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Title: Inman Bros. Flying Circus |
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Description: This poster advertises the airplane rides offered in Boeing’s new “Clipper” model at the 1936 Inman Brothers Flying Circus. The Boeing “Clipper” was developed in response from Pan American’s 1936 solicitation of proposals for the next great trans-Atlantic airliner: “Large, luxurious, and reliable – with an astounding range of 3,500 statute miles – the B-341 made intercontinental passenger airline service a practical reality.” While such a technological advancement was notable in its own right, it’s no surprise that Boeing chose advertise the new airliner in conjunction with Inman Brothers Flying Circus. The circus was an extremely popular form of entertainment in the United States, and continues to be even today. The history of the circus dates back to Pre-Revolutionary America: While it’s impossible to pinpoint an exact date for the birth of the Circus in the U.S. there are records of travelling menageries with |
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exotic animals, jugglers, and acrobats travelling through the American Colonies. The first big circus act, however, was documented in April 1793 in Philadelphia. It was orchestrated by John Bill Ricketts, an Englishmen living in the Colonies. As Wilton Eckley notes, “Not only did George Washington attend, but he later ‘agreed to let Ricketts display his old horse Jack, the one he had ridden in the Revolutionary War, in the stall at the circus.’” While circuses began as smaller, regional enterprises, in the nineteenth century pioneers like P.T. Barnum, followed by Ringling Brothers and then Inman Brothers pioneered the modern travelling circus, bringing their attractions to cities throughout the country. |
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