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Royal American
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Royal American
Shows |
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The Worlds Largest
and Most Brilliantly Illuminated Midway
Royal
American Shows in it's heyday was the largest and most respected
carnival midway of them all no one even came close. Royal
American Shows would set the pace for the entire carnival
industry for better than fifty years.
Carl J. Sedlmayr the undisputed
king of the carnival industry was born in Falls city, Nebraska
October 20,1886. At the age of eleven Carl was brought to Kansas
City, Missouri, to live after his father’s death in 1897.
The young Sedlmayr did not run away to join the circus, as did
that of many of his contemporaries. He worked in a drug store and
thought he might become a pharmacist. When he was fourteen he
tried "unsuccessfully" to get employment as such in
Omaha, Nebraska, and in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
Carl J. Sedlmayr's failure to get a job working in his "chosen" profession was fortunate for him. His was not the temperament to long endure the "closed in by four walls" atmosphere of a drug store. Perhaps it was a lucky chance that caused young Sedlmayr to read an advertisement wanting a salesman for fountain pens. Carl answered that ad and began to sell the new writing devices. On his selling trips he met several outdoor showmen and became interested in that business. He took his first summer job in the outdoor field in 1907, but continued to sell fountain pens in the winter months.
Carl was a talker on a sideshow at Chicago's Riverview Park, and he spent several years as a ticket seller and superintendent of tickets on the Campbell brothers, and Cole Brothers Circus's. He had the sideshow on the Coop & Lent Circus season of 1918, and booked the sideshow with Jim Patterson's Great Patterson Shows for the 1919 and 1920 seasons. His next connection was with another carnival with circus ties. The Siegrist-Silbon Shows was owned by the well-known Siegrist-Silbon families, the family began to borrow money from Carl and eventually reached the point where instead of repaying the debt, the owners of the Siegrist-Silbon Shows turned over the entire carnival to Carl and the Siegrist-Silbon families left for Australia that 1921 season.
Sedlmayr took over the equipment in the fall of 1921 and toured the show under its original title in 1922. In 1923 he coined a name for his new show Royal for Canada and American for the United States and Royal American Shows was born. In 1925 Carl J. Sedlmayr took Elmer and Curtis Velare as partners in his new enterprise. The three showmen were dedicated to the principle of carrying clean, high-class entertainment to the public. The carnival had always been "the poor mans entertainment" but now the motion picture theaters were catering to that same market, and a new source of competition radio, was free. Carnivals had the advantage over these competitors but few of them realized it but the partners in the Royal American did. They possessed the superior selling point of personal contact. Neither of the other media could let their patrons really feel the product they sold. Carnival midway patrons could feel and smell and even enter into all the amusements offered on that midway. They could participate in every activity on a carnival midway as they were breathing the crushed grass, wet sawdust and frying hamburger laden aroma of its sexy atmosphere. Royal American evaluated all factors that all carnivals had rides concessions and shows. But to stand out a midway must be made more inviting to its patrons, and they must be treated as patrons not as "marks" or "suckers". With this in mind a midway was planned to fit the requirements of its patrons and all efforts were applied toward creating it. It was a slow process, but it was accelerated by the acquisition of the Minnesota state fair to its route in the late twenties and the adding of the western Canada Class A Circuit of fairs in 1934. With those proven money makers on it's route, cash could be expended to build the midway that would be pleasing to all amusement lovers and the first step in the climb to being the greatest of them all had begun.
During the days of the depression Royal American would gain
supremacy over all other carnival midways by 1935 with the
exception of the war emergencies of the forties. In 1932 Royal
American purchased huge naval searchlights from the government.
These lights were the second step in the Royal American's climb
to the greatest of them all. Installed on the show grounds, the
roving beams from these lights could be seen forty to sixty miles
away. By 1935 the Royal American Shows was accepted as the leader
in the industry and continued in that position until it closed in
the early war years. When the title was again used, Carl J.
Sedlmayr emerged as the sole owner and continued as such for the
next twenty years. The show was moved with such punctual
precision that late openings and lost days were eliminated except
through train wrecks and "acts of God." As Sedlmayr
grew older, his one big problem was the fitting of his monster
midway onto the fairgrounds lots. This he continued to do
himself. 
Carl J. Sedlmayr prided himself a step that was exactly three feet no more no less. He disdained the use of a tape measure in laying out his midway. He would go to the next scheduled stop three days before the show was to arrive, leaving the management to his capable employees. He carefully stepped off the grounds and placed location stakes for all the shows, rides and concessions. When the train arrived, the equipment was located exactly between those stakes. One sure way of arousing the wrath of the boss was to tamper with one of the location stakes. Carl Sr. seen here with his grandson Carl J. Sedlmayr III teaching him how to lay out the lot.
