Visitors to the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in 1942 could purchase a 15-cent program with a color cover illustration by the New Yorker's most popular cartoonist, Peter Arno, who served as "art director" for "Circus King" John Ringling North, a fellow Yale man in the Class of 1926. That cover showed a pair of cartoon elephants standing upright and embracing playfully, not unlike many an Arno human couple. Inside the magazine, as the program was called, readers would find five full-page Arno cartoons on circus themes and some subject illustrations as well. Two of the cartoons—those featuring the bearded lady and the elephant's hindquarters—would later be collected in Peter Arno's Man in the Shower (1944). An eBay listing offers a few key interior views of the Circus Magazine, here generously supplemented by additional pages from other eBay listings as well.
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Peter Arno
Ringling Bros.–Barnum & Bailey Circus Magazine 1942 |
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 Fifteen cents—a bargain! |
The contents page begins by noting five cartoons by Peter Arno. The theme of the 1942 show was "Gayety!"
A better image from another source:
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Image added September 2, 2023 |
Let's start with the five cartoons first, noting right off that Arno didn't always leave all that much to the imagination:
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| "His wife says he eats firecrackers in bed." |
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| "Now, Arthur! No more remarks like that!" |
Arno also contributed interior illustrations:
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"The Human Side of the Circus" by Edwin C. Hill
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Program of Displays, Nos. 2 and 3
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"Work Refreshed" Display No. 4 "Holidays
Coca-Cola 1941 advertisement Display No. 5 The Shyrettos
Image added September 2, 2023 |
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Program of Displays, Nos. 7 and 8
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Trio of "North Starlets"
Mary Jane de Young Lee Wallenda Dorothy Burt |
Even bacon:
And oil:
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Peter Arno
eBay Listing Accessed January 13, 2020
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Peter Arno
eBay Item Description Accessed January 13, 2020 |
Note: Did you know this blog is the home to more than 125 posts about Peter Arno? He's a fascinating and nearly inexhaustible subject. Readers are invited to contribute original art and published rarities that will help to shed more light on this giant among New Yorker cartoonists.
The particular spelling of gayety, the theme of the 1942 circus, is an odd but not unheard-of choice today and it was a particularly odd but not unheard-of choice in 1942 as well.
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Gaiety vs Gayety
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