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This uncaptioned photo from the Library of Congress archive has no date or attribution, although various clues (including the neighboring frames) point to it being taken in 1938 by Sheldon Dick, somewhere in the East. View full size.
The Circus poster seems to have been cropped a bit, reproductions are easily found.
One of the posters in the window says "Cumberland May 24". This would be Cumberland, Maryland; using newspapers.com, it seems that this circus stopped here at least every few years, usually in May.
I don't trust those balcony side extensions!
Also from Wikipedia Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus ceased operations in 1938.
There's still a Standard Supply Co. listed as a business in Flintstone, Maryland. I can't seem to find a building for it, but it's a maybe for this photo since the circus will be 13 miles away in Cumberland on May 4, in case anyone wants to go.
The Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus went under in 1938. Tuesday, May 4 is a date in 1937; Tuesday, May 24, is a date in 1938. The child is in the way of where a number might be.
There is a Cumberland in three states. Maine, Rhode Island, and Maryland. The Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus was a fairly large one, so I assume it would go to a fairly large town easily accessed by the train. That, plus the mountains in the background, suggests we are in the vicinity of Cumberland Maryland, a reasonably big town with a lot of railway traffic.
Since "Standard Supply" is a common name, and the Cumberland metro area straddles three states, I know of no good way to hit a precise location.
[The date on the poster is May 24. You can see the "2" behind the kid's head. As to location, there is a clue in one of the adjacent photos. - Dave]
May 4, 1937, was on a Tuesday.
[The date on the poster is May 24, not May 4. - Dave]
"You kids get yer lazy butts offa the steps, and let the payin' customer get through."
Joe Skelton, the father of Red Skelton, once worked as a clown in the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus. Red himself performed with the same circus as a teenager before entering vaudeville.
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