by Paul R. Spitzzeri
On the surface the move of the winter headquarters of Al. G. Barnes’ expansive (and expensive) circus from the Venice/Culver City area out to the eastern San Gabriel Valley could be looked at as a need for more space in light of the growth of the Westside, or as an effort to place his compound closer to eastern rail routes as he took his troupe of wild animals and human performers out on the road for months.
Yet, as part five noted, Barnes announced plans, in late 1925, to spend around $100,000 on the second version of those quarters (the first was in downtown Venice from 1911 to 1920, excepting a year in Phoenix) near the western border with Culver City. It wasn’t as if, moreover, there was a burgeoning development that threatened his domain there, though a movement by that latter town to annex the area including his compound led the impresario to form Barnes City, which was briefly incorporated, though he lost control of it in short order.
The move east may well have been motivated by financial issues. The divorce from his first wife, Dollie, involved a $100,000 settlement to her and a second divorce from Kate Hartigan set him back more than $3,500 annually. Additionally, Barnes seems to have a profligate side to him, as evidenced by a luxurious party given early in 1924 at his well-appointed residence on the quarters property. Finally, there was an unpaid debt to the Patten and Davies Lumber Company led to a spring 1926 foreclosure sale of that second headquarters, though it is unclear how that was resolved.
After that season and the resulting winter, however, the Venice Vanguard of 16 February 1927 reported that,
Barnes Circus will spend next winter in quarters considerably removed from the present winter stamping grounds . . . Mr. Barnes stated that he had purchased . . . a tract of land on Valley boulevard, midway between El Monte and Baldwin Park.
This property, according to Mr. Barnes, has a frontage of three-quarters of a mile on Valley boulevard and the consideration was in excess of $1,000,000. The entire tract covers some 300 acres and was sold by a group of owners to the circus proprietor.
While at first this looks like the property was on today’s Valley Boulevard somewhere in the Bassett community, largely owned by Charles Bassett, whose father acquired some 800 acres from the foreclosed estate of Joseph Workman, son of Homestead founders William Workman and Nicolasa Urioste and recently subject to a lawsuit by Joseph’s former actor daughter Josephine, the Vanguard misreported the location.
The Covina Argus of the 18th clarified that the property, said to be 279 acres and sold for a half million dollars, was “on the new boulevard, recently paved between Baldwin Park and El Monte, paralleling the Pacific Electric railroad.” This is actually Ramona Boulevard, which heads northeast from Valley Boulevard in El Monte, crosses the San Gabriel River and, just past downtown Baldwin Park forks into San Bernardino Road to the north and Badillo Street just south.
Notably, this comprises the northern boundary of the Rancho La Puente as it moved from the river east along Ramona and San Bernardino Road towards Covina. William Workman, who raised thousands of acres of wheat on the plains in this section of the rancho, lost the land to Elias J. “Lucky” Baldwin who foreclosed in 1879 on a loan made more than three years earlier to the Temple and Workman bank.
Baldwin held much of the ranch land intact for more than three decades, but following a short-lived townsite called Vineland, formed in summer 1887 during the Boom of the Eighties, the new town of Baldwin Park was launched almost exactly two decades later. One of the early investors in the project was El Monte merchant Milton Kauffman, who went on to be Walter P. Temple’s business manager and fellow investor, but we’ll look to share some of the early history of Baldwin Park in a future post.
The Argus continued that,
Mr. Barnes when interviewed stated that he was actuated in making this deal by three factors, viz: its advertising advantage, the land fronting a heavily traveled boulevard and also the Pacific Electric line, carrying an average of 206,000 passengers each month; the fact that side-tracks were already on the property, making the Southern Pacific, Pacific Electric and shortly the Santa Fe, available to their [the circus’] trains; and lastly, the unlimited supply of water on the property.
The former hog farm was then being cultivated and Barnes was happy to find “an excellent irrigation system fed by water from a number of wells manned by pumps,” while he added that whatever was not needed for the circus was to be occupied by some 700 employees while the rest would be subdivided.
Speaking of the latter, the impresario stated that “the Washington boulevard site had become entirely too valuable to use as winter quarters for the circus and that he planned to subdivide the roughly 70 acres there, so it appears he was able to find a way to meet the debt obligations to Patten and Davies.
An interesting sidelight to the operations of the circus for the 1927 season was when Barnes hired Burbank resident James J. Jeffries, the 52-year old former heavyweight boxing champion best known for losing a famous 1910 bout to Black ring legend Jack Johnson, to join the circus on a 32-week tour. Tom Sharkey, who lost to Jeffries in a pair of bouts in 1898 and 1899 and was nearly 54 years old, and Tommy O’Brien, a current prizefighter based in Los Angeles, were also signed to take part in boxing exhibitions with the circus.
The Argus of 27 May reported that,
Formal announcement is made of the plans of the Al. G. Barnes circus regarding its winter quarters, to be located on the new El Monte boulevard one mile west of Baldwin Park.
The contract calls for the removal of all present buildings connected with the hog ranch, which has been occupying the premises, by November 1st.
The circus quarters will occupy one hundred acres commencing at the river and fronting on the boulevard to a point just east of the Pacific Electric spur track which serves the property.
The buildings to be erected for the show headquarters are to be both substantial and ornate . . .
