[CIRCUS HISTORY] “Cleopatra”, bareback bullock rider and snake charmer in the “Wild Australia” show. Postcard inscribed by her sister “Bonita”, the sharpshooter.

[U.K.] : s.n., [c.1913]. Lithographic postcard, 140 x 88 mm, recto with printed caption; postally used from Montrose (Scotland), to Bournemouth with postmark dated 7 July 1913; the handwritten message verso (continued recto) is in the hand of “Bonita” (real name Sylvia G. Drescher), the crack rifle shot and sister of “Cleopatra” (Harriett Drescher): ‘Dear Kitty, We have got as far as here by road, 1 day stands, hard work but good money. We turn back today making for London again reaching there by October. Haven’t much time for writing, hope all is well at home. Billie & Cleo send their love. They want us to do that Winter tour again so we shall come to Boscombe if we accept it. In haste, Your loving cousin, Bonnie”; minor corner and edge wear, otherwise very good.

In 1911 the “Wild Australia” show, organised by West Australian stockman Alfred Ernest Neave and backed by mining entrepreneur Dorham Doolette, opened for a lengthy run of performances in London, initially to coincide with the coronation of George V. The show – earlier iterations of which had been directed by the controversial entrepreneur Archibald Meston – was essentially a massive rodeo and entertainment spectacle that included over two dozen Australian riders, actors, and Indigenous performers. The Drescher sisters, who performed under the stage names Bonita and Cleopatra, had spent a number of years in Australia on the vaudeville circuit, but were in fact born in Surrey, England. Bonita were married Billy (Billie) Lee, a Ballarat-born stock-whip expert and fellow Wild West performer, in London in January 1913, in a “cowboy wedding”.

This card of Cleopatra was addressed to Harriett and Sylvia’s cousin, Mrs. Kitty Jessop.