The Billboard

I always run across references to 'The Billboard' while reading sideshow related materials. Can you tell me what this was, when it started, who published it, and if it is still available? Robert, New Hampshire

Robert, Amusement Business and Billboard magazines were once a part of a publication known as “The Billboard” but were spun off from each other in the mid-1960s.

The Billboard was founded in 1894 it was originally concerned with carnival entertainment. On January 4, 1936 Billboard magazine published its first music hit parade and on July 20, 1940 Billboard published its first "Music Popularity Chart."

In the mid 1950's you could still find news for vaudeville, medicine shows, burlesque, night clubs, pitchmen, and a vast coverage of circuses, and carnivals. But by then it was already over half filled with the music and record Industry and a large portion had information about coin operated machines.

After the split Billboard started exclusively covering the music industry and kept the same name. The coin machine business was titled Coin World, and the auditoriums and stadiums were dropped a few years ago. Billboard has had a weekly publication called Amusement Business Magazine, it has been the international amusement industry newsweekly. Amusement Business coverage is 100% devoted to the business of parks, fairs, festivals and carnivals giving you more feature stories, more news briefs, and more in-depth analysis of the issues, people and products that make up the amusement industry.

The Amusement Business currently has it’s headquarters' in Nashville. It is being folded into the Film and Performing Arts Group, and now will be published as a monthly publication. The Film and Performing Arts Group, also publishes The Hollywood Reporter, SHOOT, and BackStage magazines. and it's going to be moved to Los Angeles.

In the 1930’s you could find The Billboard on every newsstand and it sold for 15 cents. I don't believe that it is available on any newsstand now, and individual copies are $5.00. By subscription it is $112.50 dollars per year. Originally the Billboard magazine was the place if you wanted information on the business that afforded the names and addresses of distributors that handled everything related to the circus, sideshow and carnival business. It was a place where all showman and performers could advertise.

They no longer print for vaudeville, night clubs, burlesque, tent rep shows, medicine shows, magic, and pitchmen. In the late seventies they dropped circus. They used to have 12 to 14 pages a week on carnivals with dozens of ads, today Amusement Business has only 4 or 5 pages and maybe 5 or 6 ads for carnivals. It is a wonderful experience to find and read old copies. There are complete volumes maintained at The Showmen’s League of America in Chicago, and at their St Louis and Toronto branches. I think the Pacific Coast Showmen’s Association in L A has a set also. The Greater Tampa Showmen’s Association will have them at the Gibsonton Showmen’s Museum (if it ever opens). The Public Library in New York City also has a collection and there are a few big city libraries and universities that have the collection, but they are usually stored on micro film.

Today, Billboard magazine maintains several international pop charts that track the most popular songs in various categories on a weekly basis. Its "Hot 100" survey ranks the top 100 pop songs and is frequently used as the standard measure for ranking singles in the United States.

The Hot 100 chart is compiled by tracking single sales as well as songs' radio airplay on a variety of different station formats, including Urban, Modern Rock, Country, Adult Contemporary, Top 40, Rhythmic, and Adult Top 40. Currently, because few musicians release singles in America anymore, Billboard weighs a song's radio play as 80 percent and its single sales as 20 percent to calculate the weekly Hot 100 rankings.

There are several other publications that serve the circus and carnival industry today. Circus news is called "Circus Report" and is published by Graphics 2000 out of Las Vegas every two weeks, There is a good monthly publication called "Carnival." A lot of circus news is published bi monthly, in "White Tops" by the "Circus Fans Association of America" which Ward Hall is a district director. Ward highly recommends this publication and it is very reasonable. The dues are inexpensive and then there is no charge for the magazine. - John Robinson, Sideshow World

Some Information and assistance provided by Ward Hall