Bert Bowers

From the list of elephant persons Family: Bowers

Bert Bowers
Bert  Bowers

Personal details
Country United States

Locations
Title owner 1920-1929
Location at Sells-Floto Circus in United States

Title owner 1918-1929
Location at Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus in United States

Title owner 1904-
Location at Van Amburgh Circus (Mugivan & Bowers) in United States

Title owner-1929
Location at American Circus Corporation in United States

Biography details

Bert Bowers , circus director in United States

Born ? in United States .

Records about Bert Bowers from William "Buckles" Woodcocks Blog at http://www.bucklesw.blogspot.com/
In 1904 two "Lucky Boys" Jerry Mugivan and Bert Bowers, fielded their first circus out of Kansas City on 10 rented cars and was called "The Great Van Amburg Show." Their menagerie consisted of one lion, two wolves and some wild life.

Later in the season George Hall Jr. joined the show with his side show that included "Pearl" and other performing animals. Hall stayed most of the season and the Van Amburg Show survived, even showing a nice profit. Mugivan and Bowers were off and running.

These two gentlemen along with Edward Ballard were owners of the American Circus Corporation. These were the five circuses they owned in 1929.

Hagenbeck- Wallace Circus- C.D. Odom Manager
30 railroad cars, 13 elephants- Cheerful Gardner Supt.

Sells-Floto Circus- Zack Terrell Manager
30 railroad cars, 11 elephants- Clyde Baudendistl Supt., Emory Stiles Menagerie Supt.

Al G. Barnes Circus- Buster Cronin Manager
30 railroad cars, 9 elephants- E.W. Jackson Supt.

John Robinson Circus- Jess Adkins Manager
25 railroad cars, 12 elephants- Ferris Cline Supt., Bert Noyes Menagerie Supt.

Sparks Circus- H.B. Gentry Manager
20 railroad cars, 9 elephants- Walter McLain Supt.

This shows the magnitude of their operation, fielding a combined total of 135 cars of circus equipment and 54 elephants, far outsizing Ringling Bros.- Barnum & Bailey Circus.

All of this was sold to John Ringling on Sept. 10, 1929 just weeks before the Stock Market Crash.

William "Buckles" Woodcock


The successor company of the American Circus Company was sold by Jerry Mugivan, Bert Bowers and Ed Ballard to John Ringling of Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey in 1929 for $2 million, along with the Al G. Barnes Amusement Co., Sells-Floto Circus Co., John Robinson Circus Shows, and Sparks Circus Co. With that acquisition,
John Ringling controlled virtually every travelling circus in America.

Reference list

References

Koehl, Dan, (2024). director Bert Bowers in United States. Elephant Encyclopedia, available online retrieved 29 March 2024 at https://www.elephant.se/person.php?id=511. (archived at the Wayback machine)

Sources used for this article is among others:


Selected publications

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Categories director | circus | Sells-Floto Circus | Bowers family | Born ? | People from United States

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