The Showmen’s Rest Cemetery, Tampa, Florida

I was in Tampa, Florida back in 2010. Upon my return I learned, to my utmost chagrin, that I missed the opportunity to visit Tampa’s Showmen’s Rest Cemetery – a memorial park for carnies and circus performers. During my next visit to Tampa in 2016, I again forgot about it! Luckily, I made the acquaintance of Liz, proprietor of the Dysfunctional Grace Art Co. (aka Bobbypin Hair Gallery) in nearby Ybor City, Florida. Liz reminded me of its existence.

(There's a link at the end to my blog about my first visit to Tampa.)

Dysfunctional Grace Art Co.

Liz’ shop is on the main drag in Ybor City, a ten-minute trolley ride from downtown Tampa. The Dysfunctional Grace Art Company is nestled among the cowboy bars, Cuban cigar shops, tattoo parlors, and various restaurants of Spanish origin. What drew me into Dysfunctional Grace was the terrifying display in the front window (at left). Upon entering, I noticed the coffins, taxidermy, dead things in jars, bones, funerary items – my kind of place! But I promise to write a blog about that soon.

As we discussed dead things, I mentioned to Liz that I visit graveyards when I travel and that I write The Cemetery Traveler blog. Liz said, “So you’ve been to the Showmen’s Rest in Tampa?” I confessed that I had not and professed my sincerest gratitude to her for reminding me!

My flight back to Philadelphia was the following morning. I quickly changed my plans so I could check out of the hotel early and explore the Showmen’s Rest Cemetery while on my way to the airport. With my smart phone I could see that the cemetery was adjacent to Tampa’s much larger Woodlawn Cemetery, making it easier to find (the corner of North Boulevard and West Indiana Avenue).

Memorial park-style grave markers in the Showmen's Rest Cemetery

The next morning about 6:30 a.m., I took Uber to that northwest corner of Woodlawn. Not a creature was stirring. Several cemeteries are clustered around Woodlawn, including the Centro Asturiano Cemetery, Showmen’s Rest, and a small Jewish burial ground between Woodlawn and the Showmen’s. Being so early in the morning, I had to climb the wall into the Showmen’s Rest (I later climbed the wall into the Jewish cemetery in order to climb the fence into Woodlawn - for the record, these were low walls and fences!)

Community mausoleum, Showmen's Rest Cemetery, Tampa, Florida

Human Cannonball (Ref.)

Once up and over the wall and into the Showmen's Rest (with my suitcase in tow, as well as my carry-on - remember, I'm on my way to the airport!), I walked among the red granite grave markers evenly spaced on the lawn. The cemetery is of memorial park design, so there are no upright monuments or other grave markers. I was surprised at the dignified inscriptions on the stones - proper names, not stage names. So if you want to find "Lobster Boy" or "The Human Cannonball," you need to do a little research. (Grady Stiles, aka “Lobster Boy, is actually buried in another Tampa cemetery (see link at end), but the inventor of the process by which a human is shot out of a cannon – Edmondo Zacchini, is actually buried here (he broke a leg in his early experiments!).

"The Human Cannonball" (Read more here)

Early morning at the entry gate to the Showmen's Rest Cemetery

There are several hundred flush-to-the-ground markers placed in neat rows here on the well-manicured lawn, with two large community-style mausoleums at one end. The eight-inch-tall metal letters spelling out "Showmen’s Rest" on the wall outside the main gate were subtle, and the fact that the capital "S" was dangling loose gave the impression that the place might have a dilapidated, shanty town feel. I wanted to photograph the sign, which meant I would have to climb over the wall again - but wait, the gate is closed, but ... there’s no lock! Wait, its not locked! So out I went out through the gate, snapped a few photos, and came back in. The place is not at all like a shanty town and the "carnies," or rather, the men and women of the outdoor show world, are buried here in very dignified fashion.
 

So why here in Tampa, Florida? Why would there be a cemetery for circus and carnival performers here and not in, say, Los Angeles or New York? (There are actually three other “Showmen’s Rest cemeteries in the United States – in Forest Park, Illinois, Hugo, Oklahoma, and  Miami, Florida (click link to learn more about these). The one in Tampa is run by the Greater Tampa Showmen's Association.

Royal American Shows

A bit of history. Back in the first half of the twentieth century, traveling shows - circuses and carnivals - would tour the northern United States and Canada in summer (where it was cooler than the southern states) and the southern states in winter (where it was warmer than in the north). Remember, these were all outdoor attractions - no reason to set up a carnival in Minnesota in January! Tampa, Florida, became one of the nation's major centers for the traveling carnival and circus trade.

