Abell, Samuel Owen

Abell, Cooke, Ringmaster, Shanghai, Sydney

Nationality - American

Birth - USA, c. 1826 (aged 68 in 1894)

Marriage - Unknown

Death - Unknown, after 1894

Career - Cooke, Zoyara & Wilson’s Great World Circus, 1866-67, ringmaster Abell’s Circus, Shanghai, 1872, proprietor Matthew Bros, Abell, Klaer & Olman’s Circus, Calcutta, 1888, co-proprietor Abell & Klaer’s Great European Circus, Australia, 1893-94, co-proprietor Frank M. Clark’s Circus, Tasmania, 1895, ringmaster

Copyright - Sam Able [sic], Ringmaster, 1874 Courtesy: State Library of New South Wales, Sydney

Australian Tour, 1893-94

After touring ‘England’s Indian dependencies’ and Java for two years, 1892-93, Sam Abell & James Klaer’s Circus returned to Australia. Although tours of “the east” could be lucrative, many circus people succumbed to the scorching heat of the Indian sub-continent, or the scourges of cholera or malaria. Abell & Klaer landed their company at Thursday Island by the RMS Dorunda on 26 December 1893, and then proceeded down the coast of Queensland (1). Abell & Klaer’s visited Charters Towers, Mackay, Rockhampton, Maryborough and at Gympie before opening in Brisbane, as Abell & Klaer’s Great Oriental Circus, on 14 April 1894 (2).

The Mauritian gymnast Zinga and his wife Dezeppo Marie numbered amongst the company. At Bundaberg on 6 June 1894, Dezeppo Marie gave birth to a daughter named May Emmeline, one day to be known as May Wirth, the ‘world’s greatest lady bareback rider’ (3).

Abell & Klaer’s opened on the Haymarket Reserve, Sydney on Saturday, 29 September 1894 to a packed house. Six months had passed since the last visit of a circus to the city but the people were already hungry for another. On a platform over the entrance to the circus, the brass band serenaded the throngs gathered outside the huge tent in the hope of procuring a seat. The tent was a very large one, some 100 by 120 feet, sufficient to accommodate 3,000 people. Although Alfred St Leon was featured on the program in his somersault equestrian act, he and other well-known Australian riders were ‘put in the shade’ by the horsemanship of the Indian rider, Singh (4). Zinga, lying on his back, balanced a ladder on his feet while Dezeppo performed evolutions on, through and over it (5).

A few weeks later, Abell & Klaer’s Circus opened in St Kilda Road, near Prince’s Bridge, Melbourne (6). For showmen, Melbourne was the ‘boss show place’ of the Australian colonies, the place where their mettle was tested by a public more affluent and discriminating than any other in Australia (7). Despite Abell & Klaer’s success touring down the east coast of Australia, they were forced to file for insolvency only a few weeks after opening in Melbourne, their liabilities declared as £1,898 17s, offset by assets of only £1 (8). Fortunately, on his way from India, Abell had taken the precaution of investing heavily in Singapore real estate on ‘the off-chance of Australia proving a duffer’ (9).

  1. Brisbane Courier, 27 December 1893.
  2.  Charters Towers Times, 13 February 1894; Daily Mercury, 1 March 1894; Rockhampton Morning Bulletin, 15 March 1894; Maryborough Chronicle, 4 April 1894; Gympie Times, 6 April 1894; Brisbane Courier, 7 April 1894.
  3. Queensland, Registrar-General, Birth, 1894, #5944.
  4. Otago Witness, 18 October 1894.
  5. Sydney Morning Herald, 1 October 1894.
  6. Argus, 2 November 1894.
  7. Bulletin, 16 February 1905.
  8. Argus, 27 November 1894; Otago Witness, 31 January 1895.
  9. Bulletin, 29 December 1894.

Abell, Samuel Owen

Abell, Cooke, Ringmaster, Shanghai, Sydney

American

USA, c. 1826 (aged 68 in 1894)

Unknown

Unknown, after 1894

Cooke, Zoyara & Wilson’s Great World Circus, 1866-67, ringmaster Abell’s Circus, Shanghai, 1872, proprietor Matthew Bros, Abell, Klaer & Olman’s Circus, Calcutta, 1888, co-proprietor Abell & Klaer’s Great European Circus, Australia, 1893-94, co-proprietor Frank M. Clark’s Circus, Tasmania, 1895, ringmaster

Copyright - Sam Able [sic], Ringmaster, 1874 Courtesy: State Library of New South Wales, Sydney

Australian Tour, 1893-94

After touring ‘England’s Indian dependencies’ and Java for two years, 1892-93, Sam Abell & James Klaer’s Circus returned to Australia. Although tours of “the east” could be lucrative, many circus people succumbed to the scorching heat of the Indian sub-continent, or the scourges of cholera or malaria. Abell & Klaer landed their company at Thursday Island by the RMS Dorunda on 26 December 1893, and then proceeded down the coast of Queensland (1). Abell & Klaer’s visited Charters Towers, Mackay, Rockhampton, Maryborough and at Gympie before opening in Brisbane, as Abell & Klaer’s Great Oriental Circus, on 14 April 1894 (2).

The Mauritian gymnast Zinga and his wife Dezeppo Marie numbered amongst the company. At Bundaberg on 6 June 1894, Dezeppo Marie gave birth to a daughter named May Emmeline, one day to be known as May Wirth, the ‘world’s greatest lady bareback rider’ (3).

Abell & Klaer’s opened on the Haymarket Reserve, Sydney on Saturday, 29 September 1894 to a packed house. Six months had passed since the last visit of a circus to the city but the people were already hungry for another. On a platform over the entrance to the circus, the brass band serenaded the throngs gathered outside the huge tent in the hope of procuring a seat. The tent was a very large one, some 100 by 120 feet, sufficient to accommodate 3,000 people. Although Alfred St Leon was featured on the program in his somersault equestrian act, he and other well-known Australian riders were ‘put in the shade’ by the horsemanship of the Indian rider, Singh (4). Zinga, lying on his back, balanced a ladder on his feet while Dezeppo performed evolutions on, through and over it (5).

A few weeks later, Abell & Klaer’s Circus opened in St Kilda Road, near Prince’s Bridge, Melbourne (6). For showmen, Melbourne was the ‘boss show place’ of the Australian colonies, the place where their mettle was tested by a public more affluent and discriminating than any other in Australia (7). Despite Abell & Klaer’s success touring down the east coast of Australia, they were forced to file for insolvency only a few weeks after opening in Melbourne, their liabilities declared as £1,898 17s, offset by assets of only £1 (8). Fortunately, on his way from India, Abell had taken the precaution of investing heavily in Singapore real estate on ‘the off-chance of Australia proving a duffer’ (9).

  1. Brisbane Courier, 27 December 1893.
  2.  Charters Towers Times, 13 February 1894; Daily Mercury, 1 March 1894; Rockhampton Morning Bulletin, 15 March 1894; Maryborough Chronicle, 4 April 1894; Gympie Times, 6 April 1894; Brisbane Courier, 7 April 1894.
  3. Queensland, Registrar-General, Birth, 1894, #5944.
  4. Otago Witness, 18 October 1894.
  5. Sydney Morning Herald, 1 October 1894.
  6. Argus, 2 November 1894.
  7. Bulletin, 16 February 1905.
  8. Argus, 27 November 1894; Otago Witness, 31 January 1895.
  9. Bulletin, 29 December 1894.