Hire a Walrus? Well you could in 1897

Historians have documented the wide-ranging use of animals in the entertainments industry during the latter half of the 19th century, and even earlier. Travelling menageries for fairs and wakes, circuses, exhibitions and zoos large and small are obvious  players but so too were entertainers with exotic animal acts, often using snakes or crocodilians, who were appearing at the variety theatres throughout Britain. Even so it came as a surprise when I found that the theatrical newspaper of the time carried advertisements for exotic animals placed by the leading importers of the day, William Cross of Liverpool, Jamrach of East London and Carl Hagenbeck of Hamburg who all, to some extent, operated in concert.

The Era newspaper was published weekly from 1838 until 1939. From general coverage The Era became the great theatrical journal to the extent that actors and music hall artistes just had to buy it.

The advertisements give a flavour of the animal dealers’ businesses. They were not just selling animals. Hagenbeck was offering to design and build complete zoological gardens, while Cross was offering his pair of Walruses either for sale or for exhibition in a ‘large city’ for a share of the proceeds.

The advertisements provide snapshots of what animals were being imported and often show that far more were in circulation in Britain and in continental Europe than zoo records would imply. The dealers and showmen were also the source of the skins and skeletons that made their way to the burgeoning collections in university departments of zoology as professors engaged in outdoing others in the game of competitive museuming.

Since the dealers would have not have advertised their animals had they not been obtaining sales as a result, it is clear that the whole wild animal industry, not just those appearing on the stage, was using The Era to acquire stock. The newspaper closed in 1939 and the weekly Cage Birds was the main advertising medium, particularly for birds and mammals but with some reptiles, for the dealers of the 1950s and 60s. In this latter period there were tales of printers being bribed to tip off a well-known bird keeper about what choice specimens were on offer before the paper arrived at the newsagents each week. Perhaps something similar happened in the days of The Era.

And if you did not want the walruses then silk tights at 7s 6d or a switchback with gondola, cars and electric lights were  on offer.

I wonder what happened to the walruses.

The Era 4 September 1897