Coming! Texas Ella Tent Show.: Texas Kid. Cowboys! Cowgirls! See Them Rope and Ride Them Horses! Wild West Show.

[Wild West Show] Coming! Texas Ella Tent Show. Texas Kid. Cowboys! Cowgirls! See Them Rope and Ride Them Horses! Wild West Show. [caption title] Continental, Ohio: Curtiss Shoprint. [Circa 1930s] One sheet 27 x 72 cm. Illustrated. Has been folded. Edge chips, stains, age toning. Good.

OCLC shows no holdings for this item. There is one holding of a similar item from this show (Autry Museum). Tent shows were popular in the rural areas of the United States during the first half of the twentieth century, particularly in the Southwest, South, and Midwest. Typically, these shows featured a three-act comedy or drama interspersed with "polite" vaudeville. Great emphasis was placed upon presenting inoffensive family entertainment; the master of ceremonies frequently boasted that nothing would be seen or heard that might offend the taste of the most fastidious. Unlike such suspect traveling attractions as the carnival and circus, tent shows found acceptance in these farming and ranching communities. - Handbook of Texas. A rare broadside advertising a tent show performance by Texas Ella and her traveling Wild West show. Texas Ella's troupe included the trick roper named the Texas Kid, January the "Famous Bucking Mule," a singer named Arizona Rose, and a blackface comedian named "Red Head Willie from Tail Holt, Texas," and a string band, all of whom are mentioned on the broadside. Interestingly, Red Head Willie is the only performer pictured here, in his typical blackface costume. Apropos to the times, but certainly incongruous to the modern day, the show is advertised as "A Clean Entertainment for the Whole Family."