EVER SINCE first reading the enthralling This Way to the Big Show by famed circus press agent, Dexter Fellows, the name Merritt Young has stuck in the circus lobe of my brain. I long thought of Young as a secretary, which is the role I gave him in my musical Those Ringlings, when, in reality, he was much more.
FELLOWS WROTE: “Bailey preferred bachelors in his service. It has been said that his high esteem for Merritt Young, who was treasurer of the Barnum & Bailey Circus for many years due to the fact that Young never married and gave practically his entire time to his work.”
NOW, YES, from those words sprung a little seed in my mind of something special between the two men. And so I revised a late second Act II scene between Bailey and Merritt over Bailey’s dictating a letter to the Ringings, offering to split territories and thus avoid costly bill posting battles. (It really happened). For Bailey, I figured, this act must have been a little humbling. The sensitively dedicated Merritt offers his boss rare, even primary praise for his direction of the circus, over the sideshow man whose fame sucked all the attention and credit away. And Young offers it in a little song, “Thank Mr. Bailey.” This touches the boss so, that he opens a heart of appreciation to Young.
THE WORDS felt natural. And only yesterday, by a spectacular act of serendipity in google land, I came upon an article about Young by showman Louis Cooke in the Newark Evening Standard, NJ, dated October 14, 1915, reprinted on the Circus Historical Society's old message board:
COOKE DESCRIBED Young “the most intimate and business companion of James A. Bailey ... The great showman was attracted to Merritt because of his industrious habits, gentlemanly manners and ambition to make himself useful.
“WHEN MR. BAILEY retired from the business for two years, on account of ill health, Merritt went with him. When he returned to the calling, 'Merritt' also came back. They remained inseparable companions until he was called to his last great reward in the great unknown.” And with those words, I feel that the few lines of dialog which I have added to the scene are true to spirit.
BEYOND THE BANNER lines, they were all very real people. Here is Cooke, who had been telegramed by Bailey on the morning of June 15, 1897, to meet the ailing Merritt, suffering typhoid fever, at the railway station in Chicago and take him to the Auditorium Hotel with “a good physician.”
“WHEN WE SAW him alight from the train, it was very evident that the grim reaper had already set his seal upon the brow of the victim ... That night he died with his mother and myself at his bedside ... I remember nothing more sad than the recollection of having followed one of my nearest and dearest friends to his last resting place and it was one of the most sorrowful moments that ever crept into the sunshine of many years of travel.” Young was gone at the age of 46. The show would head out to London come December. Had Merritt still been at James’s side, would the show have stayed away from the states for an astounding five years?
NOW IF I could only get more such stuff on Al and Louise — before my musical reaches Broadway. Yeah, I know, I still have another century to go, LOL
END RINGERS: A circus giant across the Big Pond falls. Brit’s own Barnum, Gerry Cottle (above, center), whose name lit up circus marquess through the ‘70s and ‘80s has died, of Covid. In the words of author and journalist Douglas McPherson, "probably the most widely known name in the UK circus industry for the past 40 years." Back in 2011, Mr. Cottle, whom I would loved to have met, sent me a copy of his book, Confessions of a Showman: My Life in the Circus.” With inscription: “David, I much prefer your books, but please enjoy my one off. Sincerely” Heck, damn! Why did his publisher bring out a paperback in print the size about as big as what you might get on a food wrapper listing of iffy ingredients they don’t want you to see? I don’t do magnifying glass, but I do hope to get the book in big people size print, someday ... Another English circus man, whom we lured over here long ago, Johnny Pugh, may or may not have finally sold his Cole Bros. Circus Florida winter quarters, or that’s how it looks to Slate Raymond, slating in from down there. The listing, writes Slate, "finally disappeared from the real estate market this past
October. They had been out there since April 2016, with the asking price
going down - down - down as the years dragged on (at the end,
$850,000). No idea whether they sold." ... How I miss the Circus Historical Society History Message board, dormant since 2016. A pity... So much of American circus is slipping away ... I propose a Circus Ring of Fame Wheel for Fred Pfening ...
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