144

Howard Sharp

1878-1952

Gargantua The Great / Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey. Billboard poster. Circa 1938.

Condition B: losses, extensive tears, repaired tears in margins and along sharp vertical and horizontal folds archival tape on verso along tears; top left section re-attached; pin holes in corners; four-sheets. Paper.

This is the rare billboard size. Another variant was printed as a 1-sheet poster.

"Gargantua the Great (1931-1949) was the lead attraction of the Ringing Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows menagerie from 1938-1949" (Circus Posters p. 164). The gorilla was purchased in 1938 for $10,000 by the nephews of the Ringling Bros., in an attempt to give the circus a boost during a difficult economic period. The popularity of King Kong a few years prior was an added bonus. Gargantua (originally named Buddha) came to America from the West African Congo, and after a series of misadventures, was taken in by Ringling and advertised as a "fiendishly ferocious brute. Howard Sharp of Strobridge "created the original drawing and managed the first printing in 1938 of the Gargantua poster" (ibid). As with many other aspects of the poster, the gorilla's size was greatly exaggerated, as he was only 5 foot 6 inches tall (several inches shorter than the largest recorded in the wild). Circus posters, p. 165.

The Ringling ht2004560.
54x80 inches, 137¼x203¼ cm. The Strobridge Litho co., Cincinnati.

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February 26, 2026 12:00 PM EST
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