Margaret Beeson -Herbert Beeson's wife

This was a thread in the Circus Historical Society Message and Discussion Board
I feel there is one correction I would add:
Herbert Beeson was a high wire dancer - (tight wire) not slack wire - or at least
the posters typically do not show his slack wire performance

2663. Berta Beeson, high wire, 04 Nov 2008 - I am looking for information regarding 'Berta Beeson' the Sensational Hire Wire Artist. My sister and I found a poster of him at the Ringling Circus Museum when we visited and we want to find out some history on him. We might be related. Do you have any information or is there a book on High Wire Artists with Ringling. I went to their web site and e-mailed them, but sometimes they do not answer their e-mails. They have sent me some posters but no history. Thank you so much, Judi Beeson Engel, Judiaengel@aol.com. Reply to this message, replies go to this board, not to the message sender.

Reply: 04 Nov 2008 - Bismarck Tribune (Bismarck, ND), July 18, 1929, p. 6. "Chicago.—(AP)—Dainty, skirted Herberta Beeson, hailed as "the world's greatest slack-wire dancer," is a man! The story of his rise from grocery clerk to featured performer of the "big tops" is one of the romances that give circus life its spangled glamour. At 17, when his name was Herbert, Beeson was a clerk in a general store at Summitsville, Ind., where he "helped out" three nights a week as a stage hand at the village vaudeville theatre. To this theatre came the "Marvelous Lucknows," circus people doing a small time circuit. With the act was a girl who was a slack-wire dancer. For her amusement Herbert did all of the little dancing tricks he knew She liked them, and Herbert, too. Seven months later, in Texas, the girl slipped, fell a crumpled heap beneath the wire. "Don't fire her just because she's hurt," pleaded Herbert, now with the troupe. "I know her tricks. Let me do them." And now the maid who attends the great Herberta Beeson, catching the robe tossed from the wire, is the little girl who fell from toe wire—his wife."     WWI draft card: Herbert Beeson, lived Indianapolis, IN; born February 22, 1899; occupation wire walker, Sells-Floto Circus; wife Margaret Beeson resided Chicago, IL. California Death Index: Herbert J. Beeson, died September 7, 1969 at San Bernardino, CA; born February 22, 1899; mother's maiden name Stone.
    1900 census Summitville, Van Buren Township, Madison County, IN, born Feb 1898, parents were Joseph and Emma. 1910 census Summitville, Van Buren Township, Madison County, IN, Mother divorced, her name unreadable. 1920 census, Herbert and Margaret were living in Manhattan, NY. Could not find him in 1930 census. - Judy Griffin

 

Sells Floto Circus. M'lle Beeson, a marvelous high wire Venus. Circus poster showing tight-rope walker Beeson prancing with a parasol, chromolithograph by The Strobridge Litho. Co., Cincinnati & New York, 1921.

another reference to Herbert Beeson's wife, and her job in the circus

So OK, do I believe the story - of course not, but it is a good story -

              I believe Herbert probably tied to pass it off as true, especially fairly early in his career,
                    and he need a good hook - so it is a story he can tell, his wife

has a name (Margaret) she was a former performer, who still works for the circus

(which seems very reasonable)

In my play I'm going to picture them as having separated, and being a romantic,

Herbert is trying to meet Margaret in the bar and patch things up,

so they can get back together, then the lot owner (the guy leasing

the 10 acre lot the circus needs to perform in) intervenes to try

and extort some more money from the circus, and the play proceeds

as I've described.