In his own parlance, “he’s colossal, he’s mammoth, he’s superhuman–he’s a swell guy.”
Step right this way, ladies and gentlemen, and we’ll introduce you to Dexter Fellows, one of the most amazing and astounding creatures that ever roamed the plains of North America. He has been seen in the Vieu Carre of New Orleans; he has chatted with fellers in the general store of Deerlodge, Montana; he has basked on the sunny shores of California and has played the rockbound coasts of Maine. Step right this way, ladies and gentlemen.
A QUIET FELLOW (S)
Well, we were disillusioned when, on calling on the famous public relations man the other day, we found him a rather quiet fellow, lodged in modest rooms at the Cumberland Hotel. He speaks softly with only a faint touch of the raucus voice of the ballyhoo expert to mark his profession. His wife, soft voiced and retiring, was reading a book.
Because the circus will not open at Madison Square Garden for an other week or so, he discussed but lightly the new numbers. He was far more interested in talking about old friends and they are legion scattered from Singapore to Warsaw. His friends, outside of those whom he so successfully exploits as “the marvel of the century” or “the sensation of all time,” are mainly newspapermen.
When pressed for a Jewish angle to the circus, he said, “Well, we have one fellow with us this year that’s a sensation. He’s magnificent. He’s stupendous. He’s got more wit and pranks in his hide than twenty ordinary clowns. That’s a Jew whom we’ve all heard about, Felix Adler, our ace clown.”
He was about to add “– in person,” but he remembered that his audience was limited to one lone newspaperman. Instead he said, “without this clown the show wouldn’t be complete.”
SOME TRAVELER IS FELLOWS
Fellows said that he expected this year’s circus to be more successful than those of recent years. “The spirit of defeatism,” he discovered this phrase in 1930, “isn’t with us anymore. Last year’s show was more successful than that of 1932, and this year’s will be bigger and better than ever.”
Fellows said that “The Greatest Show on Earth” will have “all new faces” and “all new acts” during the coming season. “We are giving the people something fine, something extraordinary, something they will never forget, something worth anybody’s admission price,” declared the prophet of the big top. “Something different,” he added, “A whale of a show.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