Royal American Shows, archival photo (Ref.)

The largest of the outdoor traveling midways, Royal American Shows, had its headquarters in Tampa, near the airport. RAS was more than a carnival – it was essentially the world’s largest traveling amusement park! Tampa was the annual end of the line for the RAS, the resting spot for the show after a grueling year of crisscrossing America by train. For many years (1925 to1985), Royal American was at the top of the carnival game, traveling through the United States and Canada on 96 railroad cars and playing the largest of the state fairs and Canadian exhibitions. They boasted four ferris wheels, freak shows, the human cannonball, and for six months in the late 1940s they featured Gypsy Rose Lee, perhaps the most famous stripper of all time (she, alas, is not buried here at the Showmen’s Rest.)

Vintage photo of RAS train (Ref.)

"When the Fair Arrived by Train," by Troy Vollhoffer

“At its peak, RAS boasted a 96-car train -- transporting the carnival staff, carnival equipment and the presidential cars for the owner Carl Sedlmayr Jr, and his family. This method of touring gave the carnival the upper hand on show movement, keeping down travel costs by capitalizing on the fuel efficiency of train travel.”

Carl J. Sedlmayr, Jr.

Royal American Shows was headquartered in Tampa. Carl J. Sedlmayr, Jr. (1919 – 2001), the “King of the Carnival,” was owner and mastermind of this long-running extravaganza. He is buried here in Showmen's Rest with his family. In fact, he donated the money to establish this cemetery in 1952, then the mausoleum in 1962. Large bronze plaques commemorate him and his generosity.

Other than the name on the outer wall and the bronze plaques on the front posts of the mausoleum, the only thing that might catch your eye that differentiates this from any other memorial park is the multi-colored elephant mural in one corner of the grounds (lead photo in this article). The Ladies Auxiliary of the Greater Tampa Showmen’s Association - still in existence (see link to their Facebook page at end) - donated this eight by ten foot grotto-type stone memorial in 1952.

What I have not ascertained is whether or not one must be a member of the Greater Tampa Showmen’s Association in order to be buried in the Showmen's Rest. I imagine the association is a beneficial organization for which burial insurance and a gravestone is a benefit of membership.

Besides the elephant memorial, there is not much here that alludes to the pomp and festivity that goes hand-in-hand with the carnival life. However, this small, mirthful can with plastic flowers did bring a smile to my face. As a child, I attended many circuses and traveling carnivals with my parents. We attended the annual Bloosmburg Fair in northeast Pennsylvania on a regular basis. This is the largest and longest-running outdoor fair in the state (started in 1855!). While its midway was run by a traveling show other than Sedlmayr’s, I did get a taste of those same sideshows, trains, and Ferris wheels.

It was peaceful here at the Showmen's Rest while I visited, restful, even. It is probably peaceful here throughout the day, and throughout the year. The large cemetery complex (including Woodlawn) is in a residential, suburban area of Tampa. There is little ornamentation here at the Showmen’s Rest – a few small cherubs scattered about  – but it does showcase an amazing era of Americana history. With a final nod to Sedlemayr and Zacchini, I hopped the wall into my next cemetery adventure.

References and Further Reading:

"The Graves of Old Tampa Bay" - The Cemetery Traveler blog post about Ed Snyder's 2010 visit to Tampa Cemeteries

Royal American Shows on Facebook

Ladies Auxiliary of the Greater Tampa Showmen’s Association on Facebook

http://internationalindependentshowmensmuseum.org/royal-american-shows/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomsburg,_Pennsylvania

Traveling by Train

http://www.circushistory.org/Bandwagon/BandwagonName2005.htm

Grady Stiles, "Lobster Boy" 

http://myfloridahistory.blogspot.com/2009/02/showmens-rest-cemetery-tampa.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMJNAPLIgG8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIudHK539Zs

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~hillsfacts/showmens/a-d.html

"Uncle Tom," by Juli Snyder

My daughter Juli (Julianne Snyder) is an abstract painter (there is a link to her website at the end). She publishes a newsletter about her work and in May 2016, she wrote what you will read below. I asked her if I could publish it on The Cemetery Traveler blog and she graciously agreed. Take in her words and artwork. Thank you - Ed Snyder

"You Gave Me Hope," 8x8"

I had a sweet message ready and rarin' to go, but I was walking the dogs and heard someone playing bagpipes, so instead, I'd like to tell you a little story.

