Vocational School Indoor Circus poster

Date

• May 1942

Summary

• Close-up snapshot of a large outdoor wall poster advertising May 4-9, 1942 performances of the “Vocational School Indoor Circus” in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. In the lower right, two young girls stand looking at the poster, which features a fanciful illustration of a clown act. This poster was displayed on the front of a house at 1410 Clark Street, adjacent to the Manitowoc Vocational School. (This house in no longer there.) In the 1930s and 1940s, the Vocational School offered what was termed the world’s only circus “prep” school under the direction of William G. (“Billy”) Schultz, a Manitowoc resident who had performed nationally as a circus acrobat, aerialist, and vaudeville star. Many Manitowoc young people trained at the school, and a number went on to successful careers with Ringling Brothers and other circuses as acrobats, clowns, and trapeze artists. The school presented circus shows in Manitowoc in 1933, 1935, 1937, 1939, 1942, 1946, and 1948. During World War II, Billy Schultz circus acts were featured at everything from defense bond rallies to morale-boosting noontime programs for shipyard workers who were building submarines at the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company. Many of Schultz’s students and graduates joined the armed forces, and Schultz tried to keep in touch with all of them, writing some twenty letters a week. This 1942 performance featured twenty-two acts by seventy students and former students who had become professional circus stars. The program was printed in a special “circus edition” of “The Ship,” the student newspaper of the Manitowoc Vocational School. In addition to the unique “circus school,” Manitowoc Vocational School also offered a standard curriculum of vocational training as well as specialized courses to meet the needs of defense workers during the war years.