Showmens League of America - Canadian Chapter

04/23/2026

Wishing Showman and Past President of the Showmen's League of America ( Canadian Chapter ) All the Very Best on this your Special Day ! Happy Birthday from all of us at the Showmen's League and Friends ! Have a Wonderful Time !

04/07/2026

In Loving Memory of Bradley Felix McCafferty, Past President of The Showmen's League of America ( Canadian Chapter ) And President of Magical Midways Inc,

The Annual 2026 Hit the Road Party !

20 Grey Street, Brantford

Saturday April 18th/2026

Admission is FREE !

Doors Open at 7:30 pm

Members and Guests of Members Welcome to Attend this Wonderful Event at the Club With Food and Prizes ,

Not a Member ?

If your are in the Amusement Business Join the Showmen's League of America ( Canadian Chapter )

New Members $60.00 which includes 1 year Membership and a pin.....$35.00 per year after that. Already a member, $25.00 per year.

Mail to SLACC 20 Grey Street , Brantford, Ontario N3T 2S8

04/02/2026

Sadly on this day a year ago,,, A Showmen bigger than life left us. Born into the Business we know and love so much , Bradley Felix McCafferty , A kind, loving person, A complete family man, Past President of The Showmen's League of America ( Canadian Chapter ) And President of Magical Midways Inc, An innovator of applications and his love of media, technology and music, ( Just so many Loves ) Will always be there in Memory . Often in our thoughts, Never Forgotten, Rest in Peace Showman Bradley Felix McCafferty

03/19/2026

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Nicholas Paul Lewchuk -

The Canadian Sideshow Pioneer

On April 30, 1896 in the village of Svedeev in the Ukraine, Nicholas Paul Lewchuk was born. His mother placed a piece of paper and a pen in his tiny hands, for it was believed he would then grow to be a wise and intelligent man. At age 6, in 1902, his family immigrated to the NEW LAND called Canada. At age 17, in 1913, his future fate rolled into town, a magician was to perform at the local theatre. The long awaited day finally arrived and upon buying a ticket to the show, he found the theatre filled to capacity. Magical Miracles were performed one after another, followed by thunderous applause. He had come to the revelation ""this was it!"". The spectacle of live performance mixed with the mysteries of the unknown was too much to pass up. He decided ""this is the life I want to have and I will be the happiest man on Earth... I will find myself a wife and we will travel and perform a magic and vaudeville show.""

While travelling throughout Canada in the early 20th century, many settlers were superstitious. When Prof Lewchuk performed magic and sideshow feats, many people thought that he must be working in league with the devil. It was not unusual to have many people in the audience ' cross themselves" after a feat was done. Fear and Superstitions ranked high among Canadian Pioneers but there was always sold out shows.

Weird tales would take shape as Prof Lewchuk's Midway and Shows entered their town. Old timers still recall stories that followed each act. After watching Lewchuk's masterful performances in round-eyed wonder, they would gather in little knots to discuss what they thought they had seen. Some confided that on their way to the theatre they had seen black cats also heading that way. An old lady, who saw the performance at Gorlitz, swore she saw a black devil sporting a long tail sitting on the chimney. All were certain Lewchuk had a "devil under his armpit" - an old Ukrainian belief that, if a person wanted his own personal incubus to do his bidding, all he had to do was take one of those miniature first effort eggs laid by a young hen, put it under his arm pit and wait a period of nine months when the egg was supposed to hatch a tiny devil ready to obey his master. Others saw devils under tables and in around props. While his acts awed them, most of his fellow countrymen also feared Lewchuk with a religious fervour.

Well, one day Nick went to see a carnival and became interested in some of the rides. He got to thinking, why not build a ride and take it on the road with the shows. The idea went into full gear in the early forties and such was the beginning of the first Ukrainian owned travelling midway. It started with a simple Aeroplane Ride and a small trailer to sell potato chips. But the main attraction was the large tent where he displayed a freak of nature, a stuffed two-headed calf and a wax reproduction of the man who shot President Lincoln.

During this time he subscribed to a midway magazine called The Billboard, and came across the Schmidgall Museum up for sale in Peoria Ill. Nick purchased all of the freaks, but the purchase caused some problems. It took a lot of elbow grease and time to set up the tent in every town. And so Nick designed and Built a 32 foot long walk through trailer. The freaks were thus permanently displayed and it eliminated unnecessary handling. This was the largest freak exhibit of its kind.

The profit earned during the summer tours was turned back, each year, into the midway. Eventually the midway consisted of 5 major rides all constructed by Nick and the Family. Nicks ability to attack an idea from every angle, helped in creating some of the most important innovations in Carnival history. Today we look at the merry-go-round and take for granted that it has always been as it is today. This is not so, back in the early 20th century the Merry-go-Round was simply wooden horses and loveseats that went in a continuous circle... but Nicks love for equestrian riding got him to thinking there was something lacking. So he created the mechanism that made the horses move up and down which was the advent of the bobbing horse merry-go-round.

All Ferris Wheels in the past were made of wood and built upright. The problem with this was travelling through the Prairie Provinces was that the wind would pick up and blow them over, splintering them into irreparable piles of rubble. Nick designed a 45-foot Ferris Wheel on a trailer base made of steel. That could be folded in half and this brought on the advent of trailer based rides.

One of Nick's most famous contributions to carnival history was the invention of the teacup ride as seen in Disneyland.

With rides also came live exotic animal shows. Lewchuk's Midway and Shows carried a great monkey act called, Monkey Business! Monkey Shines!, where the monkeys were dressed and acted like humans. There were dancing bears, learned Goats [an act to which the goat could do math by the clomping of its hoof, coinciding with numeric equations], trained dogs, horses, and even wild bores!

And of course there were the big cats, a Lynx, and Ocelot, and the majestic Lions. Over the years many side show acts worked on Professor Lewchuk's Midway and Shows, some of these included Hollywood film star JJ Dalke and his trained dogs, also R. Stoneman's Trained animal acts featuring "Sparky" [trained wonder horse] and "Billy" [trick goat]. And throughout all of this Nick created and performed a new two and a half hour show yearly.

In 1959, there was even a royal visit by Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip at the midway! As time wore on Nick decided to slow down and ended up opening a stationary tourist attraction on June 5th, 1963 in Canora Sask. it was simply called the "Fun Spot". This soon would become the end to his travelling completely as his wife of 52 years, Anastasia, passed away in 1968, and a major point of strength and support had left his life.