Bagpipes always make me think of my Uncle Tom.

He was an especially awesome, animated, hilarious dude. He had a motorcycle. He played in bands. I remember riding in his gigantic Lincoln Continental that felt (and looked) more like a boat. Out in Wilkes Barre [Pennsylvania], when I was a kid, we'd have fires in his backyard. He'd sometimes give me his lighter to play with or let me secretly watch Ren and Stimpy and MTV in his bedroom while the rest of the family was downstairs. Family shindigs were always especially swell when he was around. He was the life of the party, and besides my grandparents, really held us all together. I remember sometimes I'd hide his cigarettes.

Unfortunately, he had a massive heart attack in his mid 40s. He was a heavy smoker, and ended up paying the ultimate price. Pretty fucked up. I remember it so clearly: driving to his funeral. Someone was playing bagpipes. Somehow I made it from my dorm in Philly to Wilkes Barre in about an hour. Please don't tell anyone that. I kinda feel like he had to have been watching over me because in retrospect, that def wasn't the smartest thing I've ever done, but I wasn't even thinking.
Sometimes we live our lives as if we're invincible. We're not.

I remember during the nite before the funeral, waking, the sickly light from the Temple [University] campus street lights creeping into my bedroom, and while attempting to close the curtains more, knocking the remainder of my Starbucks frappuccino on my windowsill into my hair. Weird shit. ANYWAY. Bagpipes.

"Make A Wish," 12x30"

It's detrimental to us to do the same shit every day. It keeps us stuck. That in mind, I consciously have been taking different routes when walking the dogs. Tonite was no different, and I followed the sound of them. When I found the source, I stopped briefly and took it in. I allowed myself to really feel it and let the emotion well up.

I always take hearing bagpipes as a sign that Uncle Tom's around. It's rare that I hear them, and it's comforting. I got goosebumps, listening to it. I wish I'd gotten to know my Uncle Tom as an adult, but I sure was blessed as heck to know him at all.

"Precipice," 12x16" 

Links to Juli Snyder and her Black Arrow Arts website:
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A Memorial Day Re-Dedication

Original setting of Silent Sentry sculpture, Mount Moriah Cemetery

I very rarely time my blogs with particular events. Not because I don’t try, but because I’m scatterbrained. You would think this would be relatively easy, with, for instance, holidays, which tend to happen on the same day every year! But for Memorial Day 2016, I believe I will actually be able to post a topical blog in time for the holiday! Now, I’m not perfect – the Memorial Day event about which I’m writing actually happened two years ago, in 2014. 
 

Re-enactors at Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, for re-dedication of the Silent Sentry, 2014

But here’s a timeless fact: Memorial Day (or Decoration Day as it was originally called), an observance with Civil War origins, was first officially held on May 30, 1868. It was observed in Philadelphia at Laurel Hill Cemetery on that date (ref.).

The Silent Sentry

Ed Snyder with Silent Sentry

But on the Memorial Day in question, in 2014, the Civil War memorial bronze statue "The Silent Sentry" (sometimes referred to tas the "Silent Sentinel") was unveiled to a crowd of hundreds at Philadelphia's Laurel Hill Cemetery. I attended the re-dedication ceremony. It was quite an event, attended by Civil War re-enactors (both men and women), musicians, historians, members of the General Meade Society, the clergy, the military – in short, people from many walks of life. (The photo of me with the statue was made in May, 2013, when the Silent Sentry was initially delivered to Laurel Hill Cemetery.)

After gathering at the gatehouse on that bright sunny day, the crowd first proceeded to the grave of General George Meade (successful Union Army Commander at the Battle of Gettysburg), where some speeches and three 21-gun salutes were made. I happened to be in the wrong (or right, depending on your point of view) place at the time of the salute. I was standing directly behind the line of Civil War re-enactor soldiers when they raised their rifles and fired into the air! I was surprised by the loud reports and the smoke! However, I did manage to snap a few photos, one of which ended up on the front page of the Philadelphia Public Record newspaper a week after the event (click to see image). This is the photo below.

Civil War reenactors giving a 21-gun salute at General George Meade's grave

After Meade's headstone was decorated with floral wreaths (the original intent of "Decoration Day"), those assembled processed to the site of the veiled Silent Sentry statue, which had been placed high up on a newly-made granite pedestal. The original pedestal was long ago reused for a statue in Gettysburg National Cemetery, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. 
 