In addition to the buildings which will house the exhibits and stock, the company will build dwellings for the seven hundred employees and it is estimated that all available space in the one hundred acre tract will be fully occupied. The locating of this attraction, which through the touring season will draw hundreds of thousands of visitors, will be of untold benefit to this community and will bring many home-seekers who will undoubtedly find permanent locations here.
Three months later, the paper remarked on an ownership change in which the Alliance Investment Company was to yield the enterprise to the United Investment and Amusement Corporation, with Barnes remaining the head officer and treasurer. Incorporated in Nevada, United was also to take control of the former quarters on Washington Boulevard, with that land, again, to be subdivided, as was 60 acres of the Baldwin Park land, all under the auspices of the Barnes Realty Company. The remaining 40 acres was to be devoted to circus purposes, a very different proposition to what was related above.
Not quite a month beyond that, the Argus, under a headline of “Baldwin Park’s Population Doubles In Two-Year Period,” reported that,
Preliminary work began this week on the new zoological gardens at Baldwin Park, where Al G. Barnes, noted showman, is to be improve forty acres fronting on El Monte street. An announcement by the management declares that this acreage will within a year contain the finest aggregation of captive wild animals anywhere on the Pacific coast, and that the grounds are to be improved with substantial buildings, and by an elaborate system of landscaping.
The account added that the 60 acres set aside for subdivision were joined to another 140 acres to be developed by the Los Angeles realtors Willits and Green, who were expected to place the 200 acres on the market during the ensuing winter. Clearly, there was local excitement that these grand plans were in alignment with rapid growth in Baldwin Park as the Roaring Twenties continued to appear as an economic golden age with, seemingly, no end in sight.
Towards the end of October, as the season edged toward it conclusion, the first of the animals arrived at the Baldwin Park quarters for the winter. The Argus of 4 November, with a headline noting that work was being rushed, commented that “work is now progressing toward the laying out and grading of the streets on the new Barnes subdivision . . . where several hundred new homes will be constructed within a few months.” It was added that foundations were completed for the impresario’s new house on Ramona near the river.
With respect to the new quarters, the move was to be in a little more than a week, though “at that time temporary tents will be erected for the housing of the animals and equipment, to serve until the completion of permanent buildings.” The paper added,
The land to the west of the tract, and to the rear of the old hog ranch, is to be subdivided and laid out in about 900 lots. Two hundred and forty houses, approximately, will be required for the employees of the circus and the other lots will be sold. Contracts are already made for the erection of a large number of houses, it is said. One Los Angeles contractor has a contract for the immediate erection of 40 new homes, according to circus officials.
The 25 November edition of the Covina paper, under the headline of “Barnes Show Opens New Winter Home” informed its readers that the circus, said to be one of the six or so largest of its kind in the country—though recall earlier in this post how it was once touted as the biggest anywhere, which is telling—returned home from its season “and went into permanent winter quarters” at its 100-acre property.
Adding that the circus president intended to establish a zoo that was to be open year-round, the paper continued that Barnes, “in his characteristic manner of ample generosity,” offered a pair of free shows at the Baldwin Park site with some 8,000 persons in attendance, with about a thousand unable to fit in the big tents for the afternoon offering, but were given first dibs for the evening performance—where more were left out.
The Argus remarked that “the mechanical staff will be engaged in erecting the buildings and in laying out an ambitious plan of landscaping,” with the investment costs, Barnes noted, to be around $500,000. It was also observed that the Barnes City site still had elements of the circus there, but the move was taking place gradually, while it was claimed that nearly 1,100 persons associated with the enterprise would be living at the new quarters. Moreover, it was asserted that, as with Barnes City, “the new location will be the mecca for thousands, especially on Sundays and holidays.”
The article further commented that,
The Barnes show is declared to be the greatest animal aggregation in the show business, with some of the most valuable and most highly trained wild beasts to be found in the world. The owner announced some time ago that he would improve his one hundred acres with permanent buildings, among which will be a main building, where shows will be given, and the citizens and tourists in the southland will be accorded opportunity of intimate acquaintance with the beasts of the jungle. All of his regular company will live at the winter quarters, with the exception of some of the actors, and continuous training and rehearsing will be in progress through the winter.
Among the new creatures introduced to the emerging quarters were 30 reindeer, shipped from Alaska and of which the Los Angeles Times of 9 November averred that “it may still be a problem to make contented citizens of them” because “they can’t always lay off their overcoats when the sun gets warm” and “they feel more at home with frost on their whiskers.”
The Times of the 6th repeated the assertion that hundreds of houses were to be built in upcoming months for 1,000 new denizens, while 40 acres was to include the “zoological garden” enveloping a 4,500-capacity auditorium. Surveying and platting was said to be underway and “machine shops, carpenter shops, a sales loft and barns” were anticipated to be finished during the winter break. The additional 60 acres at the west end along the river were still slated for residential development.
Barnes also found another Hollywood arrangement in that First National Pictures, producing a film, provisionally titled “Do It Again” and starring Mary Brian and Lloyd Hughes with a circus theme, had its actors and crew travel with the Barnes enterprise from Arizona and then stay at the winter quarters while filming continued. The deal included First National shooting footage of the free shows. The picture, renamed “Sailors’ Wives,” was released in February 1928, though it may well have had another change in terms of plot and theme.
It was probably the move of Tusko, the massive elephant discussed earlier in this blog, at the end of 1927 that largely completed the move to Baldwin Park. As for those grandiose plans for the quarters and the residential tract, we’ll forestall discussion of this and other aspects for part seven, which is coming tomorrow, so check back in with us then!