Thursday, March 27, 2008

SNAP WYATT, MILLARD & BULSTERBAUM, NEIMAN STUDIO SIDESHOW BANNERS











Welcome to the HORN'S COUNTRY STORE sideshow banner collection. All of these banners were "saved" from the dumpster in the early 1970's when the KING REID SHOW, owned and operated by REID LEFEVRE, was purchased by HARRY F. KOCH of Pennsylvania. While emptying the KING REID SHOW winter quarters, located in Vermont, in preparation for the move from Manchester, Vermont to a new winter quarters in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, we came across piles of vintage sideshow banners. HARRY decided they were worthless and directed us to toss them in the dumpster. My father, TOMMY HORN, couldn't bring himself to tossing all of them and saved a few. They were stored in his basement until his death in 1996. The oldest of the banners depicts "TWO WRESTLERS", and was painted by MILLARD & BULSTERBAUM on Coney Island. MILLARD & BULSTERBAUM operated in a shop on West 8th Street in Coney Island from 1915 until the end of the depression. Then there are five SNAP WYATT banners most likely painted in the 1940's or 1950's. Two of the SNAP WYATT banners are a pair. One of these shouts "KING REID PRESENTS: BOMBO - GREATEST HORSE OF ALL TIME"; while the other features "BOMBO" himself with three band members standing under him. The SNAP WYATT banner which shows a "PYTHON CONSTRICTING A STRUGGLING LEOPARD" shows the most action. The other two SNAP WYATT'S are a "ANTEATER" and a southwest looking scene featuring a "BUZZARD AND HUMAN SKULL" . There is also a banner for what must have been a monkey show or part of the act in a sideshow and painted by NEIMAN STUDIOS. Finally, there is an unsigned banner which surely is as old as the others advertising "WORLD'S FAMOUS CHAMPION LADY WRESTLERS"