It wasn't until the fall of 1979 at the age of 83, that Nick would become ambitious again. During this time the question of a tourist attraction arose and after some discussion by the Canora Chamber of Commerce, a motion was passed to ask the public to come up with submissions for an idea for a Canora Attraction. Once again the enigmatic wheels in Lewcuks head began to turn and after a few night of insomnia Nick came up with a great idea. He could build a 25 foot sculpture of a woman in traditional Ukrainian costume holding a tray with a vial of salt and kolach [a braided Ukrainian bread] which is a customary method of greeting used by Slavics around the world.

The statue was to be called Lesia, in memory of a famous female icon from the Ukraine's past. The Chamber of Commerce loved the idea and plans were set into motion immediately to begin construction. On a rainy day on September 3rd 1980 at 2pm Governor General Edward Schreyer performed the Official unveiling ceremony. The statue can still be seen as you enter Canora!

On July 26 1989, in midsummer, Nicholas Paul Lewchuk passed away. April 30, 1896 - July 26 1989.

The history of Scott McClelland is slowly being written...until the full story is compiled we are proud to present a NEW article that was showcased on 'Sideshow World' in the month of March 2004. This interview is a good retrospect of Scott's career...but there is more to come!

The interview was conducted by Derek Rose...and it is the most in depth interview of Scott's career to date.

Enjoy...

Scott McClelland
His-story- 3/1/04

Check out Carnival Diablo The Strangest Show Unearthed

https://www.facebook.com/CarnivalDiabloTheUltimateSideshow

03/19/2026

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Buffalo Bill Coty

Buffalo Bill, by name of William Frederick Cody, (born February 26, 1846, Scott county, Iowa, U.S.—died January 10, 1917, Denver, Colorado), American buffalo hunter, U.S. Army scout, Pony Express rider, Indian fighter, actor, and impresario who dramatized the facts and flavour of the American West through fiction and melodrama. His colourful Wild West show, which came to be known as Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders of the World, evolved into an international institution and made him one of the world’s first global celebrities.

Early Years

Cody’s father, Isaac, moved his family from their farm near LeClaire, Iowa, on the Mississippi River, to Kansas, where he operated a trading post near the Kickapoo Indian Agency. At the time, Kansas was engulfed in a violent struggle between those who opposed slavery and those who supported it (see Bleeding Kansas). While delivering an antislavery speech, Isaac was stabbed, and he ultimately succumbed to his wounds three years later, in 1857. To support his family, Cody already had begun working at age nine for the Russell, Majors and Waddell freight company, where he made use of his skills as a horseman. In 1857 Cody came to be celebrated as the youngest Indian fighter on the Great Plains after he killed a Native American who helped attack the cattle drive on which Cody was working. On the same cattle drive, Cody met the young Wild Bill Hickok, who intervened on his side in a fight Cody was having with an older man.

Pony Express Rider

Although Cody’s name does not appear in the official records of the Pony Express, there is significant evidence that he served two tours of duty as a rider (including his own claim in his autobiography that he had done so, substantiated in print by Russell, Majors and Waddell’s Alexander Majors). Cody was 14 years old when he began riding for the Pony Express in the spring of 1860, but, because he had already delivered messages between wagon trains for Russell, Majors and Waddell, he was initially assigned a short 45-mile (70-km) run. While some of Cody’s exploits as a rider were the creations of publicity agents, there is no doubt about the courage and dedication he showed while in the service of the Pony Express. Of particular note was a dramatic round-trip ride of some 300 miles (480 km) in Wyoming between Red Butte Station and Pacific Springs Station on which Cody completed not only his own leg but those of missing relief riders, a sleepless odyssey of nearly 22 continuous hours of riding. On another legendary ride, Cody outran Sioux warriors to Three Crossings Station, Wyoming, only to find the station keeper dead and the horses stolen. He narrowly escaped to the next station, but, after arriving there, he gathered and led a group of men against the Indians, surprising them at their camp and retaking the stolen horses. Cody’s cunning was the centrepiece of another often-recounted episode in which, called upon to deliver a large sum of money and fearing that he would be robbed, he hid the currency under his saddle blanket and stuffed paper into his Pony Express mochila (saddlebag). When he was indeed held up at gunpoint, he threw the treasureless mochila at the bandits and then made good his escape.

Scout And Soldier

During the American Civil War (1861–65), Cody first served as a Union scout in campaigns against the Kiowa and Comanche and later (in 1863) enlisted with the Seventh Kansas Cavalry, which saw action in Missouri and Tennessee. After the war he worked for the U.S. Army as a civilian scout and dispatch bearer out of Fort Ellsworth in Kansas (1866–67). In 1867–68 he hunted buffalo to feed construction crews on the Union Pacific Railroad. During this time he is said to have slaughtered some 4,280 head of buffalo, and he soon became known as the champion buffalo killer of the Great Plains.

Cody acquired a reputation not only for accurate marksmanship but also for total recall of the vast terrain he had traversed, knowledge of Indian ways, courage, and endurance. He was in demand as a scout and guide, mostly for the U.S. Fifth Cavalry, throughout much of the government’s attempt to wipe out Indian resistance to settlement of the land west of the Mississippi River (1868–76). In 1872 Gen. Philip Sheridan arranged for Cody and Lieut. Col. George Armstrong Custer to guide Grand Duke Alexis of Russia on a hunting trip that had been set up by U.S. Pres. Ulysses S. Grant. That same year Cody, who frequently took dangerous assignments that others refused, was awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions on April 26 as scout for a contingent of the Third Cavalry that was pursuing Indians who had stolen army horses hear Fort McPherson in Nebraska. (The honour was revoked in 1916 as part of a general review to identify individuals who had received the award but had not technically been members of the military as officers or enlisted men. Scouts were classified as civilians. However, the U.S. Army restored the Medal of Honor to Cody posthumously in 1989.) During his army service, Cody’s reputation continued to grow. In all, he is believed to have engaged in 16 Indian fights, including his much-publicized scalping (July 17, 1876) of the Cheyenne warrior Yellow Hair (erroneously translated as Yellow Hand) in Sioux county, Nebraska, which was hailed as a response to the massacre of Custer’s command at the Battle of the Little Bighorn earlier in the year.

The Wild West Show

Such exploits provided choice material not only for newspaper reporters but also for dime novelists, who transformed the hard-riding, fast-shooting Cody into a Western folk hero. Among these early authors were Ned Buntline (pen name of E.Z.C. Judson) and Prentiss Ingraham. Recognizing the financial possibilities inherent in dramatizing the West, Cody was easily persuaded in 1872 to star in Buntline’s drama The Scouts of the Prairie. Though his acting was far from polished, he became a superb showman, and his audiences greeted him with overwhelming enthusiasm during his 45-year career as an entertainer.

