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My grandfather
started the show in 1902, his name was Joe J. Teska.
He was a chief engineer on a locomotive on the railroad,
after working all day he would come home and work on the show.
The first show
my grandfather made he located it on a lot he rented close
to his home.
He had such a
good attendance more folks came then lived in Winona. So he
thought he would take the show on the road. So he sent
it out with one of his friends and he never did find out
what happened to that show.
He started
working on his second show then he and my grandmother took
it out. As I remember it took him twelve or fifteen
years to complete the second show. Back in the day
they took the show out on two trucks, they would back the
trucks up to one another leaving 20 feet of space in
between the trucks where they would set the show up running
a canvas top between the two trucks to provide the show with
cover.
This is just
the beginning of the Wonderful history of Joe J. Teska and
his family. We plan to present here in photographs and
words the
history of the show as it developed over many years from the Mechanical Show
which was started by Joe Sr. then operated by his two sons.
We will be exploring other shows that his grandson and his
wife had on the road. We have hundreds of images to
share. I would like to thank Joe Teska Jr. for sharing
the history of this remarkable family and John Strong III
for taking his time to scan and share the images with us so
we can share them with you on Sideshow World. We have
much more to come!
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