William Cameron Coup (August 4, 1836 – March 4, 1895) was a

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

businessman who partnered with

P. T. Barnum Phineas Taylor Barnum (; July 5, 1810 – April 7, 1891) was an American showman, businessman, and politician, remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and founding the Barnum & Bailey Circus (1871–2017) with James Anthony Bailey. He was ...

and Dan Castello in 1870 to form the "P. T. Barnum's Museum, Menagerie and Circus". Previously Barnum had a museum at a fixed location in

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and the traveling circus allowed him to bring his curiosities to more paying customers. Coup's innovations were the

circus train A circus train is a method of conveyance for circus troupes. One of the larger users of circus trains was the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus (RBBX), a famous American circus formed when the Ringling Brothers Circus purchased the Ba ...

to transport the materials from town to town. He also came up with the concept of adding a second ring in 1872 and a third ring to the circus in 1881 to allow more people to view the events.

Biography

He was born in 1837 in

Mount Pleasant, Martin County, Indiana Mount Pleasant is an unincorporated community in Perry Township, Martin County, in the U.S. state of Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the ...

. His father purchased a tavern, which was not what William wished to do with his life. He worked in a country newspaper office as a "devil". However, this was not to his liking either. Coup went to see a show and decided to apprentice himself to the show. In 1853, he joined E. F. & J. Mabie Circus, where he secured

sideshow In North America, a sideshow is an extra, secondary production associated with a circus, carnival, fair, or other such attraction. Types There are four main types of classic sideshow attractions: *The Ten-in-One offers a program of ten ...

privileges. Between 1866 and 1869, he had similar privileges with the

Yankee Robinson Circus The term ''Yankee'' and its contracted form ''Yank'' have several interrelated meanings, all referring to people from the United States. Its various senses depend on the context, and may refer to New Englanders, residents of the Northern United S ...

. He and Dan Castello formed a partnership that had a show travel by boat in 1869, visiting the ports of the Great Lakes. The show was a success. Dan Castello suggested he work with

. In 1870, Castello, Coup and Barnum created "P. T. Barnum’s Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Circus and Hippodrome" in New York City. Coup started to use rail transportation for the circus in 1872, against Barnum's judgement. In 1874, Coup built the New York Hippodrome as a permanent amusement building. This fatigued him, and in 1875 he ended his partnership in the circus and moved to Europe. In the second quarter of 1876, he returned to the US and formed a new partnership with Charles Reiche to build the

New York Aquarium The New York Aquarium is the oldest continually operating aquarium in the United States, located on the Riegelmann Boardwalk in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City. It was founded at Castle Garden in Battery Park, Manhattan in 1896, and move ...

, which opened on . After a disagreement about opening on Sunday with Reiche, he sold his part at a loss. He then organized "The Equescurriculum" traveling show, which was enlarged yearly until 1879, when it became a consolidated circus as "The New United Monster Shows". In 1883, he established the Chicago Museum in the building then known as McCormick Hall. From 1884 to 1890, Coup was involved with

Wild West shows Wild West shows were traveling vaudeville performances in the United States and Europe that existed around 1870–1920. The shows began as theatrical stage productions and evolved into open-air shows that depicted romanticized stereotypes of co ...

and trained animal exhibitions. He lost most of his equipment in a train wreck near Cairo, Illinois in 1887. He developed a train-based traveling museum called Enchanted Rolling Palaces in 1891. He died in

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on March 4, 1895.

Circuses

* W. C. Coup's Circus (1885–1889) * W. C. Coup's Rolling Palaces * Coup's Equescurriculum * W. C. Coup's New United Monster Shows * Coup's 10 Consolidated Shows

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Coup, William Cameron 1837 births 1895 deaths People from Martin County, Indiana Circus owners Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Businesspeople from Wisconsin 19th-century American businesspeople