For many years Cody performed during the winter and continued scouting for the army in the summer or escorting hunting parties to the West. In the process, the line began to blur even further between the scout William F. Cody and the legend and entertainer Buffalo Bill. Indeed, as early as his scalping of Yellow Hair in 1876, Cody had consciously worn his flamboyant theatrical clothes into battle, later donning the same outfit to re-create his attack onstage. In 1883 Cody, with the help of producer and partner Nate Salsbury, organized his own Wild West show—a spectacular outdoor entertainment with a cast of hundreds, featuring fancy-shooting, hard-riding cowboys and yelling Indians, along with re-creations of a buffalo hunt, the capture of the Deadwood (South Dakota) stagecoach, and a Pony Express ride. Its stars included Annie Oakley, the famous rifle shot, and, in 1885, Chief Sitting Bull. The show played at Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887 and was staged throughout Europe. In 1893 three million people attended the show (by this point known as Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders of the World, which included Cossacks and vaqueros) during its tenure on the Midway adjacent to the official grounds of the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. By the end of the 19th century, Buffalo Bill was one of the most-recognized persons in the world.

Final Years

Buffalo Bill continued to perform in his Wild West show until 1916, although at age 71 he often had to be helped onto his horse backstage. While Buffalo Bill’s exhibition remained extremely popular in the United States and abroad, in the end—largely through poor investments, including his purchase of an unproductive gold mine—he lost the fortune he had made in show business. His last public appearance occurred just two months before his death.

Buffalo Bill's Wild West

Buffalo Bill's Wild West, 1890
In December 1872, Cody traveled to Chicago to make his stage debut with his friend Texas Jack Omohundro in The Scouts of the Prairie, one of the original Wild West shows produced by Ned Buntline. The effort was panned by critics - one critic compared Cody's acting to a "diffident schoolboy" - but the handsome performer was a hit with the sold-out crowds.

In 1873, Cody invited "Wild Bill" Hickok to join the group in a new play called Scouts of the Plains. Hickok did not enjoy acting often hiding behind scenery and in one show shot the spotlight when it focused on him, he was released from the group after a few months. Cody founded the Buffalo Bill Combination in 1874, in which he performed for part of the year, while scouting on the prairies the rest of the year. The troupe toured for ten years. Cody's part typically included a reenactment of an 1876 incident at Warbonnet Creek, where he claimed to have scalped a Cheyenne warrior.

In 1883, in the area of North Platte, Nebraska, Cody founded Buffalo Bill's Wild West, a circus-like attraction that toured annually. (Contrary to the popular misconception, the word show was not a part of the title.) With his show, Cody traveled throughout the United States and Europe and made many contacts. He stayed, for instance, in Garden City, Kansas, in the presidential suite of the former Windsor Hotel. He was befriended by the mayor and state representative, a frontier scout, rancher, and hunter named Charles "Buffalo" Jones. It was at this time Buffalo Bill’s Cowboy Band was organized. The band was directed by William Sweeney, a cornet player who served as leader of the Cowboy Band from 1883 until 1913. Sweeney handled all of the musical arrangements and wrote a majority of the music performed by the Cowboy Band.

In 1893, Cody changed the title to Buffalo Bill's Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders of the World. The show began with a parade on horseback, with participants from horse-culture groups that included US and other military, cowboys, American Indians, and performers from all over the world in their best attire. Turks, gauchos, Arabs, Mongols and Georgians displayed their distinctive horses and colorful costumes. Visitors would see main events, feats of skill, staged races, and sideshows. Many historical western figures participated in the show. For example, Sitting Bull appeared with a band of 20 of his braves.

Cody's headline performers were well known in their own right. Annie Oakley and her husband, Frank Butler, were sharpshooters, together with the likes of Gabriel Dumont and Lillian Smith. Performers re-enacted the riding of the Pony Express, Indian attacks on wagon trains, and stagecoach robberies. The show was said to end with a re-enactment of Custer's Last Stand, in which Cody portrayed General Custer, but this is more legend than fact. The finale was typically a portrayal of an Indian attack on a settler's cabin. Cody would ride in with an entourage of cowboys to defend a settler and his family. This finale was featured predominantly as early as 1886 but was not performed after 1907; it was used in 23 of 33 tours. Another celebrity appearing on the show was Calamity Jane, as a storyteller as of 1893. The show influenced many 20th-century portrayals of the West in cinema and literature.

With his profits, Cody purchased a 4,000-acre (16-km²) ranch near North Platte, Nebraska, in 1886. The Scout's Rest Ranch included an eighteen-room mansion and a large barn for winter storage of the show's livestock.

In 1887, Cody took the show to Great Britain in celebration of the Jubilee year of Queen Victoria, who attended a performance.[9] It played in London and then in Birmingham and Salford, near Manchester, where it stayed for five months.[26]

In 1889, the show toured Europe, and in 1890 Cody met Pope Leo XIII. On March 8, 1890, a competition took place. Buffalo Bill had met some Italian butteri (a less-well-known sort of Italian equivalent of cowboys) and said his men were more skilled at roping calves and performing other similar actions. A group of Buffalo Bill's men challenged nine butteri, led by Augusto Imperiali, at Prati di Castello neighbourhood in Rome. The butteri easily won the competition. Augusto Imperiali became a local hero after the event: a street and a monument were dedicated to him in his hometown, (Cisterna di Latina), and he was featured as the hero in a series of comic strips in the 1920s and 1930s.

Cody set up an independent exhibition near the Chicago World's Fair of 1893, which greatly contributed to his popularity in the United States.[9] It vexed the promoters of the fair, who had rejected his request to participate.[citation needed].

On October 29, 1901, outside Lexington, North Carolina, a freight train crashed into one unit of the train carrying Buffalo Bill's show from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Danville, Virginia. The freight train's engineer had thought that the entire show train had passed, not realizing it was three units, and returned to the tracks; 110 horses were killed in the crash or had to be killed later, including his personal mounts Old Pap and Old Eagle.[27] No people were killed, but Annie Oakley's injuries were so severe that she was told she would never walk again. She did recover and continued performing later. The incident put the show out of business for a while, and this disruption may have led to its eventual demise.[28]

In 1908, Pawnee Bill and Buffalo Bill joined forces and created the Two Bills show. That show was foreclosed on when it was playing in Denver, Colorado.

Buffalo Bill’s Wild West tours of Europe

The Adventures of Buffalo Bill (1914)
Buffalo Bill’s Wild West toured Europe eight times, the first four tours between 1887 and 1892, and the last four from 1902 to 1906.