The Silent Sentry statue itself, a magnificent seven-and-a-half-foot-tall bronze of a Civil War soldier, was originally in residence at Philadelphia's Mount Moriah Cemetery. It was installed on the Yeadon, PA side of the cemetery in 1884; Mount Moriah spans two counties, half of it is in Philadelphia, the other half in Delaware County.

Ceremony at General George Meade's grave site

When and why did the Silent Sentry leave Mount Moriah?

If you’re a reader of my blog, you’re probably aware of the fact that Mount Moriah was in pretty bad shape between the years 1970 to 2011. The prior owners allowed it to become overgrown and did not maintain it. The volunteer organization, The Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery, Inc., took over maintenance of Mount Moriah in 2012 after the enormous property (reputedly 300 acres) was legally abandoned. The Silent Sentry originally stood guard at the Soldiers' Home of Philadelphia plot, which was “a civilian organization that helped care for indigent and disabled Civil War veterans ... The home bought a plot at Mount Moriah for soldiers who died under its care” (ref.). The photo at the beginning of this article is a late-1800s image of the Silent Sentry in its original location (image is owned by the The Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery, Inc. or FOMMCI, and not for reproduction elsewhere).

The plot is the final resting place for 96 Civil War soldiers. In 1889, after 25 years of service, the Soldiers Home “dissolved their corporation and deeded their treasury and burial lots and memorials in Trust to the ‘Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States,’” or MOLLUS (ref.).

 

Civil War veterans' MOLLUS Plot at Mount Moriah Cemetery

Since then, the original Soldiers Home plot has been referred to as the MOLLUS plot. The plot with its small white marble headstones is still there (see photo above), but the statue and pedestal are gone. The Silent Sentry was removed in the 1970s by thieves, who stole it and attempted to sell it to a Camden, New Jersey scrap yard. The scrap dealer notified authorities, who retrieved the damaged sculpture. It was taken to the Laran Bronze foundry in Chester, PA where it was repaired. The bronze statue remained there for about forty years, as MOLLUS did not feel there was adequate security at Mount Moriah Cemetery.

The Silent Sentry’s New Home

Silent Sentry at Laurel Hill Cemetery

The statue has found a new home in Philadelphia’s historic Laurel Hill Cemetery, and was unveiled and
rededicated on Memorial Day 2014. It “stands watch over the Gen. Meade Post No. 1 Grand Army of the Republic burial plot, looking out at the cemetery where nearly 20 other generals from the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Mexican War, World War I and World War II also are buried” (ref). A fitting place for the statue, in many people’s opinion.

Silent Sentry arriving at Laurel Hill Cemetery, 2013 (http://civilwarcavalry.com)

MOLLUS wanted a more secure location for the Silent Sentry. Although the Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery, Inc. has made great strides in improving the condition of the cemetery since 2012, there is still little security to guarantee the safety of the such a valuable piece of art. The new location is well-lit, near a public road, and fenced in. 

Veiled "Silent Sentry" statue at left, Laurel Hill Cemetery

But back to the re-dedication of the statue. Speeches were made and music was played during the ceremony. It was a rather solemn event. People forget that Memorial Day means more than just a cookout in the back yard with family and friends. Memorial Day honors those who have died in the defense of their country. Originally, the occasion referred specifically to decorating the graves of the Union war dead with flowers. The legal holiday originated in 1868 by the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.), an organization of Union veterans, for the purpose of honoring Union soldiers who had died in the Civil War. Confederate traditions were observed on a different day but by the beginning of the twentieth century, the two had merged. The nation began observing the day in honor of all those who have died while in military service.  

At the lovely after-party following the ceremony, everyone had a chance to mingle and enjoy complimentary refreshments. I met a gentleman who introduced himself as a member of the “Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War.” Knowing that my friend Sam Ricks, a member of the “Sons of Confederate Veterans“ was nearby, I introduced them to each other. After they smiled and shook hands, I slipped away into the crowd ….

References and Further Reading:

http://articles.philly.com/2014-05-24/news/50057548_1_gwen-kaminski-silent-sentry-mollus
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2015/05/24/laurel-hill-cemetery-pays-tribute-to-those-who-made-ultimate-sacrifice-for-our-country/

http://www.va.gov/opa/speceven/memday/history.asp
http://friendsofmountmoriahcemetery.org/

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/civil-war-dead-honored-on-decoration-day

http://www.usmemorialday.org/

http://www.examiner.com/article/the-soldiers-home-of-philadelphia-and-cooper-shop-burial-grounds
http://civilwarcavalry.com/?p=3710