The "The Show Must Go On!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Viewing the Facebook page "The Lancastrian" and came across an old photo taken in 1915 of a building located on West King Street in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  A small sign above the main door says "Family Theatre With The Best and Latest Moving Pictures."  

In the left corner of the photograph can be seen the date that
the photograph was taken; 1915.  The location says West King
and Water Streets, but I believe the building fronted on King St.

A few Facebook comments all said they never knew the place existed in downtown Lancaster.  I too never knew of this theatre on West King Street.  I became more interested in the photograph when I Googled the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus that was advertised on many signs in front of the theatre.  I assume that the circus was appearing in the theatre and all those outside the entrance were either gathering to see the circus or perhaps protesting against the circus being in town.  More and more people added comments to the photo on Facebook with one interesting post a map of the downtown area showing where the Family Theatre was actually located.  It was billed as the Family Theatre - Biograph & Vaudeville.  Biograph referred to a motion picture company founded in 1895 that was the first company in the United States devoted entirely to film production and exhibition releasing over 3,000 short films and 12 feature films during the silent film era.  Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish and Lionel Barrymore were a few of their most prominent actors.  

The Family Theatre can be seen on the far left.  The far
right would be Water Street where the railroad traveled.

The theatre was located, according to the map, from 222-226 West King Street.  I was born 29 years after the photograph was taken and I do not remember ever seeing the Family Theatre.  I was interested in the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus and after Googling it found that the circus began as the "Carl Hagenbeck Circus" in 1844 and in  1907 was purchased by Benjamin Wallace.  Hagenback was an animal trainer who used the rewards-based animal training method instead of the fear-based training method to train his circus animals.  Wallace was a livery stable owner who eventually bought out Hagenback's circus.  Two years before the photograph was taken the circus lost 8 elephants, 21 lions and tigers and 8 performing horses in the Great Flood of 1913.  

Poster from the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus.

Then a few years after the circus appeared in Lancaster, tragedy struck again when an empty troop train collided with the circus train causing a fire to break out due to the kerosene lamps on the circus train.  An engineer on the troop train had fallen asleep and ran into the rear of the circus train.  86 people died and another 127 injured.  Ringling Bros. as well as Barnum & Bailey lent equipment and performers to Hagenbeck-Wallace so "the show could go on."  A few famous performers in the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus were Joe Skelton, father of Red Skelton, Emmett Kelly the famous clown and Hoot Gibson, a famous rodeo performer.  I seem to find out more and more about the town in which I live that I never knew existed in the past.  Fun to discover more about the history of the town of Lancaster which was the largest inland city at one time in the United States.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.