an article in that city’s News the day prior to the engagement, an account from the Seattle Times was reprinted, explaining “the first unusual feature” of the circus is that “it is not over advertised” because “its mangaement [sic] delivers more than it promises to deliver.” The Washington paper continued that,
The great feature of this show is that in the main tent the entire performance is given by animals—many of them wild animals of the jungle, at that. Lions drive horses, leopards perform wonderful stunts, monkeys do things they were never supposed to do and the elephants do everything but talk. The seals perform the most wonderful feat and seem to enjoy it—one even riding a horse at full speed around and around the ring.
A core criticism of circuses and a prime reason for their decline is that all of the animals did “things they were never supposed to do,” while the claim that they “seem to enjoy” the stunts and tricks has been roundly decried. As for the jungle animals, they were, of course, in cages, in circular form some 30-40 feet in diameter and which comprised the middle of the three rings, and were brought in through a chute of steel bars.
In the open rings were the “domestic animals,” though this label was applied to baboons and monkeys as well as to dogs, the “high school horses,” and Shetland ponies, and the News professed “it is really a marvel to note the high degree of education which these trained animals have attained.” Along with 22 lions and the camels, leopards, tigers and zebras, two bands played martial music and the parade “was certainly a pleasing surprise” and a “Jim Dandy” befitting an organization that would’ve used double the railroad calls.
Performances were held during that time in other towns like Pasadena, Pomona and Whittier, after which the circus was held in Venice for shows on 9-10 December. The Whittier News of 21 November reported that “the Barnes show is claimed to be the only real wild animal circus on earth” and added that “practically every animal represented in the garden of Eden has a descendant in the Al. G. Barnes three ring wild animal circus.”
Mentioned among the stunts were “seals that juggle balls, batons and lighted torches on horseback” as well as “elephants that act as barbers, operate laundry, stand on their heads, play musical instruments” and “bears that juggle, turn somersaults, and imitate drunken men and other funny antics.” The Bengal tigers were a new addition and were said to be a first in American performances of any kind, with it being claimed that the only other troupe like it was owned by the “Maharajah of Ceylon [Sri Lanka] and he has never permitted them to leave the island.”
As for the central cage, the jaguars, leopards, lions and pumas were reported to possess “a natural antipathy to each other,” but “held under control by the trainer.” It was added, however, that “there is an outlaw, man-killing, untamable full grown, jungle bred African male lion that has killed three trainers who have attempted to break him.” The rest of the performance included goats imitating bulls with clown as the fighters, “funny donkeys,” musician seals playing brass instruments and drums and orangutan “Princess Congo” and “Darwin,” this last probably an ape said to be “the missing link; the only one in America.”
Notably, the Long Beach Telegram of the 24th reported that “the proposition of having the Al. G. Barnes animal circus make its winter headquarters here was brought before the chamber of commerce directors,” with the requirement of a building up to 100 feet wide and 200 feet long and that the entourage would remain from 10 December to March. But, more than two weeks prior, the Venice Vanguard stated that
The Al Barnes trained wild animal show, an aggregation of trained animals said to be the largest in the world, is coming to Venice to remain throughout the winter and will come rolling into Venice about the 10th of December. Mr. Barnes and three of his lieutenants were in the city this morning and had a long conference with the Kinney company, with the result as stated above.
The show is to be located on the flat-iron strip of property lying between the P.E. switch near the Giant roller coaster and the P.E. freight house at the corner of Mildred avenue and Trolleyway.
Abbot Kinney, the founder of what was first called “Venice of America” and which was an incorporated city until its annexation into Los Angeles in 1925, five years after his death, constructed, for $1,800, a single-story barn for the circus, which also kept its animals on exhibit on the auditorium on the nearby pier.
As to the location of the quarters, a “flat-iron strip” generally means a wedge-shaped parcel with streets meeting at angles. The mention of the freight house of the Pacific Electric Railway at Trolleyway, now Pacific Avenue and along which the streetcars ran, and Mildred Avenue, was across the latter street from where the Vanguard was operated and this is where the Windward Village Apartments are now. Moreover, the 11 November edition of the Los Angeles Times briefly observed that “the Barnes wild animal show is on the way and will be housed just east of Trolleyway and south of Windward avenue.”
