Frank West Showman Biography
- 1919 West’s Bright Lights Show
- 1924 West’s World’s Wonder Shows
- 1943 All American Exposition
Frank West once told a reporter in an article in Raleigh, N.C., in 1932 that he left home at 13 and got into wrestling. He worked his way up on the pro circuit and had enough money saved to buy an Athletic Show around 1910. West got his start on the Walter K. Sibley Midway in 1910, operating an Athletic Show and as the owner of a Mangles Whip. He advertised in The Billboard Issue March 7, 1914, as Frank West Athletic Shows. He was also coaching at Harvard under Sam Anderson, the former middleweight champion of the world.
West’s World’s Wonder Shows was started as West’s Bright Lights Show. It began as a ‘gilly show’ in 1919 by Frank West after he purchased the salvageable equipment from the bankrupt Rohda Royal Circus. In a Pictoral of The American Carnival by Joe McKennon (Page 101), he purchased Walter K Sibley’s Show too. By 1924, he was operating a 20 car railroad show and changed the name to West’s World’s Wonder Shows.
He is best remembered by die hard circus fans for buying five tableau sides from the ill-fated U.S. Motorized Circus in 1926 and making show fronts out of them. (like his Filipino Serenaders Show.)
By the thirties, West had assembled a fine show carrying a Hey-Dey, a Whip, Caterpillar, Chair-O-Plane, Carousel, Eli 5 wheel, Lindy Loop, Ridee-O, and kiddie rides. The show carried 23 attractions, including Emery’s Bar X Ranch Wild West show, Apple’s Motordrome, a Minstrel Show, and Bellina’s big magic illusion show, to name just a few. Art Eldrige had a small circus on the back end of the midway. The show routinely carried around 45 concessions, with the Baden Brothers owning 7, Frank Pope 10, and Harry Rubin 5.
During his years of operation, he made no secret of being a ‘racket Show’ and in fact was close personal friends with the infamous gangster “Legs Diamond,” who frequently hid out from the law on his show. West himself was a big man and from his ‘At show’ days, not afraid to scuffle. He routinely kept a contingent of cane-wielding sluggers under the office canopy for any emergencies that got out of hand.
Frank West accomplished what many great carnival owners failed to do. He kept a large show operating profitably for over 24 years during some of the most difficult times in our country’s history. His show motto was “All That The Title Implies,”. . . which was bringing a world of wonders to the grassroots people of America.
In 1943, his show was legally attached in Gary, Indiana. West changed the name for the final time to All American Exposition and sold the rides and equipment, selling the rolling stock to Ben Davenport for his 1944 edition of the Austin Bros. Circus.
After West left the carnival business, he became a bail bondsman in Norfolk, Va., where he finally passed away at the age of 80, on October 1, 1968, survived by his wife, Mary and sister.
