Hubley's Circus

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Hubley's Circus

     I'm sure every kid who now is 60 plus years young has been to the circus. My mother took us - the twins (Brenda and Michael)  to the old Montreal Forum to see the circus. My other brother Jay was not born yet or was too young. If you have been fortunate to have lived to be 90 plus years young, and are American, you probably might have been fortunate enough to have seen the circus in a big field outside of your city. A long time ago,circuses (early 1900's) would travel by  wagons from town to town. Later, the trains moved them across America, and Canada. Of course, back then Canada was and still is "small" in population compared with America, so the circus came here once a year. The span of Canada is 3000 plus miles with perhaps 6 big cities at the time of the 1950's and much earlier. In the USA, a circus could gravel within a radius of 500 miles, and visit 40 largers-sized American cities!  I can't remember when the last time the circus came to town here in Montreal. Of course times have changed, there are many former circus animals on the endangered species list, and  animal advocated see the circus as a form of cruelty to animals.

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    Hubley's circus was based on a caged van or wagon (depending on the toy description for the listing). It was made of cast iron and pressed steel (or tin) , again depending on the written description. There were 3 variations of the gate (entrance) to the cage. There is the rear, the rarer side, and the rear and side entrances together. Some of the rarer vans of course yield larger final winning bids, but a nice example of these 1920 toys can be had for 500.00 US (as of the dates that I downloaded the photographs.

   Personally, the colours of toys from that era and later always fascinates me. They're bold and primary, and certainly catch your attention. Moreover, parts of the toys were hand painted  and these would include the gold trim, and of course the animals, and driver.  Another thing to notice is that these toys are large and heavy.

Of course, the other cast iron companies of the time (circa 1920's) also made similar toys, and what would my blog be, if I didn't investigate those other toys further!

It's raining here in Montreal, and if the circus was in town, I'm sure many kids would be asking their parents to go, if of course, they know what a circus was. For sure, their grandparents would have known!

Thanks for visiting,

and have a great part of the day or night,

wherever yo umay be,

Stacey

write to me anytime at:

 toysearcher@gmail.com