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Few who navigate Washington Boulevard between Culver City and Los Angeles are aware that they are traversing the crossroads of a circus ghost town, the erstwhile Barnes City.
When Al G. Barnes, born Alpheus George Barnes Stonehouse, established the winter home of his eponymous trained animal circus in 1919, west of what is now the San Diego Freeway between Washington and Culver boulevards, he ushered in future circus stars and eager fans. He managed to get the area incorporated, playing a little dirty politics in the process, and he left a parade of broken hearts. For nearly two decades, the Al G. Barnes Circus was an L.A. amusement mecca--beginning as early as 1911 at Venice Beach. The circus was the home of Tusko, an 8,000-pound elephant; Jack the Human Fly; and fat Sally and her 112-pound sweetheart.
Mabel Stark, the "world's only woman tiger trainer"--even though there were others before her, including Martha Florine and Princess Irene--and animal trainer Louis Roth got their starts under Barnes' big top. But Barnes' life was like a theatrical high-wire act, teetering between failure and acclaim. He spent more than half his life in the spotlight of a real three-ring circus, fighting off ex- wives, girlfriends, animal activists, charges of perjury and income tax evasion, a paternity suit and personal injury suits, all the while living on a fast track aboard a luxurious private train.
Born on a farm in Ontario, Canada, in 1862, Barnes ran away from home to begin a checkered career as a street peddler, roadshow impresario and circus meister.
In 1895, he arrived in Glenwood Springs, Colo., on a horse-drawn wagon, armed with a squeaky phonograph and a motion-picture projection machine. There, he met Dolly Barlow, who owned a small farm. She sold it five years later for $2,700, when she married Barnes. With the proceeds, they bought up several roadshows that eventually became the Al G. Barnes Circus.
In 1911, at the invitation of the Pacific Electric Railway and Abbot Kinney's Venice of America Amusement Park, the Al G. Barnes Circus rolled into town. Barnes and his company would return for the winter after traveling around the West and Canada in the summer. He and hundreds of performers, trainers, workers and animals would...