I'm Interested in Collecting Bally

Hello, I have a full sheet poster of Bonnie and Clyde's death car poster that traveled thru Arkansas, do you happen to know what year this sideshow came thru and who the operators where. I can send a picture if needed. Thanks any info would be appreciated. Margie Lewisville Ark.

 

Margie, Neal Walters Poster Corp. made low quality poster, many posters were made for circus, carnivals, sideshow, etc. they were posted by the advance man before the circus, carnival, sideshow etc. came to town.

 

Neal Walters Poster Corp is listed as a business out of Bentoville Ark.72712
There is also a listing for the company in Fayettville Ark.

I have contacted Benton and Washington Counties to find out more information about the Neal Walters Poster Corp
neither county shows a listing for the business.  Benton County has business listing as far back as 1907.

There are phone listings for Neal Walters Poster Corp with an area code 501,  the area code for Bentoville was changed
from 501 to 479 about 18 mouths ago.  None of the numbers I found are working numbers for the company.

On a resent on line auction the same 4 panel un-cut poster was listed for sale, It listed the poster as being from 1935/36
both your poster and the one at auction have the same listing at the bottom for the Neal Walters Poster Corp Bentoville
Ark. 72712

On July 1 1963 the US Postal Service started using new codes, at that time they were not mandatory. In 1967, the Post Office required mailers of second- and third-class bulk mail to pre-sort by ZIP Code.

Since there is a Zip Code on the poster we know that the poster was printed no earlier than 1963.

 


 

THE MICKEY COHEN CAR

The poster also refers to the Mickey Cohen Armored car which was a Cadillac Gangster Special 1950

Cadillac Motor Co, USA
Based on a 1950 Series 60S V8 Cadillac, this exhibit has special body treatment by Rudy Stoessel of Coachcraft, Los Angeles, providing a bomb-proof floor, armor-plated doors, 40 mm thick bullet-proof windows and a special hinged windscreen designed for inside firing. It was owned by Mickey Cohen, a gangster who worked for Al Capone and Lucky Luciano. The car was confiscated by the Los Angeles police, and in 1961 Cohen was sentenced to 15 years for the largest tax evasion in American history.


900 V8, ohv, 96.8 mm bore, 92.1 mm stroke, 5440 cc, (160 bhp at 3800 rpm), weight 4¼ tons.

 

The Mickey Cohen armored car being from the 1950's, and Mickey going to jail in 1961 also helps us date the poster

to after 1960.
 


 

THE WARREN CAR

 

Bonnie and Clydes car was a 1934 Ford Model 730 Deluxe Sedan (Fordor) which belonged to Ruth and Jesse Warren. They had recently purchased the car and it had been sitting in their driveway. Ruth, who had been doing dishes looked out of the window and noticed that the car was missing.  Ruth thought  that her husband had driven it to the house of a neighbor, she called him and he said that he hadn't taken the car. The car was stolen on April 29, 1934.
 

On May 23, 1934 the posse had been waiting for approximately seven hours when at about 9:10 a.m. they heard a machine approaching at a high rate of speed. It is not clear whether the officers stepped into the road to challenge them. But when the car stopped they were told to give up. They reached for their guns but never had a chance to use them. The posse opened fire, the car leaped ahead and came to a stop in a ditch beside the road. The firing continued after the car came to a stop.

The officers had pump 167 rounds into the car, approaching it with care. They found Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow dead. Fifty rounds had smashed into their bodies. Some through the driver's door hitting Clyde passing through him and then through Bonnie and out the passenger door. The fingers on Bonnie's right hand had been shot off. Her left hand was clutching a bloody pack of cigarettes. She died with her head slumped between her legs, with a gun across her lap. Bonnie was 23 years old, Clyde 24. It looked as if Bonnie had just gotten her hair permanent waved.

Inside the 1934 Ford, Hamer found the following items, 1 saxophone, 3 Browning automatic rifles, 1 10 gauge Winchester lever action, 1 sawed-off shotgun, 1 20 gauge sawed-off shotgun, 1 Colt 32 caliber automatic, 1 Colt 45 caliber revolver, 7 Colt automatic pistols, and approximately 3,000 rounds of ammunition. They found license plates from Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Texas, Indiana, Kansas, Ohio and Louisiana

After the ambush Mrs. Ruth Warren arrived in Bienville Parish to claim her car.  Sheriff Henderson Jordan refused to release the car to her, claiming that she would have to pay $15,000 to get it back. Hiring attorney W.D.Goff from Arcadia to represent her.

