Beeson, Berta (Herbert "Slats" Beeson) | The Mad-Cap Whirlwind of Mid-Air

Beeson, Berta (Herbert "Slats" Beeson)

Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows. Berta Beeson, Sensational High Wire Artist. The Mad-Cap Whirlwind of Mid-Air. Cincinnati & New York: The Strobridge Litho. Co., 1920s (no. R-B-2840)

Color lithograph poster (42 x 28 1/8 in.; 1068 x 704 mm). Light horizontal fold crease, some marginal wrinkling, tears, and minor chips, some dampstaining at lower and right margins, rebacked with linen.

"Herbert 'Berta' Beeson was advertised by Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey as a female wire walker. … But the program also warned 'you expect a lot—and Boy, oh Boy, you get it.' … Beeson was the circus's answer to the performer 'Babette,' the American cross-dressing wire walker and aerialist who was the toast of 1920s Europe" (Circus).

REFERENCE:

Circus, p. 219