W.C. Coup

The era of train circuses truly begins with W.C. Coup. While several other attempts at moving shows by train had been made (Spaulding and Rogers of Floating Palace fame were among the first), Coup engineered a way to move wagons onto and off of railroad cars that made their usage easy and efficient enough to be practical. Up until the development of his "end loading method," cars were loaded from the side, wagon by wagon, a lengthy and work intensive process. Coup (who was also responsible for a new support pole design for the big top) invented a system of ropes and pulleys that would haul wagons onto the flat cars of a train and across a set of crossover plates between each car. Wagons could then be rotated sideways by roustabouts if necessary to pack a larger number of wagons per car. This loading method became the standard for rail shows and remained so until the decline of the rail circus.

Born in Mount Pleasant, Indiana in 1836, W.C. Coup was trained as a printer's apprentice. A lack of jobs in Terra Haute where he had moved in search of work lead him to sign on with Mabies' Grand Olympian Arena and U.S. Circus as a roustabout. He later went on to work with the well known Yankee Robinson Circus as a manager before retiring. That was, until Dan Castello, a former circus clown convinced him to partner with P.T. Barnum as general manager of P.T. Barnum's Great Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan, Hippodrome, and Circus in 1871. A year later, the show moved onto rails, shortening its name to P.T. Barnum's Great Traveling Exposition and World's Fair and using for the first time the "Greatest Show on Earth" slogan.

In the winter of 1872, the show stationed itself in New York City's Hippotheatron for the off season and December of that year, the building and much of the circus burned to the ground when the Hippotheatron caught fire. Perhaps most tragic was the loss of almost all of the show's menagerie animals. The show was rebuilt for the 1873 season and at season's end, Coup leased a new winter quarters between Fourth and Madison Avenue in New York, a property that would later become known as the first Madison Square Garden. The opening of the venue was attended by the largest crowd ever to assemble in a New York structure at that time, roughly 10,000 people.

Barnum and Coup eventually had a falling out when Barnum leased his name to less scrupulous investors in the show, namely John V. "Pogey" O'Brien, a notorious grift show operator. Coup would go on to open the Great New York Aquarium as well as the Coney Island Aquarium (also known as the Seaside Aquarium) before starting his Equescurriculum and later his New Monster Shows. In 1882 after a disastrous tour of Texas, the show's two trains collided outside Cairo, Illinois when one of the trains stalled on the tracks. Five train workers were killed and 20 others injured and the show was delayed so badly that advertising and the circus parade had to be cut at the subsequent three stops.

By the time of the final engagement in Detroit, Coup was so far in debt that he found himself unable to pay his employees leading to several law suits. Eventually Coup agreed to sell off what remained of his show (the largest circus and menagerie on rails at the time) in a massive auction organized by the Wayne County Sheriff's Department. Much of the show was purchased by other circuses but the location of the auction near Michigan Ave. and Tenth Street in Detroit's Corktown Neighborhood lead to the popular myth that some of the animals were later exhibited in Detroit's first zoo which was later built at the same location. A full exploration of the origins of the myth can be found at Paul Szewczyk's Corktown History blog.

After several attempted comebacks with smaller shows, Coup died, nearly penniless in Jacksonville, Florida. His autobiography, Sawdust and Spangles remains one of the best first hand accounts of the rail age circus, refusing to shy away from much of the brutality employed in capturing many menagerie animals and how they were often exploited on the road.

At this point I'd like to note that Wagon Tracks does not in any way condone the exploitation or abuse of wild and exotic animals in any way. The purpose of this blog is solely historical in nature and there are many successful modern circuses who are animal free, some of whom are listed at Born Free USA and PETA's website. Often in looking at any historical figure or subject we find both incredible accomplishments and entirely ignoble acts committed by the same person and the circus is no exception.