Goff claimed that by Jordan setting the value of the car over $3,000, the case would surely wind up in Federal Court. Because of Sheriff Jordan's refusal to comply, Federal Judge Benjamin Dawkins threatened to send the sheriff to jail, if he did not return the car to Mrs. Warren.

She finally get her car back, and drove it to Shreveport, Louisiana.  From there the car was taken by truck, back to Topeka, Kansas, where it sat in her driveway for several days. 

 


 

EXHIBITION HISTORY OF THE BONNIE & CLYDE DEATH CAR

Ruth leased the car to John Castle of "United Shows" and when the contract went into default, she had the car repossessed and rented it to carnival operator Charles Stanley. He exhibited it on the Hennies Brothers Midways in his 1939 crime show. Stanley used the car on his outside bally and showed the film of the actual ambush on the inside. After Ruth divorced her husband Jesse, she kept the title to the car and sold it to Stanley for $3,500.  It had been said that Charles was the original owner of the Death Car. During the 1948 season the car was exhibited at Coney Island amusement park in Cincinnati, Ohio. Charles joined the Cavalcade of Amusements at Sedalia, Mo. He added a Dillinger Crime Car and toured with the Gooding Amusements and Hennies Brothers Shows. (In 1949 sideshowman Charlie Hodges also exhibited a Bonnie and Clyde car along with his large 10-in-l show.) In 1951 Stanley toured the Mosser Family Massacre through theaters.  Spent a short time at the Coney Island in Cincinnati.  Later joining the Cetlin and Wilson Shows for the season.  In a 1952 Billboard he offered the Bonnie and Clyde Death Car for sale. That same season he retired from the road to manage the Coney Island Park in Cincinnati and exhibited the car until 1960.  In 1968, longtime promoter Frank Siro also had a Bonnie and Clyde car on midways also in 1969 he toured it at Texas fairs.

 

In the 1960s the "original" death car was purchased for $14,500 by showman Ted Toddy. In October 1969, Amusement Business reported: "Ted Toddy has won his suit for an injunction over the use of the Bonnie and Clyde name. Johnny and Marilyn Portemont, owners of Johnny's United Shows, will have to find another title for theirs!" Showmen were warned to avoid using the title, especially around Toddy's home in Atlanta. Ted Toddy  The car then sat in a warehouse for years  In 1971 Toddy leased his car to the Royal American Shows. I

In 1973 the Bonnie and Clyde Death Car was purchased by Peter Simon of the Oasis Casino in Jean Nevada for $175.000.  It was on display at Whiskey Pete's Casino for several years and is now on permanent display at the Primm Hotel and Casino at Primm Nevada just of Interstate 15 on the Nevada and California Stateline. 

Even after 70 years the legend still holds a strange fascination.  

 

Considering the poster was printed no earlier that 1963 and the car was purchased by Peter Simons of Jean Nevada in 1973 if it was the original car then between 1963 and 73 one of the shows above would have exhibited the B & C Death Car in AK.  There were other cars reported to have been the B&C Death Car on Exhibit at the same time.  John Robinson, Sideshow World 

 


 

Information add May 31, 2008

 

I am 60 years old and I was 6 when my father went to work for Ted Toddy which was in late 1950 to early 1951.


My dad was the operator and the one who traveled with the car and the "Killer's All" show.  Also, Ted had made a movie in circa 1945 and he bought the car to help promote his movie, "Killer's All" which was not only about Bonnie and Clyde, but John Dillenger, Babyface Nelson, Ma Barker and more.


So in answer to her question, I know Ted had the car in 1950 as he had already had the "show on the road" when my father went to work for him however he had not been to Arkansas with it until at least 1951.


Because my dad and Ted were very close friends until Ted died and he was my "godfather", I have intimate knowledge and recollection of these events.


Cindy (Atlanta, Ga)

 



Some information and assistance compiled from: History of the Warren Car, Al Stencell's Seeing is Believing and the FBI report on the death of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. 

H

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