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"Big Tent" shows were very popular events in Washington in the city's early days. Before the days of moving pictures, automobiles, and even affordable photography, these shows were one of the only ways for most Washingtonians to see anything out of the ordinary. Exotic animals, stylish entertainment, uproarious comedy, freak humans, classic theater, and even mysticism were all made available to the wonderment of families in town. Most of these shows occurred on North Main Street in the general area of what is now Sweitzer Park and the police station.
One of the earliest contemporary descriptions of Washington describes a show. In the 1830's, Eliza Farnham's family arrived in Tazewell County. Soon after they arrived in the area, the family attended an exhibit of the "Zoological Institute and Grand Corps of Equestrians" in Washington. She describes the scene below in her memoir: Life In the Prairie Land:
It contained an elephant, two camels, a Numidian lion, a royal Bengal tiger, and several other less important personages, all whose claims were duly set forth; in addition to which, the "Grand Equestrian Corps" would exhibit the "most remarkable acts of horsemanship,' and "Messrs. Sands and Turner would perform some of the most striking feats of physical agility ever witnessed."
The Zoological Association out of New York began in 1835 with several traveling menageries of animals. The one that came to Washington was under the care of Richard Sands and Aaron Turner, two men considered pioneers of the American circus and contemporaries of P.T. Barnum. A description follows of the Zoological Institute written by researcher Matthew Wittman:
A capital stock company created in January 1835 by a group of showmen and investors in Somers, New York. The conglomeration combined the resources of some dozen menageries and three circuses, whose appraised value in conjunction with cash raised from issuing stock gave the corporation $329,325 in total capital. A board of directors was put in charge of apportioning resources and prescribing routes for its constituent units, which included circus and menagerie combinations, and the Zoological Institute managed thirteen of the twenty shows that toured the United States during the 1835 season. As a purveyor of popular entertainment, it was unprecedented in its size and organization. Despite its initial success, the association floundered amid the Panic of 1837.
Tent shows in Washington would undoubtedly continue and increase with the railroad construction in the 1870s, although no records of these shows exist. The next tent shows we have records of occurred in the summer of 1893 when the "Reynolds Colossal Railroad Show" came to town in July.
The Reynolds shows traveled throughout the Midwest in 1893 from Ohio to South Dakota to Arkansas, but no records can be found of them existing before or after that year.
A month later, Mullen's Railroad Show came to town and cost 25 cents a show, cheaper than the larger shows. The Mullen show could only be found in the Midwest in 1893. 25 cents in 1893 was the equivalent of almost $9 today.
Sands' Great American Exhibitions toured only in 1895. They started in Illinois in April and ended on the East Coast in October.
Glick's Circus arrived in town in 1900. We need help finding further information on this group.
Based in Lexington, Illinois, The Terry Company began performing Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1890 and made multiple appearances in Washington over a decade. This ad is from 1901.
The Gilpins were a married couple whose main schtick was hypnotizing someone from the town over the phone four days before their arrival and waking them up at their show. This ad from 1910 represents their only known Washington appearance, their first year of touring, even though their billings claimed they had been doing so for many years prior. The Gilpins continued touring the Midwest until around 1915.
The Jessie Colton Show was the most popular big tent show to come to Washington, and it appeared for at least ten years straight (1910-1919). Bert Richardson and Jesse Colton married in 1895 and developed the Jessie Colton Show, which operated out of Orion, Illinois, where they made their home. Rehearsals commenced every spring, and they toured the Midwest every summer over roughly the same circuit. Their show consisted of three 20-minute one-act plays performed by mostly family members. The group performed from around 1900-1925, when Jessie and Bert retired. The children continued the performances until around 1931, when the Great Depression and talking pictures ended their run.
1910 also saw the appearance of the Callahan Dramatic Co. in Washington. They were a widely touring group for many years.
The Sights Stock Company was the final hurrah for James W. Sights and his wife in the theater business when they came to Washington in 1911, just one year before the end of their business. Prior to this, they spent at least 15 years as actors in the Dakotas and Wisconsin.
We have not found out who put on this production in 1912.
Robbins was a long-time East Coast circus man who had been putting on shows since at least 1880. He came to Washington in 1912 and spent almost his entire professional career in the East, rarely coming to Illinois.
William Wamsher was also a long-time performer, but he came from the West even though he called his productions the Eastern Theatre Company. His troupe appeared in Washington in 1915.
The Cairns group was a family of seven brothers from Decatur, IL, who toured with their large ensemble. One of the brothers, Roy, later taught music at Lacon High School in the 1940s.
Mutt and Jeff was an early popular comic strip, and the duo performed live all over the country. It is unknown who performed in Washington in 1925, but it was the last known big tent performance in town.
There were many contributing factors to the demise of the big tent show. Moving pictures first appeared in Washington as early as 1900 and became much more frequent with the opening of the Airdome and Lyric Theaters in 1914. Around that same time, vehicle production rates were skyrocketing, allowing Washingtonians more convenient access to Peoria. With these modernizations hitting our town, the big tent show may have become trite and not as profitable of a stop for the touring companies. Big tent shows would continue their summer swings throughout the country but were pretty much wiped out by the Great Depression in the early 1930s.
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