Royal American ended its 1965 season in Shreveport, Louisiana as it had done for the last twenty-nine years; the show train had been brought back to its Tampa, Florida winter quarters. Everything was unloaded and stowed away under the direction of the C.J. Sedlmayr's Senior and Junior. The next night the family was to have dinner at the home of C.J. Junior as Mrs. Carl J. was in the hospital. C.J. and his family waited, but Carl Senior never showed up for dinner. When C.J. went to his fathers home he found him dead in bed were he had gone to get a little rest. He was gone but he left his midway in the highly capable hands of his son Carl J. Sedlmayr Jr. and C.J the III was being carefully groomed to follow his father and Grandfather on their beloved carnival.
Over twelve hundred showmen and friends crowded in and around the Greater Tampa Showman's clubrooms as funeral services were held for Carl J. Sedlmayr Sr. on November 9, 1965. A showman, a Protestant minister, and a Rabbi shared in the services as music from the great German pipe organ carried by the show was heard from the nearby winter quarters. The Rabbi, David L. Zielonka of the Schaarai Zedek Temple, summed up his concluding words the creed of Carl J. Sedlmayr and most of outdoor showmen. ... "In Mr. Sedlmayr's world there are no Catholics, Jews or Protestants- Just men of faith." His body was placed in a mausoleum at showmen's rest in Tampa, with full Masonic burial rites.
In 1967 Royal took a record number of persons into Western Canada. The manifests listed over eight hundred people along with livestock and equipment and over eighty railroad cars. By the 1971 season Royal American Shows carried the greatest number of flatcars ever carried by any traveling amusement organization in the world and it actually had several hundred feet more flatcar space than any other show in history. Each year Royal American continued to build the Show adding more and more. Eventually the show had enough power plants to power a city of 55,000 people, used more than 1,200 gallons of fuel a day and used more paint than it would take to cover 500 houses. The show used enough canvas to fully enclose a major league ballpark and a well-established route.
Royal American was like a traveling city with Carpenters, canvas men, electricians, painters, Full working machine shops with mills, lathes, drills, welders, mechanics, cookhouse, portable showers, mail department something so big it should have it's own zip code you name it Royal had it and usually first. As the train rolled through the cities and towns on its 12,000 mile tour of the leading fairs it seemed like the entire town and then some would show up to watch Royal go by. Everywhere it stopped Royal American Shows was the main event in town.
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The changing world and the changing times...
The changing world and the changing times have now caught up with Royal American Shows. Competition among Carnivals led to bidding for the most profitable spots, which led to the changing of it's routes now instead of 200 miles the show might have to travel 500 miles. Then things grew worse the carnival lost its Canadian route in 1977 during a tax evasion scandal that led to Carl Sedlmayr's arrest. Although Carl Jr. was fully exonerated, Royal American was now locked out of Canada.
The show was getting fewer dates at big fairs, and the cost of moving a 99 car train grew so high that in 1982 Royal American shows for the first time in it's history had to switch to trucks to move the show. This was a difficult transition with the rumors that this was the end of the line and so on. Most of the people that had traveled with Royal for years had abandoned ship and went to other shows. For the first time in the history Royal was struggling for help to move the show. Now that the show had switched to trucks it was a whole New World everyone was used to loading the train then sleeping for two days. But now you had to tear down jump in the truck drive two or three hundred miles get out set it back up and open the next day this was tough to get used too. Then in 1991 more bad news Carl J. Sedlmayr III died from Pneumonia due to complications from surgery. Then after a few more years, bad weather, no help, declining profit's competition from the big theme parks and new equipment costs. This once grand Carnival and all it's majesty after 76 years on the road and three generations of ownership, The Sedlmayr family has decided it was time to make this it's one it's last ride. Royal American's last show was staged in Lubbock, Texas in October 1997 and it barley broke even.
"If the demise
of Royal American Shows symbolizes the loss of Americana then
it's beginning symbolizes the spirit of the American dream."
Royal American Shows 1921-1998
I wanted to start this page because when I went on the Internet to look for Royal American Shows and it's history I found almost nothing at all. I found this very disheartening. After all this was the greatest carnival of all time and I had spent fifteen years of my life here and I wanted my Daughters and everyone else to know why. I read most of the history of the Royal American Shows from the book "A Pictorial History of the American Carnival" volumes I, II, III by the author Joe McKennon for the basic structure of the page. I had the pleasure of meeting Joe McKennon at the Mississippi state fair that's when I purchased my books volumes I, II, III and had them signed by the author. He put such a great piece of it's history together I don't think anyone could have done any better and I highly recommend his books on the American carnival history. I added a few stories that I had saved from a few newspaper articles in my travels. The rest was from being there, talking to the family, friends and cutting jackpots. I learned early to keep quiet and listen to my elders when they were telling stories of the good old days. If you have a story you would like to share from the time you might have spent on the show or maybe a picture you would like to see on an upcoming page please feel free to e-mail me a copy with the subject "Royal American". I will do my best to put together a great page for all to enjoy.
Carl LeMay - Royal
American Shows 1979-1995
