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Circus Baby: 1926

Washington, D.C. "Alice Longworth & Paulina at circus. May 11, 1926." National Photo Company Collection glass negative, Library of Congress. View full size.

Washington, D.C. "Alice Longworth & Paulina at circus. May 11, 1926." National Photo Company Collection glass negative, Library of Congress. View full size.

 

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Alice at the Circus

Never saw this picture of Alice before. I collect pics of her and have very few of her smiling. She had great bone structure. I think she is about 43 years old here, slim as a teenager, straight back. Cute.

Alice

Alice Roosevelt Longworth was a very colorful character. Her father, President Theodore Roosevelt, once said, "I can run the country or I can control Alice. I can't do both." Feisty Alice used to sneak onto the White House roof to smoke and was known to carry a snake in her purse to shock her dates.

Alice R Longworth

Alice had a needlepoint pillow on a settee in her parlor, rather famously embroidered with this sentiment: "If you haven't anything nice to say about anybody, come sit by me."

Ringling, Barnum & Bailey

According to Washington Post accounts at the time, this would have been the Ringling Brothers & Barnum & Bailey circus which set up at Camp Meigs (now site of the Florida Market in northeast DC). Highlights included 35 elephants, 200 horses and a pageant of "jewel floats" drawn by trained zebras and llamas. May Wirth, star equestrienne, did the Charleston on horseback.

Circus Babe

Interesting. I thought she looked like her grandfather, TR, quite a bit.

Circus Babe

And that baby truly does look like her putative father, Senator Borah ... Nice to see Alice Roosevelt Longworth smiling!

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