The Wild West first went to London in 1887 as part of the American Exhibition,which coincided with the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria. The Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, requested a private preview of the Wild West performance; he was impressed enough to arrange a command performance for Queen Victoria. The Queen enjoyed the show and meeting the performers, setting the stage for another command performance on June 20, 1887, for her Jubilee guests. Royalty from all over Europe attended, including the future Kaiser Wilhelm II and the future King George V.[31] These royal encounters provided Buffalo Bill’s Wild West an endorsement and publicity that ensured its success. Buffalo Bill’s Wild West closed its successful London run in October 1887 after more than 300 performances, with more than 2.5 million tickets sold. The tour made stops in Birmingham and Manchester before returning to the United States in May 1888 for a short summer tour.

Buffalo Bill’s Wild West returned to Europe in May 1889 as part of the Exposition Universelle in Paris, an event that commemorated the 100th anniversary of the Storming of the Bastille and featured the debut of the Eiffel Tower. The tour moved to the South of France and Barcelona, Spain, then on to Italy. While in Rome, a Wild West delegation was received by Pope Leo XIII. Buffalo Bill was disappointed that the condition of the Colosseum did not allow it to be a venue; however, at Verona, the Wild West did perform in the ancient Roman amphitheater. The tour finished with stops in Austria-Hungary and Germany.

In 1891 the show toured cities in Belgium and the Netherlands before returning to Great Britain to close the season. Cody depended on a number of staff to manage arrangements for touring with the large and complex show: in 1891 Major Arizona John Burke was the general manager for the Buffalo Bill Wild West Company; William Laugan (sic), supply agent; George C. Crager, Sioux interpreter, considered leader of relations with the Indians; and John Shangren, a native interpreter. In 1891, Buffalo Bill performed in Karlsruhe, Germany, in the Südstadt Quarter. The inhabitants of Südstadt are nicknamed Indianer (German for "American Indians") to this day, and the most accepted theory says that this is due to Buffalo Bill's show.

The show's 1892 tour was confined to Great Britain; it featured another command performance for Queen Victoria. The tour finished with a six-month run in London before leaving Europe for nearly a decade.

Buffalo Bill’s Wild West returned to Europe in December 1902 with a fourteen-week run in London, capped by a visit from King Edward VII and the future King George V. The Wild West traveled throughout Great Britain in a tour in 1902 and 1903 and a tour in 1904, performing in nearly every city large enough to support it. The 1905 tour began in April with a two-month run in Paris, after which the show traveled around France, performing mostly one-night stands, concluding in December. The final tour, in 1906, began in France on March 4 and quickly moved to Italy for two months. The show then traveled east, performing in Austria, the Balkans, Hungary, Romania, and the Ukraine, before returning west to tour in Poland, Bohemia (later Czech Republic), Germany, and Belgium.

The show was enormously successful in Europe, making Cody an international celebrity and an American icon. Mark Twain commented, "It is often said on the other side of the water that none of the exhibitions which we send to England are purely and distinctly American. If you will take the Wild West show over there you can remove that reproach." The Wild West brought an exotic foreign world to life for its European audiences, allowing a last glimpse at the fading American frontier.

Several members of the Wild West show died of accidents or disease during these tours in Europe:

December 1887), of the Oglala Lakota band, died of a lung infection. His remains were buried at Brompton Cemetery in London. Red Penny, the one-year-old son of Little Chief and Good Robe, had died four months earlier and was buried in the same cemetery.
Paul Eagle Star (1864 – August 24, 1891), of the Brulé Lakota band, died in Sheffield, of tetanus and complications from injuries caused when his horse fell on him, breaking his leg. He was buried in Brompton Cemetery. His remains were exhumed in March 1999 and transported to the Rosebud Indian Reservation, in South Dakota, by his grandchildren Moses and Lucy Eagle Star II. The remains were reburied in the Lakota cemetery in Rosebud two months later.
Long Wolf (1833 – June 11, 1892), of the Oglala Lakota band, died of pneumonia and was buried in Brompton Cemetery. His remains were exhumed and transported to South Dakota's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in September 1997 by his descendants, including his great-grandson, John Black Feather. The remains were reburied at Saint Ann's Cemetery, in Denby.
White Star Ghost Dog (1890 – August 17, 1892), of the Oglala Lakota band, died after a horse-riding accident and was buried in Brompton Cemetery. Her remains were exhumed and transported to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, in South Dakota, in September 1997, with those of Long Wolf, and were reburied at Saint Ann's Cemetery, in Denby.

03/19/2026

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( On the Rails Again ) Conklin's Shows - Worlds Finest Shows

Featuring Travel by Rail with Conklin Shows​ World's Finest Shows​

Featuring the Fairs, Midways and Attractions of the Magic Conklin Shows Midway
,Credit to Doc Rivera, Conklin Shows, Rob Connelly and Hal Guyon

Watching it get set up for business when it hits town is a big a show as the show itself

"You've got to have something wrong with you to be in this business," mutters Jimmy Sullivan, boss of World's Finest Shows, as he climbs down from the silver-painted show train he commands into a 5 A.M. western Canadian dawn. Yet there is a sparkle in his eye and a rakish tilt to his hat even at that hour. Jimmy has been in show business for nearly 40 of his 57 years and still regards it with a gusto that has nothing to do with the money it has made for him.

Jimmy Sullivan was born in Fargo, N.D., but is now a Canadian citizen. He made his debut in outdoor show business in 1917 in partnership with John Paul Flanagan of Flanagan's Greater Shows. Ten Sullivan went to France with the U.S. 83rd Division. Soon after his return he bought out Flanagan and changed the name to Wallace Brothers Shows.

There was never any Wallace connected with the outfit and, until recently, when the name was changed to World's Finest Shows. Sullivan and his cohorts found amusement in going up to some derelict hanger on who was being studiously avoided by well-heeled patrons and addressing him loudly but deferentially as "Mr. Wallace."

**Sullivan puts his show on the road leading from Quebec to Alberta between early May and early October each year. His first act on arriving in a town is to stake out the ground so that the customers will be obliged to go down the line of concessions to reach the rides and return the same way.

Then the ramps come down at the railway yards and the vans and trailers are rolled off the 32 flat cars (which, with six box cars and nine coaches, make up the largest carnival train in Canada) and are hauled to the fair grounds.

There the rest of the bull gang and the concessionaires are waiting to erect the stalls, sideshows, and rides. Dominating all - and without which no carnival is complete - is the Ferris Wheel, also known to show people as the "simp hoister." Then, too it is sometimes called the thermometer" because it can be seen from all over the fair ground, and if it is empty then there is no business to be expected anywhere.

