Sells & Downs Shows

The Sells & Downs Shows was a 22-car traveling circus operated by Martin Downs which ended its 1905 run in Sylacauga on October 22 and wintered in Birmingham.

The production had survived a train wreck in Choctaw, Oklahoma in September 1902, and the theft of ticket receipts in its last run. Downs, motivated by an eagerness to enter into the wholesale liquor business in Toronto, Ontario, canceled all outstanding contracts and offered the entire show for sale at auction at Smith's Park on January 16-17, 1906.

The assets included tents, cookhouses, railroad cars, wagons, cages, a steam calliope and a costume wardrobe along with an animal menagerie consisting of 40 draft horses, 40 ring horses, 2 somersault horses, 2 finish horses, 2 four-horse acts, 2 thoroughbred manage horses, 2 mules for hurdle acts, 2 four-horse chariot teams, and 16 hippodrome horses along with 2 performing female elephants, 6 camels, 2 male African lions, 3 lionesses, 2 lion cubs, 1 jaguar, 3 hyenas, 3 bears, 1 nygaul, 1 llama, 1 axis deer, 4 American deer, 20 monkeys, 12 Australian macaws, 1 elk, and 5 snakes.

The winning bid of $35,000 was entered by C. H. Thompson, with a general sense that the auction was a disappointment, and further that Downs had arranged with another bidder, Durham, to back Thompson's bid as a means of removing Sells from the partnership.

For a while, the circus continued operating under its old name. Thompson hired circus mechanic Shanty Smith of Kansas City to supervise repairs and maintenance. In February it was reported that Punch Wheeler of Denver, Colorado was working on preliminary marketing for the 1906 Sells-Downs Shows. In March the Birmingham Board of Aldermen approved a permit for Sells & Downs to give performances in April to benefit the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks' charity fund. By the time of that show, however, it was given under the auspices of the Cole Brothers United Shows, with Downs as manager.

References

• "Showmen Die in Collision" (September 26, 1902) The Hermon News (Hermon, New York), p. 4
• "Will Winter in Birmingham" (December 1905) The Billboard
• "The Great Sells And Downs Show For Sale" advertisement (January 18, 1906) The Billboard, Vol. 18, No. 2 p. 19
• "Thompson's Circus" (January 22, 1906) The Birmingham Age-Herald, p. 5
• "The Sells-Downs Sale" (January 27, 1906) The Billboard, Vol. 18, No. 4, p. 16
• "Circus Gossip" (January 27, 1906) The Billboard, Vol. 18, No. 4, p. 17
• "Gossipy Notes" (February 10, 1906) The Billboard, Vol. 18, No. 6, p. 11
• "Big Shows Give Fine Performance." (April 14, 1906) The Birmingham News, p. 12