Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey: Gargantua the Great
Maker
The Strobridge Lithographing Company
(American, 1867 – 1960)
Dateno date
MediumInk on paper
Dimensions4 SHEET: 54 x 80 in. (137.2 x 203.2 cm)
ClassificationsPosters
Credit LineTibbals Circus Collection
Object numberht2004560
From 1938 to 1949, Gargantua the Great was the main attraction for the Ringling menagerie. Circus press agent Roland Butler created a brilliant "must see" campaign promoting the "fiendishly ferocious brute" in the wake of the 1933 movie King Kong that had captured the public imagination. The advance press billed the 525 pound gorilla as "The Terror," possessing strength equal to twenty-seven men. The poster designed by Strobridge's Howard Sharp emphasized the size and fierce nature of the great ape by dominating the poster with his huge figure.
On View
Not on viewCollections
The Strobridge Lithographing Company
no date