Five hours after the unloading ramps are lowered the first customers are already drifting into the tent town which is the midway, trying their luck at the "flat Stores" (percentage games) or the "hanky panks" (merchandise stores where some kind of prize is given every time), listening to the talkers: for the girlies and midget shows, the Globe of Death or the circus, getting their thrills from rides on the Rock-o-Plane, Tilt-a-Whirl, Octopus or Moon Rocket.

Gradually the pace builds up throughout the day until the climax, known as "the blowoff," when the crowd come streaming out of the grandstand after the show and tops off the evening with a fling around the midway.

Many of the crew come back to work for World's Finest Shows year after year. However, few know the others' full names. Men are identified by their jobs. Thus, Ferris Wheel Joe, Tractor Louis, Roll Down Mike.

Righting a capsized trailer is all in a day's work for members of the "bull gang." The show plays 27 towns and cities across Canada from Quebec to Red Deer, Alta.

Opening day parade is an integral part of any Canadians fair. While carnival is set up on Weyburn grounds, some units such as animal acts take part in it.

Five hours after the first equipment started rolling off the train at 5 A.M., the show is set up and waiting for the first customers.

Display for the midget show is erected at the fair grounds. Midget entertainers are popular with other show folk.
However, the "gagoonies" of today are pale shadows of the devil-may-care but often unlovable roustabouts of pre-war days. Sullivan insists on civility to the public and good behavior at all times, emphasizing that the chief concentration of the show is now on children. "As long as we give the kids plenty of rides, sure-fire prizes and nickel days, the parents will come too."

His Ten Commandments are famous in show business. They include such unlikely admonitions as "Do not engage town girls in conversation or go out with them." No cursing. swearing or hollering on lot, trucks or train." Do not short change the public as they make it possible for us to make a living." Do not take the law at any time in your own hands."

Despite the good intentions of show folk there are always some local bully boys who think it smart to provoke them. Then as Sullivan's brother Mark says. "We're always ready if a beef does start. We don't exactly have a bunch of professors with us."

A classic "beef" still remembered fondly by W. F. S veterans occurred several seasons ago at Esievan, Sask, A drunken miner was refused a ride by the Octopus foreman in the interests of the man's own safety, whereupon he hauled off and punched the foreman on the nose. He was surrounded by his pals, so the foreman, discreetly disappeared.

Later, when the crowd of miners had disappeared, he returned to the spot but left another man in charge of the Octopus while he remained hidden. Eventually the miner drifted back and again demanded to get on the Octopus. He was allowed to take his place and was firmly strapped in. Then the foeman, this time well backed up by show folk, seized a two-by-four and awaited the trapped miner each time he whizzed around.

Nowadays, in similar circumstances, the tendency, however grudging, would be to call the law. Jimmy Sullivan's footnote to his Ten Commandments makes a point that is not lost on show people: "If these rules are disagreeable to you, you can change them when you have your own show."

Railroad Circus And Carnival Trains

A Short, Factual History of
The Old Rail Road Carnival and Circus
By: “Doc” Rivera

The American circus is older than the country itself. The first circus troupe of record dates back to 1724 when a small troupe gave its first performance in an open arena outside of Philadelphia. The first complete circus performance is generally ascribed to John Bill Rickets who built an amphitheater in Philadelphia and gave his first performance on April 3, 1793. President George Washington was an avid circus fan and attended Rickets’ Show on April 23 and 24, 1793. By the early 1820s there were approximately thirty animal circuses touring the eastern United States. These shows moved at night by wagon, over country roads, often mired in mud. During the heyday of the railroad circus, these shows would become known as “Mud Shows” for obvious reasons. There had been an occasional attempt at railroading by a few of the early shows, but most went back to the wagons and country roads after only one season.

Eventually, the term, “railroad show,” became synonymous with large circuses and carnivals. In the early years, people began to think that if a circus or carnival traveled by rail, it had to be modern and big. A show that made the transition from a mud show to the rails had reached the big time. The railroad impacted the type of equipment carried by the various shows. Mud shows made every attempt to keep their wagons light and small in size, but the railroad show permitted the shows to increase the dimensions and weight of their wagons. After the penny conscious show owners filled the insides of their wagons, they modified the outsides to carry even more equipment. The wagons were further modified to include removal or flipping up of the wagon tongues used to pull the wagons to the show grounds so that they could get more wagons on a flat car. When the railroad show owner could no longer modify the wagon to carry more equipment, they modified the rail cars themselves. The circus and carnivals wasted no space on the railroad cars; extra tent poles, ride parts and various equipment were stored either on the roofs of stock cars or under the wagons on the flat cars. Some of these early shows actually had so much surplus equipment crammed into and on the wagons that the sides actually bulged dangerously beyond the sides of the rail cars themselves. (see photo)

Circus and carnival trains
An example of an early 1900′s “Show Train”

The railroads generally charged the show to haul their train in multiples of five or ten railcars. If a show consisted of ten to 35 cars, the railroad charge in increments of 5 cars; shows of forty or more cars where charged in increments of ten cars. So, whether the show train consisted of 16 or 20 cars, the owner was charged for a movement of twenty cars. Therefore, you will find that the length of most show trains were in multiples of five or ten. Before the days of trucks and tractors, when horses were the prime means of moving the wagons from the train to the circus lot, the train consisted of approximately 50% flat cars, 25% stock cars, and 25% coaches. A typical 20 car train of the time would consist of 5 stock cars, 10 flats, and four coaches. The fifth coach would be traveling ahead of the show as an advance or advertising car, perhaps connected to a scheduled railroad passenger train, but was still included as one of the 20 cars of the train.

The “Gilly” Show.

Two car railroad shows began around the 1890s. For many a fledgling operator, the introduction into outdoor show business was on a shoestring budget. Few could afford the initial outlay of money that was required to get a show of any decent size on the road. The “Gilly” show was entirely different in operation than the flatcar circus and carnival. These shows came to be known as “Two Car Shows” since that is exactly what most of them had, two railroad cars. Although the large flatcar railroad shows moved on their own schedule, the Two Car Show moved on regularly scheduled trains, usually passenger trains. They mainly consisted of a baggage car and a coach.

In the days of these Two Car Railroad shows, it was standard railroad procedure that anyone buying a specific number of first class tickets, usually 25, received a free baggage car.

Even with the two car railroad show that might own its own cars, the railroads operated the same way. Buy the specified number of first class train tickets and the railroad moved the cars for free. Many a two car show owner would buy only the required number of tickets but carry upwards of 75 people. These un-ticketed people would hide in possum bellies, any available compartment, and especially the baggage car until the conductor had received the tickets and counted the people on the car.

