Gilbert R. Spalding
[1] With Rogers he built The Floating Palace, an elaborate 200-foot long and sixty-foot wide two-story showboat launched in Cincinnati in May 1852 that toured the Mississippi and Ohio rivers.
One of the largest showboats ever built, The Floating Palace contained a full-size circus ring for large-scale equestrian spectacles.
In addition to the 42-foot circus ring area, The Floating Palace also contained a museum with "100,000 curiosities of past years".
It had 200 gas jets for lighting the circus ring for its equestrian acts and also put on minstrel shows and theatrical performances.
[12][13] The showboat employed over 100 people, including ship's crew, animal trainers, performers and front-of-house staff.
The outbreak of the Civil War left The Floating Palace stranded in New Orleans where it was confiscated by the Confederate Forces in 1862 for use as a hospital ship.
Undeterred, Spalding chartered a smaller steamboat which he renamed Dan Castello’s Great Show after a popular Southern clown and with the circus band playing 'Dixie' as required the company made its way back to the North.
In 1860 Spalding and Rogers took a three-year lease on the Old Bowery in New York which they renovated and fitted with a movable stage so as to be able to cater for both equestrian and dramatic performances.
[14] In January 1861 they staged the spectacular Tippoo Sahib, or, the Storming of Seringapatam with many trick transformations including a vast enemy encampment, an Indian jungle near the Taj Mahal and a bombardment by British forces with a charge on foot and horse.
After their experience with The Floating Palace early in 1862, Spalding and Rogers decided to avoid the Civil War altogether.
Despite this disaster, the venture was a great financial success, and it is said that more honors were bestowed upon the company than had been received by any other similar troupe in a foreign land.
On their return to the United States in 1864, Spalding & Rogers took their circus to the newly built Hippotheatron in New York, where they opened for four weeks on 25 April 1864.
The chief attractions, according to the files of the New York Clipper, included James Robinson and his son Clarence, Frank Pastor, Robert Stickney, G M. Kelly, Lorenzo Maya, the Rollande Brothers, William Conrad, Charles Rivers, the performing horse Hiram, a performing buffalo, and a troupe of Indians.
After arriving in Paris, and when nearly all the preparations for their showing had been made, it was discovered that a local law prevented the erection of any wooden building within the city limits; consequently they could not use their pavilion, and, all other places being engaged, the venture was about to end in failure, when fortunately opportunity was given the American company to play for a brief time, but the result was not what had been expected.
