The Ricky Jay Collection Part III

[CIRCUS - SATIRE]. Greatest Show On Earth. Most Stupendous Concatination of Curios, Cranks, Freaks and Fakes Ever Gathered Together Under One Canvas. [Columbus, Ohio, ca. 1900]. Tall one-color pictorial letterpress broadside playbill on yellow stock satirizing a fictitious circus in Ohio, bearing several wood-engraved images depicting open-mouthed hippopotami, various equestrian demonstrations with trick riders, as well as groups of seals, cranes, and elephants performing tricks. The text parodies the hyperbolic and outsized language utilized on the playbills of popular traveling circuses and sideshows of the day: “watch our many men with iron jaws and monumental cheek, several with well defined ‘bores’ from the wilds of Columbus, most glittering array of fore-flushers ever gathered together,” and “gaze upon our simultaneous presentation of processional, arenic, scenic and caravanic splendor around the hippodromatic circle, among other novelties, Indians, Zodas, Aztecs, Botodudos, Zazas and members of Ohio legislature, N. B. The latter secured at great cost, as it comes high to ‘see ‘em’.” Mock broadsides such as this were typically produced to lampoon political candidates and elections. 28 ¾ x 5 ¾”. Horizontal creases and small tears, losses to right edge, old scrapbook material to upper verso. UNCOMMON.