It was a big deal in Venice when, on 16 January, a camel was born and this, as reported by the Vanguard, “announced on Windward avenue” so that visitors “called upon Mr. and Mrs. Camel to offer them congratulations.” This event led the Boosters Club to begin “agitating the matter of having a christening and there is little doubt that the newcomer will be named ‘Venice” and the paper joked that “it is presumed the child’s parents will be consulted some time today and that Mr. Barnes will be willing to leave the matter wholly to them.”
The 1912 season began for the circus with a week’s engagement at Praeger (Prager) Park, located at the northeast corner of Grand Avenue and Washington Boulevard and which was a frequent venue in downtown Los Angeles for succeeding seasons. It was stated in advertisements that there were 28 cars needed to haul the circus to its appearances and tickets were 50 cents with reserved seats selling for a dollar. At the end of the year, after shows in Arizona, the circus performed in such familiar places as Covina, Long Beach and Whittier.
The Vanguard of 9 November reported that
There is a bare possibility that Venice will be given a second opportunity to entertain the Al. G. Barnes wild animal show throughout the winter season. This show has not as yet engaged its quarters for the forthcoming winter, though the management has quite a number of places in mind, or that have been offered them at a fair price.
After an 8 December show in Venice was completed, the next day’s edition of the paper reported that wagons and animals were to be placed “in the old barn across the track from the P.E. freight house” and that “others are to be quartered in a 60 x 120 foot building now being built by the Abbot Kinney on the Athletic grounds at the southwest corner of Virginia and Washington boulevards, what are now Abbot Kinney and Venice boulevards, a short distance to the east. Of the humans in the show, about 150 were to stay in town and the rest to disperse to make their livings elsewhere.
During the down time, however, problems in the marriage of Al and Dollie Barnes were revealed in the Los Angeles Tribune of 19 January 1913 which remarked that “claiming she furnished the funds for starting the business,” Dollie, who also sought a divorce, filed a lawsuit “in which she asks for an accounting” of the circus. She attested that the couple was married in 1895 (though, as part one noted, an official marriage did not take place until five years later) and “she furnished the money to purchase a kinetoscope and a phonograph, and her husband put up $100.”
The account continued that,
From this humble start the concern has grown into a circus with real animals, clowns and other improvements. In 1908 the show was incorporated and Mrs. Barnes made secretary.
It is alleged that Mr. Barnes, who is president of the corporation, has never made an accounting of the affairs of the company, and with this suit Mrs. Barnes seeks to compel him to do so.
The 5 April edition of the Pasadena Star-News added more to the drama when it reported that “Al. G. Barnes, circus proprietor, is a wonder at love-making” as based on the testimony of a glass blower in his show who testified in the owner’s contest suit against another employee and Dollie’s brother, peanut seller Fred Barlow, “who demands $100,000 damages of Barnes, charging the alienation of Mrs. Barlow’s affections.” Scott told a court that “he knows that Mrs. Barlow and Barnes went automobiling” while the jilted husband was working at shows. In April, however, a jury ruled in Barnes’ favor.
Still, as the divorce suit proceeded, the allegations involving Barlow were revived in that case, which included the estimate that the circus was worth between $200,000 and $400,000. While Dollie continued to force an accounting of the business, Al counter-filed as he “sought to recover from his wife sums of money he alleged she appropriated while acting as a ticket seller for the Barnes’ show.”
At one point during a trial of a few weeks in early 1914, the Vanguard reported that there was “a complete breakdown on the witness stand” by Al, who told the court that “for years his wife has been trying to induce him to sign away his rights to the show.” Not only that, but he, revealed to readers as having the real surname of Stonehouse, “wept copiously,” as he claimed that “she had been trying to ruin me for years” though “I had forgiven her the things she had done.”
For her part, Dollie asserted that she was an equal partner in the enterprise and that he owned her $18,500 for her share of proceeds. Her attorney at one point asked Al, “you’re a pretty good actor, are you not? The judge broke in to say he wouldn’t allow women to cry on the stand, so any man doing so generated no sympathy at all.
He stated “Mrs. Stonehouse was a remarkable witness” and “generally I believed her testimony,” while adding “I don’t believe all Stonehouse testified to” and “some of the witnesses I did not believe at all.” As to the allegations of cheating with Mrs. Barlow, the jurist decided that the evidence was entirely circumstantial, though he allowed that the relationship between her and Al Barnes was peculiar as she was “very free in her manner.”
In the end, however, neither party was granted a divorce or the accounting and money demanded. The matter, however, did not end there and Dollie sought a divorce again five years later and years after that sought to get more money out of Al for her maintenance. With that, we’ll halt here and return soon with part three, so be sure to check back in for that.