Bullen's Circus presents Buffalo Bill direct from the U.S.A. / O.K
- Bib ID:
- 6931144
- Format:
- Picture
- Author:
- Knüdsen, Oscar, 1898-1971, creator
- Related Online Resources:
- PIC Large Poster Folder 51 copy
- Description:
-
- [Melbourne] : Victory Publicity Litho, [between 1925 and 1935]
- 1 poster : colour ; 152.2 x 101 cm
- Summary:
-
Poster promoting a circus performance. Features a large central image of a man on a rearing horse, rising from a smaller image of a circus ring with other acts. An American Indian head appears lower left and a clown head appears lower right. The title appears above the image on a red background. "Australia's largest circus" appears lower right.
- Full contents:
-
- Dandenong, Vic., 1995
- Moe, Vic.
- Traralgon, Vic.
- Biography/History:
-
This is not a contemporary poster for an actual appearance by the famous American showman William F. Cody (1846-1917), known as Buffalo Bill, who never actually came to Australia, but probably promotes an American-style Wild West Show put on much later by Bullen’s Circus (established in 1922). Buffalo Bill performed from 1883 to 1913, and had to be helped onto his horse towards the end of his career. In 1887 many Australian country newspapers ran a visiting stockman’s opinion of one his London shows, indicating the extent of his fame.
Alfred Percival Bullen (1896-1974) and his wife Lilian EtheI (1894-1965), began with a pony and a few pairs of roller-skates, travelling around country shows. By 1922 the Bullens organized their own circus. In the 1930s it travelled in Queensland with a show that included its own brass band and a menagerie. In the mid-1930s the show drifted to Western Australia and built one of Australia's most exciting circuses of the postwar era. By 1955 the two-ringed circus had twenty-six acts of international class, its own mobile power plant, three diesel lighting plants, a schoolteacher, fifty-six vehicles and caravans, and eighty permanent staff who called Bullen "Pop". Their white Rolls-Royce led the procession of long, brightly-decorated caravans from town to town.
- Notes:
-
- Caption title.
- National Library of Australia's copy has repaired tears. Mounted on linen. Backing measures 161.2 x 110.2 cm. A second copy, 40.8 x 27 cm, is laminated [POSTER 2023-4660].
- PIC Large Poster Folder 51 copy Digital master available National Library of Australia
- Subject:
- Terms of Use:
- Copyright restrictions may apply.
- Copyright:
-
In Copyright
You may copy under some circumstances, for example you may copy a portion for research or study. Order a copy through Copies Direct to the extent allowed under fair dealing. Contact us for further information about copying.
- Reason for copyright status:
- Until 2041 [Creator Date of Death + 70 Years]
Copyright status was determined using the following information:
- Material type:
- Artistic
- Presumed date of death of creator (latest date):
- 1971
- Published status:
- Published
- Publication date:
- 1935
Copyright status may not be correct if data in the record is incomplete or inaccurate. Other access conditions may also apply. For more information please see: Copyright in library collections.
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