Frequently, the two car shows would rent a show lot from the railroad and set up adjoining the railroad cars on the siding. Most of these two car shows trooped as “gilly shows,” which meant that the show either hired local farmers with wagons to move the show from the train to the show lot, or they carried their own gilly wagon. This was basically a skeletal wagon with removable wagon wheels. When the show was traveling, the wagon would be disassembled and shoved into any remaining space on the baggage car. Most showmen of the day knew the amount of work associated with a Gilly operation and the infrequency of the pay days, and stayed away from such operations. Most of these Gilly Shows were considered “high grass” shows in the circuses and carnival business, They were shows that played the small, sparsely populated, rural towns of America. All equipment had to be torn down, loaded onto the wagon, then transported to the railcar. The wagon would then be returned to the lot to get whatever equipment was left. This process might require a half dozen trips. Once at the rail car, it would have to be re loaded from the wagon and packed tightly into the train. When the train reached the shows destination, the whole process had to be repeated in reverse. The last of the Gilly Shows was Cooper Bros. Circus which called it quits at the end of their 1934 season.

Rail Equipment of The Old Shows.

Since the railroads charged the show by the number of cars moved, not the length or weight, the shows’ ownership built longer car lengths of 50 feet, then 60 feet, and finally 72 feet. It cost the shows the same amount to move ten 40 foot cars as it did to move ten 60 foot ones. The modern Ringling show uses flats of 85 foot length. In the heyday of the railroad show, two companies emerged as the primary suppliers of circus and carnival flat and stock cars, the Warren Tank Car Company and Mount Vernon Car Manufacturing Company. The trains coaches were used equipment purchased from the railroads or other defunct shows that had gone ‘belly up.’

In 1923, following World War I, and again in1947, after World War II, the Ringling Brothers Circus purchased surplus hospital cars from the government and converted them for circus use. The three basic types of carnival and circus railroad cars used from the 1930′s into the 1950′s were flat cars, stock cars, and coaches. Along with these cars, there were some specially modified and unique cars.

Stock cars were usually coupled directly behind the locomotive to help minimize jolting the animals, then came the flat cars which were the heaviest due to the rides and other equipment, and finally the coaches brought up the rear of the train.

Show trains were moved in sections. Prior to WW II, RBBB had 100 cars which were moved in four sections. According to Emmett Kelly, Jr., it cost the circus about $1000 to rent the locomotive which moved each circus train section and $1.00 a mile to move the Ringling Bros. show following World War II. In 1947, RBBB traveled on 109 cars, the largest railroad circus in history. In 1949, the RBBB moved on 89 circus railroad cars which when fully loaded weighed approximately 6,850 tons. If this same equipment was moved on standard rail cars of the time, it would have required a 178 car freight train.

Rail road carnivals could be much heavier due to the weight of the rides and heavier built wagons that were primarily constructed from iron and oak.

Motive power for the show train was always provided by the railroads. What type of motive power did the railroads use to move the heavy circus trains? 2-8-2 Mikados by the Chicago and North Western Railway and Santa Fe, 4-8-4 Northerns by the Union Pacific and Milwaukee Road; the Chicago Burlington & Quincy (the Burlington ) used EMD 6000 horsepower freight diesels.

Even though circus trains included passenger coaches, they were always moved as freight by the railroads, and so, the railroad’s caboose brought up the rear.

Flat Cars.

The early flat cars, like most railroad equipment of the era, were made of wood by wagon companies or contracted in railroad shops. They required adjustable metal truss rods along the bottom to keep the sag out of the car due to the heavy loads they had to bear up under. They were a maintenance nightmare due to wear and weather and required constant attention by the train crew.

The first show flats of steel construction were sixty-foot cars. The first show to use these flats was the Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show in 1911. By the 1920′s the Warren Tank Car Company of Warren, Pennsylvania, and the Mt. Vernon Car Manufacturing Company of Mt. Vernon, Illinois, were the principle providers of the steel circus and carnival flat cars. In 1926, both these companies were competing heavily to get circuses and carnivals to convert from the 60 foot cars to their new 70 and 72 foot flats. Two other companies produced limited amounts of steel show flat cars, Keith provided cars similar in appearance to those manufactured by Warren to the Hagenbeck-Wallace and the Sells-Floto circuses in the 1920s. The other company was the Thrall Car Company of Chicago which built five flat cars in 1947 for RBBB. Ringling Brothers Circus stayed with the wooden flats longer than the other circus, using them into the late 1920s, beginning the conversion to Warren flats in 1928. The last of the wooden flats, which originated with the 101 Ranch Wild West Show, were used by the Bill Hames Carnival in the 1940′s.

The 70 foot Mount Vernon flat cars can be distinguished by the pot belly sides with ribs.

The 72 foot Warren flat car had no ribs and gently arcing sides on both top and bottom. A typical Warren flat car measures 73 feet over the couplers, seventy feet for the bed, and 9′ 9 1/4″ in width.

Stock Cars

Stock cars were 72 feet long and of two basic types. One was designed for the horses and ring stock and the other for the elephants, or in circus parlance, “bulls.” Like the flat cars, most stock cars were built by the Warren Tank Car Company or Mount Vernon Car Manufacturing.

The cars used to transport the bulls had solid sides and small windows for ventilation near the top of the car since the elephants were susceptible to pneumonia. They were also about a foot taller than the other stock cars and had larger doors positioned directly across from each other in the center of the car. The elephants were usually positioned in three pairs at each end of the car and another elephant could be loaded at the center of the car, facing a door. Thus, each bull car could carry 12 or 13 adult elephants. If a circus did not have this many bulls, one end of the car might be outfitted with bunks for the “bullmen,” or elephant handlers.

Before tractors and trucks were in widespread use, the circus carried two types of horses. Baggage stock were the draft horses used to move the wagons between the train and the lot and in the show parade and the ring stock which were the horses that performed in the show. Rail cars which carried ring stock were equipped with individual stalls for each horse. Baggage stock did not have stalls, but were loaded side by side, always in the same spot, in each end of the car. Since the baggage stock would be needed immediately at the next city, they were carried with their harnesses on. Chains were hung from the roof of the car with a hook on the end. The horse’s collar was attached to the hook to relieve the weight around its neck. The harnesses were only removed from the baggage horses at the horse tops (stable tents) on the show lot during the day. Each stock car had troughs running the length of the car so that the horses could be fed in route during long hauls. Each trough had a lid with a chain attached. The chain ran to a handle in the roof and during the trip, the attendants would walk along the roof and raise the trough lids to feed the horses. The loading ramps for cars that carried ring stock had sides, but those for baggage stock did not since the harnesses and collars had a tendency to catch the rails as the stock was loaded or unloaded. The ramps were stored on racks located under the car during a jump.

