The Braathens, Sverre and Faye, were active and avid circus fans and collectors. Sverre’s passion for circus began in the early 1900s when he was a boy waiting for and later watching the Gollmar Brothers Circus unload, parade, and perform on the Great Plains in the small town of Mayville, North Dakota.
Sverre mixed his love of music with his love for circuses and began collecting circus music material. Through the years, his collection grew to include route books, business materials, periodicals, massive amounts of correspondence between all levels of circus personnel – from band members to performers, riggers to roustabouts. Every season found the Braathens following circuses throughout the upper Midwest and it was while following circuses that his photographic talents emerged.
24-sheet billboard with a picture of Pat Valdo as a white-face clown.
These images of clowns, who have always been an integral part of the circus, were captured in the saturated colors of Kodachrome slides and date from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Take a look:
Albert White, a clown in The Good Old Times spec wardrobe.
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