44 Nebraskaland • July 2019
ears ago, the peak of Nebraska summer entertainment
came with the Walter Savidge Amusement Company as
it pulled into the depot aboard its 20-car, red-and-yellow
Pullman train. The Wayne-based traveling show and
carnival toured Nebraska and surrounding states from 1906
to 1941.
Walter Savidge was born in Holt County in 1886. He
began dreaming of show business at age 12 after attending a
Ringling Brothers circus in Humphrey. He practiced tightrope
walking on a rope tied between his family's barn and shed.
At age 16 he ran away to "join the circus" and worked as a
professional tightrope walker.
The Savidges were an adventurous clan. You may have
heard of Walter's aviator cousins from Ewing. The Savidge
Brothers built their fi rst airplane in 1911 and barnstormed
the state for several years.
Walter was no aviator, but he and his brother Arthur
formed an amusement company in 1906, when Walter was
only 20 years old. It started as a one-tent show, with Walter
doubling as an acrobat and Arthur performing as one of the
actors. The brothers split several years later, and Walter and
his wife, Mabel, continued the company. It remained a family
aff air, with Mabel managing the fi nances and playing piano
for the vaudeville acts.
The company got bigger and bigger, with acrobats,
sideshows, an orchestra and dramatic company, carnival
rides and concession stands. It was so big they brought
their electrical plant to power it all. The big tent could seat
1,600 people, and it took 125 employees to keep everything
running.
Y
Some forms of old-time entertainment have not aged well.
Similar to many traveling carnivals of the day, Savidge included
"freak shows" featuring people with physical abnormalities.
Performer George Thompson is shown here with his son.
History Nebraska RG1667-6-1
Looking east along Farnam Street, Omaha, 1889. History Nebraska RG2341-28