A typical stock car could carry about 27 baggage horses or 32 ring stock. Ponies and other small animals could be double decked so that no space was wasted. If there was still extra space inside, it was used to store extra supplies of programs, tickets, and concession items. Doors on these cars were offset on each side, that is not across from each other. This permitted loading the entire length of the car with stock, no wasted space in the center of the car as there would be if the doors were directly across from each other.

Into the 1920s, most stock cars were wooden, including the ends. With the arrival of the steel flats, the ends of the stock cars became more solid as they were made from corrugated steel. The stock cars used by the Ringling Bros. today are converted from former passenger cars and are equipped with automatic, temperature controlled watering devices and air conditioning. (See Photo)

Coaches and Unique Passenger Cars.

Although a very few shows bought new coaches for their personnel, most carnivals and circuses purchased obsolete or at least, used, railroad equipment. Almost without exception, any coach coming into the shows rolling stock lineup was immediately gutted of everything that the Pullman company had installed.

The circus had a very strict employee caste system and this was no more pronounced than in personnel sleeping assignments on board the train. Featured performers and key personnel were often assigned a stateroom or perhaps even a half or third of a car. Some of the larger shows might even have a private coach for the owner or star performer (See photo), such as Tom Mix on the Cole Bros. train. The Ringling train carried two private cars, one for John Ringling, “The Jomar“, and another for Charles Ringling, “The Caledonia“. However, these were the rare exceptions. Most of the circus coaches were filled top to bottom with berths. An individual’s assignment in the circus and length of employment dictated the assigned berth. A newcomer, or “First of May” in show parlance, might be assigned the top berth. Working men might be assigned two to a bunk. These cars were not air conditioned and many a circus and carnival worker chose to sleep on an open flat, beneath the wagons, on a hot summer night. The same premise held true for carnivals although they didn’t have the rigid caste system of the circuses. Bosses and their families that were part of the office hierarchy such as the Ride Superintendent, Train Master or Lot Man could be assured a better stateroom appointment while the “Roughies” and “Ride Monkeys” could expect a plywood bunk in a gutted out former coach with a shared toilet at the end of the car. Since there was no air-conditioning, these coaches could usually be identified by the smell that emanated from them, especially during the hot summer months. There were no porters on most carnival trains.

Coaches were assigned by circus department, for example, band members might be assigned to one car, performers and staff to another, clowns to another, and so forth. Single girls were assigned to a separate car which became nicknamed “the virgin car.”

The porter assigned to each car was not only the housekeeper, but the law on the car. He enforced the rules and settled disputes. He also was the mailman and ran errands for the occupants of his car. For these duties, he was tipped quite handsomely from his “charges.”

In 1947, RBBB had taken possession of surplus hospital cars purchased from the government following World War II. These cars were converted for use by the circus. (The Monon Railroad’s coaches for trains like the Thoroughbred were also converted hospital cars.) In 1986, three of these converted hospital cars were seen in a Tampa, FL, scrap yard awaiting demolition. One of these hospital cars, Advertising Car No. 1, is preserved at the Circus World Museum in Baraboo, WI.

In later years, most of the RBBB circus coaches had hot water and showers. Each had a porter assigned whose responsibility was to make up the beds and keep the car clean. One car had short berths for the midgets as well as special berths for the fat lady and giant. One car was designated for the single women of the show and had a “car mother” assigned to look after the girls; another was set up for families; and another for the single men. Unlike most other railroad shows, every working man had his own berth. The early circus coaches some times had berths three high; some shows had a single berth at the top of the car and a double berth below in which two workers slept.

Unique Rail Cars.

In 1936, Ringling Brothers added a hospital car, Number 99, called the “Florence Nightingale” to the circus train. This luxury traveled with the show for only one year.

In 1949, Ringling Brothers added a laundry car with commercial laundry equipment to do the shows dry cleaning and laundry.

John Ringling’s private car, Jomar, had a cook, valet, and secretary who stayed with the car even with John Ringling was not on the show. It contained a living room, staterooms, full sized bathroom, dining room, kitchen, and quarters for the chef and butler. This car reportedly cost John Ringling $100,000, not a small sum in 1921. Today this car can be seen, fully restored to it’s former splendor, as a static exhibit at the Ringling Museum in Sarasota Florida. It is an absolutely beautiful and magnificent piece of show history.

Pie Car.

The Pie Car is the closest thing the show train has to a railroad diner or club car. The Pie Car served as the social gathering place while the train was in route. Sometimes, the operation was let out as a concession and on other shows it was run the by the shows management. The Pie Car offered short-order food and some had a bar. Show personnel could usually find a game of cards or dice in progress in the Pie Car. The Pie Car did not always serve full meals for the show people on many shows. One exception was the Nickel Plate Shows which had no cookhouse and fed its personnel three meals per day in the Pie Car. The Pie Cars on today’s Red and Blue Units of the Ringling Bros. Circus are dining cars and a large portion of those shows’ personnel eat their meals in the Pie Car. However, these modern day Pie Cars still offer short orders from an early breakfast to a midnight snack.

Advance or Advertising Car.

The advance car went well ahead of the show, usually as part of the back end of a passenger consist. It was usually identified by the flamboyant, bright and artistic paintwork it carried. This car was designed to be noticed. (See photo) It’s function was to alert the population of the area of the shows arrival. The advance car, in addition to sparse living accommodations, had large wooden tables and reams of “bills” ( bright and colorful posters) that could range in size from a window card to a ‘multi sheet’ that could cover the entire side of a building or barn. The stories regarding the escapades of the advance teams are the stuff of legends as they often pasted their bills over every surface possible despite the property owners objections.

“Goliath” Car

In 1928, Ringling featured a sea elephant, named Goliath. The previous year, the Warren company had built Ringling a modified stock car for a white elephant which had been exhibited in 1927. This car had an off-center dividing wall which divided the car into a short and long end. In 1928, Ringling installed a large water tank in the short end of the car for Goliath, and filled the long end of the car with regular elephants. When Goliath was returned to the car each day, his specially built flatbed wagon was backed up to an extra door on this customized stockcar and Goliath would enter his private compartment. This specially modified car presented problems during transportation since the sloshing of Goliath in the tank and the movement of the water would cause the car to sway and frequently derail. This car was on the Ringling circus train for four years and traveled a fifth year with the Ringling owned Sells-Floto Circus train.

The Circus Train

From Wikipedia

A circus train is a modern method of conveyance for circus troupes. One of the larger users of circus trains is the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus (RBBX), a famous American circus formed when the Ringling Brothers Circus purchased the Barnum and Bailey Circus in 1907.

