1950s Marx Circus Sideshow Playset

Here's another carnival-themed vintage toy that is, by today's standards, generally considered egregiously offensive. But it was phenomenally popular back in its day (the 1950s), when it allowed children the opportunity to run their own freak show!

The Marx Super Circus was a huge playset of plastic figures and tin litho structures that included a big top, ticket booth, circus performers both human and animal, and visitors. It also came with a two piece sideshow, complete with lithographed banners and a variety of plastic freaks.

My sideshow has only one  left: Chang and Eng, the famous real-life Siamese twins after whom all subsequent "siamese twins" have been named. (There's a great article about Chang and Eng, with lots of historical photographs, here.




The tin lithography on these pieces is really great and worth a closer look:

Vintage Cracker Jack Prize: Sideshow Panorama

I was fortunate to grow up in the 1970s, the last decade of really good Cracker Jack prizes, before those pesky "safety regulations" took effect. The best Cracker Jack prizes, though, are even older, like this one which dates from around the 1950s. The tiny paper booklet, about the size of a matchbox, separates into individual pictures, which, when connected via tabs and slots, create an astounding carnival sideshow panorama.

The assembled panorama looks like this:



Here are some closeups of the pictures. Each has a description of the performer and some interesting historical information on the back:

All in all, a pretty amazing "free" prize!

Vintage Circus & Sideshow Pop-Up Book

I found this amazing pop-up book last summer. Published in 1944, it features incredible 3-D scenes of a circus, complete with a sideshow. (Oh, how times have changed...can you imagine the freak show spread in a children's book of today?)

Musical Fisher Price Circus Wagon

Here's another vintage Fisher Price circus piece: the musical Circus Wagon, made in the early 1940s. The wooden pull toy measures about 13 inches long. As it's pulled, the band leader's arms move up and down, as if he's playing the pipe organ, and a melodious song plinks and plonks. The lithographed paper features wonderful anthropomorphic pipes and an elephant who looks suspiciously like an unlicensed "Dumbo" film clone.

Chein Ferris Wheel

Made in the 1930s by the Chein company, this tin litho ferris wheel is 16 inches tall. The little cars have images of children riding in them, and the center spoke bears the ride's name, "Hercules," along with a fabulous smiling face. This toy just makes me happy whenever I look at it.

 Here it is in its natural habitat, my display of circusy toys.