Adam Forepaugh

Forepaugh was born into poverty in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to John A. Forbach, a butcher, and Susannah Heimer. He began working in a butcher shop at age 9, earning $4 a month.[2] He left home on the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad to Cincinnati, where he worked in cattle appraising and managing stagecoach lines. He moved to New York City and formed a livestock and horse trading business. He became the largest purveyor of horses in New York state and earned a reputation as an expert judge of horses.[3]

Forepaugh ran a successful business selling horses to street railway companies. He purchased old "nags" from one streetcar company, allowed the horses to rejuvenate on an island in the Schuylkill River, and then sold the horses at a higher price to a different streetcar company.[4] Forepaugh’s horse selling enterprise during the American Civil War became his most lucrative business venture. The war made horses scarce and therefore very valuable. He became wealthy selling horses to the U.S. government.[3]

Forepaugh entered the circus business in 1864, when he sold 44 horses to John V. "Pogey" O'Brien for $9,000 to use in the Tom King Excelsior Circus. O'Brien could not repay the loan and Forepaugh assumed partial ownership of the circus. The next year, he and O'Brien purchased the Jerry Mabie Menagerie and created two circuses with their combined assets: The Great National Circus and the Dan Rice Circus. Forepaugh sold the Great National Circus and renamed the Dan Rice Circus as his own name.

His circus toured 250 or more days each year and employed over 400 performers and workmen.[5] His annual average profit exceeded $300,000.[6]

Forepaugh was different from most of his fellow circus operators. Already independently wealthy when he entered the circus business, he was much less a showman and much more a businessman—a stark contrast to P. T. Barnum and the Ringling Brothers. He was intimately involved in all aspects of the circus business. He would regularly seat himself at the main entrance into the circus, a vantage point that ensured that his face was seen by all and from which, it was rumored, he could estimate the night's receipts to hold his employees accountable.[7] Through the 1870s and into the 1880s, Forepaugh and P. T. Barnum had the two largest circuses in the nation. Forepaugh had more animals than Barnum and generally paid higher salaries to the much-favored European talent. The two men constantly fought each other over rights to perform in the most-favored venues.[8]

They signed truces in 1882, 1884, and 1887, dividing the country into exclusive territories to avoid disputes.[9] But at least twice, they decided to pool their resources and perform together. In 1880, Forepaugh and Barnum combined their shows for a Philadelphia engagement. In 1887, Forepaugh obtained permission to perform in Madison Square Garden, a venue that Barnum considered to be exclusively his but had forfeited by his neglect to renew his contract.[7] A compromise was negotiated, and once again the two circuses presented a combined performance in the largest circus performance to date.[10]

In 1889, Forepaugh sold his circus acts to James Anthony Bailey and James E. Cooper and sold his railroad cars to the Ringling Brothers.[11] The Ringlings used the equipment to transform their circus from a small animal-powered production to a huge rail-powered behemoth, which later purchased the Barnum & Bailey Circus. Thus, in liquidating his circus assets, he indirectly contributed to the demise of his arch-rival.

In her 1932 biography, Mary Elitch Long—the first woman to own a zoo—commented on purchasing animals from Forepaugh:

"Fine specimens were purchased from Forepaugh's collections and other sources, and a standing order placed with importers of rare and unusual creatures. P.T. Barnum was a frequent visitor during this summer and took a personal pride in this feature."[12]

Business practices

Light of Asia poster, 1884

The American circus business in this period was known for its unscrupulous business practices—practices of which Forepaugh was a willing participant. Forepaugh was also noted for his business acumen and marketing prowess, which made his circus profitable every year except one.[7]

An example of Forepaugh's unscrupulous methods was his rivalry with Barnum over Barnum's white elephant. Barnum had purchased, at great cost, an ostensibly white elephant, only to discover upon delivery that it was pink, with great spots. Forepaugh heard of this and saw an opportunity to one-up Barnum. He whitewashed a regular gray elephant, called it the "Light of Asia", and marketed it as the real thing.[13] To further illustrate the spirit of the business dealings between the two, a reporter who managed to sneak up and remove some of the whitewash from the "Light of Asia" to prove Forepaugh's fraud was able to sell this information to Barnum, instead of writing a story about it for his newspaper.[14]

Some of Forepaugh's methods were truly innovative, however. He was the first circus operator to separate the menagerie from the big ring in order to attract church goers who might be leery of the "sinful" attractions of circus acts, yet still desirous to see the exotic animals in the menagerie.[15]

Adam Forepaugh tombstone in Laurel Hill Cemetery

Forepaugh died January 20, 1890, in Philadelphia during the 1889–1890 flu pandemic and is buried in the family vault at Laurel Hill Cemetery.[3] Many local charities and churches in the Philadelphia area benefited from his estate, including Temple University, Morris Animal Refuge, St. Agnes, St. Luke's and Children's Medical Center.

After Forepaugh's death, his circus operations merged with the Sells Brothers Circus to form the Forepaugh-Sells Brothers' Circus in 1900.[18]

An article at the end of 1907 observed that the Ringling brothers intended to close the remains of their property, the former Forepaugh show, eighteen years after its original owner's death, and stop using the name and likeness which had "been seen oftener than that of any other American, dead or alive" by that writer's estimation.[19]

Forepaugh gave his name to Forepaugh Park, the 1890s baseball venue in Philadelphia.

In 2010, a young adult book Tombstone Tea[20] by Joanne Dahme takes place in Laurel Hill Cemetery and Forepaugh is one of the characters in the book.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Adam Forepaugh and Sells Brothers.

• Advertisement for Adam Forepaugh’s Circus in Athletic Park, Washington, DC, published in The National Republican, April 11, 1885
• Milner Library Illinois State University Digital Collections - Official Route 26th Annual Tour Adam Forepaugh Great All-Feature Show 1889
• New York Public Library Digital Collections - Adam Forepaugh