In 1872 the P.T. Barnum Circus had grown so large that it was decided that they would only play at large venues, and that they would travel by train. P.T. Barnum had two of his partners, William Cameron Coup and Dan Costello, come up with a system to load the circus wagons on to railroad flat cars. Using a system of inclined planes, called runs, and crossover plates between cars, they developed a system of ropes and pulleys, along with a snubber post to get the wagons on and off of the flat cars. They used horses to pull the wagons up the run and then would hitch a second team to pull it down the run cars (flats). The off loading was much the same as loading, but a snubber post was used to help break the wagons' descent down the run. That system, first used in 1872, is still used today by the RBBBC, although through more modern methods

When the circus switched to travel by train they began by using flatcars from the Pennsylvania Railroad, which turned out to be hazardous because the Pennsylvania Railroad's cars were in poor shape. In mid-season it was decided that they would buy their own cars, and when the P.T. Barnum Circus left Columbus, Ohio, it traveled on the first circus-owned train. It was made up of sixty cars, including forty-five flatcars carrying about 100 wagons.

Circus trains have proven well-suited for the transportation of heavy equipment (tents, rolling wagons, vehicles and machinery) and animals (elephants, lions, tigers and horses), despite tragic accidents over the years.

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circuses separately and together grew to dominate live entertainment through their frequent purchases of many other American circuses. In modern times, they travel in two circus trains, the blue unit and the red unit, following an alternating two-year schedule to bring a new show to each location once a year. The RBBB circus trains are more than one mile (1.6 km) in length, and include living quarters for the performers and animal keepers. There are also special stock cars for the exotic animals and flatcars for the transportation of circus wagons, equipment, and even a bus used for local transportation at performance sites.

Another, the last operating carnival train in the United States, is operated in the east by Strates Shows.

Circus trains have always been enjoyed by the populace because of their unusual nature and photogenic qualities. Railfans monitor the annual movements of circus trains quite closely; weekends see pending train-runs of both RBBB Circus Trains, as well as the Strates Carnival train, posted on websites such as "Trainorders.com.

Conklin Shows was the largest traveling amusement corporation in North America. The 75-year-old company operated traveling carnivals at various summer agricultural shows across North America and is based in Brantford, Ontario and formerly also in West Palm Beach, FL. The company has a long history in Canada, providing entertainment for generations of kids and adults. The organization used to operate the midway services for some of Canada's largest summer fairs including the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto, the Calgary Stampede, and Edmonton's K-Days. In 2004, Conklin Shows International route and equipment were sold to North American Midway Entertainment.

Two of the remaining companies, World's Finest Shows and Conklin Super Shows, still are part of the Conklin Group of Carnival Companies. World's Finest Shows route includes more than 60 fairs, all in Ontario, Canada. They are both based in Ontario, Canada.

Conklin Shows as it was known in Canada and the US, now operates under N.A.M.E. The carnival provides the midway at fairs and exhibitions, including, Miami, Florida s Miami-Dade County Fair, Edmonton, Alberta s K-Days Calgary, Alberta's Calgary Stampede and Toronto, Ontario s CNE, The Canadian National Exhibition.

Conklin Shows was founded by James Wesley "Patty" Conklin, (b. 1892 in Brooklyn New York and raised by adopted parents — the Conklins). He got his start as a sideshow host at Coney Island in the early 1900s. By 1915 he was running his own gambling games at various midways across the southern United States.

In 1916 Patty Conklin joined up with his adopted father and established Clark & Conklin Shows. Lasting four seasons playing at various shows around the mid west, the company folded after the death of the father.

In 1921 Patty moved the show north to play at the Winnipeg Exhibition. Due to a problems with the fair, their participation was canceled. While returning to the United States with a train car full of prize merchandise, Patty stumbled upon a show just outside of Winnipeg. They joined up with the operator of the fair, International Amusement Company and worked all of the remaining Canadian shows that year.

After working the road hosting small fairs coast to coast for 20 years, Conklin Shows bid on and won the midway contract for the 1937 Toronto Canadian National Exhibition, which the company won. The fair, one of the largest in the world, was a prized show.

Having the CNE contract helped turn it into a profitable company In the early 1950s Conklin Shows borrowed over half a million dollars and began to build permanent attractions on the CNE fairgrounds of Exhibition Place. In 1953 they constructed the Mighty Flyer, a wooden rollercoaster, that lasted until the early 1990s.

The early 1970s saw the company begin to diversify, including establishing Maple Leaf Village (now Casino Niagara) in Niagara Falls Ontario along with running a venue at the base of the CN Tower in Toronto.

In 1975 Conklin Shows biggest rival, Royal American was banned from Canada due to tax evasion. So by 1976, Conklin won all of the contracts previously held by the competitor - including the Calgary Stampede and Vancouver Pacific Exhibition.

The 80s and 90s were a time of growth for Conklin as it operated across the prairies with stops in Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary, Regina and Saskatoon. It also opened up a number of smaller fairs as well as provided a schedule and route for many smaller independent shows such as Lauther Amusements and Billy Truax Amusements. These companies although bound by contracts to the larger Conklin Shows operated as separate shows.

Conklin also added many of its super spectaculars, some of which were never seen north of the border. Conklin was the first and only show in North America to have a traveling double loop roller coaster which took 28 trailers to move. This mammoth coaster named "The Doppel Looper" only made the trip as far north as Toronto and even this was not financially feasible after the late 90s. Along other rides that were one of a kind in a traveling carnival, were the Drop of Fear, the G-Force, and The Mark 1 roller coaster.

As time progressed Conklin began to show signs of financial strain that was synonymous with the entire traveling carnival industry. Favorites such as the Zipper and Octopus as well as The Kamikaze and Rainbow were phased out and sold as cost-cutting measures. Independents that had long traveled as a part of Conklin Shows were also phased out as a cost-cutting measure. Finally other rides such as the Drop of Fear and the Wildcat roller coaster were phased out as cost-cutting measures and allowed to be sold to competing companies and shelved in West Palm Beach.

Finally, Conklin Shows joined with the former Farrow Shows from Jackson Mississippi, Thebault-Blomsness (Astro Amusements and All Star Amusements), and former President and CEO of Ticketmaster Group, Frederic Rosen, to form the newly minted North American Midway Entertainment Co. or N.A.M.E. N.A.M.E. Website. This became official in Columbia South Carolina in 2004. In January 2006, N.A.M.E. also acquired Mid America Shows Press Release, and several contracts and rides from Cumberland Valley Shows.