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Pages of History
There was a lot of monkey business going on in Laurel in July 1944 and it had nothing to do with the village board or the couple in the black Ford.
“Laurel is becoming a circus headquarters,” said the Advocate of July 19. “The organization of the Russell-Walters circus is going on this week and the show will take to the road next week.”
For some reason the animal acts that had been part of the Monroe Brothers Circus that was supposed to perform in Laurel a week earlier had been pulled from the show. The new circus was being formed around them and some of the human performers who also left the show.
The Monroe Brothers Circus had been organized in Hugo, Oklahoma, earlier that year. It was a small onering circus that usually booked towns of less than 1500 people. In July 1944, the circus appeared in Osmond, Wausa, Crofton, Coleridge, Pierce, Wakefield and Hartington.
The circus had 12 performers, most of whom doubled in at least two of the show’s 20 acts. They also helped set up, tear down, and load the trucks when the show was over.
The usual procedure was to recruit local boys to help set up the big top in the morning. Then two shows were put on — one in the afternoon and another in the evening. After the last show everything would be taken down, loaded onto the trucks, and the circus would head for the next town.
There were no Monroes in the Monroe Brothers Circus. The circus was owned by Theodore Akeman and Herbert Walters. Akeman, who went by the stage named “Ted LaVelda,” also served as manager, promoter, ticket seller, trapeze artist, clown, contortionist, roustabout and truck driver.
Akeman was married to Freda Johnson. Billed as the star of the show, Johnson was the oldest of 12 children raised by her widowed mother on a small farm near Des Moines, Iowa. An article in the Des Moines Register noted that eight of the nine Johnson boys were in the service.
Freda was a trapeze artist and knife thrower. One of her specialties was an act where she pinned her husband to a wooden backboard with knives. “We can’t have any marital troubles before the act,” said Ted.
In addition to the “Great LaVeldas,” other acts included: Miss Dorothy Burdett, a juggler and tightrope walker; Miss Sadie Roma, an aerialist; clowns, jugglers, and several animal acts.
The Monroe Brothers Circus landed in Laurel on July 12. Curiously, there was nothing in the Advocate before the show and no write-up about it afterwards. Apparently, there had been some kind of falling out between Akeman and his partner, Herb Walters. The animal acts were pulled from the show and a new circus was organized around them.
Billed as the Russell-Walters Circus, the star of the new show was a trained camel named “Depression.” It was promoted as the only performing camel in America. Other animal acts included trained bears, monkeys, goats, sheep, dogs, mules, ponies and an “educated razorback hog.”
How much education a razorback hog could absorb was not explained. Possibly it might be comparable to the level of some of today’s cell phone addicted youth. And with all the different critters in the class, the curriculum should have included diversity, equity and inclusion. And since most boy hogs were fixed, perhaps a little transgender study as well.
The new circus opened in Laurel on Saturday, July 22. With the help of 25 Laurel boys, the big top was set up at the south end of the city park. Two performances were given: one in the afternoon, another in the evening. The price of admission was $.21 for children and $.42 for adults. Following the afternoon performance children under 12 were offered free rides on the camel.
On Sunday morning, the circus hit the trail. Its immediate destination was not reported, but the Russell-Walters Circus continued performing in Nebraska through the rest of the summer. The LaVeldas were not with them.
By the spring of 1945, the Monroe Brothers Circus was back in business with Akeman at the helm.
The circus returned to Laurel for an encore performance in 1948. Freda Johnson performed with a troupe of miniature horses but was no longer part of the “Great LaVeldas.” And Ted was no longer permitting her to throw knives at him — probably for good reason.
At the close of the 1948 season, the Monroe Brothers Circus folded its tent for the last time. By 1950, Ted was with a different circus and with a different woman. What became of Freda is not known.
Ted’s new leading lady was Carrie (last name not given). They married and in 1954 had a son they named Danny. Ted was then 50 years old; Carrie was 42.
Ted turned his new bride and new baby into circus clowns. Billed as the youngest clown in America, Danny Akeman began performing with “The LaVelda Trio“ when he was only 3 years old.
Carrie Akeman died in 1968. Ted died in 1985. Both are buried in Hugo, Okla., in a section of the Mount Olivet cemetery reserved for circus performers.
As near as this writer knows, the Cole Wild Animal Circus was the last circus to visit Laurel. Sponsored by the Laurel Commercial Club, the circus set up on the baseball field on May 30, 1963. It was a large three-ring circus featuring more than 60 performers, 20 cages of wild animals, and several elephants.
“Attendance was poor,“ said Advocate Editor Duane Kunzman. “The circus management was very disappointed.” Laurel businessmen who sponsored the show were no doubt equally disappointed.
By this time, small traveling circuses were becoming a thing of the past. Rising costs, falling attendance due in part to television, and increasing pressure from animal rights organizations would drive most of them out of business by the end of the decade.
