Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library

Masonic Arabia Temple Shrine Circus
1956
Ace Photographers
USA: Texas, Houston
Photograph on paper
sheet: 8"h x 10"w
Museum Purchase through the Generosity of Helen G. Deffenbaugh in Memory of George S. Deffenbaugh
2010.024.1

Black and white photograph of a group of circus performers. In white at top is "Arabia Temple Shrine Circus / Walter P. Moore - General Chairman / Nov. 2nd thru 11th 1956." The group is standing and sitting in rows inside a circus tent; lines and seating is visible at back. Many of the performers are wearing their costumes - clowns, trapeze artists, etc. There are also several men wearing Shrine fezzes. In white at lower left is "Bengy / Houston." Stamped in black ink on the back is "Ace Photographers / 811 Capitol Ave. / CA. 7-1001 Houston 2, Texas."

On February 26, 1906, the Moslem Shrine Temple premiered the Mystic Shriners’ Yankee Circus in Egypt at the Light Guard Armory in Detroit, Michigan. Shrine Circuses, sometimes described as "The Circus with a Heart," were often fundraisers for the Shrine and the charitable organizations the Shrine supports. This photograph shows performers from the Arabia Temple Shrine Circus in Houston, Texas. For further information, Blog post, March 29, 2017, http://nationalheritagemuseum.typepad.com/library_and_archives/2017/03/the-shrine-circus.html